(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Over the last three years, the best film I've seen every year has been from India.
Over the last three years, the best film I've seen every year has been from India.
2015- COURT
Court is
not just one of the best films to come out of India; it is also the best film
about India. In fact I think this is one of the best films to come out of
anywhere period.
A film so
restrained that it doesn't have any background music score; Court is a masterful
exploration of Indian justice and socio-economic differences. It is
unjudgmental towards its characters and entirely trusting of its audience to
make up their own minds about what and whom they see on the screen- where they
eat, what they eat, how they commute and how they spend their leisure time if
they are privileged enough to have any. Also it captures the essence of India
in its depiction of a people who just forge on with their mundane, often
seemingly purposeless lives, undeterred. What else can they possibly do? You
have to do what you have to and the invisible power structure will accordingly
thwart or support you.
I believe
the Oscars missed a huge trick by not nominating and awarding this original and
pertinent film whose reputation will only grow in years to come. That it was the
first film of a 27-year-old Chaitanya Tamhane makes him somewhat of an Indian
Orson Welles, a filmmaker so confident and unafraid that the documentary
filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer (The Act of Killing) called "Court" the
masterpiece of the decade. Sometimes genius exists in our own backyard, yet we
fail to applaud it though outsiders see it as plain obvious.
Mention
must be made of the brilliant producer/actor Vivek Gomber for creating
conditions that allowed that genius to flourish.
Standout
sequences:
The uncomfortable
grilling of the guest at lunch by the lawyer's parents, the section at the end
with the superstitious judge, and the Goymari sect sequence which ends
memorably (and notably off-screen) outside the popular Chetana Restaurant in
Mumbai.
2016 -SAIRAT
A film
that lulls you into thinking you are watching a typical musical love story (several
comparisons have been made with Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak.) But this is all part
of Manjule's long game, he takes you through the conventions gloriously, the sweeping
love songs, the "meet cutes”, the familiar familial opposition but then he
switches gears. Once you are secure, he hits you with the movie he really wants
to make - one about the brutality of India's caste system and the impossibility
of sustaining love. Moreover he does this with perhaps one of the best female
characters in Indian cinema - the irrepressible and defiant Archie. The film is
really about her. In the first half of the film she exerts her independence and
authority by virtue of the power granted to her by caste and status, in the
second half she has to rediscover it by empowerment through employment - by
finding her worth in the workplace.
Archie
and Parshya are brutally tested - they think they have escaped the parental
opposition and violence of their hometown but can their superficial
relationship survive the pressures of economics, the big city, lifestyle
changes and personality differences. In one of the film's great scenes, Parshya
even slaps the independent Archie; violence towards women is all he knows. This
is a brave directorial and writing choice - to have a lead character we like
take this unpleasant step is risky. These are the kind of choices brave
directors like Martin Scorsese make often but are rarely seen in Indian cinema (not
since the early days of Benegal and Nihalani) Yes, the Bhiku Mhatre character in
Satya slaps his wife but he is a gangster and an anti-hero, not a conventional
leading man. Moreover there the violence
is immediately softened moments later by a cutesy love scene between husband
and wife. Here the moment, the buildup
to that moment and the aftermath are about 10-12 minutes of screen time. We are
put through the ringer before the letup.
Standout
sequences:
The couple's
arrival in Hyderabad and subsequent struggle with the reality of day-to-day
living.
The fight
in the restaurant that spills onto the street
2017- BAHUBALI 2- THE CONCLUSION
A film so
staggeringly ambitious and ridiculous but yet meticulously constructed with
popular Indian tropes - the eternal mother in law-daughter in law battle which really
is the central battlefield in a film filled with battle sequences, the all powerful
Herculean/Samsonesque flawless hero whose long hair resembles another beloved
national hero M.S. Dhoni (a deliberate choice I suspect)
Consumed
by its excessive spectacle, one can easily miss the complex, carefully plotted
screenplay (the film begins and ends with a ritualistic firewalk assisted by a
son, the Pindari who kill people by drowning, meet their end in a watery grave)
Is it an
imperfect film? Yes. Is the CG SFX poor in sections? Yes. Does it derive some
of its ideas from 300, Lord of the Rings and Star Wars? Yes.
Is it nonsense?
Probably but it's glorious nonsense-
with gorgeous, visceral imagery, a goose bump-inducing, chest thumping score,
and enough myth making for ten films.
Bahubali
is also very aware of the zeitgeist (the beheading of a sexual harasser
actually caused the audience to clap in a screening I attended- I may or may
not agree with its politics but remember this is something happening on a two
dimensional screen provoking a physical reaction in an audience that 's aware
it's watching a fictitious "ridiculous" work). This experience is very
different from the catcalls and whistles that a Salman Khan or Rajnikant
appearance guarantees by virtue of their star personas. That's a reaction to an
individual, this is a pure reaction to something in the storytelling -whether
that reaction is right or wrong is irrelevant.
Standout
Sequence: The beautifully choreographed dance/battle sequence where Bahubali
and Devasena fire multiple arrows at the enemy soldiers - a set
piece" that in
the words of Mike McCahill at the Guardian "speaks
both to a love of action, and love in action".
--------
All three
films are brilliant to me in totally different ways, Court with its inordinate
restraint, Bahubali with its glorious excess and Sairat somewhere in between. All
require multiple viewings to be appreciated fully, all provoke discussions and
debate and all are tremendously entertaining which is why we go to movies in
the first place. And all are united by a
language of images.
Here are
a few striking images that come to mind.
Court - The sewage worker's wife's face
as she testifies in court- a portrait of pain and struggle
The
sleeping judge on the park bench, a metaphor for justice in India
Sairat - As Parshya and Archie flee the
life of violence and run towards the train that will aid their escape, Archie
tosses the gun, a symbol of the violent life they hope to leave behind.
Bahubali
2- The Herculean
warrior Bahubali climbing atop two bullocks with horns on fire against the backdrop
of a full moon, the stuff that heroic legends are made of
Or
The villainous
Bhalla walking against a fiery yellow background with the raging fire casting a
12 foot shadow of him making him seem even more imposing, the stuff that
monster legends are made of
----
Notably,
none of these films are made in Bollywood, an over-rated creation that
undeservedly consumes attention, despite its sustained unprofitabity and
mediocrity. I could go on about that but I'd rather end on a positive note and
remark that these "regional" films are going places "Bollywood" rarely
even dreams or dares to -- whether it's success at international festivals or
international box offices or capturing people's hearts.
