prithvi bana: an apotheosis of shakespearian fool

'That, of course, is the great secret of the successful fool - that he is no fool at all.'

-Isaac Asimov, Guide to Shakespeare.

A discerning reader of Shakespeare can't help but draw parallels between Shakespearian dramatic world and the phantasmagoric hindi cinema. However, our traditional fools (read comedians), much unlike those of shakespeare, have rarely risen above slapstick comedy, horseplay and bawdy language.

In recent years, however, this one-dimensional, monochromatic "flat" character has not only gained dimensions but also colours. The apotheosis of which could be seen in Anurag Kashyap's "Gulaal", where we encounter subversive songs and sarcasm dripping tirades of Prithvi Bana, perhaps the lone voice of conscience in the general melee of 'blood and mire', underneath whose apparently foolish and meaningless acts, we discover acerbic wisdom, the efforts and travails of a man forced to be relegated to the background by the people racing to fulfill their vested interests, ventilating their angst or satisfying their bruised ego.

Much like Shakespearian fool, he comments incessantly on the events, unremittingly trying to change them... but, much like Shakespearian fool, he is also rendered incapable of altering the course of events and 'restoring the wasteland'..

slumdog millionaire: confessions of a movie addict :-)

my first reaction to the movie was of extreme uneasiness and revulsion... and an overwhelming desire to escape once again to the world of "twilight" (the movie i watched a few hours before), to savour the sweet slow romance, to be oblivious to the stench, squalor, sordidness of slums... infact to be the oblivious of their very existence and to the fact that the world is not a very nice place to be in, if one is left all by herself to fend for... in the movie we follow the protagonist jamaal and "his two fellow musketeers" in their travails and vicissitudes, almost in a picaresque manner... imagine a life where even survival becomes a fight and only the fittest survive...others are blinded to gain alms or raised to satisfy others' lusts....

infact i concur with an excellent observation of a friend of mine when he said that had it not been for his older pragmatic (though often deceiving ) brother, jamaal may have also been preyed upon.The initial revulsion at the grossness of jamaal's passion for amitabh bachchan and the deluge of expletives wore off gradually as we travel back and forth in time to discover and marvel at each anecdote which comes along with his each correct answer... the stories gory and incredible, tear jerking and goosebumps raising!! the demonism of maman, the goon who blinded little kids seemed no different to me from the spohisticated malice of the host of the show. infact the entire world seemed to be such a wrong place to be in. And amidst all this The thing that touched me the most in the movie was jamal's unceasing love for latika, the hindu girl, for whom he walked many many extra miles..the girl for whom he dared to trespass the red light areas and even the house of a local DON.. It was very heart warming to see such lambent love  even if it exists merely in literature and cinema. 

Supported by a very powerful background score, this movie lived upto the expectations that were built around it. However i didn't find the usual mellifluence of Rehman in the songs of the movie. but then again, to give the devil his due, i think the songs were commensurate with the social strata it was depicting.... which brings me to yet another very disturbing question. Is it a mere coincidence that the west loves all those movie which either show india as a land of mysticism or as that of abject poverty? or are we being the victim to yet another kind of "orientalism"?? The image of the seamy side of india is being endorsed deliberately or unwittingly?? its almost like most indians believing every pakistani wearing pathani suit, chanting anti-india slogans, sitting amidst rubble and Ak-47S in dilapidated squalid buildings which have a crescent made rising from their dome. As the suave charm of islamabad is very much a reality, so is the rising middle class of india, something consipicously absent in the film. Then why is it that the west appreciates only such images which present india in a very unprepossessing light. Many of us would argue about the truth of these images and would tell me that they are a fact and not fiction....something i can't deny in even my rose-coloured image of india. my only problem is why only such images are endorsed and appreciated... all in name of realism...

All in all, the movie makes one think a number of things which one has probably shirked for so long.. it takes you right in to the middle of squalor, the poverty, the ugliness and all those things that makes a common man and not to mention the government uncomfortable. And yet the feel-good element which takes jamal from rags to riches inspite of all his travails and troubles,  manages to warm us up as we join the throngs of crowd to cheer him and the invincible spirit of man. i hail the movie with both thumbs up!! 

devi - journey of a woman in to divinity and lunacy

Its the tale of Doyamoyee who having unwittingly cured one villager after another,  fails to cure the one who mattered the most- her cherubic nephew khoka... its the tale of a woman who willingly chooses to live the dream of her father-in-law (who saw her as an reincarnation of goddess kali) and so convinced of her own divinity, refuses to go with her educated husband who tries to make her see sense.... its the tale of a woman who experiences solitude even amid the myriad who had flocked to her door for blessing or boon or treatment... its the tale of a woman who loses it all.. her beloved nephew khoka, the belief in herself, her husband, and most importantly her sanity... and in the end vanishes in the mist...losing herself....

the president gold medal winning, satyajit ray's movie generated a lot of controversy when many fanatics saw it as an attack on hinduism and tried to stop it from its international release. but with it eventual release, it won standing ovation everywhere, apart from the coveted president's medal. Sharmila tagore who in her teenage gave the outsatanding perfprmance as Doyamoyee once commented "Devi was what a genius got out of me, not something I did myself". 

What made me ruminate for days was what was Ray's intention (if it was to be believed that all art had a purpose)? the spectator as per his/her socio-cultural baggage would interpret the end of this movie differently. a person not aware of hindu customs and beliefs may see it as a divine nemesis of sorts... a woman who tries to become goddess faces the wrath of goddess by losing what ever she valued the most?? but then the question i would like to ask is... that if it was a blasphemy for a woman to see herself as the goddess, why was the one who put this in her head spared?? otherwise as well... as i said.. one has to understand that in hindu culture.. it is not out of place to have human incarnations for gods and goddesses.

The other explanation vendible is the psychological breakdown a human undergoes when he/she carries more weight than one can.. the responsibility of the goddess to cure the multitudes of their "fever and fret" of the world sequesters her from all that was hitherto dear to her.. she plays lesser with khoka now..can't seem to connect to her role as wedded wife.. can't hold gossip sessions with her fellow woman and can't even massage her father-in-law's feet,  all thanks to her newly found status of being a "devi"... for a devi doesn't trifle over such things... and when the final test comes, she realises all her ministrations have come to nothing. All her divinity comes to nothing when she had to heal the one most cherished.. and she fails the ones who mattered the most... a reason good enough for anyone to go insane.

perhaps, the beauty of any classic lies not in establishing the real meaning of the text but relishing in its ever-fleetingness... :-)

- Neha Bansal

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