Anbe Sivam (அன்பே சிவம், Love is God; 2003)
Another of Kamalhaasan starred film filled themes of communism, God, social justice, realism and atheism. This time around, it was done on a story based on Hollywood's blockbuster, 'Planes, trains and automobiles' where the Steve Martin character is stuck with an annoying fellow traveller as he is held at New York airport which was closed due to worsening blizzard.
In this film, an eccentric communist sympathiser, Nallasivam, is stuck with a capitalistic minded advertisement executive, Anbarasu, in a flood-hit airport in Orissa. Their adventures and misadventures travelling all the way from Bhubaneswar in Orissa to Chennai via various modalities of transportation aid them to understand and empathise each other, especially the scarred faced, limping and hemiparetic Nallasivam.
In this almost 3-hour long story, we get to know about Nalla's communist afflictions, his fight for increased minimum wage for workers, his tiff with an outwardly religious looking greedy entrepreneur, his failed love affair with the businessman's daughter, his brush with death and his philosophical outlook on life from an economic and theological viewpoint.
The film is filled with witty dialogue that questions the many things we take for granted in life. When cornered with death, we make decisions that we feel is morally correct. It also takes a swipe at the multinational companies which hoodwink the general public that they are there to help and serve. Their sole interest is profit and more profit.
On the other hand, the general public (the peasants) appreciates the humanistic values. This is evident from scenes of people going out their way to help out accident victims, the medical missionaries who go the extra mile to heal the sick and how the villagers seem so happy to see an accident victim who returns to thank his saviours! At the same time, Man shows his contradictory image when he is nasty to his own kind and animals whilst putting a smiley face to his visitor!
An interesting watch with intelligent dialogue and religious undertones. The conclusion drawn at the end of the flick is that the God that we are so fervent to seek out for is residing within us. The good deeds that we do for the fellow kind make us all God! Even a dog attain divine status, not by reversing the spelling but its actions. It does not have to be owned by Yudhishthira only to enter heaven! But then does a dog has free will?
Another of Kamalhaasan starred film filled themes of communism, God, social justice, realism and atheism. This time around, it was done on a story based on Hollywood's blockbuster, 'Planes, trains and automobiles' where the Steve Martin character is stuck with an annoying fellow traveller as he is held at New York airport which was closed due to worsening blizzard.
In this film, an eccentric communist sympathiser, Nallasivam, is stuck with a capitalistic minded advertisement executive, Anbarasu, in a flood-hit airport in Orissa. Their adventures and misadventures travelling all the way from Bhubaneswar in Orissa to Chennai via various modalities of transportation aid them to understand and empathise each other, especially the scarred faced, limping and hemiparetic Nallasivam.
In this almost 3-hour long story, we get to know about Nalla's communist afflictions, his fight for increased minimum wage for workers, his tiff with an outwardly religious looking greedy entrepreneur, his failed love affair with the businessman's daughter, his brush with death and his philosophical outlook on life from an economic and theological viewpoint.
The film is filled with witty dialogue that questions the many things we take for granted in life. When cornered with death, we make decisions that we feel is morally correct. It also takes a swipe at the multinational companies which hoodwink the general public that they are there to help and serve. Their sole interest is profit and more profit.
On the other hand, the general public (the peasants) appreciates the humanistic values. This is evident from scenes of people going out their way to help out accident victims, the medical missionaries who go the extra mile to heal the sick and how the villagers seem so happy to see an accident victim who returns to thank his saviours! At the same time, Man shows his contradictory image when he is nasty to his own kind and animals whilst putting a smiley face to his visitor!
An interesting watch with intelligent dialogue and religious undertones. The conclusion drawn at the end of the flick is that the God that we are so fervent to seek out for is residing within us. The good deeds that we do for the fellow kind make us all God! Even a dog attain divine status, not by reversing the spelling but its actions. It does not have to be owned by Yudhishthira only to enter heaven! But then does a dog has free will?
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| Mexican painter Diego Rivera's fresco, Man at the Crossroads (top), served as an inspiration for Nallasivam's painting (bottom) to indicate the atrocities committed by Kandasamy Padayatchi. [Note the sickle over Siva's hair, Lenin's image over the lower right, the water flowing denotes 910, the minimum pay of workers] |
A man should live virtuously because virtue is good, not because it pays to be virtuous. Yudhishtra's experience.
Is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is loved by the gods? The Euthyphro dilemma as found in Plato's dialogue in which Socrates asks Euthyphro.
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