Eega: Celebrating filmic possibilities

Can a housefly take revenge on a human being? Yes! S S Rajamouli’s (Telugu film director) phenomenal Eega (Fly) has shown that even a fly can take revenge; mind you, the director has shown it quite realistically and you almost believe that it is true! Call it Eega (Telugu), Naanee (Tamil) or Eecha (Malayalam), but ultimately it is flying high everywhere! 

Director: S S Rajamouli

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This Eega is a simple story about how a lover boy Nani (Nani), in love with a micro artist Bindhu (Samantha) is killed by an eccentric billionaire Sudeep (Sudeep). Nani reincarnates himself as a fly and makes Sudeep’s life hellish, and impossible to live.

What makes the film work are its breathtaking graphics, visual effects and CGI (computer generated imagery). The important elements that really impact the audience are the birth of Eega and how it visualises the world with its hexagonal view.

In the second half, the fly reveals its identity to ‘his’ sweetheart. In the song ‘Gagageega’ Eega has a shower bath, does body building exercises and gets dust proof goggles. This song is arguably one of the best visualised songs ever made. The teasing gestures and emotions of the fly are hilarious and seem realistic as well. In the penultimate climax scenes, the escape of Eega from eagles and gun bullets are magnificently shot. Sudeep has done a commendable job as the anti-hero. 

The entire film is a story narration by a father to his lovely daughter. Eega’s usage of its weapon (needle) and killing Sudeep is a visual extravaganza. Eega is indeed a classic revenge story told in unimaginable proportions (a few- millimetre vs. a six-foot). Well, the film itself may not classify itself as one that raises issues for discussion in different circles, but through this film we are once again swept off our feet by the immense possibilities of film both as an art and a visual narrative that has its roots deeply entrenched in technology.  

- Sirisha Akshintala

Shala: Going back to school

Once again here is a gem from Marathi. Shala (School), a 2011 film takes you back to school and makes you feel nostalgic, especially if you have had a humble schooling. Set in 1970s India, the film portrays myriad Indian socio-cultural complexities through the eyes of a bunch of students.

Mukund Joshi is a ninth standard boy who ‘falls in love’ with his classmate Shirodkar. He is so mad after her that even as he is good in studies, he registers himself for tuitions just to be with his girl. One might think this is absurd, and the whole aspect of love affairs in the high school not convincing. However, the director Sujay Dahake has weaved a compelling story of love with hardly any grand romanticism and glamour that is intrinsic to an adult love. Here is a young boy who is so passionate about a girl and his love for her is pure and precious. Hence it does not seem unwieldy and artificial at all.

Director: Sujay Dahake

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The film is also about the Indian struggle to keep pace with democratic principles. In 1975 Indira Gandhi declared Emergency and that brought about tremendous upheaval in the socio-economic and cultural spheres of India. It affected education as well. The director tries a bit to depict this part of our history through the eyes of the protagonists.

The school that is portrayed in the film, of course, is a typical idea of an Indian grand narrative called ‘School’. It has all sort of characters (call them teachers). There are those who are so full of ego and think that only brown wrapper is the best for the note books. There are others who have their own idiosyncrasies that keep them low; while there are also a few who are more sympathetic to the students.

While the film is hardly a mirror to what schooling must have been in medieval India, it, no doubt, gives a glimpse into its influence in society. And, well, the love story of two village teens has all the characteristics of a fairy tale in a real world. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

Sarah’s Key: Lessons from history

“We are all products of history,” says a dying father to his son William. The scene is from the poignant narrative film Sarah’s Key, a 2010 French-English film directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner.

How true! Of course we are all products of our history, whether we like it or not. History may be the thing of the past, but no one must forget history and history must shape our present and put us in right mode for the future. The difficulty is when we refuse to learn from history and make the same mistakes over and over again, as it happens in the world today.

Director: Gilles Paquet-Brenner

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The film is about a journalist’s (Julia played by Kristine Scot-Thomas) quest to go behind history to know the truth about the deportation of hundreds of French Jews to concentration camps in Auschwitz during the Second World War. Most of them died there, though one of the two little girls who escaped the camp managed to survive. The journalist takes it upon herself to find out where and how that little girl Sarah, who escaped in 1942, is in the present. Her journey takes her to different places and different people. She has also to face the reality, though with a little relief at the end, that her family too is somehow connected to the whole episode of that deportation. Does she find Sarah? How does she confront her? The answer to these questions makes the crux of the whole narrative and is depicted with utmost precision, raising curiosity at each stage.

The film goes back and forth between 1940s and 2009. This also adds to the poetic narrative, though very heartrending in certain places. However, nowhere does the director attempt to portray a melodramatic tale, even as the issue is painfully stark and inhuman. He, rather, tries to draw an optimistic tale.

The Second World War and Hitler’s Anti-Semitism have inspired many films. This film is unique in its portrayal of the sordid tale as it dances between melancholic pessimism and incorrigible optimism. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

My Sassy Girl: Microcosm of Korean film revolution

Over the last 10 years, the international cinematic landscape has witnessed a rise in growth and popularity of Korean cinema. These movies emerging from South Korea have become a force to be reckoned with, especially in a cinematic climate dominated by Hollywood. These movies are extremely character-driven, have a high technical quality, echo unique cultural sensibilities and display a distinctive narrative style. 

One such movie, which can be considered as a microcosm for the larger trend in the Korean cinema, is director Kwak Jae-yong’s My Sassy Girl. Released in 2001, this movie was at the helm of Korea’s recent commercial and critical success in the film world. If one had to fit this film into a genre, the over-arching label of ‘romantic-comedy’ would suffice. However, such an identification would rob the movie of its subtle complexities. 

Director: Kwak Jae-yong

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The movie focuses the lives of two individuals - Gyeon-woo, a student; and a girl, who remains nameless through the film. Their unique and strange love story begins with a series of unfortunate but humorous events. What ensues is a bizarre set of twists and turns which may confound the viewer until the movie draws to an end. The performances by the lead actors Cha Tae-hyun (Gyun-woo) and  Jun Ji-hyun (The Girl) are particularly admirable. The characters are extremely likable and well-rounded, effortlessly expressing a wide range of emotion that appears real and relatable. The plot for the movie is borrowed from real life events, chronicled in an internet novel by Kim Ho-sik.

Since its release, My Sassy Girl has gradually become synonymous with Korean pop culture and has achieved cult status among audiences. Some of the themes of the film – love, pain, loss and resolution - are ubiquitous in all cinema, but it is how these subjects are presented that is novel and unusual.

Ongoing comparisons between Korean cinema and Hollywood in terms of production, content and distribution are prevalent. Hollywood is universally heralded to be the Mecca of all film-making. There is an automatic propensity to parallel any film industry with the prevailing Hollywood standards. However, the themes, styles and methods of movie making that make Korean cinema so inimitable, seem unlikely to be compromised. This might be a welcome sign, making Korean cinema a formidable contender against Hollywood hegemony, at least in South East Asia.

- Parinitha Shinde