A Ramble about my weekend

[timmy]

Saturday, I took a drive up the Garden State Parkway to Edison, New Jersey, where there was a cinema festival being held. For those of you who are not familiar with Edison, New Jersey in the USA, it is pretty much the "capital" of the Indian-American community here. The cinema festival featured Indian films made by small, independent producers and directors. A friend that I work with recommended that I go, since I know he secretly disapproves of my love for Bollywood films and wants to "refine" my tastes by watching more serious fare.

Unfortunately for him, I love art cinema as well as popular cinema, so while I enjoyed the films presented a great deal, I'm still quite enamored with popular film as well.

The first was a Kannada film that dealt with a low level, rigidly bureaucratic civil servant who is approached to play the role of Gandhi in a TV series because of his resemblance to the Mahatma, after the regular actor had a heart attack. The civil servant is a horrible actor and his son gives him a stack of books on Gandhi to improve his performance. As the man researches Gandhi and tries to appropriate Gandhi's mannerisms, he becomes devoted to Gandhi's thinking, while at the same time, his friends, family, and coworkers press him for their own greed and advantage. The story turns on the man's deep conflict between his ideals and the pressures of life to compromise them.

The second was a Bangladeshi film about the role of women in Bangladesh's 1971 War of Independence. It focused on one woman's experience who was a historical figure. I watched this film because of certain personal things and discussions I've had with XL bhai, and it really brought home the atrocities, mass murders, rapes, and destruction that accompanies these kinds of conflicts. In a way, it was almost too much for me to take. But it certainly gave me pause for thought.

The third film was written, produced, and directed by an Indian American and shot in India. (He was available for questions after the film.) It dealt with an Indian American man who travels to Chandigarh for an arranged marriage, where his much older sister will conduct the procedures. As you can imagine, there was a fertile field for humor, serious reflection, and drama, which the director exploited expertly. The situation of having one foot in each of two cultures, while not feeling fully at home in either, is one I feel personally. Because of this, I have interacted with Hispanic, Native American, and Indian American young people who face the same dilemma. The film was very insightful and well done, as the man finally is able to make some decisions and move ahead with this life.

The final film that I watched dealt with a weather scientist whose daughter turns up on a beach in South India, battered, raped, and a vegetable. The man is not satisfied with the obviously off-putting answers he gets from the police and hospital, so he undertakes his own investigation to achieve justice, peace, and perhaps revenge of a sort. As he moves from one "lead" to another, he discovers unpalatable truths, conspiracies, reckless goonda behavior, and in the end finds that there is no real closure obtainable for some of life's events -- we must just accept the cards we have been dealt.

In short, the films were all thought provoking and it was a great day watching movies! Unfortunately for my friend's plan to wean me away from less artistic films, I made a note of the upcoming SRK film Jab Tak Hai Jaan and upcoming Aamir Khan film Talaash, which I'm going to go up to see, if possible.

I was about the only non-Indian in the house, other than some of the people working the concession counter. Lots of people noticed this, and some came up and talked with me. People were very friendly and I felt very welcome and at home. If I am still here next year, I will definitely be back!

Back to the topic of our online community, I noted the guns used in the Bangladeshi film. The rifles used were SKSs, and when some of them were fired, I noted that they extras were manually cycling the bolts. Whether this was because the rifles were converted to a non-semiauto condition or because the blanks they were using would not cycle the actions (or both), I couldn't tell. (I was into the movie, after all!) There were also a number of light machine guns. The shots of them were quick and again, I was into the movie, but I think that these were RPDs. There were a couple of revolvers that looked like the IOF, and also a TT 33.

[xl_target]

Good report Tim,
What were the names of the movies?

[timmy]

The first movie about the man who played Gandhi was Kurmavatara.

The second, about the 1971 War, was called Guerilla.

The third, about the Indian American who goes to India for an arranged marriage, was A Decent Arrangement.

The final movie about the scientist seeking closure regarding the assault of his daughter was Lessons in Forgetting.

Here's a link to the Cinema Festival site:

http://www.njisacf.org/2012/

[prashantsingh]

Nice report Timmy.
Many years ago when VCR's had just entered the Indian market a friend invited me over on a sunday. The plan was to rent a VCR for the day and watch 3 movies one after the other.
The movies we selected were regular 3 hrs Bollywood movies.
By the time we finished I was all confused and found myself mixing one story with the other.

[Vikram]

Timmy,

Excellent little reviews and to let us know that serious Indian films are still watched and celebrated in as far as USA.

That first film is on my must watch list now.

Thank you for posting this and sharing with us.



Best-
Vikram

[ckkalyan]

Nice one timmy

I quite enjoyed the analysis!

[PRITAM PATEL]

Timmy,

thnx for reminding old days,

me and my wife used to come to Oak Tree road for dinner at Indian Restaurant ...

food was not authentic Indian but was batter than american Dinner

regards

pritam