Yesterday I saw this movie. Pretty well made, well edited, well enacted, well scripted and a crisp movie. No, am not here to give a review of any sort, I dont think I will be doing justice that way, because I cannot differentiate a "Aap ka Suroor" from "Anurodh". I think I am a true fan of our Hindi Film Industry (Amitabh Bhacchan hates the term "Bollywood" and so do I!), and enjoy watching films, good, bad and ugly with the same kind of spirit and enthusiasm.
Before watching this movie, I had read an article about this movie on TOI, which said, Anjan Dutta had a satirical take on Bangalees in the film! But honestly, I couldnt find the satire at all... wonder where my IQ level is going?!
The story is of two characters, both bangalees (thats one of the major similarity between the two), two young guys who are born and brought up in two entirely different situations and society, and who chase their dreams and end up in a land which is totally unknown to them. One of them (people who know me, know how miserably bad I am with names, and hence shall stick to the actors' real names rather than the screen ones, please excuse me for that), Shayan Munshi plays the character who is an NRI, born and brought up in the US of A! He is highly inspired by Bengali music "baul geet" and wants to pursue his music career in Bengal. His grandfather is a great musician of the past, and he intends to learn music from him. This guy, despite being born and brought up abroad, is very much close to his grand father and his love for bangla gaan is something which honestly shocked me! Long live these kind of real life characters, if they exist at all!
The other guy, played by Parambrata, is an academically bright young guy who has never stayed out of Kolkata in his entire life so far, but lands up with a million dollar job in USA in pursuit of his dream, or rather shall I say, in order to realise his dreams.
And then the story unravels how these two guys try to cope up with the alien society they end up being, how they get familiarise with this new society despite not being able to completely adjust to the "norms" of that society, how they work towards adopting themselves to the norms of the new society. Their experience, their likes, their dislikes, their heart breaks, and how at the end of the day, they return to their root! Shayan returns to USA and Parambrata returns to Kolkata.
And thats what I liked the most about the movie. This movie is not about whether you are a Bengali, or a Marwari... its all about returning to your root. No matter if you are a Bengali, Punjabi or an English, you belong to where you are born and brought up! If you are brought up in USA, lets face it, you grow up to be an American, thats where you belong, thats what you are accustomed with. ABCD, or American Born Confused Desi, is a term which is created by us, to show them in poor light, but lets face it, I can site many real life examples of how the young generation in India is aping US culture. Only day before yesterday, I happened to go to Camac Street/ Parksreet pretty late at night, and was shocked to see the way guys and girls, who are probably till in their teens, roaming around, they were drunk, their dresses were not worth mentioning. My point is if its a concern, then its a global concern, why single out those who are born abroad. And honestly, if you stay in a place for long, and particularly from your childhood, then you imbibe those things that the society offers you. You cant expect a bong child brought up abroad to be very "Bangalee" in nature. You cannot and shoudnot impose "Bangaliyana" on him. And if you do that as parents, or very worried Mashi, Pishi, Mama, Kaka, then the outcome will be a confused person, a confused identity... now whether you call him ABCD or WXYZ is upto you!
The movie showed the bangalees in US, and termed them as happy and confused "second class citizen" but then they are the older generation. The present generation is quite confident of their status. And thats what I appreciate about this present generation. Whatever you are, be proud of your identity. Be flexible in your attitude, be ready to accept your flaws if somebody points that to you (actually you are lucky if you have someone who can honestly point your flaws), and be ready to work on them. Thats what I appreciate the most about this generation. They are open minded, may be a bit spoilt and pampered ( but its definitely not their fault!) But they call spade a spade, and they are ready to accept their flaws. They are not apprehensive of saying "sorry" if they realise they are wrong. And we call them ABCD? No way! They are more like global citizen. They are not confused at all. Bangalee or not very Bangalee...how does that matter?
Monday, July 16, 2007
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1 comment:
There is a saying ... Boys will be boys. And we shall leave the saying at that only. What this does sho is boys will be boys whether So-Cal is Southern California, or South Calcutta. But having said that, there are the norms ... These are those which come from the society which you live in, and are shaped to a large extent by the growing up process.
You see, aggregation means summing the individual parts, but that doesnt mean the individual parts lose their identity. What I am trying to say is, that I think that there is an aggregate level of norms, and an individual level, and I dont think we can ignore one for the other.
As for movies ... Its nice that ou like even the ugly movies ... theres lots of them!
Bong Connection ... As you know, I have one ... even so, would like to see the movie, although The Namesake was a disappointment in terms of the story, with only the acting and direction carrying the movie. I think both Irfan Khan and Tabu were rocking in the movie.
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