Kavita seems to have the stomach for watching horror movies. Usually, I have to hide behind something during a particularly scary scene but she insists she wants to watch the scene. I told Kavita we should watch a scary movie for fun and, so the three of us watched "Rosemary's Baby" yesterday evening. I had the DVD, purchased during my last visit to Islamabad, from the famous Illusions in Jinnah Supermarket (heaven of pirated music and films). My brother Tariq had told me it was one of the scariest movies, not because of what it shows but what it hints at. Somehow, I missed this film and, have always looked forward to finally watching it.
I told Kavita it would be good to get a blanket to hide under in case we needed to. So she got one of the 'khais' we have at home. She said we should have some popcorn to go along with the movie. I found some in our store with an expiry date of June 2017. I asked Haresh whether it would still be OK. He nodded however it didn't pop.
The film is truly a classic. Mia Farrow was fetching in her youth. She plays the character of Rosemary with great skill. Rosemary moves from naiveté, vulnerability, frustration, crippling fear, pain to finally surrender. Even though she is so frail, she quickly grasps that something is going on and, even her own husband seems to be in on it. She firmly goes with her gut instincts and signals.
The neighbour, Mrs. Castavet, I recognised from Harold and Maude. What a great actress and great performance. It was all over the place: misleading, friendly, motherly but oh so sinister at the end.
The film has great atmosphere, texture and moods. The suspense is maddening. There's something going on and, but our frail but determined heroine is alone and, trying her best to figure it out, to escape.
Needless to say, the power of this film lies in the near lack of gore and obvious horror. Except for the girl who has crashed to her death in the beginning of the film and the first nightmare, the horror is psychological and based on a suspense. The look and feel of the film is layered, textured, and intimate. Most of the action takes place in the apartment. Some of the strange episodes happen in dream sequences with a great use of the soundtrack.
Guy defects to the Dark Side almost in the very beginning, when they go to their neighbours for a dinner invitation. You can see he has changed in the subtle hints thereafter.
The other night I watched Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero after Kavita and Haresh went to sleep. It was on Sony Max, Channel 457 on DSTV.
It was a very good biopic type of film. Firstly, ashamedly, I don't know much about Bose so I learned something new about the struggle for independence, even if it came through a film.
I liked the format of the film as it was linear. I am tired of watching jumpy/random/fictionalised bio-epics. If you don't know much about the personality to begin with, a non-linear and semi-fictionalised account of the famous figure from history is not useful. I'm saying this because I saw Miles Ahead on DSTV and, I did not really enjoy it. I looked it up afterwards and, understood that it was an imagined evening in the life of Miles Davis. Learning this, really annoyed me because I didn't learn anything about one of the greatest jazz musicians. The film showed him as a washed up figure with flashbacks to the regrets in his life. It basically showed him as a deeply flawed figure.
Not that historical figures are not flawed but I would appreciate a linear format. Indeed, if the screen writer wants to focus more on the flaws, then it better be a compelling film, even if it bends the truth or chooses to show the flaws more than the genius or heroism or struggle.
I'm quite sure I would like to learn about the making of the genius of Miles Davis and, why he is one of the greats. I would like the film to educate me and even inspire me to go and listen to his music and, be even more interested in jazz.
If filmmakers are interested in reinterpreting history and in fact, showing great heroes for who they were, so that the public can learn a counter narrative, then that is truly revolutionary. Otherwise, we can create thousands of imagined/fictionalised scenarios to make a B-grade film. And, no one is any smarter.
If one has to compare bio-epics about legendary American musicians, then I prefer the Jamie Foxx's Ray on the life of Ray Charles. It was not strictly linear but at least one could get a breadth of Ray Charles' life. One could understand how the music industry worked. One even saw Ray's treatment of women and his problem with drugs. It had much more depth in it. And, of course, Jamie Foxx's performance was very powerful.
Coming back to Chandra Bose, what blew me away by this film was learning about a freedom fighter who actually went to Britain's enemies in the middle of the second World War to seek help fighting the British Empire. I didn't know about about this slice of history - the struggle for independence is dominated by the Muslim fight for a separate country led by Jinnah and, then Gandhi's peaceful/non-violent protests. These are some of the narratives that one learns about. That Bose split from Gandhi's path of non-violent resistance and, crossed the seas to put together a revolutionary force is an entirely new part of history for me. Not only that, he first tried to get help from the Soviets in Afghanistan but they gave him the run around. Then, the Italians introduced him to the Nazis and from where he went to Japan.
That the Axis powers helped an Indian freedom fighter against British Imperialism makes one revisit one's sense of history. What does it say about World War 2 - the greatest war ever fought? A war which they are still so eager to paint in terms of Good and Evil, 2 clear sides. Almost every popular, academic, journalistic and lay account of the War - for the most part - is without a mention of the brutal white colonial empires and their crimes. Not only that, the greatest white war heroes are shown without their racist tinges. Take for example, the racist pig, Winston Churchill, who the average British thinks was the greatest Brit who ever lived. Even now, Dunkirk was heavily criticised for its whitewashed history and not showing any colonial soldier!
Learning about this facet of history makes me finally want to give the title of the Great War to World 2. It was complex so much so that the so called Axis played a part in India's freedom struggle.
The Western world presents World War 2 as the great and most noble war. They still can't stop making films about their own heroism and defeating the Nazis. And out of this great war, the cause of the Jews was also born, their need for a homeland and, to defend against Anti-Semitism.
On the world stage, the struggles of the colonial peoples fighting European Empire or the black people fighting slavery and racism has a very small space. Black and brown peoples' wars and struggles are hardly visible. In this sense, this film is a great contribution to portraying the full breadth and complexity of the Indian struggle for independence. I don't know much about Bose's life but look forward to reading more about him.
It was good to see this film while the Brits are still making films and TV series about their monarchs such as Victoria without any critical look at Empire, Colonialism, Racism, etc. What's more there's been a movie made earlier this year - Victoria and Abdul: it looks like it's about the ageing monarch and her Indian manservant and the friendship that blossomed between them. How sweet.
It was good to see this film while the Brits are still making films and TV series about their monarchs such as Victoria without any critical look at Empire, Colonialism, Racism, etc. What's more there's been a movie made earlier this year - Victoria and Abdul: it looks like it's about the ageing monarch and her Indian manservant and the friendship that blossomed between them. How sweet.
See above.
Mashaal
I remember having seen Mashaal many, many years ago. It was probably at home on a video cassette.
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| Images from Google Images. |
I caught the film on DSTV one evening after Kavita and Haresh had gone to sleep.
This is one of Dilip Kumar's finest performances in a film which tackles corruption, violence, cycles of violence, leadership and, journalism.
The scene where he screams for help for his ailing wife, played by Waheeda Rahman, in the middle of the night, on deserted streets, is one of the most haunting, heart-wrenching and moving cinematic scenes. I watched it with tears streaming down my face. He begs the few passing cars, the passengers of these cars, for help but no one comes to his help. He cradles his dying wife in his arms until she finally passes. He is found by people the next morning, shocked and mute and numb. He relates her death and curses himself for his role in his wife's death, who suffered needlessly just because she was an honest and stubborn writer/journalist's wife. The night scene is truly one of the most moving and unforgettable scenes from Indian cinema.
The relationship between Anil Kapoor and Dilip Kumar is so endearing and moving. At the beginning, they both are at the opposite ends, with no clue about each other's lives. Dilip Kumar moves into a 'basti' to set up a printing press for his new paper and learns about the peoples' problems with alcohol, poverty, crime, etc. Eventually, the noble journalist, Dilip Kumar, befriends the 'nali ka keera', Anil Kapoor, a bum, a thug, who spends his days inebriated or stealing with his friends.
Their friendship grows into a teacher/mentor relationship. Anil Kapoor's character comes to deeply respect Dilip Kumar and his wife. He even risks his own life to take Waheeda Rahman to a hospital in the middle of terrible city riots. When he goofs up, though, by robbing a place after being insulted, he goes mad and steals a music system and gifts it to the principled Dilip Kumar who quickly figures out that he stole it. He throws out Anil Kapoor, calling him a 'naali ka keera'. They meet again, at Anil Kapoor's hovel, and Anil Kapoor gives a tearful speech about his impoverished parents who worked until they died, never having stolen anything. He says his mother cleaned peoples' plates and pots but she couldn't touch anything.
Dilip Kumar's character is shown to be of such high principles, morals, full of social consciousness and inequality but he is extremely stubborn. He is stubborn and tough when it comes to understanding Anil Kapoor's character. He doesn't bend to anyone, even the big crime boss, Amrish Puri, who eventually breaks him down by burning his printing press, having him kicked out of his home, and then he loses his wife because he neither has money to take her to the hospital nor a car. The suffering and death of his wife breaks down Dilip Kumar and, he decides to turn to crime.
The scene where Amrish Puri and Dilip Kumar first meet is quite a lesson in mastery of direction. Amrish Puri has come to Dilip Kumar's printing press, to extend a hand of friendship which is of course rejected by Dilip Kumar. Amrish Puri makes a formidable villain, all smiles and politeness, while our hero is angry and self righteous. The camera circles the two, facing each other across a desk, the whole time.
All this happens while Anil Kapoor has been sent away by Dilip Kumar to study and learn to be a journalist, something Anil Kapoor wants to do, looking up to his mentor.
It's quite a fantastic character transformation. While Anil Kapoor is away studying hard and changing into a learned man, training and hoping to follow in his mentor's footsteps, Dilip Kumar changes into a crime boss, avenging his wife's death. It's a self destructive spiral downwards but one that seems to be so calculated, so knowing.
The ending of course was quite melodramatic but all in all, it's an amazing film.
The scene where he screams for help for his ailing wife, played by Waheeda Rahman, in the middle of the night, on deserted streets, is one of the most haunting, heart-wrenching and moving cinematic scenes. I watched it with tears streaming down my face. He begs the few passing cars, the passengers of these cars, for help but no one comes to his help. He cradles his dying wife in his arms until she finally passes. He is found by people the next morning, shocked and mute and numb. He relates her death and curses himself for his role in his wife's death, who suffered needlessly just because she was an honest and stubborn writer/journalist's wife. The night scene is truly one of the most moving and unforgettable scenes from Indian cinema.
The relationship between Anil Kapoor and Dilip Kumar is so endearing and moving. At the beginning, they both are at the opposite ends, with no clue about each other's lives. Dilip Kumar moves into a 'basti' to set up a printing press for his new paper and learns about the peoples' problems with alcohol, poverty, crime, etc. Eventually, the noble journalist, Dilip Kumar, befriends the 'nali ka keera', Anil Kapoor, a bum, a thug, who spends his days inebriated or stealing with his friends.
Their friendship grows into a teacher/mentor relationship. Anil Kapoor's character comes to deeply respect Dilip Kumar and his wife. He even risks his own life to take Waheeda Rahman to a hospital in the middle of terrible city riots. When he goofs up, though, by robbing a place after being insulted, he goes mad and steals a music system and gifts it to the principled Dilip Kumar who quickly figures out that he stole it. He throws out Anil Kapoor, calling him a 'naali ka keera'. They meet again, at Anil Kapoor's hovel, and Anil Kapoor gives a tearful speech about his impoverished parents who worked until they died, never having stolen anything. He says his mother cleaned peoples' plates and pots but she couldn't touch anything.
Dilip Kumar's character is shown to be of such high principles, morals, full of social consciousness and inequality but he is extremely stubborn. He is stubborn and tough when it comes to understanding Anil Kapoor's character. He doesn't bend to anyone, even the big crime boss, Amrish Puri, who eventually breaks him down by burning his printing press, having him kicked out of his home, and then he loses his wife because he neither has money to take her to the hospital nor a car. The suffering and death of his wife breaks down Dilip Kumar and, he decides to turn to crime.
The scene where Amrish Puri and Dilip Kumar first meet is quite a lesson in mastery of direction. Amrish Puri has come to Dilip Kumar's printing press, to extend a hand of friendship which is of course rejected by Dilip Kumar. Amrish Puri makes a formidable villain, all smiles and politeness, while our hero is angry and self righteous. The camera circles the two, facing each other across a desk, the whole time.
All this happens while Anil Kapoor has been sent away by Dilip Kumar to study and learn to be a journalist, something Anil Kapoor wants to do, looking up to his mentor.
It's quite a fantastic character transformation. While Anil Kapoor is away studying hard and changing into a learned man, training and hoping to follow in his mentor's footsteps, Dilip Kumar changes into a crime boss, avenging his wife's death. It's a self destructive spiral downwards but one that seems to be so calculated, so knowing.
The ending of course was quite melodramatic but all in all, it's an amazing film.
What a run down memory lane. Was it everyone or was it just my brother Tariq and I who were mad about Amitabh Bachan films?
I don't think I have watched Coolie against since my childhood so it was a treat to watch it and recognise some of the scenes that that seem to have been preserved in my mind.
The film really embodies the essence of Bollywood of that era when it was ruled by Amitabh Bachan, story lines full of fated tragedies and strokes of luck, spectacular dialogues and, the focus on the 'common man.'
Somehow it feels Bollywood of that time was almost socialist: the working class man and woman were the heroes while the rich folks were always bad.
The camaraderie between the coolies, their red uniforms, their badges, their passionate struggle for justice, the fiery speeches of their leader speaking on their behalf - even the famous Sari Duniya Ka Bhoj Hum Uthate Hain song - are the symbolisms of a film where the good guys are the labourers who break their backs every day in order to survive. They literally lift our loads.
Did such socially conscious films really belong to that era only? Some would argue that hard-hitting mainstream films are still made but they have a different flavour altogether. Do they show the class and social divide so clearly?
Amitabh Bachan is ever so dashing and heroic!
Coolie is quite an amazing film, almost perfect, except for its sexist and mysognist treatment of the heroine by the hero. He kidnaps her to teach her a lesson! He keeps threatening to teach her a lesson and of course, she falls for it. This portrayal of violence in a romantic relationship is outdated and, rather disgusting to watch as an adult.
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