Life of Pi: Living with beast!

What could be the reason that these days there are increasing number of 3D films coming out? Well, one might say, it is the in-thing - as technology evolves, films are supposed to evolve with them as well. Whether a story requires 3D or not, the craze these days seems to be to make 3D films. One of the reasons for a such trend could be to fight piracy that has become a universal phenomenon. With 3D, film-makers succeed in drawing crowds to the theatres. Of course, there are films where the theme of the film would look very dry without the 3D effect. Avatar was one such film and now Life of Pi. In fact, it is this 3D effect that carries the film forward.

Director: Ang Lee

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The story of the film Life of Pi may not have anything spectacular about it. It is about how a human being lives with the beast for a while, fighting all odds. And one day when he thinks that he has made friends with the beast, it just disappears without even paying him one last obeisance. How cruel! Well, some might say that was very ungrateful of the tiger to just leave Pi without even a last glance. But the tiger did the best possible thing. He knew he could not live close to human beings longer, for if it did one day it might devour the same human being. The tiger did not want to stoop to that level perhaps! So it did the most charitable thing under the circumstances by just walking away.

Tiger’s walking away towards the fag end of the story indeed looks not just sensible and charitable; it has a touch of detachment in it. It could not be attached to Pi any longer.

The film is stunning in its effects. The debut of Suraj Sharma has been a memorable one. Irrfan Khan and Tabu are as usual their natural best. Full marks to Ang Lee.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

English Vinglish: Self empowerment of woman

English, the colonial language, today is not just a language used to determine our well being, but sadly something that defines our status as well. The language, with all its richness and nuances, is used by people, to deride those who have less knowledge of it. How sad! A country of more than 600 hundred languages, some of whom are richer than English in terms of flow and expressions, seems to have grown to be a slave to English.

Director: Gauri Shinde

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The language English seems to be the major focus of the film English Vinglish. Here is a typical Indian traditional woman, who for some reasons, is deprived of English education, and who has to continuously suffer subtle insults and sarcastic comments from her own people, just because she has no knowledge of English. Even a well meaning husband and the little ‘modern’ daughter of a convent school do not realise that they are being insensitive. Or is it taken for granted that a housewife is condemned to be just that – a traditional woman who speaks the local language, who cooks food on time and serves the needs of the family?

In any case, this housewife has realised that if someone has to bring her salvation it is she herself. And there is no other way than learning some English – for whatever it is worth! Thus when she goes to the United States for the marriage of her niece, she joins a four week English speaking course and comes out with flying colours for her standards and through this succeeds to educate some people who matter.

What does this brilliantly woven lighter, yet sensitive film try to convey? It has a powerful message to the patriarchal society, most of which still thinks that women must be housewives and just take care of the family. It conveys the message that even a housewife has her dignity which is due to her and the family must make sure that she gets it. But more than anything else, the film tries to communicate that no one can liberate a woman except herself.

What has made the film exceptional, apart from the theme, is the brilliant sensitive rendering of a housewife by the versatile Sridevi. She has personified the garb of an Indian mother. Your heart goes out for her as she struggles and works hard towards success. This is a film, not just for all women, but for all ‘well meaning’ men as well!!

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

August Rush: Finding music all around

“Music is all around us. We have to just listen,” says the little boy August Rush in the film with the same title. How true! Think of it; the whole universe is abuzz with music of varied kind. The sounds around us can be noise for some, but music for others. In the silent night, the whirring bees and insects can be irritating for some while melodious to others. The roaring sea is frightening to some and an undulating instrument of supreme music to others. The whole universe is full of music – only to those who have the patience to listen.

Director: Kirsten Sheridan

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August Rush seems to convey this message to the audience. It is a film about a family of three separated due to difficult circumstance, but now searching for each other. What is common to the trio and what unites them at the end is music. The little boy, now known as August Rush, is a child prodigy for whom music has come by the fact of birth itself. He has learnt and mastered the musical notes not through human intervention but by his sheer vibrating ability with the world outside. He has mastered the art of converting the ‘noise’ outside into melodious scores within.  And, of course, music helps him in his search and he is not keen on converting his rare talent into a business. He is sure that his search for his parents would not be wasted. 

The film, as expected, is a musical and the songs and the unique ensemble compositions take you to a world of melody throughout. Full points to the protagonist - Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Music itself seems to be a character in the film as it plays as a uniting factor.

 - Melwyn Pinto SJ

Wag the Dog: A Parody of games politicians play

William Randolph Hearst, an American publisher in the early 20^th century, was in bitter rivalry with his competitor Joseph Pulitzer. The competition was so fierce that all ethics were thrown to the winds. Mr Hearts for example had sent his artist along with his important reporter to Cuba to draw pictures to support the reports of the uprising there. Days after the war was over, and when the artist Remington said, ‘Everything is quiet. There is no war. I wish to return’, Mr Hearst was reported to have said, “Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I’ll furnish the war.”

 Director: Barry Levinson

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Well, USA has the dubious distinction of creating wars when there were none, for wars were important for its leaders to survive. The story of the film Wag the Dog is very similar. Here is a President who is caught up in a sex scandal which mars his chances of being re-elected. So, he has to divert the attention of the people to help his cause. The obvious choice before him is to create an illusory war. Accordingly, a Hollywood producer is employed to create visuals to support his make-belief war. Despite many doubts and questions raised by the Opposition Party and the media, the President succeeds in his ‘mission’.

The scenes in the film are a depiction of how several Presidents of USA have functioned in the recent past. Be it George W. Bush senior, or his son, or Bill Clinton – they all had one thing in common: they created wars playing on fear psychosis, just to divert attention from major issues troubling the nation and scandals they were personally involved in. In fact, President George W. Bush, when he set out to attack Iraq in 2003, used some of the dialogues from this film, the story of which is somewhat similar to his own story of lies and deceits.

The film may look like a satirical comedy, but it is conceived on important contemporary facts which have time and again proved to be true, especially in the US political history. Hence, the film is an important visual parody of the politics that our leaders and government play.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Tsotsi: Loss of childhood

We hear a lot about juvenile delinquencies and try to pass judgements on them, without understanding their background and circumstances in which they grew into delinquents. Tsotsi is a South African film that deals with this theme. It is the story of Tsotsi, a juvenile delinquent. He has become so due to various circumstances surrounding his upbringing in dire poverty.

In the film, though, he is faced with a peculiar situation. While trying to steal a car, he realises that he has got a baby as bonus in the car. He has no choice but to take care of the little one. He uses his gun and muscle power to force people around him, especially a mother of a new-born, into taking care of the kid. In the meantime, he has to make a lot of compromises on his ‘profession’ of extorting people. In the end, though, his real human nature comes to the fore.

Director: Gavin Hood

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What is unique about this film is that it suggests even deviants as having a human face. No-one by nature can be bad. There is some goodness in all of us and different crucial circumstances bring forth that goodness in all of us. In fact, he seems to regain his lost childhood in the company of the new-found baby.

The film is indeed a class art for more than one reason. The camera work is smooth and uninterrupting. The narration too has its beauty, in that it does not tend to overdo the crime décor of the theme. Tsotsi (Presley Chweneyagae) captures our attention, despite him being an ‘anti-social entity’. The film has a unique touch of Zulu culture in most parts, especially in the Kwaito background score.   

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Akheela and the bee: Making the most of life and spellings

In the American spelling bee competitions, for quite sometime now, students of Indian origin have been winning laurels, beating their American counterparts. However, the pain and hardwork that goes into achieving that feat is anybody’s guess. Spelling bee is not just another competition. Preparation for it needs a scientific approach, learning the root of the words, their formation, understanding as to from which language they have come to English and so on.

Director: Doug Atchison

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However, can this competition also be fun, if taken with the right sportsmanship? Why not!

Here is a film Akheela and the Bee. The protagonist in the film, a black girl Akheela Anderson (Keika Palmer), wants to achieve something more than mere name and fame for herself, by winning the spelling bee at the highest level. She is the daughter of a widow, who struggles to make ends meet. The family has several internal problems. However, for Akheela playing with spellings is a passion.

The film is somewhat like a sports thriller. Of course, here the contenders do not play with balls and bats, but with spellings. And it is Akheela who steals the show, teaching a lesson or two in sportsmanship to her main opponent, a boy of Chinese origin.

The message that the film sends across is that it is important to work hard with determination to reach the highest goal that you have set for yourself. However, life is not only about that. There is more to life than just achieving the only goal of your life. How true! To those scores of young people who easily give up when they fail to achieve the aim of their life, perhaps this film has a message. Yes, Akheela goes on to achieve what she values most in life – a prize in spelling bee at the highest level. But, not at the cost of cherishing the beauty of life, unlike the more ambitious parents who make the life of their children miserable by setting unreasonable and unrealistic goals. May Akheela’s tribe increase. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ