Salakab (Fish Trap, Tagalog; 2023) Director: Roman Perez Jr.
Do we help others because it is just the most human thing to do? Or do we do it because we may need their help someday? Just because somebody had helped us at one point in time, are we duty-bound to return the favour as and when our help is needed? Should this be done even if it means it would crush our plans to succeed? When we are in a slightly comfortable zone, are we considered ungrateful when we do not reciprocate their request? Do we deserve all the curses hurled at us for being an unappreciative dog? Society has many names for these types of 'traitors'.
On the side of the one who helps others, do all the great deeds performed become a fixed deposit that can be broken on a rainy day? Do parents care for their young in anticipation of care in their twilight years? Is the spouse (partner) duty-bound to pay back for services?
The film asks the same question in a graphically explicit, eye-pleasing presentation that leaves nothing to the imagination. The answer is, of course, more complex.
Set in a fishing village on one of many of the Philippines' tiny islands, it tells the tale of a vivacious young girl who got admission into Manila University with a scholarship. With a heavy heart, she leaves her dear boyfriend behind to the glitz of the city lights. She promised to keep in touch, while her boyfriend assured her he would cover her expenses as the scholarship funds were small. The plan is for the boyfriend to do his studies after the girlfriend completes hers.
She loses her scholarship as her performances are not up to mark, but the boyfriend pledges more money for her. Besides his fishing job, he moonshines as a guide and even as a gigolo to make ends meet.
So, the boyfriend is devastated when the girlfriend rejects his marriage proposal upon her return after graduation. To rub salt in his wound, a stranger appears on the island, claiming to be her fiance, informing everyone that the girl has gone missing.
This production, by no means, will receive any standing ovation anywhere or be nominated to be screened in any film festival; it serves its purpose - mere spinal-level entertainment bypassing the cerebral cortex unless you are like me.
Do we need to balance all life dealings? A tit for tat, an eye for eye and blood for blood. Like what a bookkeeper would do, do all transactions need to be balanced, one entry to a credit account and another in debit so that it evens out at the end? Do we have to take it upon ourselves to tip the balance, or should we leave it to Nature to take its course? When something terrible happens to someone else, we call it karma. When it is our turn to receive something bad, we call it bad luck.
I remember a time in my early teenage when I was assigned to pay off debtors. As the sums involved were pretty substantial, and I had never handled such large amounts in my life, a number of 'supposed' trustworthy relatives were assigned to act as bouncers. After pawning some dear jewellery that my mother had accumulated on the sly over the years, we headed off to pay the creditors. With a heavy heart for money lost, one by one, the names on the list were struck off. I thought that was the end of it, until a few more emerged out of the blues 12 years later. That is another story.
After the unenviable job of distributing the dues to the creditors, the relatives who were given the task of standing guard during the work thought it was time for their contributions. After all, it was lunch time. A job 'well done' needed remuneration, they thought. And off the two assigned relatives decided that they should retire to have a good meal for mission accomplished. I, the timid one, had just to follow orders. After all, they helped us, I thought.
Back home, I got quite an earful for the unnecessary extravagance. She explained that it was a sort of a mercy mission for them, and they should not be expecting anything in return.
Then it dawned on me. Nobody is going to do anything for nothing. Gone are the days where when people actually did things because it was the right thing to do. Now, it was, what is it for me? Many thrive on other people's misery and appear to be emphatic to your predicament. They hope for your situation to be more hopeless than it already is. In that way, their services would seem indispensable and 'God-sent' like.
Well, many professionals earn their livelihood in that manner. They are just waiting for a malady for them to prosper - funeral director, lawyer, police, people of medical industry?
Thulabaram (Sacrifice, Tamil; 1968) I do not know why but I keep watching this movie over and over again over the years. Maybe because it draws me back to the time of RRF and the time that steamed with hopelessness and helplessness. At the same time, I do not agree with the melodrama and the self pity that is exhibited in full glory in this flick. So, psychoanalyse me!
This was one of the first movies that Amma took me to watch back in the days. Perhaps, she needed to reminisce her trying times of early adulthood.
Even after all these years, its songs, especially 'Kaathrinile Perum Kaathrinile' sang beautifully by K.J. Yesudass, still makes my hairs at the back of my neck stand.
This movie skyrocketed in popularity in the South that remakes were made in Tamil, Telegu and Hindi using the same main actress, Sharadha. The original film was made in Malayalam based on stage show. Sharadha went on to receive the National Film Award for that year.
Sharadha
Coming from a stronghold communist state, the story has all the hallmarks of capitalistic bashing. Bleak picture of the workers clan bullied by businessmen and crooked supposedly upholders of justice and liberty is evident here. Human values are replaced with the greed of profit and need to fatten one's wallet. In the charade of human greediness, the victims are the downtrodden working class who are not appreciated for their sacrifice but are scorned upon as an annoyance! Of course, the story takes it to the other extreme.
The story starts in a court-room. Vijaya (Sharadha) is in the dock for mercilessly poisoning her three kids. Keeping mum, the Public Prosecutor,Vatsala, (the ever beautiful Indian ex-stewardess turned actress and turned priestess, Kanjana) has an easy time proving her case. Vijaya is defended by a bumbling lawyer, Samanthan (the ever versatile TS Ballaiah) and his crook of a secretary (Nagesh).
As the case almost comes to an end, Vijaya finally breaks her silence. She narrates her side of the story. And the credits roll in as we are transported to a time when Vatsala and Vijaya are easy going bharathanatyam dancing university students pursuing BA.
Vatsala's father is a crooked lawyer (TS Balliah) who is not very bright but strikes rich with his client's ignorance and naivety. His assistant, Nagesh, uses his position to con the gullible for a little tips here and there. Looks like between of these Brahmins, they try to outdo each other in getting bribes! Their antics on-screen are great to watch. (A bashing of the upper caste of society)
Vijaya's father (Major Sunderajan) had seen better times. A disciplinarian and a stickler to time, order and natural justice, he had helped his relatives just to be left in a lurch with a lawsuit on his property and his factory for ownership. Hold behold his lawyer is the incompetent Samanthan!
Tragedy strikes when Vijaya's father loses his case and is thrown out his own house. Left as a pauper with no means to support himself and his daughter and shunned by friends and relatives, the trauma proved too heavy on his ailing heart. He succumbs to a massive heart attack. The only loyal worker who stood by Vijaya and her father is Ramu (the melodrama king of tragedy, AVM Rajan).
As the cash kitty gets smaller and the hostility of the Indian environment on seeing a helpless innocent young pretty girl proved too much, Ramu brings Vijaya to stay in his ramshackle hut of a factory worker. Ramu's household personifies the epitome of melancholia with bare necessities and a ever complaining mother who openly expresses her discontent of life and she imagines a comfortable life with her daughter and husband, which never materialises.
Back in university, Vijaya was chased around by a fun loving jovial fellow student, Muthuraman. Seeing her hopeless states of affairs in Vijaya, her beau decides to confess that their relationship was based on friendship love, not the lover's kind!
Left hanging on a thread, Vijaya takes the bold step to nosedive into the web of poverty, to marry the sad faced Ramu. They had bliss in their humble abode. Testimony of their happiness were the three kids and the song which showcases the joy of celebration in a poor man's home.' " Come ponggal or diwali, there are only tears in our home...!" How more pathetic can you sound?
As if not enough, tragedy strikes yet again. Due to management-workers' dispute, the factory is closed indefinitely and Ramu and his co-worker are left to starve. Union disputes becomes intense and Ramu is finally knifed down, leaving Vijaya and the kids hungry and penniless. If fate is cruel, the society is also unkind. Relatives and neighbours soon start hurling various unsavoury accusation against this young widow. Hunger drives the children to beg, enraging Vijaya. Soon they start to steal food. All these proved too much for someone who at one time had her future all paved ahead of her. She opts for mass suicide. Unfortunately, she survives and is put on the dock.... The storyteller tries to justify the protagonist's actions and inactions to the cruelty of society and fate. She does not admonish the lack of her initiative to uproot herself from misery but instead look for self pity. Perhaps if we had walked a mile in their shoes..
A timeless classic with melodious melodies to match the path of nostalgia. A reminder though...
Now, if only the children knew a soup kitchen they could go to....
Set in the Negro heartland of Mississippi and the 1960s, at a time when it was a crime for a white to be seen eating together with a black and the law required the black maids to use a separate wash room outside the house, this film showcases the story of a young modern female journalists, who unlike her mates who are falling dying to be contend with hitching a husband and having kids, tries to interview a few domestic maids for a paper. We are talking about a time when it is all right for the maid does all the raising the kids while the white bosses do all the socializing and raising funds for kids in Africa when they treated their helpers like dirt. And their helpers have no right even though they are the first to fend for the babies and do all the cooking and chores. It is okay from them to cook and raise their child, but even the law at one stage required households to have separate toilets for domestic helpers as they were feared to harbour many communicable diseases!
Amongst the whites, there are also families who emphasize with the plight of the black helpers. Eugenia Phelan @ Miss Skeeter, a journalist, empathises for these maids as she was practically by her black nanny when her mother was busy with social work.
Aibileen is another character in the film who carries on life carrying a heavy burden of losing her only child and the constant mistreatment by her bosses. Minny, a fantastic cook earned herself a reputation of being a difficult employee with her constant answering back and is finding difficult to gain employment as her reputation preceeded her.
Among there is an immature white lady who is octraziced by the rest of town for stealing somebody's husband. She employs Minnie to learn to cook and is indirectly able to fight off her depressive illness. And there is the issue of Skeeter's maid who brought her up who went missing from her house.
Ms Skeeter plans to ink in a book the experiences and misadventures of the maids in a book. Even though initially only Aibileen came forward to volunteer information. After a fall of a local Negro boy, more maids line up to relate their respective experiences. The final product is a book called 'The Help'which upset many the uppity madams. The author of the book is mentioned as 'Anonymous' but it was Aibileen who did the writing. She is fired from her job and she leaves the white child that she cares for in an emotional scene vowing to change her life with her new found talent.
Octavia Spencer gave a stellar performance as maid with so many pent up emotions which earned with awards all over the world.
This movie also gives all Americans a feel good pat on the back for being able to change their social structure of treating their coloured from a second class citizen to finally putting him at a pedestal which is considered the pinnacle of the American Dream- The White House occupant!
Nominated for and won many awards.
