Shut up amid the cackle.

Delhi-6

First things first...Caught Delhi-6 yesterday. Wonderful movie. Same flavour as Rang de Basanti...by flavour I mean the general feel...the music, the people, the language et al. Delhi's own peculiar dialect of Hindi, part Hindustani-part Urdu-part UP Hindi-part Haryanvi has been so well shown that I felt myself transported to Chandni Chowk. The aesthetics of dawn breaking over Old, no, Purani Dilli, had me longing for my college days in Delhi, when days used to be spent in divided portions between Chandni Chowk's kulfi, South Extension's coffee and once-in-a-while sojourns to then new gleaming-glass Gurgaon. I realised with a start that Delhi, for me, still continues to be defined by the Janpath-CP-Red fort milieu rather than Gurgaon-South Ex-Okhla.

Before this turns into a rant about how much I miss Delhi, I want to turn my attention back to the movie. The movie is good. It talks about a lot of things in the Rakeysh Mehra way. By Rakeysh Mehra way, I mean the carefree point of view of the central character which takes an about turn towards more serious events (remember the five protagonists of Rang De Basanti?). The Kaala-Bandar analogy works really well, for those who want to realise it. I wonder, though, when we will realise. As Roshan (the central character, Abhishek Bachchan) says a zillion times, when will we "Get real"? On one hand we are talking big about becoming an economic superpower. On the other, everyday life in India is pretty much defined and dominated by what religion we are born into.

India has some really beautiful idiosyncrasies, for instance, the "Mother cow giving baby cow" scene in the movie. However, for us, the most saleable part of India still remains the slum dog who becomes millionaire. I am digressing, however. The Kaala Bandar becoming a Hindu-Muslim issue rankles. Rankles because it is so very possible. Not only possible, it might have even happened zillions of times across during our innumerable instances of communal violence. The movie, and India, today, for me, is pretty much defined by the poignant instance of Mamdu's (the amiable Muslim Hanuman Devotee Jalebi seller) shop being rampaged and broken by his neighbours, his friends, who have suddenly turned into Hindus. Roshan being stopped from entering a temple during the fracas because he is born of a Muslim mother is another one.

We can turn our faces towards the rising sun, and say, "This does not happen any more." Well, our most recent communal riot was just seven years back, which is not exactly history. And anyone who visits Ahmedabad, will understand what "Old city" and "New city" means. We still have "predominantly Hindu areas", and "areas where they live in all our major cities. I would like to know any middle class family who would let their children marry out of their religion, especially, if it is the two communities in question, without a big whine drama. I don't want to put a dampener on slum-dog-turning-millionaire India, but I think we have some major problems in our back yard. Of the size we cannot afford to ignore anymore.

To come back to the movie, personally I think the Son-meeting-grandfather-in-astral-form-and-eating-jalebi sequence was an ode to Hindi cinema as it is, which is why I found it pardonable in an otherwise impeccable movie. Rahman takes the cake, the music is perfectly created and spaced for the movie. I don't want this post to turn anti-Slum Dog Millionaire, (I liked the movie and the music myself), but I opine that Delhi-6 is a far superior score, as are many others.

All in all, Delhi-6 is a good way to shake and stir India. Let's wait and watch how much of that happens. There are two things which make the movie specially worthwhile...one is Abhishek Bachchan, whose endearing Burger-chhaap, lazy, drawling American act will have you drooling and applauding in parts (watch out especially for "Hey, that's the golden deer!" in the Ram Lila). The second is the pigeon, Masakali as it is called in the movie. Watch it for both of them, if not for the message!

posted by Anupama. @ 12:58 pm 0 Comments

Books, Indians and other such.

I have been reading a lot these days. Exclusively focusing on Indian authors, might as well add. Some of them make for really interesting reads. Others, oh well.
I am not going to present a critique of all the Indian novels I have read since it would be a waste of too many words. There is one specific subject which has caught my eye in all the novels I have read.

The dreaded three lettered word. "Sex". There, there. It is a very real word, a really easy word to spot, as the Wild wild words game on my cell-phone proves. What I am really intrigued about is the portrayal of this word, or rather this aspect by Indian authors in their books. There is a lot of it in our books. In fact, a lot more than our western counterparts. Make that a humongous lot more.

The sexual aspect in our novels can put a veritable Harold Robbins to shame. Well, I would not expect anything more from a repressed country any way. However, what I wish could be better is the aesthetics. Writing is an art. I wish Indian authors would remember that and stop talking about the physical aspect of human lives like it was a dirty piece of linen which has not been washed in centuries.

Recently read Khushwant Singh's "Delhi : A novel". Admittedly, the book is a good read, especially the history part of it. However, I don't think that it needed to be so graphic about the violence part of it, physical and otherwise. It makes the history of Delhi seem like one huge rape case which is still being fought in the courts without any hope of justice. Ok, I know that all these Turks and Afghans and Mongols plundered their way through India but I cannot believe that it was only rape through which they established their supremacy over India. Also, there is a graphic description of the assault of an English woman that the book could have done without.

There is a thing called poetic license. Somehow I don't think poetic license allows you to destroy the beauty or the art in anything by portraying it as something we want to hide until we are alive. I certainly hope none of my kids (whenever I have them) learn about sex by reading Indian novels.

Amen to that.

posted by Anupama. @ 10:28 pm 1 Comments