REMADE IN INDIA
Priyadarshan reworks a minimalist masterwork into an overblown (and over-cute) drama. The results aren’t pretty.
MAY 16, 2010 – IS THERE ANYTHING THAT SPAWNS cold terror in the pit of the stomach like the revelation that a favourite song is being remixed, or a favourite book is being transformed into a movie, or worse yet, a favourite movie is being remade? The rate of success of these ventures (which, in other words, is simply the probability that they will turn out to be what we want them to be, or how we’ve imagined them inside our heads) is so infinitesimal that you wish you could shake the perpetrators by the collar and scream, “Make your own bad movie, goddamit! Don’t desecrate our memories in the process.” Majid Majidi’s Children of Heaven is such a wispy instance of storytelling – pivoted on the affecting aftermath, on impoverished siblings, of the loss of a pair of shoes – that you barely sense that a Feature Film is unfolding before your eyes. (It’s only after the lights come up that you realise you’ve seen something as spiritually cleansing as the early Ray films.) Melodrama – or even drama – this is not.
And that won’t do for Priyadarshan. Under the guise of broadening (or making palatable) Majidi’s gentle fable for the (apparently) masala-mad Indian masses, he gooses the scenario with frissons of thunder-and-lightning drama. He throws in a rape attempt, terrorist attacks (better suited to something named Bomb Bomb Bole, you’d think), a spectacularly ill-placed song item by one of those ubiquitous bands of gypsies that always snakes into bad movies – he does everything short of having an anvil fall out of the clear blue sky onto the hapless father’s head. (The family of four is played by Atul Kulkarni, Rituparna Sengupta, Darsheel Safary and the adorable Ziya Vastani. The latter delivers the film’s sole creditable performance, never mind that the billing is hogged by the child-star of Taare Zameen Par. He even gets an attention-grabbing freeze-frame in his “introduction shot,” underscored by an overblown violin swell that suggests he’s either ascending to the heavens or about to burst into ballet, or perhaps both.)
And in the tangle of these myriads strands of plot, Priyadarshan forgets what was at the core of the earlier film – the sheer desperation of children to whom losing a pair of shoes is as monumental a disaster as, say, a World War for grown-ups. Priyadarshan, once, knew how to spin stories of desperation – even the comedy of Hera Pheri was grounded in the tragedy of have-nots. But after years of committing to louder-is-better Akshay Kumar vehicles, he’s forgotten how to whisper. (Was Kanchivaram, then, a fluke?) And isn’t it time he learned to situate his screenplays (at least the ones that aim to be realistic) in a recognisable anyplace? His locations, as always, are at odds with his locutions. The father, at one point, sighs, “Khali dimaag shaitan ka ghar! Bhagwan ko hi sooli pe chadha diya!” A concerned onlooker ventures, after an accident, “Suna teri cycle ke bhi barah baj gaye?” And this, my favourite, from a police officer interrogating a terrorist-suspect: “Hukka paani kiske saath tha?” Then again, maybe this is really cause for comfort, that in the absence of virtually any positives there’s at least the opportunity to guffaw at inadvertent humour.
Copyright ©2010 The New Sunday Express. This article may not be reproduced in its entirety without permission. A link to this URL, instead, would be appreciated.
avan
May 15, 2010
Sorry off-topic. There’s an interview of lyricist Thamarai on Indiaglitz. Your interview? Syncs very much with your previous post on her.
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Padawan
May 16, 2010
Avan: Can you please provide us the link? Thanks.
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avan
May 16, 2010
here you go
http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/gallery/events/22135.html
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brangan
May 16, 2010
avan: I thought you were talking about an article (which they reprinted or something). This is a video interview. Not mine dude.
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Rahul
May 17, 2010
I have no intention of watching a Priyadarshan movie,even if it is inspired by Children of Heaven, but wanted to say that I found COH itself to be a tad overrated.Just the absence of cliches does not a good movie make. When you peel off the cuteness and innocence and a kind of realism tinted with the feel good colors of nostalgia,there is not much of a fundamental exposition about life left to savor or reflect.
Its very much a one note movie.
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Shankar
May 17, 2010
Maybe this should have been “Bummer Bummer Bole”!! 🙂
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brangan
May 17, 2010
Rahul: I do agree with you, in general, about Iranian cinema. With the exception of the “severe” filmmakers like Kiarostami, the rest fall into a predictably warm-cuddly homespun spectrum. However, that too is a function of cinema-as-entertainment, IMO (and they appeal to us, especially, because we love heart-tuggers).
Here’s something I wrote about Iranian cinema in general (Is anyone, for instance, really surprised by Iranian cinema anymore, now that we’ve identified the key styles and the key concerns). And here’s something about Majidi in particular (the last para, where I wrote about his “minimalist manipulation”).
Shankar: Ah, a man with that kind of sense of humour! Don’t let Priti or Bala catch you 🙂
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Bala
May 17, 2010
@Shankar : mokkai thaangale saar ! 😀
@baradwaj : we have a spidey sense for PJs , nothing escapes us 😛
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Just Another Film Buff
May 17, 2010
BR: Do you mean to say that Iranian cinema has exhausted itself or its thematic concerns are all out for us to see. Surely, you aren’t making that decision based on Majidi alone?
Majidi is the most un-Iranian of all their filmmakers, in a way. A very conservative and safe international player. See how all the trouble and drama in COH is de-politicized (All his films do the same, EVEN the potentially sensitive Baran). He strips the film of political identity to such an extent that all Priyan had to do was dub the film. COH is the perfect movie to remake. And any wise director remaking it should ground it back to his/her national politics. Priyan seems to have tried that but with disastrous results.
I’d say Iran has given the most exciting cinema of the decade, followed by China. I don’t understand what you mean by “severe” and which (internationally renowned) directors you mean when you say “the rest fall into a predictably warm-cuddly homespun spectrum”
The Shah’s regime saw some great Iranian films because the Shah, I guess, wasn’t that strict with cultural expression compared to the Islamists (who, BTW, have done Iranian cinema a whole lot good too) I’d also say that the most exciting period for Iranian cinema is only ahead.
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Rahul
May 17, 2010
BR the first link in your post is not working. This film is thematically similar to Bicycle Thief which i like immensely but why I lost interest in this one midway, I am not sure.
JAFB,I also don’t know what to make of picking Majidi as a typical Iranian director, since I am aware of the work of a total of 3 Iranian directors.The most I like among them is Jafar Panahi.There may be a similarity in technique(with other Iranian directors) but there are a lot more things going on in his movies than say Majidis and it is harder to categorize.
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brangan
May 17, 2010
JAFB/Rahul: I just meant that Majidi has come to define — among the general viewing public — the type of Iranian cinema that’s what most people refer to when they talk of films from the country — the sort of fable-like easy-to-follow account that brings a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye. And I think his sentimental approach is what makes his films so popular, even if hardcore cinephiles may sneer at them.
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Just Another Film Buff
May 17, 2010
BR/Rahul: That is exactly the problem with calling Majidi an “Iranian” director. It’s kind of like calling Spielberg an “American” director.
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Rahul
May 17, 2010
The link is working! Dunno what was wrong before.
Off topic: I saw VTV the other day and liked it a lot. I think the uneven treatment that you complain of(cheesy song sequences etc.) actually suits this movie since it is an uneven love story. We are more appreciative of the complex bits in the story because the characters and the script has retained its typicality in many places.
My favorite scene was the one in the movie theater- “Are you watching the movie or we can talk?” He says “Yes we can talk..”.. but his eyes are still fixed on the screen! I think Trisha did a great job..her character has the ambiguity and complexity which this movie required and yet she maintained quite a constant graph.
Have you seen the telegu version? How is it?
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Suresh
May 17, 2010
Discussing about Iranian cinema makes us sound ‘intellectual’. So he is my attempt at being one 🙂
I would agree with Rahul that COH was not too great and as Baradwaj says it is manipulative in a different sense.
I haven’t watched Jaffer Panahi but having watched Makmalbaf and Kiaristomi, I must say I have become a die hard fan of Kiaristomi. Loved most of his films that I have seen. I though ‘Under the Olive Trees’ was probably one of the funniest movies that I watched. Similarly, the very realistic climax court scene in ‘Closeup’ was thrilling. The way Kiaristomi is able to take everyday situations and transform them into something wonderful is unmatched. There is something very human in his cinema which I find missing in lot of hyped up movies.
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Suresh
May 17, 2010
Baradwaj,
Sorry for the multiple postings. Can you delete the first one please?
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vivek
May 17, 2010
BR: I think COH was a turning point for Iran’s cinema. It was perhaps the first instance where a serious film-watcher could recommend an Iranian film to a more general audience. Much of Iran’s cinema seems to have drawn from Makhmalbaf’s style of understated film-making and COH hit jackpot, ticking all necessary boxes. You look at Samira Makhmalbaf’s films and even Majidi’s later ones and you feel that template got stale quickly. Of course, Kiarostami was on a different, more fruitful path.
But even if Children of Heaven were to have no such context to worry about, it would remain a very good film and a dubbed version would definitely have worked.
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Shankar
May 17, 2010
Baddy, what kind of humor are you referring to? An innocent comment being misinterpreted by twisted minds…what has the world come to!! 🙂 That is a bummer!
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