Children of Heaven

Majidi makes poverty an adventure, infuses simplicity into everyday life and makes it magical. Children of Heaven is a story of a brother(Ali) and sister(Zahra) trying to manage their lives with a secret to share (Ali loses Zahra's old pair of shoes,after getting them repaired,on his way from the cobblers). Ali and Zahra share the same pair of shoes, Zahra runs home all the way from school and Ali wears the pair and runs to school...
This heart warming film is about Ali's guilt, generosity, understanding of responsibility and their everyday mishaps when they try to share the same pair of shoes...
Typical Majidi style, with the kids as heroes leading the way to a new world by effortlessly lighting hope; An angry,helpless father burdened by responsibilities and poverty; The ambiguous and yet unambiguous, uplifting, and pointless ending - as if the point lies in the rest of the film and the end was only incidental. Such a must watch, for the innocence of kids, to rekindle optimism into the drudgery of everyday life

The class

To sum up, The class, is a film on melting pot identities and nuances...its a peephole into a 8th Std class in urban France portraying diversity at its best (students from diverse ethnic, linguistic and religious backgrounds belonging to different nationalities - Chinese, French, Moroccan, Slovakian, West Indies et al.)

So we see, an adolescent class of rebellious and confused kids...who are all trying to come to terms with their sexuality, figure out who they want to be loyal to - France or the nation they come from - when there is a football match going on, question their teacher about why he used Bill and not Ahmed in his example "Bill is going to have a burger", who they want to be when they grow up, what they are embarrassed about (answers range from 'my ears' to 'eating with my friend's mom').. and so on...
This identity confusion and conflict is brought up in a million places in the class...like when Marin (the French teacher) asked kids to write their names and pin it up on their desks, every kid does it in his own unique way...one with a flag of his nation, one with pink color and flowers et al..such a simple act infused with expression and individuality...Most of these scenes are really subtle...the director does not try to make any one point, he only realistically depicts a class
Through the movie, we traverse through the confusions and opinions of these different students' with different personalities - some rebellious, some shy, some grudging, some bullies, some petite, some perpetually in their own world,some sincere..but each with his own voice and story

The best part about this movie is that - visually, it shows a class through the eyes of a teacher...the camera sweeps through the class,with many students doing different things and shifts focus from one part/student to another section, all the while leaving the class to be real, alive and thriving.So even if the camera shifts focus, the class is always there,with the many students constantly doing different things

The class is also about an education system with its flaws and the many teachers who breathe life into it..particularly about Marin, with his best intentions, and limitations in capabilities.
Wanting the best for his students, he encourages a tough Suleyman to take up photography, tries to understand his students through their aspirations and biographies, and fights for them with the other cynical, indifferent teachers who want to 'systemize' every 'process', explaining that students are more human than to neatly fit into processes and expelling difficult students is only a temporary and unhealthy solution
But Marin, not being perfect, also loses his temper,calls some of his students 'cheap' and fights with them saying 'As a teacher I am allowed to say certain things that you can't'..(This scene to me, is about the power equation that a teacher shares with the class, and a teacher has to be able to understand and handle that power...students can't be at par with you when you are teaching them. However this power needs to be earned, and well - guarded, for the punishments for mistakes of a teacher are far higher, and more morally weighty).But this true depiction of Marin is what touched my heart, because that's exactly how things are - imperfect - be it the system, students or the teachers - and acknowledging them is the first step to understanding and improvisation

The class delves into so many themes related to school and the education system and Marin with his flaws, mistakes, realisations, best intentions and genuine efforts is so so relatable!

LSD vs. Laalbaghcha Parel (City of Gold)

There is only one parameter on which I am going to compare both these films. Their treatment of morality.Both question/break the conventionally set patterns of morality - Sex before marriage, extra marital affairs, violence, brutal cruelty et al. There are two themes which usually constitute scandal - Violence and 'illegal' sex. Both the films have covered these themes in abundance.

While LSD is explosive and bold, I am not sure if it was thought provoking. LSD was a statement to make. Statement made, some appreciated the statement, some didn't. Considering LSD was definitely not entertainment,it should have atleast given some food for thought, right?
We never get to know the motivations of the crimes committed, so we only see victims to whom horrible things are done by villians, which apparently is depiction of a stark reality, that we already somehow know about. Somehow, I could not empathise with the victims or villians, and if it was about LOVE, SEX, and DHOKA, I didn't really question anything about them
And if you say, its only that LSD depicted what has never been attempted on screen before, lets give it credit for boldness, and not make it a good film!

On the other hand, in Laalbagh, all the 'crimes' (I am using the word for what is conventionally taken as that)committed were by characters who we knew. We knew what they wanted, who they were, where they were coming from, their circumstances and situations...They become relatable now, and their deeds seem to be justified, and yet in your head they are not..there is conflict and there is questioning...
When Kashmira Shah wants to have an extra marital affair with her neighbor, when she has a really nice husband who is impotent, whether you approve of what she does or not, you don't hate her. When kids take to shooting, and shoot left, right and center just like the kids in City of God, shooting without purpose, you're disturbed, but you make an attempt to understand their angst, confusion caused by poverty, and the bleak hopelessness that unleashes the animal in them. Such many examples. All the characters are heroes, villians and victim, grappling with a tough incomprehensible life...I realise, empathy and conflict is a deadly combination, won't leave without taking your sleep

Now I know why I wasn't so excited about LSD. There was a tiny voice within that quietly kept asking 'so what', and I couldn't really shut it up!

Guess who's coming to dinner

This movie is about prejudice. Conscious, and subconscious. Set in the America of the 60's, when racism was a seething social issue, a young white woman falls in love with a black man. The twist in the story is that the girl does not come from a conventional family that supports racism or is afraid of social opinion/taboo and therefore goes along with the flow of the world.She comes from a progressive family of journalists, who are opinion/thought leaders and who are forefront in opposing racism. So,sincerely and effectively, the parents teach their daughter how not to discriminate between people on the basis of their skin color. The daughter grows without the burden of prejudice, takes their learnings to heart and falls in love with this black guy and brings him home after she decides to marry him.

Technically, the parents should not have a problem, but they discover they do. Progressive thoughts, and dinner table conversations are one thing. The courage and conviction to implement thoughts into action, another. Prejudices, go deeper than you think and know. Most times, we think we can kill prejudices with thoughts, but discover that we haven't, only when the issue reaches our backyard and we are forced to face a situation and forced to take a personal stand.

The rest of the movie is about how both the families resolve their differences, and come to terms with their prejudices, how they resolve the conflict between thoughts and actions, and most importantly bridge the generation gap. The movie takes us through several conversations between different members of both the families, and gives a honest and fair chance to the confusions and fears that different members face.

One of the most cliche ways to resolve conflict of thought and action with respect to prejudices is to say I don't have a problem with the variable as such (race here), but I do have a problem with how the variable has affected your identity (exposure levels, upbringing, lifestyle differences, intellect, social acceptance/standing et al.)There is no opportunity to do that here in this story, because the black guy is perfect. One of the most respected doctors in the international community with Ivy league credentials, handsome and impeccably mannered. So,the only only thing that can possibly stand against him is his color. Now, really you need to, need to face your prejudice.That's another thing I love about the film, the way the parents were cornered to face the issue.

The movie is really relevant even today and would continue to be so even tomorrow, as the variable of race can be replaced with caste, class, religion, or any other social discriminator.

I highly recommend this movie...its funny, yet intense. Optimistic, and yet serious

Mary & Max/Harvie Krumpet

Give it to Adam Elliot to create a perfect imperfect man. Max and Harvie are not just underdogs, they are truly the guys you wouldn't like/see/accept yourself to be. With a million idiosyncracies, and other 'issues', these weird and quirky outcasts go on with their lives, with their own rules, own paradigms of relationships, and are warriors forefront fighting loneliness. Elliot really really sketches them well, details every aspect of their being, and makes sure they end up to be endearing characters.Elliot's way of making extraordinary stories out of normal characters and everyday lives is amazing.
While Harvie Krumpet is a short experiment with Clay animation and Krumpet's character, fairly optimistic, Mary and Max is on a much larger scale, and a lot darker. Mary and Max is about an unsual and very deep friendship between two pen pals, Mary and Max. While Max and Harvie are very similar, and sketched really well, Mary has a very standard story - drunk, self obessessed parents who are uninterested in her, a lonely childhood with no friends, an outcast in school for almost no concrete reason et al. I wish Mary was quirky too, cos that is the only thing that could have kept their friendship alive for such a long time. Otherwise, Mary was perfect to have a lot of friends and forget Max. Somehow, Mary's almost unflawed character takes away the believability of the story. But, you must watch the movie for Max. And try and catch Harvie here

Spring, summer, fall, winter...spring

Kim Ki Duk should stick to sex and themes around it. This movie is his attempt to understand Buddhism, but I thought it was oversimplified. It takes us through a boy's journey through the different stages of his life. How he lives with his master and undergoes training with him, how he decides to runaway with a woman  and enter the worldly life of Samsara, how he gets so involved in the material world, murders, and suffers and then reclaims his life back after returning to the monastery again. Havent we heard this a hundred times?
Of going through a worldly life, experiencing attachment and suffering and renouncing everything to attain Nirvana. Also to note, the second lifestage when the boy explores his sexuality has to be the longest segment (Kim ki duk!). My problem with the movie was the lack of details in the most crucial stage of his life, when he starts suffering, realises and resurrects his life. Which is precisely what I loved about Samsara, or even Herman Hesse's Siddhartha...both don't refrain from barging into the explosive confusion space filled with a myriad complex questions.
Overall, visually very beautiful, but lacking in substance and questions.

Un Buda

Un Buda is about Buddha's idea of balance. Depicted through two brothers, affected by a tragic incident of losing their parents in their childhood, who grow into two starkly opposite people. The elder one - Excessively logical and rational, never to embrace mysticism or spirituality or God, and the younger one - constantly self - depriving, ever trying to attain nirvana, by enforcing detachment, self imposing confines, too quick to sacrifice - his love, his desires, without really considering the middle path, the balanced way

This movie takes us through their heads and their arguments and logic for being the way they are and their realisations and moves towards finding balance. There is no other way out, every extreme is a wrong path.The women in the movie are brilliant, following their heart, providing for the much needed calm, perspective and balance to both the men. Un Buda is contemporary, relevant and makes the point it sets out to make