A tale of three films

Blame it on Adoor! His latest movies Naalu Pennungal and Oru Pennum Randaanum are a collection of four different short films with no direct connection. Here I introduce you to three movies from three different genres, three different styles, and three different languages.

Imagine an Iranian film getting nominated for Best Foreign Film Oscar by the American Academy of Motion pictures! If there was a better reason for me to watch Children of Heaven, then it is the fact that it was recommended by Kalai, whose judgement I fully trust. Children of Heaven is all about simplicity and visual brilliance. Trust me, if u get to see this Persian movie without subtitles, U will understand and thoroughly enjoy every bit of it.

What would a 9 year old boy do if he looses the shoes of his 6 year old sister? For the young Ali, it was equal to loosing the world. He knows that his poor father has no money to buy little Zahra another pair to wear to school. So the brother-sister duo decides to hide the fact from their parents. They also decide to strike an arrangement to share Ali’s shoe. Ali’s school time is after Zahra’s. Zahra will wear Ali’s sneakers to school and would run back after her classes to hand it over to Ali who wears it to school. It’s quite an uncomfortable arrangement because Ali is late to school more often than not. How the two little Kids manage the aftermath of the shoe-missing forms the part of the story. You will be drawn into the innate goodness that the movie has to offer.

The only probable reason why Children of Heaven did not win the Oscar is because it was nominated in the same year when a certain Italian named Roberto Benigni decided to storm the Oscars with his movie Life is beautiful winning 7 nominations and three awards including Best Foreign Film. Or would it have been different if Children of Heaven was not an Iranian movie? I would not have been surprised! It’s a must watch for you and your children of heaven.

If Children of heaven is a must watch for any kind of audience, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, directed by Sudhir Mishra, is anything but that. This 2005 movie hailed by Sunday Times as the “Best Political Drama ever made in India” is set in the heat of the Naxalbari movement and the Emergency period.

Vikram (Shiney Ahuja) is in love with Geeta (Chitrangada Singh). But Geeta is bowled over by Sidhartha (Kay Kay Menon), whose first love is revolution and Geeta comes a distant second. Sidharth leads a group of left-aligned students group in Delhi University and want to start a revolutionary movement in Bihar to end the caste based discrimination in the state.

The priorities of the three varies to a great extent and the story unfolds around how their lives gets entangled even years after their college days, more by default than by design. Sidharth dreams of the egalitarian world and is determined to make it true. That takes him go to Bhojpur, which is plagued by the caste system. Geeta can’t have enough of Sidharth, more for her physical needs than anything else and she is almost blind towards the true love that Vikram has for her. Vikram in his part can’t forget Geeta and he comes back to her life time and again. In the process, he can’t avoid Sidharth, his nemesis.

Even though the basic premise of the triangular love story looks straight out of a Bollywood Masala, this movie is a different fare altogether. The movie gives a cross-section of the Indian life during the sixty’s and the seventy’s. What makes Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi special is that it shows an important leaflet out of the book of India which is hardly dealt with by any movie makers. I doubt if there is any topic in Political India that offers as much scope as the emergency and I find it surprising that no film has ever ventured to delve into it.

Shiney Ahuja got a well deserved Best Debut Filmfare award and Kay Kay Menon never disappoints you. But the person who took my heart away was the young and lovely Chitrangada (I would have complained about her not being given the Filmfare for the best Female debut, if only it had not gone to one Vidya Balan!). It’s a pity that she has not acted since this memorable debut, but I hear that she is on a comeback trail. Watch out for this girl.

Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi is a must-watch, but only for those who can digest a decent dose of parallel cinema and those who are interested in taking a peep into the turbulent times of Naxalbari movement and the Indian Emergency.

Finally, I want to end this trilogy with Cheran’s latest Tamil offering Pokkisham (Treasure)which came with the catchy subtitle “Nee Enakku Ezhuthiya kaadhal kadithangal” (The love letters you wrote to me). The promos, the best I have seen in a long time, really pulled me into the movie and not surprisingly, I was hooked into the movie from the word go.

The story unveils in the 1970’s and portrays the developing companionship between a Marine Engineer based in Kolkata and a Muslim girl in Nagore through letters. Lenin (Director Cheran himself) is the son of a communist sympathizer while Nadeera (Padmapriya) hails from a traditional Muslim family in Nagore (a place known for Hindu-Muslim harmony). Despite her conservative background, Nadeera is a well educated college going girl and talks about women’s liberation - especially in her community - which impresses Lenin, the communist and the want-to-be reformer. They stay in touch through their long drafted letters which is the major attraction of the film. The movie is a personal favourite since it revolves around some of my favorite topics like communism, women’s lib, the art of writing long letters and a breath taking recreation of Calcutta of the 1970s (no wonder that city is so close to my heart).

And before you decide to try Pokkisham, here is a disclaimer. My sister started growling at me within 10 minutes from the start of the movie. It’s not recommended unless you can enjoy a strong dose of Tamil Poetry. The movie progresses through the letters which are actually beautifully crafted poems. The pace of the movie is as fast as the snail mails that they exchange, but once you are drawn into the movie you would never complain. When a director of Cheran’s calibre narrates a tale from his heart, it shows! It’s really a treasure for a true romantic.