Review: Luck By Chance

We've seen this story before. A struggling actor and actress search their way through the film industry. In their pursuit of stardom, one compromises with ideals and another with aims. Ultimately the relationship falls apart as one finds success and the other settles for smaller dreams.

The beauty though lies in the way its told. Everything about the movie is good, starting from the titles to the gentle digs. The director who copies Hollywood movies, the producer who has no financier, the daughter of a yesteryear actress who wants to be the star, the egomaniac actor who talks about himself in third person and the watchman who smokes beside a "No Smoking" sign. They are not very different from those we saw before, but there is something extremely earnest in the portrayal of struggling aspirants.

There is a telling moment in the movie, when Hrithik playing an established star Zafar Khan looks at Farhan, an upcoming actor Vikram and asks Karan Johar "What do you think?" . Johar replies saying Vikram will replace Zafar and explains how a young director with a new idea is shunned by all established stars, finds a new face to start a cinderella story.

The same thing can be said about Hrithik and Farhan in real life. Compared to Farhan's two movies, Hrithik's attempts look jaded, bland and simply boring. The new energy he brings seems infectious.

Questions from a beach

Q: Why are there waves?
A: Well, what would the sea do without waves? Just stay there still, that would be boring.

Q: What happens after sunset?
A: The sun dips into the sea and plays with its sea friends.

Q: Let us buy a boat?
A: You say a lot of things. Buy a boat, buy the beach, buy the Arabian Sea........

Q: Can I buy some part of the Arabian Sea?
A: The Indian Government may not be interested in selling. But could consider loosing some troublesome areas. West Bengal, dare I say.

Q: Will those moral police reach Goa?
A: If they do, they will fall in love with the place and become environmentalists.

A Goan holiday

Goa is the least chaotic of Indian cities. Laid back, taking life slowly. Even the railway station is fairly spacious and finds time to play 'yeh shaam mastani' on the loudspeaker. Palm trees and feilds mark the reddened landscape. The sun and sea are the staple offerings, fish and alcohol the delicacies.

Some of Goa's soul is lost with its new found wealth and tourism. The increase in numbers of foreign and domestic tourists seem to choke the beach. The architecture in the cities is especially utilitarian and bereft of any imagination. Except for some colonial buildings there is nothing worth exploring in the urban areas.

The countryside and beaches are a different story. Oh the sea, oh the shacks, oh the sunset, just go to Goa and fall in love with the place.

Walk the Talk

Referring to President Bush's Axis of Evil speech in the US Congress, his speech-writer David Frum said, "If he had asked the US to stop being the hegemony, he would have been impeached, he probably wouldn't have gotten out of the room alive". Post 9/11 the US was a nation baying for blood. Compare that with the way two nations, India and Israel, deal with terrorism. While Israel seems bent on military solution, India has sought the diplomatic route. In Walk the Talk interview, P.Chidambaram has openly declared war is not an option. Even the print media has broad consensus that it would be easier to deal with a civilian Pakistan. The historian Ramachandra Guha called India an unnatural nation and an unlikely democracy. It wouldn't be entirely wrong to use the word 'mature' to describe our democracy.

Slumdog millionaire

Slumdog millionaire: the story of two orphans growing up in Bombay. We have seen them, Salim and Jamaal, and they are everywhere. Those urchins who beg near the traffic signals, those kids hawking cheap fruits on trains, those hungry faces who try to steal a meal at weddings, those tired eyes picking up rags from mountains of waste.

It is a story that has one of the most haunting and evocative protagonists, a modern day everyman. The greatness of the story lies in the fact that most of us can not even begin to relate to it. Yes, such poverty and inhumanness have lived right beside us all along. As we fumbled with books, worried about exams, gave interviews and wondered about investments, Salim and Jamaal receded into the stereotypes. The poor kids who turned to crime. We will never understand the horror that visits them in multitude of forms, hunger, alienation, exploitation. As we withdraw into our plush offices and gated communities, such tales of humanity will pass us by, unnoticed and unheard of.

Comparision: "Che" and Motorcycle Diaries

I recently watched "Che", Steven Soderbergh's mammoth attempt to chronicle Ernesto 'Che' Guevara's role in the Cuban revolution. The movie is a wonderful watch and has a compassionate yet unsympathetic view of the time and period. Che, unlike Soderbergh's regular glossy fare has a documentary style look to it. Soderbergh clearly refuses to indulge in heroism that is normally associated with biopics. There is an effort on the director's part to understand, why there was a revolution in the first place and what drives young men of like Che to take on these risks.

Benicio Del Toro looks and fits the part of Che. While method acting is nothing new in today's cinema, Del Toro almost natural resemblence and deep understanding of the character takes it to a new level.

Compare this with Walter Salles, "The Motorcycle Diaries". Based on the book with the same name by Che himself, is a deeply romanticized version peppered with poems by Neruda and other Latin American poets. Che, then a medical student, travels almost half way around South America to reach a Colombian leprosy camp. Along the road trip he talks to people and makes the first attempt to understand their problems. One can almost see the developing of an intellectual sureness that made him leave a perfectly serene life in Buenos Aires and fight in a distant land in the name of justice.

Che, your ideals may have been forgotten, but your life and image live on in these movies and our t-shirts.