18th Kolkata International Film Festival

The 18th Kolkata International Film Festival (10-17 Nov, 2012) has, as of today - after 6 running days and 11 watched films, already proved a success to me. Let me jot down briefly my experiences so far - before the memories turn stale.

1. Pogodak u glavu (Headshot) [Dir:  Pen-Ek Ratanaruang; Country: Thailand/France; Lang: Thai]:
This was a good experience - one of those which numbs your thoughts so that at the end of the movie, you have to force yourself with all your will to clap, and which leaves you walking like a zombie as you come out of the hall. I myself was haunted for quiet 20-30 minutes - and I was thankful that the next movie on my schedule had about 2 hours gap. The movie walks us through the mind of a cop turning into something like a hitman to do justice for cases where law fails owing to its stringent procedures, and finally turning a Buddhist monk towards salvation. After a headshot in such a hitman endeavour, which he survives with difficulty, the protagonist sees everything with his eyes upside down. This is a dark theme - but the movie is not fully dark in that sense - it is treated quiet gracefully and accommodating some beautiful sequences.

2. Tot Altijd (Time of My Life) [Dir: Nic Balthazar; Country: Belgium; Lang: Dutch]:
This, I should say, was a mediocre experience as per my Film Festival Expectations. This was a real life story about a man who legalised euthanasia in Belgium, himself fighting his own battle for the cause. Of course the film was good, but somehow it did not appear that 'fresh' - which it should have been given the number of films already made on the issue. My experience of 'Mar Adrento' obviously came in comparison, thereby rating this one down. Oh - I must mention that the opening 10-15 minutes of the film were absolutely great - rendering an utopia of youth in a group of friends.

3. Nocni Brodovi (Night Boats) [Dir: Igor Mirkovic; Country: Croatia; Lang: Croatian]:
This was a more pleasant experience. The storyline involved two elderly people, staying in elderly homes, re-discovering love, and then re-living their youthful spirits through an adventure of running away together from the the home and reliving their absolutely juvenile and carefree instincts. This was a nice happy film.

4. Melancholia [Dir: Lars Von Trier; Country: Denmark; Lang: English]:
I loved the experience of this one. The film had an opening musical 'prelude' of about 10 minutes, showing videos (with a lot of special effects) primarily in slow motion with an excellent background score, which really enthralled me and the audience. The movie used a 'story' of a planet called 'Melancholia' on its course to crash with earth, and showing the events of a family as they become aware of the impending destruction. This is not a science/action movie - the focus is entirely on how the family members go through these days. The name of the movie has been very adeptly prevailed throughout the movie in its screenplay and characters. The experience of this film will be remembered for a long time.

5. Polvo (Dust) [Dir: Julio Hernandez Cordon; Country: Guatemala; Lang: ?]:
I have nothing to say for this except that the start was somewhat boring and slow, as a result of which I fell asleep, and as a result of which I don't really know what happened thereafter.

6. Narenji Poush (The Orange Suit) [Dir: Dariush Mehrjui; Country: Iran; Lang: Persian]:
This one I'd rate as the best experience so far. The theme/story is simple and light - environment awareness - social responsibility of not littering the environment with trash and disposing them as they should be, and a father-son relationship with a mother whose commitment to her career goes against to that to her family. But the way the story was developed provided an excellent experience - containing humour enough to send the audience laughing out loud multiple times, and sentiments enough to bring them to tears. This is one of the movies which you come out of feeling all good positive and happy about it.

7. B A Pass [Dir: Ajay Bahl; Country: India: Lang: Hindi]:
The director came before the audience and made a speech in which he mentioned that this film was a defiance against the Indian Censor Board. That indeed it was - by virtue of the plot which basically rests on a college youth's adulterous relation with a elder married woman, and his subsequent foray in being a male prostitute with the woman filling in for the pimp. The movie had ample sleazy scenes - though not full exposure. The plot and the scenes perhaps do justice to what the director said, but the movie fails totally to do any kind of justice at all to the audience. This one had nothing to make it eligible for any kind of film festival!

8. Gibier d'élevage (Shiiku, the Catch) [Dir: Rithy Panh; Country: Cambodia; Lang: Central Khmer]:
[To be updated...]

9. La mer à l'aube (Calm at Sea) [Dir: Volker Schlondorff; Country: Germany; Lang: German/French]:
[To be updated...]

10. Where the Road Meets the Sun [Dir: Yong Mun Chee; Country:Singapore ; Lang: English/Japanese/Spanish]:
This movie showed a set of people coping their own situations, connected together by the same lodging hotel they are staying at. There is a bit of guns and bloodshed towards the end, culminating from mental tension. Overall, a below expectation experience.


11. Wo 11 (Eleven Flowers) [Dir: Wangxiao Shuai, Country: China; Lang: Mandarin]:
This was a better experience. The protagonist is a 11 year old boy walking the audience through his experiences - involving his fight to get and keep a new shirt, his confrontation with a murderer, his dynamics with his friends all through these, etc. This had a strong direction and adept screenplay keeping the audience hooked in rapt attention even without too much complex plot or drama.

More films will be added as they get consumed....

Riverside Reverie

Some time back, in February to be exact, one day I had gone up to the Ganga river side, alone, and suddenly feeling somewhat literarily inclined and desiring to write something, had bought a small notebook and a pen on the way. The time was afternoon, approaching sunset, and choosing a less crowded spot, I had sat down, the little notebook and pen in hand. And indeed, after a little time, I started to write. Putting up here what followed:

I see the orange sun just above the skyline across the wide river. I see the tranquil river, flowing, with ripples on it caused by the gentle breeze.

I see people strolling about, mostly in pairs, hand in hand, with a sense of peace and serenity in their faces.

I see the birds, some flowing across the river, some near the water surface, some high up in the air.

I see the lazy smoke coming out of the chimneys, in a formless metamorphosing form, across on the other distant side of the river.

I see boats and launches, moving slowly and tranquilly over the river surface, leaving a faint trail of water ripples on their wake.

I see - I see everything occurring - occurring, it seems, with the soothing certainty of having been occurring ever since eternity, and which will continue likewise everyday, at the same times in the same ways, forever - till eternity.

I now see a young woman, alone, strolling lazily a few yards in front of me, alongside the railing of the park against the riverbank, looking out into the river, talking on her mobile held by her hand pressed against her ear.

She is then done with her mobile and talking, and stands along the waterside railing, which comes up to her slender waist, leaning on it facing the vast stretch of the river, her arms folded casually across her chest. She stands there, in a graceful relaxed poise, almost still, only her head swaying sidewise now and then, spanning the vast stretch of the river in front of her. Some undefinable feeling holds me to her spectacle.

I see her taking one of her feet off the slippers, and rub the bare foot lazily on to her other foot. A gentle breeze blows in and touches her hairs lightly.

Her figure forms a dark silhouette against the dusky background of the silvery grey river surface and the greyish white sky. I see her - standing there - oblivious - or perhaps lost in her own reverie?

Suddenly, she takes her mobile to her ear, turns around, and talking in the phone with a smile on her lips, starts walking, and is gone. Has her partner, her friend, arrived?

Will she ever know that I have stolen about ten minutes of her life, made them my very own, capturing them, forever, in the form of words?

A few minutes go by. The place remains empty, incomplete. And I then see a young strolling couple come and unassumingly take the place where she was standing. Natural entropy working in its own ways to fill vacuums.

Suddenly, I notice that the other side of the river is dotted with little bright orange spots. With the falling dusk, the shore lights have been turned on. In the distance, I can see the stretch of the mighty Second Hoogli Bridge. The bridge's span, too, is now dotted with similar equidistant bright orange spots.

The full structure of the bridge is still visible as a hazy outline. I stare at it. What a mighty and imposing structure it looks! Making a statement of its own. Asserting its existence night and day, loud and clear. I try to imagine the haughty pride and delight of the architect who had earned the privilege of pointing to that high and mighty structure and saying to his friend - "I built that"!

The light is growing darker. It is difficult to see and write any more. And suddenly, from somewhere (or nowhere) mosquitoes have also started asserting themselves. I wonder - where were they all these time? Having their lazy slumber perhaps? Siesta?

Well, can no more comfortably go on writing here. So I'll stop now.

Re-Living the Past?

I have learnt - learnt in the truest way possible - by personal experience and feelings - a very important lesson.

One can never 'go back' in life expecting to re-live the past, hoping to experience the same again. Because the past does not exist any more. It is as simply practical as that. If one ever returns to the same places, things, people - the very same artefacts would provide for a new and different experience. The past has already gone - and only new experiences and things await you in every forthcoming second of your life. The path of life is a strictly one-way road. One has to always remain in open embrace for the new, the inexperienced.

The only place where the past still exists nearest to its original form is in your mind. So any time you want a stroll backwards in the journey of life, just let your imagination wander - maybe with a few external material stimulants in the form of mementos, photographs, writings, etc.. Only this will take you nearest to what you seek.

Follies in this perspective while setting expectations will only leave one with unbalanced equations..

With every new step, it will always be a new unknown experience. The step is always a step forward, and never the opposite. (And thank God for that!!) One has to always stay open, uninhabited and ready to make the best of whatever awaits round the next corner in the journey of life.

The journey of life is the flowing waters of a river. There is never any retracing of steps. Every additional yard always brings forth a new place - hitherto unseen and untraversed. There may be 'similarities' - but it is never the same. And what has been flown past can never be revisited - they are gone - for ever.

The course can be long or short, ferocious or mild. It will be adorned by variations and wonders all along. But at the end, akin to the unalterable certainty of the beginning, the infallible certainty of emptying into the sea - the death - awaits all.

Assortment of Quotations

Some quotations I had landed upon or collected:

The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened. - Orkut 'Today's fortune'.

Never let your sense of morality stop you from doing what is right. - Orkut 'Today's fortune'.

... with everything that happens to you, with every pperson you meet who is important to you, you either die a little bit or are born. - 'The River' (film by Jean Renoir).

The tears we shed in our sleep are the only genuine tears we shed in our lives. The waking tears are self pity. - From 'The Golden Notebook', by Doris Lessing.

"My dear Anna, your attitude to art is so aristocratic that you write, when you do, for yourself only."

"And so do all the others, " I heard myself muttering.

"What others?"

"The others, all over the world, who are writing away in secret books, because they are afraid of what they are thinking."

- From 'The Golden Notebook', by Dorris Lessing.

... words are like the wind that blows ripples on the water's surface. The river itself blows beneath, unseen and unheard. - From 'The Hungry Tide', by Amitava Ghosh. (Interpretation: Words one manages to utter only touch the surface of the deepest expressions, the true meaning and feeling lies underneath.)

... the whole world is asleep - everybody you know, everybody you see, everybody you talk to - ... only a few people are awake and they live in a state of constant total amazement. - 'Joe Vs The Volcano' (film).

I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself. - DH Lawrence (discovered from the movie 'The Debaters').

For whatsoever from one place doth fall,

Is with the tide unto another brought:

For there is nothing lost, that may be found, if sought.

- Edmund Spencer (discovered from the movie 'Sense and Sensibility').

What is wisdom, but metamorphosised fear?

Living in a perpetual state of false hope is better than living with no hopes at all. Because, at least,all through the time while the hope lasted, you would have truly lived.

India wakes up to Passive Euthanasia

I just read in the papers about Indian Supreme Court permitting passive euthanasia for a person in persistent vegitative state. That is, medical treatments and artificial life support means can be withheld - leading to death.

It reminded me of the Terri Schiavo case of about 6 years ago, when a similar situation and public debate had ensued in California, and the court there, despite strong oppositions and public opinions, had ruled in favour of euthanasia. (One of the factors affecting this decision had been the consideration that the patient would have wanted the same.)

It took six additional years for India to arrive at the same state of practical (and moral) sanity!

A Saner Democratic Model

Major decisions cannot be democratic. The general mass is not intellectually able or equipped to decide on important matters. It is atrocious to let 'majority' decide on important matters. The majority is not always right.

The current system of legislative bodies making the decisions through the representative heads is even worse. Neither do these representatives posses any superior intellectual ability, nor do they really ensure the will of majority. Once elected, it can become their individual will, not that of the people who elected him. And our electoral process does not really mandate a 'majority' for becoming MP/MLAs - the one having greatest number of votes gets the post. He might be representing as low as 20% of the population.

We next have the different cabinets who often consists of specialists. But again, the will of say 15-20 specialists deciding a country's fate is unjustified.

So we have two problems at hand. One - ensuring that the true mass population gets to play some part in decision making process, second - ensuring that the final decision making is done by minds capable of such an action.

Capitalising on the infrastructure of electronics and telecommunications, a solution model can be proposed. Of course, this is model presently not feasible in India due to lack of electronic penetration and illiteracy in sub-urbs, but in more developed nations, this could be a reality.

For any decision, the decision would come directly from a vote taken from the entire population, and not just the representative heads. The voting would be done through some electronic device like mobile phones or through internet.

Now, how would it be ensured that only able minds make decisions? The voting system would have a system of forwarding (handing over) your vote to any other voter. This would mean, your vote would cast the same choice as that of the person you have forwarded it to. The forwarding can happen upto any level. That is, A can forward his vote to B, B can forward to C and so on. In this case, C's choice would become that of A and B. Under such a system, if you are unsure of a particular thing, you can just choose someone in a better position to make the decision for you.

Of course, this assumes the basic moral sincerity and willingness on the part of a voter to forward his vote to someone more suitable, in case he is unsure. This mentality will get cultivated only with proper education - which as mentioned before, still has not happened in India.

However, this system can immediately be tried and tested at a micro level in smaller premises where a democratic system is wanted. Colleges or educational institutions can be a very good testing ground since both educational maturity and electronic penetration is expected to be adequately available in such premises.

Love Sex aur Dhokha: A fresh experience

Today I watched Love Sex aur Dhokha.

Not paying much attention to the latest Bollywood stuff these days, I knew nothing about this movie. In fact, I had not even heard its name until yesterday when one of my flatmates had shouted to me, as I was having my bath, whether I would like to go for it. I had then agreed to it basically in want of any fitter occupation on the lazy Sunday.

But the movie was different. It was a very fresh experience in terms of what Bollywood usually churns out. And for a change, it did not make me feel like 'why did they have to make the second half' or 'why did they have to solve the mystery', at the end of the movie, as had often been the case these days!

It had three different stories having a coincidental conjuncture - showing us parts of lives captured in different cameras - being narrated to us mostly through those cameras. In a way, the cameras are more the protagonists of the story than the principal human characters.

The first tale involves a camera of a student of a film institute trying to create a masala movie - and falling for the actress in the process, and what follows thereafter. Most of the scenes shown to us are from his camera - as he shoots - or progresses through his movie making - keeping his camera rolling most of the time.

The second tale is that of a security camera of a departmental store - showing us its part and involvement in a voyeuristic endeavour of capturing and selling 'real' footages having sexual undertones (or proper sex), involving the male-female regulars (staff, customer, etc.) of the store.

The third tale is that of a revenge sting operation orchestrated by a debutante against a popular pop star, in attempt to implicate him by exposing his methods of demanding sexual favours in return for providing the 'launch' to debutantes.

The three stories are connected by a thin line - coincidental, yet very distinctly portrayed, mainly serving the purpose of continuity, such that the audience finally feels the three plots to be part of the same larger landscape, instead of them being discreet experiences.

The entire film employed a very honest and direct mode of expression making some practically unrealistic sequences comes across as real and normal. The director had been able pull the audience very successfully into the realm of the movie. The characters, their dialogues, all seem very real - the entire cast had done a very good job in their roles - portraying just the characters they were expected to portray, falling very smugly into the places.

Technically, the movie uses the kinds of shots and angles that would appear natural to sting cameras, security cameras, hand-held digicams, and such - truly the shots from the cameras which seem to be telling the story. Yet, all this is done in a masterful way - keeping the storytelling and the impacts alive.

The movie also very successfully keeps the audience laughing all through, sometimes with its use of bold profane words in the exact same style as they are really used among friends, sometimes with its satirical humorous takes, and sometimes, as in the first tale, with simple direct portrayal of our own imitation styles of Bollywood emotional sequences.

Overall, it is a good movie, a fresh experience, and a recommended watch. It seems modern Bollywood is finally shaking off its fears and coming of age.