Shahid: Martyr for justice

The term Shahid in Urdu/Hindi means martyr. The name of the protagonist in this film is Shahid. It serves both metaphorical and actual purposes, for the protagonist indeed becomes a martyr at the end of the film.

 Director: Hansal Mehta

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The film is a real life account of Shahid Azmi who became a lawyer and fought many cases of those who were languishing in jails being wrongly implicated. However, it is this very mission of his that alienates him from his close ones, and finally brings his end.

The film is a realistic depiction of the current Indian criminal proceedings and shows, without resorting to melodrama, how at times the present system can make criminal out of innocents. The personal experience that the protagonist goes through in his own life drives him to take causes of innocent victims who for no fault of theirs fell on the wrong side of the law.

Rajkumar as Shahid has added life to the real life character. No wonder he won the national award for best actor. Even as the film deals with the Indian archaic legal system, it raises questions if our system is all that bad or if there is the dearth of real commitment on the part of lawyers to fight for justice. The film stands out as an off-beat film in the ocean of Bollywood’s masala films.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Fandry: Chasing elusive birds!

Marathi film Fandry which has won many awards, is a typical film that deals with the caste question and the struggle for survival of dalits in an Indian village. This is perhaps one of those very few films that have brought out the raw reality of the subaltern powerfully. The subaltern narrative that is in focus in this film is the brutality of caste system which in this modern world plays out more subtly than the historic untouchability. Here is a family, the day-to-day struggles of which are a spectacle of entertainment for the so called upper caste people in the village. The entire narrative is depicted through the eyes of the teenage son in the family Jabya. The irony is that this boy is chasing two ‘birds’ both of which are elusive to him – one a long-tailed sparrow and the other a fair girl from the upper caste.  

Director: Nagraj Manjule

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The caste dynamics at play in this film are similar to the dynamics playing in any village today. Caste today is not just about untouchability; for untouchability in its true sense is no more a major concern, when you can easily stay away with people whom you don’t like. It is about attitudes and perceptions. In the film, the family of Kachrya, the father of Jabya the ‘lover boy’, lives as usual on the fringe of the village; but the family is sought after to tidy the dirt of the village, i.e. to catch the pigs which are another symbol of defilement. Perhaps, the family can be banished only when all the dirt (pigs) are done away from the village. 

The final scene in the film where the young Jabya gives vent to his suppressed anger seems just an aberration in a scenario where dalits are considered a mass to be merely used and suppressed, and the discrimination and humiliation meted out to them considered something normal. It is a landmark film that brings to forth the dalit angst. 

-Melwyn Pinto SJ

Shattered Glass: Made-up facts!

Truth is sacrosanct in journalism. It is the thread that holds the very fabric of the journalistic world together. But what happens when the facts of a published story, the revered 5 Ws (who, what, when, where, why) and 1 H (how), are just fictional? The whole journalistic medium comes apart at the seams.

Director: Billy Ray

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Shattered Glass is a film that captures the unravelling of this scenario by detailing the life of a reporter who concocts tall tales in the guise of truth. Based on the real life of the infamous print journalist Stephen Glass, the movie is a lesson in media ethics and a cautionary story for media professionals. 

Directed by Billy Ray, the movie plays out like a suspenseful thriller. The movie is set in the late 90s, at a time when Stephen Glass, played by Hayden Christensen, was at the height of his career. This young, ambitious and affable reporter was a rising star at The New Republic, a magazine known for its strong political analysis and commentary. The movie depicts how Glass circumvented the editorial process of fact-checking and source verification. The editor at the magazine, played by Peter Sarsgaard exposes Glass’ tenuous web of lies. We watch as Glass’ meteoric rise to fame comes crashing down in a devastating fall from grace.

The story of Stephen Glass is not an isolated one. In 2003, Jayson Blair from the New York Times was also convicted in a similar scandal for manufacturing stories. Renowned Indian journalists have also been accused of breeching journalistic ethics. Numerous reporters have been accused of plagiarism, having a close mutually-beneficial nexus to politicians and corporates, and partaking in paid news.

Journalists have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of their position as the fourth estate. But the abuse of this power, as evidenced in the film, has catastrophic consequences.

- Parinitha Shinde

The Book Thief: Words are life!

Most often we are told not to read the book after seeing the film, but this is one film -- The Book Thief that one can safely do that! Both are outstandingly good! 

The Book Thief based on the novel of the same name by Markus Zusak, tells the story of Liesel (Sophie Nélisse), a down-to-earth young girl, sent to live with a foster family in World War II Germany. It was at the grave of her brother,  that she picks up her first book, unwittingly left behind by the grave digger and earns her the unsaid sobriquet of 'the book thief'. She learns to read with encouragement from her new foster father, Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Max, a Jewish refugee who they are hiding in the cellar under the house. For Liesel and Max, the power of words and imagination become the only escape from the tumultuous events happening around them. This film is a life-affirming story of survival and of the resilience of the human spirit.

Director: Brian Percival

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Her tough manner makes her an object of ridicule in school, but Rudy Steiner (Nico Liersch), her classmate, becomes her good friend. However, when Liesel is asked by her stern teacher to write her name on the blackboard on her first day of school, it is obvious that she doesn't know how to read or write.

Along with a very imaginative 'dictionary' painted on the walls of the cellar, Hans decides to teach Liesel to read by using the book she'd taken from the graveside. Eager to learn Liesel is inspired to read more books, which are impossible to find during war. Living in Nazi Germany is hard and the scene where a massive bonfire of any book which is not German was burnt in the neighbourhood square can give a tug at the heart of any rabid book lover.  Liesel waits till the crowds leave to salvage a book out of the burning pile. She also takes the initiative to read aloud, to keep calm during an air raid where the whole town sits in a dark air raid shelter.

Director Brian Percival adroitly tells Liesel's story and has the audience empathising with her life, with its undeniable pathos. Screenwriter Michael Petroni and Oscar-nominated composer John Williams has helped to do this film justice by bringing it from page to screen and giving it just the right tone. Narrator Roger Allam who took the unseen role of death has given the film a three dimensional angle which is eerily just right. Geoffrey Rush is a very lovable Hans and Sophie Nelisse is a delicately perfect Liesel. Surely Markus Zusak is pleased with his book coming to life like this on celluloid. A dream any author would wish for.

 

- Marianne Furtado de Nazareth

12 Years A Slave: Value of freedom

Well, as expected 12 Years A Slave has won the best film award at Oscars 2014. Not that the other films were not competitive enough. What made the difference perhaps was the human touch of the film and the way the director has handled the narration, without allowing the subject to become a heightened melodrama, despite the story lending itself to it.

 

Director: Steve McQueen

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The film is apparently based on a real life story and loosely hewed on the book of the same title. The events occur in the mid-19^th century when slavery was considered normal in the US. However, the protagonist in the story had to face a double whammy as he was kidnapped and forcefully made a slave and he remained in that state for 12 years. More than the physical pain, it is the humiliation and sheer helplessness he went through which make the audience resonate sympathetically with the theme. That is when one realises how precious freedom is and how devastating it is when freedom is robbed from people who are born free and who believe that they are born ‘in the image and likeness of God’.

There have been several films that deal with the theme of slavery. In fact this film reminds of another classical Amistad which was a poignant tale of slave trade and had a much bigger canvas. (Incidentally, the  protagonist Chiwetel Ejiofor had played a role in Amistad). However, 12 Years A Slave stands out for its straight forwardness sans glamour and for not making it a spectacle of brutality that slavery was, even while conveying the message powerfully.

Full marks to director Steve McQueen. Lupita Nyong'o rightly  deserved the award for the Best Actress in a supporting role. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Gravity: A journey into spaces!

Alfonso Cuaron is a Mexican director whose unique perspective and confident camera work make him a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood. In a movie industry dominated by blockbusters that boast high-grossing actors, 3D and special effects, what makes Cuaron’s work stand out is his definitive treatment of these elements.

In his multiple Oscar nominated film Gravity, Cuaron constructs a story that is set entirely in space. The film follows the harrowing journey of two astronauts – Dr Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) – as their routine space shuttle mission goes horribly awry. After the debris from an exploded Russian satellite begins to hurl around the orbit of the Earth, the two astronauts witness the destruction of their shuttle. They drift through the vast recesses of outer space, some 370 miles above Earth, struggling to survive the unforgiving conditions while finding a way home.

Director: Alfonso Cuaron

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Alfonso Cuaron, together with masterful cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, juxtaposes familiar realms with the unfamiliar. The astronauts straddle the terrain between two worlds, that of Earth - magnificent, majestic, and comforting – and that of space – infinite, mysterious, and frightening. The camera flows seamlessly, shifting from third person to first person points of view. There is ample use of long shots which are used effectively to dissuade the audience from looking away even for a second. The visuals have a mesmerizing hold on the viewer.

Bullock is remarkable as the rookie astronaut who must battle her inner demons as much as external obstacles. Clooney, as the veteran mission commander with a penchant for spinning yarns, is endearing. The journey of these characters is as much spiritual as it is physical.

The film explores the binaries of science and faith, heaven and earth and life and death. These dualities are not in conflict with each other, rather they are coexistent. While space exploration is seen as the pinnacle of human advancement, there is a recurrent motif of God as an omnipresent force.

The director’s creative audacity, the unparalleled cinematography and the portrayal of the indomitable human spirit are reasons that make Gravity a visual odyssey which must not be missed.

- Parinitha Shinde

A Dark Truth: Fighting tyranny of privatisation!

The film A Dark Truth (2012) is a very relevant film for our times. It deals with an issue that has lasting impact on the future of democracies: namely the unapologetic embrace of market economy and privatisation. The trend today is for governments to slowly withdraw from their key responsibilities and hand them over to the private sector. What this essentially means is allowing markets to determine people’s lives in all possible ways. While water is being privatised in several countries, days are not far away when even the air we breathe may be up for sale. 

Director: Damian Lee

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In the film, a private company has made water as the most precious commodity, of course, in connivance with governments. In Ecuador, the army is killing thousands of people just to hush up the sins of this company. However, the film shows that there are still some sane voices out there who do not want to give up and they fight till the end to bring the dark truth out. Of course, Francisco Francis, who leads the fight back regrets that he responded violence with violence. He comes to know through his own experience that Gandhi’s ways are more practical and effective than those of Mao.

Forest Whitaker as Francisco Francis and Andy Garcia as Jack Begosian make a deep impression. While the film may have exaggerated the reality a bit, the point is well made. The world is not in itself unequal, but greed makes it so. However, the optimistic note that comes up at the end of the film is what is declared by one of the characters in the film: everything has a price, but everything need not be for sale.

- Melwyn Pinto SJ