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dangermousieI want to talk about a movie that is not coming out, but that already came out. Last year in fact. It's rather a departure post from the recent SW/scifi insanity which I promise to return to shortly, but for now bear with me.
It's made by my other love: an Indian movie industry known as Bollywood. It is called Yuva and the director is Mani Ratnam, my favorite Indian director. Contrary to people's (often justified) perceptions of Bollywood, Yuva is neither a gory revenge story, nor a fluffy dance-around-trees love story. As Ratnam's other movies deal with issues like religious violence and terrorism, perhaps that is not so surprising. So what is Yuva about? A dash of student activism against entrenched political corruption. A descent of one man into hell and spiritual redemption of another. A dysfunctional codependent love affair and a sweet youthful one. Yuva tells three separate stories: about a thug, a political activist, and a wealthy idler and how their lives intercept. But yes, there is still some singing and some fighting.
So, here's my summation of the three vignettes. As I liked he first one the most, I spend the most time on it:
1. Abhishek Bachchan plays Lallan, a thug hired by political bosses to keep the rabblerousers in check, and is the protagonist of the first vignette. In a movie chock-full of great performances (Mani Ratnam seems to have the knack for eliciting good performances from his casts), his is the best. I couldn't tear my eyes away. But in fairness, he had a lot to work with. His is the most complex character of the bunch. Lallan is not the villain of the piece. In fact there are no villains in Yuva with the possible exception of Om Puri's politician.
His one weakness, and another really fascinating thing about this movie, is his dysfunctional, codependent and yet very real love for his wife Sashi, played by Rani Mukherji. Sashi is an odd woman: she keeps going back to her husband, even though she knows he is no good. Even though he hit her at least once and maybe more. Yet she is not a weak-willed woman and one gets the sense that it is a consious choice. Their relationship strikes me as real and disfunctional and passionate and loathing all at once. Yet it is love all the same. Lallan is not the only one that's disfunctional in their marriage. It is so easy to make the man a villain and a woman a suffering saint. Sashi is no saint. The abortion scene (when she aborts his child) proves it. She doesn't do it on moral grounds, not entirely. She does it to lash out at him, to hurt him as badly as he's hurt her. That is the most powerful scene in the movie: Lallan's slow realization and his torment, Sashi's quiet despair and yet at the same time air of victory.
I guess I am attracted to redeemable characters who finally go wrong. I think one of the best things about this movie is watching Lallan's moral and emotional disintegration (in direct contrast to Arjun's enlightenment). And the really nagging and brilliant part of it is that one sees the possibility of redemption, knows he is not irredeemable, until the pivotal moment when he shoots his brother. That is the event that seals his doom. At this point he's lost everything. He's lost his child, he's lost his wife. He loves her madly, and he knows he cannot go back to her. If the mere thought he was going to kill someone made her get an abortion, how would she react to the knowledge that he really killed someone, and that someone she had known for years? He has nothing left. And so he falls completely. He has to believe it was that important, that it was worth it. He cannot believe that he lost everything for nothing. And yet, at the end he's destroyed as a person. He is sitting, apathetic, watching the game that in the beginning of the movie he played with such zest. Whatever was Lallan is gone.
2. The second vignette deals with a student political activist Michael (Ajay Devgan). It is my least favorite one in the story, but the portrayal of an idealist with a sense of humor and his unorthodox girlfriend (she moves in with him without marriage by lying to his family that she is pregnant) is not without its charms.
3. The third vignette is excellent. It involves two apathetic, modern, upper-class young people who find meaning in life (and each other). It is much lighter than the other two stories and this desperately grim movie needed it. The main character of this vignette, Arjun (played by Vivek Oberoi) is perhaps the everyman of the movie: neither tragically flawed nor saintly. Just honest and stumbling along. His strong-willed flirtation partner (Kareena Kapoor) who is having a last fling before settling for an arraged marriage is every bit his equal.
So yeah, enough of my ramblings but if you can find it (and if you are a BW fan you know about it already) watch it.
For stills of the movie, check out: http://www.indiafm.com/stills/04/yuva/index.shtml
It's made by my other love: an Indian movie industry known as Bollywood. It is called Yuva and the director is Mani Ratnam, my favorite Indian director. Contrary to people's (often justified) perceptions of Bollywood, Yuva is neither a gory revenge story, nor a fluffy dance-around-trees love story. As Ratnam's other movies deal with issues like religious violence and terrorism, perhaps that is not so surprising. So what is Yuva about? A dash of student activism against entrenched political corruption. A descent of one man into hell and spiritual redemption of another. A dysfunctional codependent love affair and a sweet youthful one. Yuva tells three separate stories: about a thug, a political activist, and a wealthy idler and how their lives intercept. But yes, there is still some singing and some fighting.
So, here's my summation of the three vignettes. As I liked he first one the most, I spend the most time on it:
1. Abhishek Bachchan plays Lallan, a thug hired by political bosses to keep the rabblerousers in check, and is the protagonist of the first vignette. In a movie chock-full of great performances (Mani Ratnam seems to have the knack for eliciting good performances from his casts), his is the best. I couldn't tear my eyes away. But in fairness, he had a lot to work with. His is the most complex character of the bunch. Lallan is not the villain of the piece. In fact there are no villains in Yuva with the possible exception of Om Puri's politician.
His one weakness, and another really fascinating thing about this movie, is his dysfunctional, codependent and yet very real love for his wife Sashi, played by Rani Mukherji. Sashi is an odd woman: she keeps going back to her husband, even though she knows he is no good. Even though he hit her at least once and maybe more. Yet she is not a weak-willed woman and one gets the sense that it is a consious choice. Their relationship strikes me as real and disfunctional and passionate and loathing all at once. Yet it is love all the same. Lallan is not the only one that's disfunctional in their marriage. It is so easy to make the man a villain and a woman a suffering saint. Sashi is no saint. The abortion scene (when she aborts his child) proves it. She doesn't do it on moral grounds, not entirely. She does it to lash out at him, to hurt him as badly as he's hurt her. That is the most powerful scene in the movie: Lallan's slow realization and his torment, Sashi's quiet despair and yet at the same time air of victory.
I guess I am attracted to redeemable characters who finally go wrong. I think one of the best things about this movie is watching Lallan's moral and emotional disintegration (in direct contrast to Arjun's enlightenment). And the really nagging and brilliant part of it is that one sees the possibility of redemption, knows he is not irredeemable, until the pivotal moment when he shoots his brother. That is the event that seals his doom. At this point he's lost everything. He's lost his child, he's lost his wife. He loves her madly, and he knows he cannot go back to her. If the mere thought he was going to kill someone made her get an abortion, how would she react to the knowledge that he really killed someone, and that someone she had known for years? He has nothing left. And so he falls completely. He has to believe it was that important, that it was worth it. He cannot believe that he lost everything for nothing. And yet, at the end he's destroyed as a person. He is sitting, apathetic, watching the game that in the beginning of the movie he played with such zest. Whatever was Lallan is gone.
2. The second vignette deals with a student political activist Michael (Ajay Devgan). It is my least favorite one in the story, but the portrayal of an idealist with a sense of humor and his unorthodox girlfriend (she moves in with him without marriage by lying to his family that she is pregnant) is not without its charms.
3. The third vignette is excellent. It involves two apathetic, modern, upper-class young people who find meaning in life (and each other). It is much lighter than the other two stories and this desperately grim movie needed it. The main character of this vignette, Arjun (played by Vivek Oberoi) is perhaps the everyman of the movie: neither tragically flawed nor saintly. Just honest and stumbling along. His strong-willed flirtation partner (Kareena Kapoor) who is having a last fling before settling for an arraged marriage is every bit his equal.
So yeah, enough of my ramblings but if you can find it (and if you are a BW fan you know about it already) watch it.
For stills of the movie, check out: http://www.indiafm.com/stills/04/yuva/index.shtml
