LOLITA - The Brave New World !

Lolita might be called a western classic by Nabokov. It is about the relationship between a flirtatious teenager and a grown man who becomes her step father.  The relationship might be called incestuous but is it really ? The grown man is not her biological father! The old movie directed by Kubrick seemed nicer. The 1997 version directed by Adrian L. is well photographed but has too much nudity, even though some of it seems innocent. [I am an outsider and am not aware if American/European girls are that open and jump around on other men as if they were little babies! ]

However, the movie version is bound to have a negative effect on relationships between dads and daughters or grown up relatives and their young nephews and nieces. Because the movies are overloaded with visual imagery of different ways the step father and the girl touch each other. Many people who watch these movies, specially the impressionable young audience, are likely to interpret the innocent contacts between them and their parents in the light of the various signs that signify sexual interest as defined by this movie. The bees, the haystacks, the corduroy pant, the clothes worn by the girl etc etc!! The effect crosses cultural boundaries sometimes.

In the beginning, the girl makes sexual overtures and the step father seems passive. One feels surprised and irritated by her openness. Then you see that she is a bit impulsive and exposes herself for other men as well! You feel sorry for the girl towards the end because she is so young and child like even though she is manipulative. The step father cuts a sorry figure when he realizes that she is getting interested in other men behind his back! What more can you expect from a girl that age?

The whole thing is a sad reminder of what happens when families are broken due to separation and divorce! The kids offer themselves as a sacrifice to have a grown man and a dad in their lives! The lonely man, in return, is willing to do anything to have someone in his life, including giving the girl a $2.00 allowance.

As Mother Teresa once commented, loneliness is a big disease in the West. And if one cannot connect to anyone anywhere then it becomes a disease wherever you happen to be, east or west.

PADMAVAAT - Indian History And Lore In Epic Proportions

The movie has Indian History as its  background. It is available on Amazon Prime. The history told is of  conquering Mughals attempting to takeover kingdoms of India in the 14th century. Specifically, the kingdom of  peerless Hindu king and queen of Chittor in central India. 

The contrast is between the aggressive young mughal King Khilji from Afghanistan, a unrepentant womanizer who kills without remorse and the self-sacrificing young king and queen of Chittor. Khilji hears about the beauty of the young queen of Chittor and launches an assault on that kingdom with a large troop that camps outside of Chittor for months. While the king of Chittor follows the rules of engagement, the Mughals initially capture and then kill the young king by deceit, shooting arrows in his back when they realize that their king Khilji is going to loose in a man to man sword fight.

The young queen and other hindu ladies of Chittor hear about the death of their  king and are prepared to commit Jauhar rather than bear rape and torture by the invading Mughal army. The movie ends with the ladies of Chittor walking into a fire lead by their queen. According to wikipedia

'Jauhar, sometimes spelled Jowhar or Juhar, was the Hindu custom of mass self-immolation by royal women in parts of the Indian subcontinent, to avoid capture, enslavement and rape by any foreign invaders, when facing certain defeat during a war.'

The movie has an epic style and paints an amazing picture on a large colorful canvas. The palaces are spotless and display the architecture of that part of historical India. The war scenes are impressive as well.

I am glad to see the stories I read in history comic and story books as a child brought to screen in rich detail. 

MAY MOHAN JOSHI PRESENT HIMSELF TO THE COURT: A Review!

There was a time in Hindi film industry's history, in 1970s and 1980s, when making movies closer to real life was popular. These are sometimes referred to as parallel cinema. This movie falls into that category.

This is a movie (MOHAN JOSHI HAZIR HO) about the housing problem for low-income population living in crowded metropolis called Mumbai(India) set in 1970s. This mundane subject appears appealing because of the talented actors, though the movie itself is not very technically sophisticated. While thousands and thousands live in Mumbai in middle class and rich areas, there are millions of poor people living in slums and chawls (though I have never visited a chawl) !

Mohan Joshi, a middle aged gentleman, lives in a crowded Mumbai 'chawl' along with his family. A chawl in a multi-storey building with dozens of residents all living in their independent rooms/homes but they share common areas. These chawls are decades old and have many problems due to lack of maintenance. Nobody wants to fix these buildings, not even their owners  who would rather destroy the buildings and invest in more profitable condos without any regards for the poor tenants.

Mohan Joshi's room/home has a damaged roof that is suspended on a bamboo pole and covered with plastic sheet to collect the falling pieces. The toilet water seeps into the kitchen area etc. Mohan decides to approach the rich owner for help. The owner declines to help and informs him bluntly that he is not willing to spend even a rupee on the repair. On the contrary, he wants to destroy some of his old buildings so he can erect profitable new condo buildings!

Mohan Joshi hires a cheap lawyer, who is willing to do anything to win, including sleeping with the enemy .oops. I mean enemy's lawyer! Poor Mrs Joshi has to shell out the cash for paying the lawyer by selling a few pieces of jewelry she has. Someone sends Joshi to a government agency called 'the repairs board'. There he is informed that his file will stay in a pile for years because they do not have funds.

Joshi's lawyer finally convinces the judge to visit the chawl. The devious owner then has the exterior painted and decorated to impress the judge. When Joshi realizes that the judge is indecisive, he looses his patience. Three years have passed since Joshi  first lodged a complaint! Joshi removes a bamboo pole from one side of the building and that part of the building collapses right in front of the judge! That is how Joshi proves the precarious condition of the building though it is not clear if Joshi himself  survives the building collapse.

SWAMI - Another old classic adapted to a Bollywood film in 1970s!

"Do you think it is okay for a woman to have an extra-marital affair because men seem to have that liberty?" the heroine, who is the main character of this movie, asks her uncle and her man friend from the neighborhood! They are having this informal theoretical conversation over cups of chai !

"Of course!" says the 'modern' young man from across the street who visits them occasionally and does them some favors like procuring books for her uncle from the city.Surprisingly, she disagrees "It would be lot safer for the woman to remain loyal to her husband!" she says.

That basically is the summary of the story because that is what she will have to go thru when she is forced to have an arranged marriage a little later in the movie! As the movie progresses, we see the heroine (played by Shabana Azmi), fall in love with that young man! However, later she is forced to marry someone else per the ancient traditions of Bengal. The conflict is between her serious mother who is very religious and is upset that the girl spends so much time near men (uncle and the neighbor) against the ancient traditions of the culture. But the old lady has to tolerate the liberal attitude because of the support the heroine gets from her uncle, the mother's brother! We see the ancient world of Ramayana, Mahabharata and Vedas collide against the liberal world of Thomas Hardy and Tolstoy!

We see the young herione stand up against insulting behavior of her in-laws. Her husband is very understanding and very patient with her. He tries to calm her down when she gets upset with the overbearing mother-in-law . A coincidence happens when her boyfriend from her village visits her husband's home and asks her to elope with him! Her mother-in-law overhears the conversation and falsely accuses her of having an illicit relationship! The heroine gets enraged and joins her boyfriend to return to her mother! However, as she waits for the train she has second thoughts about leaving her sincere and hardworking husband. Her husband shows up at the train station just at the right time and requests her to return home with him! The heroine is overcome with emotions when she sees the kindness of her husband in still accepting her as his wife in spite of knowing about her affair with her boyfriend. She bows down to him and in the end and we see her boyfriend leave on the train all alone!

Sarat Chandra Chatterjee wrote this story set in Bengal more than a 100 years ago. The story explores the transition of old India into the so-called modern world! Many of Sarat's books have been adapted for the Bollywood screen!

GUDDI - Educating a Star Struck fan about how Bollywood Movies are made!

The young modern school girl in Mumbai informs her would be husband ' I can't marry you. I already love another man. But he is already married and he has kids so I guess I will always remain single and devoted to him, just like Meerabai was to Krishna!'

The disappointed man asks her politely ' Who is that man whom you love ?'
The girl responds sincerely ' Dharmendra!'
Her would be husband bursts out laughing 'That actor Dharmendra?'

Directed by the Hrishikesh Mukerjee, the movie explores the psyche of young girls and boys who fall in love with movie stars to the point of infatuation that affects their home life. Yet it is a light hearted movie. As teenagers all of us admired our favorite stars like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan etc etc and skipped classes to watch their movies. We thought that the villains of these movies were bad persons in real life and that heroes were really strong. They could hang from helicopters, fight on top of moving trains etc etc without a scratch on their body.

To cure Guddi, her uncle, an experimental psychologist, takes the help of the real actor Dharmendra. They visit several movie sets and see how movies are made. She watches Dharmendra up close and sees him fight the villain Pran in front of the camera yet in real life they happen to be good friends. [The villain's duplicate replaces the villain when the fight gets intense.]

She watches Rajesh Khanna give a very romantic dialogue addressed to the heroine, facing the camera all alone without the heroine being present! Yet, by the magic of editing, the hero and heroine will appear to converse face to face on the screen.

Guddi is finally cured when she realizes that the entire thing is make believe just like a play on the stage. [Her real bridegroom becomes friends with the actor Dharmendra and they share tennis games together.] 

Guddi then falls in love with her real man and we the audience fell in love with the actress Jaya Bhaduri, who plays Guddi, admiring her talent as she transforms from a young star-struck high school girl to a mature lady in 1970s Mumbai!

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS - Agatha Christie's Masterpiece!

by Ravindra Loomba

I remember reading the book in my late teens or early twenties but could not recall the story when I started watching this movie. There are a few movies based on this book and there is a recent one as well. I chose to watch an older version on DVD recently with David Sachet as Poirot.

The detective named Hercule Poirot happens to be on the same coach as the rich victim along with several other passengers on the once famous train, the Orient Express. We have to grant the story that license for the coincidence or is it really ? [The name Hercule Poirot is pronounced with several letters silent and so it took me a few seconds before I could grasp the pronunciation of the detective's name.] There are a few countries mentioned in the movie like Palestine which were in the news in the past decades. Religion also plays a prominent part in the movie and there might be a lesson for all of us which makes me admire Agatha Christie's wisdom in spinning this tale. Even Hercule has a rosary !

The rich short person who is murdered tries to hire the detective Hercule by offering him a lot of cash but the detective turns him down. There is a reason for that, which he reveals later in the movie! So who is the killer ? This is one story where even the famous Hercule is at a loss to explain in its entirety. If you are not familiar with the story, you should watch the movie and get the answer.

KATHA - old story with a new twist !

Who has not heard the story of the ' Hare and the Tortoise' or Somerset Maugham's 'The Ant and the Grasshopper'! This is a modern low-income version of the same from 1970's Bollywood, set within the confines of a 'chawl' (a building housing many low-income tenants) in Mumbai, with very talented actors. The reason I chose this movie is to show the contrast between what a good person looks like and what a smooth talking con looks like, despite their physical appearance! In 'modern' America, the value system seems too foggy !

Rajaram is a shy and simple hard-working man who helps everyone in the neighborhood without asking much. In walks his 'friend'  unannounced who is exactly the opposite. He convinces Rajaram to share his room with a promise of paying him a monthly rent of 300 rupees which Rajaram accepts reluctantly. This friend is the Hare of the story - a fast talking, uncaring and insincere person. Instead of paying the promised 300, the friend steals Rajaram's 300 and his expensive cigarettes. While the sincere Rajaram works as a clerk, the Hare learns about the boss's  passion for golf and using that as a hook wins him over and gets an executive job above Rajaram without having any qualifications. Then the sweet talking Hare wins over the family of his boss and starts an affair with the boss's wife behind his back. At the same time he starts to woe the girl in Rajaram's neighborhood and convinces her parents that he will marry that girl whom Rajaram has known for several years and has loved her secretly. They serve the Hare with nice meals, you see. There is much rejoicing in the chawl over the news of the marriage.

It is time for the Hare to be exposed! The boss's girl spies on the Hare and her mom having a rendezvous and clicks a few photos which eventually reach the Hare's boss. While Rajaram is flabbergasted, the Hare walks out of the office carefree even after getting fired! The Hare then fails to appear at his engagement party with the chawl girl ! The girl's parents are broken hearted and angry because nobody will marry the girl now because of her affair with the Hare. Here you see Indian traditional values at work. The simple and sincere Rajaram then steps in and agrees to marry her and the chawl people are delighted once again.

In the end, we see the Hare having lunch at an expensive restaurant in Mumbai with a sheikh. The Hare has once again convinced the sheikh to offer him a job in the oil rich Dubai! The movie ends with a Gulf Air plane taking off from Mumbai!

Who do you identify with the most - the sincere Rajaram or his  smooth talking friend(Hare) ? Or are you a blend ? Or is this story too simple for you ?