To learn, one has to listen.

Seven Years in Tibet (1997)
Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud

(Based on Heinrich Harrer's book with the same name)

Similar to the internment camps established in the USA for German and Japanese migrants during the First and Second World Wars, India had comparable camps. Numerous German workers and even alpine climbers from Austria were detained in various camps around Ahmedabad and Dehradun. One notable individual was Gustav Hermann Krimbiegel, an extraordinary gardener credited with creating royal gardens across India. Krimbiegel was a German botanist who migrated to Britain in 1888. He began his apprenticeship at Kew Gardens and was subsequently recommended to work in the garden of the Maharaja of Baroda. After witnessing his remarkable gardening skills, he was commissioned by other princely states. He is recognised for his development of Lalbagh in Bangalore, Brindavan in Mysore, and many others. In addition to his horticultural achievements, he is also known for introducing new seeds from abroad to India, along with innovative architectural designs, creating a distinctive Indian aesthetic for gardens.

When World War II broke out, Krimbiegel, due to his German origins, was confined to an internment camp as an enemy of the British Empire. With the assistance of King Baroda, who was at the time the wealthiest man in the world, special arrangements were made with the Empire for his release. Krimbiegel is credited with introducing innovative agricultural practices that enhanced irrigation, supported local economies, conducted tree censuses, and infused European techniques into traditional Indian gardening. 

Gustav Hermann Krimbiegel (1865-1956)
https://medium.com/@andrewabranches/
gustav-hermann-krumbiegel-b6bdb9ad28c0

'Seven Years in Tibet' is based on the life and times of Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian climber who spent seven years in Tibet between 1944 and 1951. Starting as a haughty and rash young man with an attitude leaves his fully pregnant wife to go hiking in the Himalayas in 1939. When WW2 started, Herrer and his friends were imprisoned as POWs. In 1944, he escaped from prison and ran to Tibet, hoping to eventually go back home.

What happened afterwards was a life-changing experience for Harrer and his fellow climber, Peter Aufschnaiter. After receiving divorce papers from his wife and a cold letter from a son he had never met, Harrer chose to stay in Tibet to embark on a journey of self-discovery. Coincidentally, he had a chance encounter with the young Dalai Lama in Lhasa, becoming the Dalai Lama's teacher and close confidante. 

The invaluable lesson that is taught to us from Harrer's life experience is this. Isolation opens our inner eye. Stranded in the middle of the gargantuan forces of Nature, one is humbled to come to terms with his vulnerability. Ego is crushed, and all he sees in front of him is his mortality and the life that passed him by. It is at this opportune time that one can make amends. By being respectful and curious, one can be a good student. Watching this film and viewing Zakir Naik's vile video, one can understand how wrong and close-minded Naik is in spreading his deluded 'wisdom'.

https://mindiafilms.com/the-maharajas-german-gardener-g-h-krumbiegel/

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You need to make the unconscious conscious!

Nightmare Alley (2021)
Nightmare Alley (1947)

Based on the novel by William Lindsay Gresham (1946)

In the spring of youth, we all think we are invincible. We believe we were sent to change the world. We go on a crusade to achieve these desires. Somewhere along with our lives and we should realise who we really are. We should know our capability, what role we play in the world. Only then can we set camp and grow laterally instead of reaching for the unattainable. The trouble is that this realisation may come early in some, at 20, 30 or some so much later in life. Some just roll down the cascade of their entire length of existence without realising it, ending it without collecting any moss.

The original offering in 1947.

Carl Jung is quoted to have said that until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life, and you will call it fate. Or karma. "Know thyself" - like it is inscribed at the courts of Temple of Apollo at Delphi. In 'The Art of War', Sun Tze mentions something to the effect of "know others and know thyself and you will not be endangered by innumerable battles".

This film came to my radar after its Academy Award nomination. Then I realised that there was an earlier version made in 1947. The story is based on William Lindsay Gresham's book of the same name. For comparison, I decided to watch both versions of the movies. Despite the technological advancements in film-making and storytelling over the years, sadly, in my opinion, the earlier version topped in terms of entertainment value and audience-gripping score.

Both movies start from different starting points. In the older version, the protagonist, Stanton Carlisle, begins as a helper in a travelling carnival. We do not know much about his past. In the latter, he has an overhanging dark secret. He commits a murder (we later find it was his alcoholic father) and starts life anew as a helping hand in a carnival. Both versions were set in the 1940s.

The novel

As the story progresses, we see Stanton going out of his way to learn the trait of a mentalist and trickery. He makes himself an indispensable asset to the troop. He smooth talks a cop who turned up to inspect their act as they were reported to be abusing people to perform heinous acts. In reality, part of their act involves what they call a geek. A geek is usually a drunk or substance addict fed with their cravings in exchange for gruesome acts like eating a live chicken. A human being cannot go lower than being a geek. He loses his dignity to carry out inhumane acts.

Stanton befriends Zeena, a Tarot reader and a seer and her alcoholic partner, Pete, who had seen better work prospects as a mentalist when he was sober. After learning the craft of 'mind reading', which is actually communicating with the assistant in codes, he poisons (accidentally, in the 1946 version) Pete. He marries Molly, a fellow performer, and makes it to the big city.

Stanton and Molly (as a reluctant partner) have roaring appearances as stage mind-reading performers in the city. They prey on grieving millionaires who lost loved ones. A stunt goes wrong, and Stanton runs from the long arms of the law. After being cheated by a psychologist who initially fed him with the necessary information, he becomes a fugitive. He ends up a drunk and has to work as a geek to sustain himself.

In keeping with the sentiments of the times, the 1946 one had to end with an ending that gave a sense of redemption. Stanton reunites with Molly, albeit with profound regret. In the 21st century bleak version, in keeping with the current tone of cancel culture, there is a downward spiral down the rabbit hole for Stanton.

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When Ali met MGR!

Sarpatta Paramparai (சர்பட்ட பரம்பரை, Tamil, 2021)
Written, Directed by Pa Ranjith

One can learn a thing or two by watching films, i.e. if one is bothered to check the backstory. This is one rare full-length boxing film in Tamil, coming from a land that usually infuses familial masala to the storyline. In keeping with the timeline the story is set in, in the 1970s, there is ample sprinkling of Tamil Nadu politics to set the mood.

For once, we see actors who really look their part as boxers. The make-up, boxing techniques and the make-believe props that cradles us back to the mid-1970s are convincing enough.

Before watching this film, I did not know that boxing was a passionate sport in northern Madras even before the 1940s. Boxing came to India with the British. In Tamil Nadu, it was named 'kuttu chandei', and it came with its own set of rules. Boxers could not hit each others' faces, not the body. In the early 1940s, it seems there was a black British boxer (some say he is Anglo-Indian) by the name of 'Tiger' Nat Teri was a fighter to be reckoned with. He defeated most South Indian boxers. Arunachalam, the greatest boxer of Madras of yore, fought him but died during the match. Three months later, an up and coming star, Kitheri Muthu, fought him and beat the British at their own game. He hailed from the Sarpatta Parampai (Sarpatta Clan).

Kitheri Muthu and ‘Tiger’ Nat Terry 

The clan does not refer to any caste or creed. It is basically a group of people who live together in the same locale and show allegiance to the Club/Clan/Paramparai. This area in north Madras where this sport became famous comprise shipyard workers and fishermen of all religions, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Muslims. The other prominent clans were Idiyappa Naicker Parambarai and Ellappa Chettiyar Parambarai.

With 'Quit India' yells in full force in 1942, Kitheri's victory over Teri was hailed as a booster to the Indian psyche. Periyar and his people in the Justice Party feted him as a Dravidian hero. With that win also, the sport gained popularity. The game went on full force, with enthusiasts from other districts making trips to learn and perfect their techniques.

This movie loosely overlaps with Kitheri Muthu's story but is set during the 1975 Indian emergency. Kabilan, a fervent boxing enthusiast, has his boxing aspirations clipped by his mother. His mother fears that the fate that befell Kabilan's boxer father's life would repeat on her son. Kabilan's father used to be a feared fighter when gangsters from a rival clan knifed him down.

The story tells the competitiveness of the various parambarais and their effort to stage a boxing match amidst the background of National Emergency, witch-hunting of DMK party members (who opposed Indra Gandhi's government), internal squabbling and sabotaging of members.

The hero, Arya, as Kabilan poses with his opposer, Vembuli, in a pre-match photoshoot (Lt) and with his coach, Rangan, played by the talented Pasupathy (Rt). 

M Kitheri Muthu, one of the earliest boxers of the Sarpatta Parambarai.

Ali, the World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, and MGR, the Kollywood heavyweight, hold hands. An electrifying sight to the film-crazed Tamil movie-goers to see the star-politician and inspirational boxer together. Ali came to Chennai in 1980 for a bout with Jimmy Ellis in Chennai's Nehru Stadium. Boxing must have been that popular here that Ali decided to 'dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee' in Chennai. Before boxing became popular in Tamil Nadu, silambam was the primary self-defence sport. Gymkhanas and sports clubs were present even in ancient India.

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