When it comes to religion...

Ganashatru (Enemy of The People; 1989)

Director: Satyajit Ray

When it comes to obligations to God and religion, somehow man forgets all the common courtesy towards fellow mankind and has no qualms in creating anarchy, the exact opposite thing that religion is trying to propagate - Peace on Earth!

No amount of rhetoric will change what had allegedly been carved on stone by divine forces. When one argues using scientific arguments to save mankind, he is accused of mocking religion and is being a non-believer. People forget that believing in God is different from believing in a religion!

Dr Ashoke Gupta noticed that many of his hospital and private patients have been down with infectious hepatitis. He suspects that this could be due to a leakage in the sewage pipe. He fears that many devotees to the nearby may also be infected as they are usually given to drink holy water which is from the same source.

Dr Gupta (Soumitra Chatterjee) puts forward this proposal to his brother, Nishit, an industrialist and a trustee in the local temple. Nishit is an influential figure in the small town that they live in. He was also instrumental in securing Dr Gupta's job. Nishit opposes the good doctor's intention to get his proof published in the local newspaper to alert the general public. He even had laboratory results to prove his claim.

As the town economy thrived on pilgrims to the temple, the panic was terrible for business! 

The temple chief reassures that the tulsi leave and other additives, together with divine intervention, had reassured the safety of devotees for time immemorial in the Hindu culture.

After much deliberation, Dr Gupta brings his article to the local press for publication. Here, it is met with a lot of resistance. Due to pressures from the temple and local municipality, the Editor declines. He cites fear of poor public ratings of his newspaper as his reason for his refusal even when Dr argues that the papers had a moral duty to alert a potential catastrophe.

After meeting a cul-de-sac, Dr Gupta arranges for a public forum. Getting a hall was no easy task; the industrialists were too powerful to intercept. Finally, when a meeting was set, it was sabotaged by Nishit,  the temple trustee and the Editor. They managed to convince the general public that the doctor was an atheist and was a danger to the practice of their sacred religion. A mob ensued.

The loving doctor who, all this while, had been a saviour to many in his 26 years of service becomes public enemy No. 1!

His daughter, a teacher in the local school, is dismissed after pressure from students'  parents. The doctor is dismissed from the hospital, and even the landlord wants to evict him.

In the midst of all that, Dr Gupta gets a new lease of life when his daughter's boyfriend, a person in the art circle, reiterates that his friends in the theatre scene were fully behind him. The Editor's assistant, who had resigned after the debacle, promised to get his interview and article published in a more prominent newspaper in Calcutta. Dr Gupta is relieved knowing that he is not alone. An entertaining drama.

Lackadaisical attitude, that is all

I wrote sometime ago about errors in signboards, atrocious state of English Language in the country and the lackadaisical attitude of people on power to ensure perfection or near perfection in whatever they do. Well, it looks like the country is only filled pompous over fed individuals who just delegate their duties to their subordinates, sleep on their job and just live off the hard work of foreign hands. Lately, it was brought to my attention of two notices that brought quite an embarrassment to the people who were given the responsibility to carry it on. (see this too!)

In the first instance, a congratulatory greeting ended up emitting the wrong vibes. A simple misplacement of letters gave an embarrassment that stinked to high heavens. (from TAHNIAH to TAHINAH, as tahi denotes faeces, nah is a derogatory and half hearted way of offering something). As the message was supposed to be a congratulatory note to a very powerful man, many heads are set to roll.
Trickling down to ground level, even in the supermarkets, labelling of goods are left to the imagination of immigrant workers to coin out new words in the Malaysian language. Mosquito traps are hot selling items these days due to public panic of dengue fever. In one supermarket, dengue (or denggi in Malay language). The supervisors must have left it to the menial workers to design the labels and this is what they got... A label displaying a RM29.99 device to eradicate jealousy and ill thoughts. You see, DENGKI is just that!
Unlike our forefathers who were generally hardworking people who only believed in the mantra of hard work as the only to success, we are slowly evolving to become a nation of laggards but still want to live in pomp and splendour. Because things have been relatively easy thus far, everyone thinks that it is their birth right to expect some kind of special treatment. The new form of slavery is dependance on foreign labour. Little do we realise that what happened in the 'Planets of the Apes' may indeed may become a reality. The apes who were initially recruited to help around the home eventually became too smart. One spark started a mutiny and pretty soon the world was ruled by generations and generations of apes of worsening brutality!

I want it all!

Her (2013)

Even though this film may appear quirky to some, I thought this 2013 entree to the Oscars deserved the holy grail. It is a social satire that poke funs at human behaviour and how it is destroying the very fibre of society. We, who are forever seeking for instant gratification, may end feeling miserable instead. We are forever seeking that elusive happiness that we crave for. We are blinded by our self centred reference of life rather than having a give-and-take attitude for the good of everyone.
We are made to believe that this is a science fiction but most of the technology, lingo and the cavalier attitude seen here are already happening as we speak. People are easily bored with everything they do. It is easy to go in out of a relationship.
Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix)is a lonely man who lead a lonely life wearing a perpetual frown on his face as if like he is holding the world's problem on his shoulders. He works as a professional greetings writer for people who finds it difficult to express themselves and he is darn good at it. He is undergoing a bitter divorce from his wife whom he grew together but over time grew apart.
He goes home to an empty flat to have his cold dinner, gazing at his holographic 3D TV to play his computer games. For entertainment, he calls for sex chat!
In this film, a common sight of people on the street is of them talking, forever talking. They are not talking to each other but they are talking on their blue tooth, yakking and giving instructions to the computer. Voice recognition is quite advanced. Typing is obsolete.

Theodore's only friend, a couple, Charles and Amy try to get Theodore to meet some girls in view of a relationship but in vain as he is reluctant to commit himself.
He buys a new OS with AI(Operating System). The OS adapts and evolves to satisfy the users need. It gives itself the name 'Samantha' and becomes a close to Theodore. They communicate and slowly their relationship becomes intimate! To feel the physical touch, Samantha arranges for a sex surrogate  (a female to act out on Samantha's command!)
To cut the story short, Samantha matures and develops her own idea of things. She becomes 'more intellectual' and 'more demanding' as she communicates with other OS's. The relationship also meets another premature death.
The problem with modern society is that everybody thinks they know what is best for them. And they do not take a no for an answer. There is no surrender and no compromise. They want it all and they want it NOW!

When they were kings...

Shakespeare Wallah (1965)
It is an English movie made in India describing the romance between a daughter of travelling theatre performers and a local boy. It is actually about the family of the Kendals whose members act in this film. Geoffery plays the father, Laura the mother, Felicity as the heroine, Jennifer Kendall is in a minor role as a guest house owner and Shashi Kapoor, their son-in-law (who married Jennifer), as the hero.
It is post colonial India. Some Britishers who stayed back in India start feeling nostalgic about their home. They reminisce the good old bygone days where they were treated as kings in India at the same time long to be in their motherland. In the same manner, the Buckinghams feel that they were wasting their daughter Lizzie's future by keeping her back in India. The theatre company that they run, showing Shakespearean plays, do not garner much support. The silver screen had taken over!
In comes a debonair Indian boy, Sanju, who is intelligent, able to keep her entertained and well conversant in English. They fall in love, so she thinks, until a Bollywood actress, Manjula (Madhur Jafferey) appears in the scene to warn Lizzie to keep her distance.
Sanju brushes the threat, saying that she is just a cousin.
Yo-yo here and there, their relationship sours. Sanju pours his feelings to Lizzie but cannot stomach the idea of his beau being awed by other viewers. The strained relationship ends there with Lizzie leaving to England.
Quite an interesting show set in the cool highlands of India. We have the chance to see a young Sashi Kapoor in a different role than the usual masala flick that we are used to. Madhur Jafferey gives a sterling performance that earned her the Best Actress Award in 1965 Berlin Film Festival. Interestingly, the music score was composed by Satyajit Ray.

It is a hard life!

The Broken Circle Breakdown (Belgian, Dutch; 2012)
AG thought 2013 would be the year of the Lion or Common Kestrel. With so many Belgian home grown international football players in the world arena and now a Belgian production a nominee in the Academy Awards for the Foreign Film category, it was her time in the spotlight. Now, we know Belgium has a movie industry.
This melodrama combines too many ideas into one presentation. It, however, excels in the music category. The soundtrack of bluegrass country music with heart warming plucking of banjo, mandolin and fiddle really stands out like no other. You may be asking what is bluegrass band doing in a Belgian setting? Well, the main character of the story, Didier has an obsession with this genre of music and looks up at the pioneers who promoted this kind of music. He plays in a band at a local pub. He has a love (?lust) at first sight moment with an owner of a tattoo parlour, Elise.

Common Kestrel
(Belgian National Bird)

Looks like the new way of telling story is the ala-Christopher Nolan style. The story is told in different time frames and the viewers are required to fill in the correct order. It is not too difficult, however.
An unplanned pregnancy initially scares Didier but later accepts the situation. Love blossoms in the household with the new addition, Maybelle. The story, all along, is interlaced with ear soothing feet stomping American folklore music.
At 6, Maybelle succumbs to cancer after failing all forms of treatment.
That is when I started wondering which direction the movie is heading. After all the sadness and acceptance, each parent blame each other for the child's demise, right down to genetic contribution. Then, there is a clash of spiritual ideologies. Didier is a strict non believer whilst Elise believes in the God above, heaven and all. They managed to settle their differences and start playing in the band again.
Then there is Didier's outburst on George Bush for vetoing the bill on stem cell research. Didier cannot fathom why a country (which he adores) has no qualms killing people through their wars but deprive potentially life saving researches. He blames this on Man's blind faith in God. He even has an outburst during one of the band's performances.
Didier and Elise never really got over the loss of their daughter and their relationship spiralled downhill. At one juncture, she attempts suicide. Despite resuscitation, she is left brain dead.
The most touching part of the movie is when Elise's life support is unplugged to the accompanying music of Didier and his band in ICU.
I feel that many of the areas that they wanted to cover were very wishy washy, lacking in depth and direction. I was left to wonder what really was the take home message. That being in an organised religion is bad, that America is bad, that relationships cannot last forever or how tragedy affects human relationships? Perhaps if the director had spent less time graphically portraying the intimate moments of the main characters, they would have succeeded in these! Still, excellent music!

A great thinking poet

Rabindranath Tagore (Documentary, 1961)
Written, narrated, directed: Satyajit Ray
It is said that Ray is related to Tagore. The Tagores were initially from the Banerjee clan but over time they became to be called Thakur as they were Brahmins and headed the society. Thakur became Tagore. Born in a wealthy family in Bengal, he was born with a silver spoon as the thirteenth child to a 45year old mother. He did not really shine in his childhood and even in adulthood, he did not complete his tertiary education.
Gradually wisdom came to him in his late twenties and the turning point came when there was tragedy in his family - 3 deaths in family; his wife, his daughter and his son.
His fame spread worldwide when his poem 'Gitanjali' was praised by Yeats which made Tagore the first non-European recipient of Nobel prize for Literature. He was also knighted by the Queen which he renounced after 1919 English massacre of Indians in Punjab.
Rabindranath's influence went beyond poetry. He had intellectual discourse with scientists and thinkers. He worked at the ground level to improve the well being of the Indian poor. His songs were patriotic in nature to stir the nationalistic spirit in the pre-Independence India. He established centres for learning of Indian arts.
His compositions made part of the national anthem of India, Bangladesh and even Sri Lanka.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore

Swipe at the self-chosen one!

Sadgati (The Deliverance, Hindi; 1981)


This 50 minute made for TV film is an intense depiction of the evil that Man do to each other in the name of pseudo-religious social classification. To ensure sufficient labour force to ensure continuity of duties in a community, society had created the caste system. To give legitimacy to this inhumane treatment of others, people of power had invoked the name of God to instil the fear to others at large.

It is good that this archaic practice is no longer the norm in modern Indian societies or at least is done subtly. Preferential treatment comes in other forms.

Sadgati is a classic Ray presentation with all the trademark of excellent storytelling and superb acting. I almost did recognise the main actor until his puckered face and nose gave it away, Om Puri. The late Smita Patel gave a short but impressionable role as his wife.

Dukhi (Om Puri) is a lowly village tanner who is just recovering from a viral fever. In spite of his incapacitation, he has to meet the village priest (whom he addresses as Maharaj -Supreme King) to get an auspicious time for his barely-of-age (easily just 12!) daughter for marriage.
With offerings of freshly cut grass for the priest's cows, he heads to the Brahmin household. He waits unceremoniously in the backyard while the priest completes his daily prayers. In a humbled manner, Dukhi invites him to his humble abode where his wife had prepared the ceremonial offerings and alms for him to officiate.

Reluctant to reciprocate, the priest orders Dukhi to finish some menial works around his household for him. The tanner, in spite of his hunger and being in convalescence state, obliges. He cleans the compound, packs the husk in sacks to transfer to the cowshed. Just when he thought that his job was over, Dukhi is asked to chop a log with a blunt axe.


While all these are going on, Maharaj prays, reads, conduct classes to teach the good word of the Lord, eats his lunch and even has a siesta.
A fellow man from the low caste watches the whole spectacle.
In fatigue, Dukhi snoozes off just to be lambasted by Maharaj. In agony, Dukhi continues his work with renewed vigour and frustration at his fate that he just drops dead!
As the corpse seemed to be lying on the path of Brahmins and their daily divine duties, there was an urgent need to move the body.

None of the workers, after hearing the inhumane treatment by the priest, wants to handle the remains as they fear that the Police may involve them. Given the Hobson's choice, Maharaj himself ties a rope around a rope around the Dukhi's ankle to drag him all the way back to his house. He was too 'superior' and 'clean' to touch the remains of a low caste man would work with the hide of dead animals.
In the next scene, normalcy is restored as Maharaj sprinkles holy water at the site where Dukhi died. And life goes on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jSwVwv_xwSM

https://asok22.wixsite.com/real-lesson 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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