10 Day YOU Challenge/Quest: 3 Films

After a period of lull, back to writing for the 10 Day YOU Quest. And it’s one of my favorite topics too: the movies!  But picking just 3 is so difficult, in my military mind I can take the following approaches to short-list:

- When I typically rate movies on Netflix, a 5 star goes to one which crossed the realm of really liked; I must love it, for reasons beyond reason.

- Based on my feeling of the purpose served by the movies. To entertain mostly, but even then, how does it achieve that. There has to one selling point, something different in the message/content, else it wouldn’t stand out. For example, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’s selling point was the filial bonding, on top of good music/dance/romance. Sholay’s was how two people empower a village and a real-good good-over-evil duel. DDLJ’s was about romance, but not with disregard to family.  In the multiplex age, directors are able to make profit with just their unique selling points without the expensive music/dance/romance routines. Yes, I’m restricting my thoughts to Hindi films, becauese most regional films, for long, have run purely on a strong content/message. So I could list three based on how hard-hitting was the point made by the director (because the film is his vision materializing. The director he is the architect, the actual hero, and everyone else including the performers, are  just his support-staff)

And I also think every movie has to end on a positive note. It may even be, a faint ray of hope or a dream sequence. But for me, it’s part of the director’s responsibility to ensure that the people leaving the theater, when conveyed to a message no matter how grim, are left with something to look forward to.

So hmm, I’ll come up with three movies which fit both criteria (“I Loved It!” and “Great Message”) plus my ground rule (happy ending :-D). And let me keep another criteria: 1 Hindi, 1 Malayalam, 1 English

So here goes:

In films, I like characters to reflect real-life humans. Even protagonists to have gray shades. If you look at it, Lord Rama and Gandhiji had as much gray shades as any other human, and hence their life-stories have more to learn from on what to, and not-to do. The film I’ll list as my top choice is one that perfectly suits that idea, about a young adult who knowingly makes mistakes, but also has his heart in the right place-
Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa (Hindi) directed by Kundan Shah: I’ve loved this one since ages, and Shahrukh Khan once said it is his favorite film too. Only someone as bubbly and talented could have played the role with such elan.  You really begin empathising with Sunil,  the free-spirited protagonist played by Shahrukh who dreams of making a career in music. Obviously this rankles his father, who, like most parents in the Indian middle-class, wants him to pass high-school and get a real job. The movie is also built around Sunil’s unrequited love for Anna. The character is so well-etched that you start rooting  for his simple wants. I have grown up in a typical south-Indian family, and gone to a Christian missionary school (where all is black/white or good/evil), and had until then thought those without good report cards are not good people.  The movie teaches that the true measure of character lies in integrity and selflessness. And more important than being honest to the world, is being true to yourself.


The next film is in-short, a celebration of life, created by the genius MT. He forte is writing and is usually involved in literary works and film screenplays, but he’s been equally adept whenever he directed one. All married couples, happily in love, would empathize and relish this film:
Oru Cheru Punchiri (Malayalam) directed by M.T. Vasudevan Nair: The title translates “A small Smile”, and is about a elderly couple, leading their retired lives in peace. The movie takes us through their seemingly mundane village life, yet teaching how there is beauty and joy in the most ordinary living, if there is that spark of love. In the company of each other, and the richness of the life left behind, they are self-assured and above prejudices. The funniest sequence I still chuckle at is when the couple are out to attend a marriage, and the wife teases the husband upon seeing his old crush also attending the wedding. While taking us deep into the chemistry of their soul, the movie also takes us wider into their social circle, reflecting the state of society as a whole. The playful sequences with the neighbouring children, the inevitable friction with their materialistic children who reside in cities, their support of the grand-daughter’s relationship to a Muslim, the detest to temple festival organizers who are there more for the political mileage than devotion, the director makes vast colorful strokes on this canvas. The movie prods us to ponder, what matters eventually? And in a perfect ending, the film depicts how the celebration of life, this love we feel within, goes farther and deeper than the objects of our affection.

I generally taske the view there are no absolute truths. Every action is correct based on the circumstance. And when directors explore this by showing two perspectives of the same event, two ways of interpreting the same subject, it interests me. The are numerous movies that do this, but this one I like the best-
Taking Sides (English) directed by Istvan Szabo: Based on a true story, this is about the post-World War 2 interrogation of a world-famous conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler by an American Army Major. These interrogations were carried out to determine the level of involvement in war-crimes by Nazi-sympathizers, by probing them with available evidence. Before the interrogation, the major has been hardened by screenings of inhumanities carried out during the war. To such an extent that even the war-weary major gets nightmares and throws up at nights. The major has thus been fortified to be at his harshest best. And he confronts the conductor to the point: why inspite being the best in the world, did the conductor (like Einstein and so many others) defect to the Allied countries. And yet is faced with a steely resolve of a response “Germany is my motherland, why should I have left it”. The debate (and the movie) plays out at various levels and tones: intellectual, objective, sentimental, to downright argumentative, bullying, and maddening. Such is the impact of the war of words that every person in the room viz. the Lieutenant who bears witness, the clerk who has to type/document the interrogation, and the interrogator and subject themselves, at some point or the other, break down. The audience walks in with the major into the interrogation room carrying a mindset of hatred, and walks out at the end with their hearts gone out to the conductor, and their minds looking for introspection in fresh air...

Some other films came very close to being with the top 3, and I must list these also-rans, for these too, are indeed must-watch (not in order):

Hindi:
Ek Ruka Hua Faisla
Koshish
Agneepath

Malayalam:
Sadayam
Pakshe

Tamil:
Virumaandi

English:
Forrest Gump
The Godfather-3
The Good Shepherd
Body of Lies
Inception
The Dark Knight
The Prestige

Foreign:
Lives of Others (German)
The Grocer’s Son (French)
Red Cliff (Mandarin)
The Emperor and the Assasin (Mandarin)
Farewell my Concubine (Mandarin)

And any film which is a creation of Gulzar, Christopher Nolan or  M.T. Vasudevan Nair, I would recommend to all!