Home Sweet Home
This is the story of a large family consisting of an old
man, his wife, two sons and their wives, another younger son, a bedridden
daughter, her husband. Then there are Government officials, English and Russian
agents and so on. All want the possession of the house and the old man
adamantly refuses to allow that. A classic situation where a number of
idiosyncratic individuals gather to create mayhem. There is a surreal air to
the happenings; but there is no mayhem. In the end, evil designs are defeated,
the family unites, the daughter recovers and they live happily everafter.
This is singlehandedly brought about by the Indian maid
in the house. She seduces all including the old man. Her mere touch is enough
to cure sickness of the body or of the mind. All men in the family have sex
with her (mostly in the car!) and the women too bow to her wishes once she
employs her 'healing' touch. Only the old man shows signs of jealousy but even
he never wants to restrain the girl; just drives his sons out. The others fall prey
to her culinary skills.
When all is well and her special skills are no longer
required, she floats away into the sky.
There were two opinions about the depiction of the
Indian maid. I thought it reflected the influence of Hindi mainstream movies
now being seen by the world, especially by West Asia. (This film is set in
Cyprus.) And evidenced the acceptance of India as a significant nation. A
friend disagreed. He felt it showed that the world still thinks of India as the
land of the occult. Where tigers and elephants roam urban streets and black
magic is practised. I don't know. But it felt weird to hear a sitar playing the
Indian national anthem in the background when the maid was about.
The first seduction by the maid set the course and there
were no hitches in her tender blitzkrieg; however, the large number of players
- and their subplots - sustained the viewer's interest till the end.
Papusza
She was the first gypsy poet from
Poland and the film is her biopic.
Papusza is an unusual girl and
wants to learn to read and write; which is something no other
gypsy either can
or wants to do. As she grows up, she reads news to her tribe which is welcome
but it does not accord any special status to her. Gypsies do not regard
literacy as desirable. Then a non- gypsy young man who is a fugitive from law
comes and spends two years with the clan. He learns that she not only can read
but is a spontaneous and natural poet. Eventually he leaves but she continues
to send her poems to him. He gets them published and the poems get her national
recognition as a poet of stature. He also writes a book on gypsies on the basis
of what he has learnt during his two-year exile. The gypsy community altogether
resents that their 'secrets' including their language has been revealed to the
rest of the world. They hold her responsible for it and ostracize her. Papusza,
who is a gypsy at heart, burns her remaining poems and disowns poetry. Her
family life is miserable, financially she is hard up and ultimately she dies a
poor woman.
It was a longish, slow-paced film.
For one who understands her poetry, knows or shares her culture; watching the
film must have come as an overwhelming experience. I had problems with the pace
as well as the content. The run-of-the-mill films I watch elsewhere most
certainly have corrupted my sense of passage of time and now I too need a
reason to stay with a slow-paced movie. In Papusza I had to struggle because
after a time, the story became predictable and there were hardly any surprises
to jerk me out into lively attention.
Another disturbing feature were the
flashbacks. The story begins towards the end of Papusza's life and moved back
and forth. Every flashback is meant to bring out the origin of some important
event or a particular trait in Papusza's personality. It had two opposite
effects. One, it required extra effort to link the particular scene to the flow
of her life. At the same time, the infrequent flashbacks, in a way corroborated
the feeling that the lengthy biopic needed some such prop to sustain the
viewer's attention!
This does not mean that the award
winning film did not deserve the praise it has received. It was through and
through a 'festival film'. Papusza is a real historical character and the
makers of the film had to do considerable research to build her life story from
meagre resources. The film is in black & white because it helped to add
computer effects to bring about the desired 'period' look.
However, it is my
firm belief that a viewer should not be swayed by such considerations.
Photoshopped or not; the landscapes
were breathtaking. The film had hardly any sharp cuts and scenes mostly faded
out. Many-a-time there was a long shot of short duration (short in the context
of this biopic, not in the context of the fast cuts in the mainstream Hindi
cinema today) of the gypsy camp which dissolved into darkness and a new scene
began. It was as if a series of landscapes were presented to the viewer. As if
it was the intention of the director to impress the viewer with the nature, the
weather, the silence and the complete segregation of the gypsy life. As if the
character of Papusza would remain two-dimensional without the supporting
detail.
Yet it is extremely important to
underline the gypsy way of life. Papusza's perspective is that of a wandering
gypsy. The life of a gypsy has a vast canvas because of their nomadic existence
and at the same time the life of a gypsy is also constricted to the beliefs and
customs of the tribe and to the small number of tribe members and to what is
shared among them. It is a challenge to project both at the same time.
The film did succeed in conveying the
sense of an epic.
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