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

Sophie Scholl: Paying price for fighting 'war'

Here is yet another poignant tale of the brutality of World War II. The film narrates in an unsophisticated manner about people from Hitler’s so called community itself who saw the futility of the war and protested the illusion of Hitler. They were the real prophets who were punished when they tried to tell the truth of the impending destruction of Hitler’s malicious and ambitious designs. It is a German film based on a real life incident and is directed by Marc Rothemund.

Director: Marc Rothemund

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Sophie Scholl The Final Days is the story of three students of White Rose who are convicted for distributing pamphlets that speak the real truth. They are convicted unjustly without even being subjected to the existing law and thus are done away with. However, they die not before enkindling a doubt in the minds of the executers.

This film, no doubt, is one of the best narratives of the consequences of the war. And what makes it even more powerful is the absorbing performance by Magdelana Scholl (Julia Jentsch). The music too adds to the sordid tale of the victims.

What grips the viewers perhaps is the approach of the parents of Sophie who say, “You both have done the right thing and we are proud of you.” It is indeed admirable to see that even within Germany there were scores of people who did not approve of Hitler’s type of adventure at the cost of millions of innocent people. Perhaps, it is because of such people that the world, despite all its cruelty and uncertainty, is still a good enough place to live in.  

- Melwyn Pinto SJ

22 Female Kottayam: Fighting the 'man'

Kerala film industry was once known for dolling out soft porn films that made money. Surprisingly, the trend is changing. For the last couple of years, a number of interesting films with contemporary and very relevant themes are being made in Kerala. And most of these films are low-budgeted, but they are making more than double in terms of profit. Some of the interesting films that have come out in the recent past in Malayalam include, ‘Chappa Kurish’, ‘Ee Adutha Kalath’ ‘Indian Rupee’, ‘Salt and Pepper’ and ’22 Female Kottayam’. Each of these films has been well-crafted.

’22 Female Kottayam’ is a female-oriented film that portrays how a woman can fight male exploitation through which she all but loses her self esteem and confidence. While man thinks that woman is essentially at his service, here woman proves him wrong and makes him learn a lesson or two on what woman is and can be capable of.

Director: Aashiq Abu

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The film revolves around Tessa, a nurse who aspires to go to Gulf in search of better prospects. She meets a travel agent Cyril who, knowing well that she has no one, dupes her by pretending to fall in love with her. While the concept of love is real for Tessa, for Cyril it is just another game. She is raped twice by Cyril’s employer and later accused of drug peddling and sent to jail. Life seems all lost for her. However, she is not the one to give up easily without making the culprits realise what it means to suffer and for no reason. And lesson she does teach, for as she admits, she has nothing to lose, after being raped twice and seeing hell in jail.

The film raises several issues. Who has to bring about liberation for women? Who has to empower her? Traditionally, it is believed that men have to secure liberation for women. However, the film seems to suggest something different. It is women themselves who have to fight their own liberation and also fight the injustice meted out to them by patriarchy. But, what means could they use? Any means that will serve the larger goal!

While the film is not preachy or indulging in male bashing, it does make a point quite powerfully. Rima Kallingal as Tessa steals the show in the film. 

- Melwyn Pinto SJ