Apu’s World

I’ve now seen two movies by the Coen brothers, No Country for Old Men, and Fargo; while amazed by the amount of random violence, I liked both movies very much for their depiction of an authentic America as opposed to the pipe-dreams that Hollywood mostly prefers. Even when the characters are weird or dark, you still get the sense that they are real. In No Country for Old Men, when the serial killer catches up with the wife of one of his victims and tells her that he has to kill her, “on principle”, it is one seriously deranged, yet normal-looking man. The directors resist the temptation of making him look wacky or evil or abnormal in any way; it is his actions that are evil.

You get the feeling that you’re really following these characters around in their small-town lives; and that’s another thing the Coen brothers do fantastically well - small-town American life that isn’t idealised or idyllic. Besides the realism, I loved Fargo for one more reason - it has one of the best female characters I’ve seen in Hollywood - Marge Gunderson, the chief-of-police at Brainerd, the town where much of the action is located. It is so refreshing to see a woman as a cop, and a damn good one at that.

One of the infuriating things about Hollywood is that women in Police/FBI/Investigator/Scientist kind of roles are usually sidekicks or inefficient or too-emotional or bookish without ‘practical’ know-how. Marge Gunderson knows her stuff and shows it. While she is pregnant, constantly hungry and eating,  has an artist husband (again, inversion of roles?), all the family drama is only on the sidelines. Her main role in the movie is as a cop single-mindedly pursuing a murder mystery and nowhere is she shown as making any decisions on account of her gender, nor did the director feel the need to ’sex her up’. The interest in her is not because she is a woman, but because she is an intelligent cop.

Don’t you wish we got to see more women in such roles?

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Last evening, I chanced upon Children of Heaven, playing on TV; vaguely remembering this movie as having won some accolades, I sat down to watch, and am I so glad I did! It has to be one of the sweetest and saddest movies I’ve ever seen. Children of Heaven is an Iranian movie that was nominated to the Oscars (Best Foreign Language film) in 1998, and though the English dubbing could have been better, it still couldn’t take away from the beauty of this movie.

The plot is simple, and revolves around a brother (Ali) and sister (Zohra) from a poor family, who have to share a pair of sneakers in order to go to school, when Ali loses Zohra’s shoes. The longing for new shoes, the maturity of the children, the quiet understanding between then, the occasional squabbling - every little thing was such a treat to watch.

When Zohra complains that she feels ashamed to wear such dirty sneakers, and the two children wash the shoes at the communal pond, they delight in the large, shiny bubbles that the soap suds are good for - it would be hard to find such unadulterated joy in too many movies.

When Zohra loses a shoe in the gutter, and runs along chasing it, her desperation is heart-breaking to watch. Somewhere then, there is a child to whom a pair of shoes can mean so much.

I am not going to reveal the end here except to say that it is not entirely what you’d expect. Children of Heaven, reminded me in some ways, of the Blue Umbrella, another movie about children, but not just for them; cynical and worldy-wise adults are likely to be the ones with the most to take away.

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I finally got around to watching ‘Fashion‘ yesterday, and the movie was not as bad as some reviews had led me to believe. I thought there were some good performances and some women with ambition, rarely seen in Hindi cinema. But. What’s with showing every fashion designer as gay and every gay man as lisping, simpering or waving hands around aimlessly? And, while it’s possible that a career like modelling, where top models are often in the public eye, can be stressful, could the director not have shown us atleast one model who was both successful and happy? There seemed to be an autopilot course set - struggle, make it to the top, fight with everyone who loves you, get addicted, fall off your pedestal. To the point, where it got quite predictable. Even when the lead (Priyanka Chopra) makes it at the end, there is a ‘heavy price’ to pay.

After watching Corporate, Page 3 and now Fashion, one is tempted to think that Madhur Bhandarkar doesn’t much like successful women!

(For a really, fun look at the clothes that went into Fashion, check Amrita’s post, over at Indiequill)

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So I finally got around to seeing Rock On, over the weekend, though I’ve been wanting to see it for some time, if only for the fact that its theme of ‘four music band members split up and meet again after 10 years’ is something unique in Hindi cinema. (Does Rock On even qualify as Hindi cinema, considering that so much of the dialogue is in English, even if the songs are in Hindi? Weird, but that’s another question)

The movie revolves around male bonding - the focus is on the camaraderie among band members, both in their idealistic younger days, when they are confident of taking over the world, and in their older avatars, when they reunite after an acrimonious break-up. Overall I found the movie enjoyable although I thought the rapprochement between quarreling band members, Joe and Aditya, happened too easily and seamlessly. Where did all those feelings of being let down and resentment go? Whoosh! Still, I thought Rock On managed to convey the essentially uncertain lives of those who choose to pursue an artistic vocation, without hammering it in - there is no one starving here, but you get the sense of dreams having passed by, bills having to be paid, responsibilities other than to oneself.

Which brings me to the character I liked best - and no, it wasn’t among the four men in the band, the lead characters. The character who really stood out, for me, was Debbie, wife of one of the band members, Joe. Finally, finally, here is a female character in a Hindi movie, who is strong, knows her mind, has some dreams of her own, speaks to her man as an equal - and yet, is not portrayed as a shrew or a nag or as infantile or as a conniving bitch. It’s also evident that she loves Joe deeply, even if she cannot understand him. (The other somewhat strong character I could think of is Rhea from KANK, but of course the lavishness and general mindlessness of K-Jo movies makes it hard to take any character seriously!)

Debbie, who dreams of being a fashion designer/stylist eventually ends up handling the family’s fish business while Joe - well, Joe seems to run a small-time music shop and gives lessons to neighborhood kids, but essentially, he doesn’t even have the excuse of really pursuing his dreams. With a husband who refuses to face up to life, it falls on Debbie to keep the household going and we get the sense that without her, things would fall apart. Naturally, she loses her temper often and is not the most pleasant of individuals, but this is understandable in a woman carrying more than her fair share.

When the band decides to reunite, she worries that Joe is off on a wild goose chase, letting go of a decent opportunity to play on board a cruise, which of course, she has garnered for him. She goes to meet Aditya, to ask him not to spoil what she sees as Joe’s opportunity to finally make some money. Does she seem slightly insensitive to how much her husband values this band and its music? Well yes, but on the other hand, she is also the one who knows how much it costs to send their child to school and so on, so fair enough.

When she looks around Aditya’s posh apartment and tells him that he has managed to do well, as always, Aditya tells her that he can’t understand if she is praising him or not. And she replies, “I’m just stating the facts.” That one dialogue established the character totally.

It helped that Shahana Goswami, who played Debbie, did a very good job. Overall, I’m glad that there are atleast a few Hindi movies coming up with realistic and nuanced female characters rather than the single-dimension beauty queens, hero’s shadow or dad’s-little-girls we normally get to see.

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Also known as, How to show every other group in a demeaning way, so that a bunch of young, heterosexual men can get some kicks.

Props:

• 1 woman, a nurse, dressed in an impossibly short skirt (Don’t forget a nice slit at the back)
• 2 silly young men, just being men
• 2 hospital beds
• A mobile phone tucked away somewhere, unseen
• 1 man, a nurse

Stage Directions:

(Phones ringing). Cool Dude 1 asks Nurse to fiddle around in his pockets for the phone. He can’t reach it himself, arms being bandaged and all. Nurse’s main role of course should be to provide patients with a few wet dreams. As Nurse leaves room, unable to find phone in either pocket, make sure camera lingers on the back of her thighs, where her short skirt ends. (No nurses wear these, but shhsh, don’t let a little thing like that get in your way).

Cool Dude 1 fishes out the phone from somewhere and gleefully calls friend, Cool Dude 2 in adjacent room. Mutual congratulations ensue, for having got some jollies out of Nurse. Cool Dude 2 now gets his turn. Except oh, It’s a Male Nurse! Horror, horror, horror! Male Nurse enters with simpering smile and a graceful toss of head, to indicate you know, that he’s gay. Get it, he’s gay!! Of course, would he be in Nursing otherwise?

Outcome: Successfully offensive to

• Women
• Nurses
• Gay People

Seen the new Virginmobile advertising?

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