Integrity: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

A Review of KAL (2005)
Director: Ruchi Narain
fiction

One look at the posters, and it is very easy to dismiss Ruchi Narain's directorial debut Kal as one of the endless cheesy youth-oriented potboilers being churned out by the Hindi film industry. Even worse, it’s easy to mistake it for Sudhir Mishra’s Hazaaron Kwaishein Aisi, on which Narain was an assistant, especially because it also features Chitrangda Singh and Shiny Ahuja, who play two of the protagonists in Kal.

But, as the proverb says, never judge a book by its cover. The very beginning of Kal is unorthodox, to say the least: Bhavana (Chitrangda), the protagonist, is tearfully viewing a bunch of video-messages on her Mac laptop, in chronological order over the duration of a year. Through these, and the voice of the narrator Rohan, we come to know the sketchy details: Bhavana and Tarun (Shiny) were very much in love and planning to marry, and had a great time with their gang of friends Sangeeta, Teji, and Bhavana’s best friend Maya. Unfortunately, Tarun falls in love with Maya instead, and marries her – a decision which causes a rift in the group. Everyone drifts apart – Tarun, whose marriage to Maya was against her family wishes, finally gains acceptance with her business-magnate father and quickly moves up the corporate ladder. Teji also goes to work for Tarun, which Bhavana sees as disloyalty on his part and apathy towards her heartbreak. Sangeeta goes to the UK to study law, and Bhavana pursues her career as a photographer. A tearful video-apology from Maya does nothing to soothe her ruffled feathers, and consolations from Sangeeta don’t work either. Finally, Sangeeta announces that she is coming down from the UK to celebrate her wedding in Mumbai, and asks Bhavana to come down for her wedding.

At the wedding, Bhavana meets Rohan, a journalist and a friend of the groom Shekar. Rohan, who is struggling to recover from a failed relationship, feels instantly attracted to her. Bhavana is still smarting about her breakup with Tarun but is surprised when Sangeetha reveals she didn’t invite either him or Maya, and even more surprised to hear they’re getting a divorce. Sangeeta tries her level best to hook Bhavana and Rohan together, and succeeds. Bhavana slowly gets into the party mood and later is very excited to be dropped home by Rohan. Just as she gets intimate with Rohan, Bhavana is shocked to find a very drunk Tarun in her house.

An embarrassed Rohan leaves in a huff, and Bhavana grudgingly lets Tarun stay the night, as he is too drunk to move. The next day, she leaves him still sleeping to go to work, and there she sees the news that Maya has died the previous evening. Horrified, Bhavana calls home only to find out that Tarun is missing.

From here the film accelerates to a mind-dizzying pace as allegations fly fast and furious between Maya’s family, the Jalans, and Tarun’s family, the Haksars, including Tarun’s socialite sister Ira (Sarika), and aided by the multitude pf presspersons hounding the prosperous families. Rajesh, Maya’s slimy brother, tries his level best to make sure her father, a heart patient, does not know of his daughter’s death, which had occurred the same night Tarun had been at Bhavana’s house. Bhavana, in a state of panic and still angry over her failed affair with Tarun, tells the police that Tarun was at her place that night, which instantly makes Tarun a prime suspect. Bhavana’s father Dayal (Boman Irani), who also works for Jalan, promptly returns from a holiday in Cochin on hearing the news. Tarun surrenders, get beaten up in jail, and slips into a short coma. Maya’s adoring younger brother Anuj comes down from the US, and the press goes berserk. There is now a rift between the Jalans, the Haksars, and Dayals – three prosperous families that were once friends. And in the midst of it all is the journalist Rohan, who is madly in love with Bhavana and yet trying to piece the puzzle together.

The film cuts speedily back and forth between the lives of Bhavana and Sangeeta, Maya’s closest friends, Anuj, Tarun and the drug-addled Teji (who, as it later turns out, was madly in love with Maya.) On the evening of Maya’s birthday, after Anuj throws a posthumous birthday party to honour her, Bhavana finds out that Tarun had not gone beyond the cigarette shop outside her flat; he had been too drunk to do so, and therefore definitely could not have killed Maya. Worse things happen: Teji goes insane, worrying Bhavana and Sangeeta further, while Tarun is still in a coma. Finally, Teji blurts out a shocking revelation: Tarun and Maya had procured a spy-cam developed by him to capture her brother Rajesh in the act of taking bribes. However, Rajesh found out, and Tarun turned against Maya for fear of his career. Thus Maya, who had helped her husband expose her own family, had suddenly found herself alone in a world of corruption she couldn’t live in, and was last heard threatening to kill herself.

Shortly after this, Teji is found dead of a drug overdose, apparently unable to handle any more. To make things worse, the Jalans set up an IT raid at the Dayals’ home and ask them to evacuate, the press is constantly hounding Bhavana and her family, Dayal resigns from Jalan’s company only to steal a file from his office, and Ira cannot seem to make up her mind on which side to take. In the midst of all this, Sangeeta calls Bhavana in tears and tells her that some of her belongings that had remained behind in London have just arrived. Among them is a tape made by Maya.

In the tape, Maya reveals that she was unable to take any more after Tarun had abandoned their moralistic pursuit of exposing her brother sided with him instead. As Bhavana and Sangeeta watch in shock and grief, she declares that she will kill herself. And the mystery is finally solved, but not without leaving Bhavana, Sangeetha and Anuj disgusted at the level of corruption right under their very noses. As a final act of revenge, Bhavana talks to the now-recovered Tarun using a spy-cam, and gets him to spill the beans on the actual events leading to Maya’s suicide, and the corruption that preceded it. She gives it to Rohan and helps Rohan prepare his TV expose on the Jalans. Thus, she repays Maya for saving her from a marriage to Tarun.

To her credit, the director has also taken into consideration the fact that all the characters are not black-and-white; there are shades of grey in just about everyone, and it is not easy to label them as good and evil. Also she makes a point that while we may think someone is doing something wrong, they are convinced that they are doing it right – which is the very foundation of the differences in ideology.

The film has its comic moments, which are but few. One is the scene where Anuj, Sangeeta and Bhavana go to a psychic to help them contact Maya in the netherworld – a hilarious reminder of the human tendency to take refuge in superstitions in times of desperation. And Narain is careful not to fall prey to aggravating clichés: song-and-dance sequences in Switzerland (given that the protagonists are so wealthy), and a comatose Tarun suddenly waking up and unable to remember who he is and how he got there. But it does have its groan-inducing moments, notably during the scene when a man stares at a TV in a shop window while it is airing the expose, and wipes a tear from his eye.

The cast is pretty well suited for the film, though Chitrangda seems too beautiful to be convincing as the girl-next-door that she was meant to be. Boman Irani, as usual, is the life of the film. Sarika is every inch the media-savvy socialite, and her return to the screen will be much looked forward to. Some of the costumes seem too glamourised and Bollywood-inspired but given the characters' high social status, it doesn’t seem very out of place.

For a debutante director, Ruchi Narain has done a brilliant job. Although quite long at two and a half hours, the narrative cuts so quickly between events and characters that before you can even digest a new twist, another one slaps right across your face. It does get a bit tiresome, but the confusion is genuine in the sense that it parallels the infinitely murky events in the story itself, which finally culminates in the explosive revelation that, sometimes, the only way to do something is to do it wrong.

Bad Education? Not From This Little Teacher

NOT ONE LESS (1999)
Director: Zhang Yimou
fiction

Chinese director Zhang Yimou my be better known for weaving opulent tapestry onscreen, beginning with Red Sorghum (1987) and climaxing with Raise The Red Lantern (1991). His most recent film following the same style was The House Of Flying Daggers (2004).

However, Not One Less, set in post-Communist China, is completely different. Its documentary-inspired style is reminiscent of Iranian films with its extensive coverage of the dusty Chinese village landscape. And as far as the story is concerned, its bitter-sweetness interspersed with moments of poignancy and innocent comic interludes is like revisiting Children Of Heaven.

Mei is a thirteen-year-old girl who has just finished primary school, and is not very good at her subjects. She is asked to fill in as a substitute for the village teacher Gao, who has to take a month off to go see his ailing mother. Mei, like most pre-adolescents, is least bothered about the job, but is quick to take it on for the fifty Yuan that she is promised. In fact, when one of the students, a fine runner, is selected to attend an Athletes School, Mei refuses to let her go, fearing4 that her salary may be cut if the number of students reduces.

Mei and her students don’t get along with each other at first – for them, she’s too young and is not as intimidating as Gao. And to her, they’re just a bunch of pesky kids on whom she shouldn’t be wasting her time, but the thought of the money spurs her on. She shows no interest other than writing a lesson on the blackboard for them to copy, and they grow increasingly cranky as she refuses to let them leave until late afternoon. Gradually, however, she earns the grudging acceptance of the class and learns to accept them too, and slowly begins to involve them in lessons and songs. Obviously, the classroom scenes make for the bulk of the comic parts of the film, with the children at their most natural and boisterous best.

One of the students is the exceedingly naughty Zhang Huike, who’s some sort of nemesis for Mei. He’s also the class bully and getting constantly reprimanded by her for his escapades. However, one morning Zhang is nowhere to be seen. Mei comes to know from the mayor that he has gone to the city to work to help his ailing widowed mother pay off some debts. Not wanting to lose another student, Mei enlists her class to help raise money for her trip to the city to seek out their classmate. They pool in their allowances and even move bricks to raise the cash, while the apathetic mayor refuses even to pay Mei her fifty Yuan in advance.

Two days after Zhang’s disappearance, Mei makes her way to the city despite the mayor’s protests, and this is where she realises that there are things beyond her realm of knowledge. As she desperately seeks out Zhang amidst the chaos, dust and noise of the city, Zhang is begging for food, unaware that he is being missed. Mei is forced to part with her money: a little to Zhang’s co-worker who accompanies her to the station to look for him, and the remaining to buy paper and ink to write ‘missing’ notices which she finally realises are useless as Zhang has been missing for three days.

Now completely penniless, Zhang clings to one last hope – a TV station where she was told she could broadcast a message. Naturally, she is not allowed in, and spends almost two days waiting until the sympathetic station manager decides to let her appear on a program that focuses on issues affecting modern China. Mei is introduced as a village teacher, and the dam finally breaks as she tearfully asks Zhang to return. As the episode is aired, Zhang, who has managed to find work washing dishes in an eatery, sees his teacher on his employer’s TV and breaks down.

All ends well with a happy student-teacher reunion and loads of donations from the kind city residents who see the TV show. As they make their way to the village, which gives them a hero’s welcome, Zhang vows to finish school and find a job so he can buy his young teacher some flowers. The remaining students cluster around Mei back in school as each takes out a bit of coloured chalk and lets new hope take shape on the blackboard in the form of various words: sky, water, diligence. Mei becomes the village heroine for her heroic stubbornness and single-minded devotion to her student.

The film is deeply moving with a heart-warming storyline, and should definitely rank among Yimou’s greats. The rural Chinese landscape is shown in all its rugged beauty and is well contrasted with the chaotic city crowds, concrete and traffic. The premise of the city-dwellers coming to the rescue of the villagers (yet again) seems like a kind of clichéd political statement, but that is only if you delve deep into it. Otherwise everything else is top-notch.

Not One Less is a wonderful tribute to the triumph of the human spirit against all odds. It is also a tribute to the oldest human relationship – that unbreakable bond between teacher and student.

One of the most powerful moments in the film is when village boy Zhang is asked by the TV host about his most lasting impression of the city. In all innocence, he says: “I had to beg for food. I’ll never forget that.”

... And Life Whimpers For Breath In This Barren Land

A Review of BLACKBOARDS (2000)
Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
fiction

He climbs the rocky slopes, clutching a black plank of wood across his back. He is starving and tired, but has a burning desire to quench the thirst for knowledge of anyone who needs it, and all he wants in return is a scrap of bread and some water.

Sayid is a teacher, with no belongings except his treasured blackboard and some chalk. He and his colleague Reeboir, just two of an entire group of teachers, have only one desire in life: to teach math and Arabic to anyone who is willing to learn. They scale the barren cliffs on the border between Iran and Iraq, in constant danger from war-bombs, carrying their blackboards like Christ's crosses (Click here for relevant article.) As they keep one eye on the narrow slopes, the other on trigger-happy soldiers, and separate from the group and each other, the future looks bleak. None of the people in any of the villages in the valley seem to want an education, as they're too busy being frightened for their lives.

Samira Makhmalbaf made Blackboards when she was just 20, no mean feat despite being the daughter of acclaimed Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The film, her second feature after the controversial Apple (click here for related article) which she made when she was barely 18, is both poignant and disturbing.

Sayid meets a group of elderly Kurdish men searching for the road to Iraq, while Reeboir joins a group of young Kurdish boys smuggling goods over the border. The film is actually quite humourous in the beginning; it's a strange feeling to laugh when the characters onscreen are hungry and tired and have absolutely no idea that they're being funny.

The elderly men are struggling to get one of the members to urinate, and he is in agony. Sayid joins the group despite many protests, and persists in asking them if anybody is interested in learning to read and write. He becomes a nuisance, and nobody is willing to share their scanty reserves of food or water. Finally, a deal is struck when Sayid agrees to take them to the Iran-Iraq border for forty walnuts. Thus he becomes a strange part of this pious and elderly Kurdish group.

The old man, who is unable to urinate, is suffering and wants to get his daughter married off so he can die in peace. Thus one of his acquaintances decides to get the old man's daughter Haleleh married off to Sayid. The nuptials are hurriedly performed without ceremony, with Haleleh barely concentrating as she tends to her young son. Thereafter Sayid tries to teach Haleleh to read and write 'I love you', but she always ignores him.

In the meantime, Reeboir persists in trying to convince the group of boys about the advantages of an education, and all the while they're looking at him as if he's the idiot. However, One of them, also named Reeboir, shows a keen interest in learning, and a relieved Reeboir Sr. coaches him on spelling and pronunciation as they make their way along the perilous slopes. It is only when they stop to rest that the boys tell Reeboir that most of them do know how to read or write, but they're too busy trying to save their lives.

Sayid is finding hard to get Haleleh to talk to him, let alone say 'I love you'. Haleleh's father is still unable to urinate, while her son on the other hand, seems to be the opposite. Even a dip in the icy water of a nearby lake seems to do no good to the suffering elderly Kurd. Sayid meanwhile, tries his level best to fit into the group and woo his wife at the same time, trying to use the welcome pool of water as a catalyst.

Reeboir sets the fractured leg of a boy who falls off a cliff, but that still doesn't break any ice with the boys. They are all the more wary of getting close to him, except Reeboir Jr., who is still an eager learner. As Reeboir Sr stops to have some goat milk from a little girl - he tries to teach her too - his young namesake tries to spell his name. Unfortunately, just as Reeboir Jr. finishes the task successfully, he is hit by a bullet from the nearby border patrol. The rest of the group scatters wildly all over and many children are injured, some fatally. And no one knows what happens to Reeboir.

In another part of the border, Sayid manages to show the group of elderly Kurds the way to Iraq, but only after they refuse to believe him and almost get shot at in the process. Haleleh wants to go too, so Sayid is forced to divorce her and give her his blackboard as dowry. They walk off in opposite directions, and as the fog blinds them to each other forever, the words are still visible on the blackboard: I love you.

Samira has tried to show the rugged beauty of the barren, rocky border, and has openly showcased her sympathy for the displaced Kurds. Even the most heart-wrenching love is always touchingly funny, and the scenes featuring Sayid's attempts to woo his wife are just so. The poignancy reaches its climax in the last scene when Haleleh walks away with the blackboard bearing Sayid's words: I love you. It seems as if these words will continue to echo in the mountains long after Sayid's parting with Haleleh and his trusty blackboard, along with the echoes of Reeboir's voice teaching Reeboir Jr. to spell his name.

One scene especially, is searing: when there is more shooting on the group of elderly Kurds, Sayid gallantly hides Haleleh and her son underneath his blackboard. Haleleh's father finally manages to urinate, and this looks like a very strong moment of symbolism in the film, and we are just as relieved. For a while we are fooled into thinking that everything is over, that Haleleh will concede to Sayid, that her father is now all right, and that everything will be a happily-ever-after.

Unfortunately, we are reminded yet again that in the war-torn, mine-infested, barren beauty of the Iraq-Iran border - as on the borders of Israel-Palestine, India-Pakistan, Bosnia-Serbia - happy endings are rare.