Apu’s World

Thanks to World Movies, I’m getting to watch different cinema from different countries. Last night, I stayed up late, watching this Palestinian-Arabic movie, Paradise Now. Set in Nablus, a small town on the West Bank, it is the story of two men recruited as suicide bombers against (what they see as) the unethical and brutal Israeli occupation. I mentioned ‘what they see as’, because, while I do believe that the Palestinians were originally unjustly pushed out of their land, their tactics haven’t always been ethical or practical either.

I found that the movie did a good job of putting a very human face to the two suicide bombers - at the same time, I didn’t get the feeling that it condoned violence. If anything, Sara, a girl that one of the bombers likes, is the voice of an alternate view, that it is possible to resist without taking recourse to violence. It is easy to see what attracts the young men to violence - living in depressing, prison-like conditions, lacking the means to better their lives, the shame of having been ‘conquered’. The contrast between shiny Tel Aviv and falling-apart Nablus is stark.

The ‘leaders’ of the resistance promise the young men, Sa’id and Khaled glory, a place in paradise and the assurance that their families will be taken care of. One of the most disconcerting moments in the movie was when Khaled presents his farewell ‘martyrs’ speech to a video camera, and the man who recruits him munches away on the sandwiches that Khaled’s mother has packed that morning. Scenes like this helped to make the resistance fighters somewhat ambiguous figures - driven by patriotism, but also perhaps by self-interest and a hankering for fame in a very narrowly defined world?

What was missing was an Israeli counter-view, but then, perhaps it would have been difficult to humanise the suicide bombers, if seen from the eyes of their adversaries? I’m not going to reveal the end, but it was interesting for its lack of certainty. Watch this one if you can. (Later on, I figured that it was nominated for and won some Oscars as well).

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Have y’all been seeing the new Moov ad and been as intrigued by it as I am? No? Ok, first go have a look here, and then you can read what I have to say.

For those who can’t follow Hindi, this is how it goes. Young boy sees mother struggling to cope with a heavy load of groceries and rushes to help her. Father sees this and runs down the stairs - focus on why his child is doing such heavy work. Then, son asks, “Papa, sab kaam Mummy kyon karti hai?” (Papa, why does Mummy do all the work?)

I found it interesting that finally, there is a brand that chooses to focus on something real in women’s lives - that housework can be drudgery and housework can be tiring. That it’s not all about women overjoyed to be serving the best parathas to their family or rejoicing at having saved the two rupees on that washing powder or superwoman holding up career and home like Hanuman carrying the Sanjeevini. And, it’s also interesting that this view is presented through the eyes of the kid, who sees it for what it really is, Mummy sab kaam kyon karti hai?

Now, camera flashes to the faces of two other women who’ve been shown before - one drying clothes and another serving tea. I wasn’t clear what this is meant to be; neighbours eavesdropping on the conversation? Other women in the family who are actually the ones being (subtly) chided for not helping in? If it is the first, then it’s a nuclear family, and it is really Papa who is not pulling his weight. If the second, well, then that’s an easy way to let the men off, isn’t it, and put the blame back where it belongs, on other lazy women.

In any case, the ad doesn’t dwell on it. So, we have caring husband bringing out the Moov and a voiceover tell us that it’s good to use Moov, lest, Aap ka dard apnon ka dard na ban jaaye. (So that your pain doesn’t become a pain for your loved ones).

It was too good to last of course. Homemaker couldn’t possibly use Moov to make herself feel alright; there has to be a ‘family’ pay-off in it. I wonder if the ad could have still been as effective and more women-friendly if they had atleast shown the husband picking up a bag at the end rather than the woman using Moov so that she can be a martyr to housework again? I think society is changing and the days when women would gasp at the husband doing household chores is gone, well, going slowly. Perhaps marketers actually don’t see this change, or just want to keep it to the most conservative level and play safe.

(In other news, the fiery tamilpunkster is back after a long break. And read Mrinal Pande’s column in the Mint earlier this week, Women still unhappy both in India and Bharat, where she talks about the challenges that working women, especially those from poor families face.)

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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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