Avatar, Avtar, Bindiya and Collective Memory

Latest blockbuster from James Cameron has created vehement supporters and detractors and I am in no mood to put 10 things to love/hate the movie. There is a hilarious comparison of the plot with Hindi cinema's hackneyed exploitation and revenge stories, though the title of movie taken: Roopa ka Badla sounds more like exploitation,female revenge stories like Bindiya aur Bandook). Celebrated movie reviewer Roger Eberts who don't find novelty in the movie yet loved it. And then there is Great Bong (Random Thoughts of a Demented Mind) , one of very few people who can take dementia to an art form. He posits Avatar is just our beloved Kaka's (our Pusspa lover Rajesh Khanna sahib) classic Avtar with an extra 'a'. Something I totally agreed to.

I loved watching the movie, period. Obviously it had a totally unoriginal plot but Cameron's way of seeing things in the movie was what engaged me. Never for a moment did I wonder that I am watching an oft repeated story. This apart from the 3D experience did it for me.

After reading Ebert's view on rationality of the Na'vi one point in depiction of Pandora's culture intrigued me. That was depiction of collective memory. Conflict of development society vs tribal culture is obvious, if one has progress as its goal then other has harmony. If one has corporate as its collective then its community for the other. That many ancient cultures have ancestor reverence/worship is also nothing new in movies. The list to compare the two cultures is endless and have been depicted in numerous Hollywood flicks & Hindi cinema. The contrast of collective memory is shown subtly when trees are shown to be uprooted and it is claimed it will destroy ancient memory in them. I think this is an allusion to History vs Mythology. Myths and mythology are a form of collective memory where in each generation reinterprets and retells them in their own way thus adding (and even forgetting). Tribal/ancient cultures all over the world rely on mythologies to understand their past, origin and even future whereas development societies always have history to understand their past, science to understand origin and predict future, so in a sense Big Bang Theory and Theory of Evolution are indeed two mythologies.

History with its linear notion of time, textual culture (what is written is true, what is true should be written) and objective reality (what really happened) always conflicts with mythology which always has a jagged if not circular notion of time, oral culture (believe in whatever has been said since time immemorial), A small case in example would be controversy on Adam's Bridge or Rama Setu. People on mythology side had nothing else to claim than invoke the sacred whereas people who had to take sides with history questioned historical authenticity of Rama and the whole conversation went down to dogs.

Well I had hoped if Cameron could have delved more into this part rather than make a typical Hollywood grandeur story, where win/loss takes over delving into nature of things. And that is why I love Charlie Kaufman's movies.

3 Idiots or Rancho B.E. or Lage Raho Rancho or Hirani's Crusade against the System

Being a Unix enthusiast I was constantly doing a diff between Rajkumar Hirani's previous creation and his latest presentation titled 3 Idiots. Though an engaging watch but it seemed like he morphed Munnabhai into Rancho but you can not change the entire picture with morphing. After tackling a crusade against a system which dehumanizes doctors in "Munnabhai M.B.B.S" and rereading Gandhi in his "Lage Raho Munnabhai" he has turned his knights towards engineering colleges and the system which dehumanizes students.

Though I did not had great grades in Linear Algebra but the concept of vectors and dimensions still intrigues me. The role of basis is much important in this vector toy world, by a simple change of basis one can change the entire game and make millions too. The same vector appears novel or as a popular saying goes nayi botal mein purani sharaab. The coordinates in Rajkumar Hirani's vector space are the chief mercenary, the patriarch, the patriarch's daugher, the message, the miracle, the lesser mortals.

The chief mercenary of the crusade is Rancho who's sole motto in the movie is to convert every non-believer in his do-as-your-heart-says sect. There is nothing wrong in it, the message is good, it is presented well but it permeates every pixel of every frame in the movie. The whole movie looks like an advertisement in which motto is the product itself.

Each frame is a fight between towering but evil-because-he-doesnt-know-what-he-is-doing patriarch (played by Boman Irani in all three editions) and chief mercenary, who by the end of the movie has to make the patriarch realize mistakes in his ways. Patriarch's daughter has to revolt against father, set free by chief mercenary for psychoanalysis of which I am sure Sudhir Kakkar or Ashis Nandy are better suited.

But how are the non-believers converted to become faithful asks the jeering crowd. How are they shown the true light. First there has to be a heart wrenching advertisement line. Jadu ki Jhappi in 1st edition, Gandhigiri in 2nd and now its All ij well. The non believers are not only hankered with proselytizing one-liner message but are shown a miracle towards the end to convert the patriarch.

If healthy dose of Jadu ki Jhappi cured Anand Bannerjee and converted Dr. J.C. Asthana in Munnabhai M.B.B.S. then Munna's Gandhigiri saved Lucky Singh in Lage Raho... version. It was Rancho's engineering and studying-for-knowledge message which opened Veeru Sahastrabudhhe's eyes to the true message. I am not elaborating on the miracle in this post to avoid spoiling reader's movie viewing experience.

But those are just few elements in a movie says jeering crowd. So let the crowd notice that patriarch is final frontier, before claiming victory on him there are lesser mortals to be converted. And converted in the same fashion I say to jeering crowd. There has to be a non-A list actor (Jimmy Shergill in 1st two editions and Sharman Joshi in 3rd) who has his life issues successfully resolved by chief mercenary. Lesser mortal has to be a poor lad from minority community (Zaheer, Victor and Farhan) respectively. There is nothing new in the minority angle, Manmohan Desai used it pretty deftly in his movies. Barring the first edition lesser mortal actually has daddy issues with dad played none other than Pareekshit Sahni (and this is ironical because he himself is a deeya tale andhera). People say movie makers are artists I say they are pop psychologists.

I urge the readers not to think I hate the movie or this is some sort of review/appraisal/derision of the movie. There is neither any claim of go watch the movie nor will I claim do not set eyes on the movie nor will I give some stars to rate a piece of work like many movie reviewers of Hindi cinema do. If you have followed my analysis well you will realize the movie is actually not based on Chetan Bhagat's Five Point Someone - What Not to do at IIT but yes the man should be given some credit. It is just my thoughts put together which distracted me while watching the film (and if you haven't watched 3 Idiots then why should only I suffer the fate, I leave these coordinates to bother you too).

Rocket in Pocket: Or why Rocket Singh Disappointed Me

Having heard excellent views from many fraands and movie reviewers I finally did watch Rocket Singh. I have been quite selective in watching new Hindi cinema releases these days. Gone are the days when I would visit Rajshree in Gandhinagar for the pure bliss known as Jani Dusman: Ek Anokhi Prem Katha or had stamina to watch Sonu Nigam's thriller suspense Love in Nepal. Gone are the days when I would eagerly go for a mind bending experience known as The Hero: Love Story of a spy or how to kill a man by plumbing a nuclear dravya filled test tube inside evil forener.

Rocket Singh was indeed a massive let down for me. First of all there was no Punjabi number with a healthy dose of Soniye, Manmoniye, Baliye, Mahiye sprinkled all over it. Seriously a movie with a Sardar protagonist and no Punjabi number! You gots to be kiddin me. No stereotypes! No making of tandoor-shandoor, lassi wassi or chak-de-phatte moments.

Secondly there were no grand speeches like Chak De India's 70 minutes (Hawww even Coelho Kaka takes 11 minutes). I mean there has to be a rousing speech by the hero about fate, destiny towards the end of which people get excited like a lynch mob and do the undoable, Baaliwood ishtyle.

Most importantly there was no revolutionary step taken by the hero like pissing on the carpet of enemy by devGUN like Halla Bol and no magical hugs by apun ka Sanju bawa (which has been the biggest factor in the spread of swine flu epidemic, FYI).

What kind of a movie it is when all the characters have a significant role! A hero has to stand out from rest of the crowd from area occupied on the screen to lines in the total script. Don't you think this kind of cinema is threatening. What shall happen of the likes of Johhny Catch-My-Lever, Anupam Kher, Tikku Talsania? Who shall do slapstick comedy or play small so hero could look big?

No plot diversions like the hero teleports to Swiss Vaadiyan, does a quickie dreamy song and comes back in a jiffy. Or better the frustrated hero decides to visit a bar where Payal Rohatgi or Mumait Khan is indulging in burlesque dancing of the highest order which has some deep rooted philosophy in it, like Aa khushi se khudkashi kar le, Love mera HIT HIT mat kar khitpit khitpit. Where would the item grlz go?

No back stories of revenge or past mishappenings? The grandfather dude was humiliated as a salesman in the past so he doesn't want his puttar to face the same fate. There you go fill another half an hour with Daddu's story.

I say Dhawans, KJos, Ghais should unite and raise their voices against such a pathetic movie. No one should be allowed even 100m close to the cinema playing it, it is dangerous for people's mind no! They could get easily weaned from all the junk that is being peddled around.

Brazil vs Nineteen Eighty Four

Recommendation from a friend and the tag dystopia prompted me to watch the movie, Brazil and it was worth every frame of it. People compare it a lot with Orwell's classic novel Nineteen Eighty Four but I beg to differ. Comparison of a movie and a novel is futile as both of them are completely different media of expression but nonetheless one can look at subjects and themes they delve in. If put a gun on my head I would any day say Nineteen Eighty Four is a far greater work than Brazil. How can I not choose a novel, after reading which I hated to wear my office badge!

The comparisons rely on a totalitarian, anonymous, unwieldy, inhumane bureaucratic system which plays a major role but not definitive role in Orwell's classic. Brazil gives one aspect of the anomalous system, burden of innocence where a bug (literally a bug) in the system sucks in the protagonist in an absurd whirlwind classifying him a terrorist. The notion of guilt reminds me of Kafka's The Trial but the two works are quite different as in guilt is much more emphasized and central in Kafka's work. Nineteen Eighty Four goes beyond a government system and paints a horrific picture of a perversion that seeps in every aspect of society. From a language which is being continuously "simplified" to remove all shades and ambiguities of a natural language to schizophrenic doublethink to abolition of family and orgasm, 1984 is an all engrossing quagmire of a system.

Brazil on another hand is an absurdist satire on a consumerist self obsessed society so disconnected to reality that after witnessing a terrorist bomb attack high society ladies still discuss their beauty treatment! Life in the world is a game of rules with individuals as pawns pushed and pulled by obscure forms. This where Brazil limits itself and probably Terry Gilliam would have added more depth if he had read the novel. Protagonists in Brazil unlike 1984 are neither too villanous nor heroic, they are just doing their jobs - playing by the rules or trying to get a way around them like Sam Lowry (contrast his intent of helping a loved one with defiance of Winston Smith of 1984 and you will get the idea)

Nonetheless Brazil stands as a brilliant piece of work in itself. The overpowering buildings remind me of Orson Welles rendition of Kafka's The Trial. Welles used geometrically aligned compositions in his frames to create an overpowering surrounding but both of them use behemoths, shadows to get that eerie feeling. Background score esp. Acquarela do Brasil (Watercolor of Brazil) is haunting but only discerning audience would find the relevance and meaning of the song in the movie and hence the title. The dream sequences are a visual treat and the climax uplifts the movie. Few users of IMDB term aspects of the movie as surreal but I won't beg to differ but simply differ. If you want surreal go watch Luis Buñuel (note: start with "Diary of a Chambermaid" his most accessible movie). The movie clearly demarcates the real from the imaginary so I won't classify it as surreal but absurd yes. Do watch the movie if especially if you like dystopia.

Dil - The Mighty Heart

A careful observation and the secret for usage of the culinary reference 'Masala' to Indian Hindi cinema will unravel in front of your eyes like Mallicka Sherawat's dance sequence. The movie in question is archetype of 80s-90s Hindi cinema. DIL


"Ek chatak matak heroine le, usme jawani ka tadka laga de. Hero ka stud max hona zaroori hai. 2-4 tadakte bhadakte girl vs. boy college songs. Ab in dono ko pyar ke tel main garam hone ke liye dheemi aanch pe daal de. Jaise hi jawani, diwani, rawani halka laal rang pakad le, do dushman bapon ka tadka laga de. Aur haan isme side kicks, mimickry artist aur ugly ducklings swadanusar (according to taste) daal sakte hain. Tadka jor marte hi oopar se haalaat ki mirchi aur misunderstanding ka zeera chhidak de aur apki masala movie tayyar. Ek cheepad se theatre main serve kare aur dosto ya parivar ke saath enjwaayi kare"

The movie had all the essential elements of a 80s-90s hit. College boys with white 'campus' shoes. Girls in frilly frocks with puffed shouldered, boring harrowed professors teaching Ohm's law in big lecture theaters and yay Disco Dancing. The fathers (many a times pink with rage Saeed Jaffrey), never agreed with their siblings choice of soulmate and the leading couple had to rebel, that was until SRK wooed the entire family in DDLJ.

The depth in lyrics is hard to ignore. I am sure Raja (Amir) was studying biology by the way he described Madhu (Madhur Dickshit): khamba, patakhe ki ladi, shola, fuljhadi. He even delved in bioelectrical properties by giving Madhu's voltage characteristics! Watch for the moves in the song for a full body exercise with special emphasis for pot bellied uncles and aunties. Why go to VLCC and these health spas. Plug in Dil and move from six pack flabs to six pack abs.



Long before health tabloids discussed links between sleep disorder and heart problems our desi hero had described in beautiful verses (video link):

I don't get sleep, I don't get sleep, I don't get sleep

Someone go, find it and bring it
I don't know where my heart got lost
What my condition is, how can I tell you
Tossing and turning, I pass the night

Ask me, ask what my condition is
My condition is weak
No one can understand what ailment is affecting me
Someone go, find it and bring it

Oh heavens, what pain I have
The pain is very merciless
Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me cry

I don't get sleep, I don't get sleep, I don't get sleep
I don't get rest, I don't get rest, I don't get rest

Other highlights of the movie (for sake of brevity in bullets):

• Definition of rape given by AK to MD. Something in which Indra delved in 'Ishq'
  
• Tribute to Dev Anand by Kishore Anand Bhanushali. This was his debut movie. Read this too
  
• Holding on to one's samskara. After winning a bout of boxing match against Ajitesh Irani. According to bet, AK had to kiss MD. After a tense moment, he shrugs her and say:

"Bachpan main mujhe sikhaya gaya thha ki airi gairi cheezon ko moonh nahi lagate!"

Random Trivia:

Ajitesh (Shakti the boxer in Dil) played her son on screen in Beta. His full name is Ajitesh Kumar Irani. Aruna and Indra Kumar are siblings.

Babloo mukherjee is son of Hindi cinema's best drunkard ever, the surname says it all: Keshto Mukherjee. And no Sushmita Mukherjee (Kitty, from TeleSerial Karamchand) is not KM's daughter

Another junior artiste, a college friend of Amir, appeared in KrackJack ad with Boman Irani as Krack and Jack.

Indra Kumar has a penchant of keeping one word movie names: Dhamaal, Masti, Mann, Ishq, Raja, Beta except for one 'Pyare Mohan'

(You might ask why the blog title: Dil - The Mighty Heart? Read Aam (the Common)