malik-14 Reviews

The Touch (1980)

Sparsh—The Touch

[25 February 2005]

Sai Paranjape's films always deal with situations and characters, which one can easily identify with, and her 'Sparsh' is a nostalgic movie. The film upholds an important principle that the disabled want to live independently, to be accorded the dignity and respect other sectors of society are granted.They don't want sympathy, rather they want and need normal behaviour towards them.

Anirudh Parmar (Naseerudin Shah), a visually impaired young man, runs a school for the blind as a principal.He works towards making his students self-reliant and hates the society for pitying people like him.One evening, at a party, he meets Kavita (Shabana Azmi), a young widow, and offers her to teach in his school.

Reluctant at first, Kavita eventually joins the school. She starts enjoying the company of the blind children and they too feel comfortable with her. Gradually, Anirudh and Kavita fall in love and get engaged. However, after some time, Anirudh starts having doubts whether this marriage is going to succeed. He feels he is being demeaned, and pitied, and hence breaks their engagement. He even tells Kavita not to come to school anymore.However, Kavita, who really has love for blind children, translates famous stories for them in brail. Will Anirudh realize her passion and take her for what she is?

A method artist, Naseeruddin Shah studied the behavioral characteristics of blind and came up with an amazing performance, winning himself the National Award for Best Actor.

Apart from critical appreciation,'Sparsh' also won 3 Filmfare Awards.

(Best Director— Sai Paranjape Best Dialogue—Sai Paranjape Best Film—Basu Bhattacharya)

This was back in the 1970's, when Naseerudin Shah was heralded as one of the leading lights of the parallel cinema.His principal of a blind school, who forms a life-affirming relationship with Kavita, left a lasting impression.

Paranjape made a sincere attempt to tell both sides of the story, with a rare unsentimental equilibrium, dealing with the complexes embedded in the minds of both the characters.

Madhumati (1958)

Madhumati—Love never dies!

[25 February 2005]

Tinged with whimsy, 'Madhumati' is a primeval tale of reincarnation, with retribution and eternal love. Bimal Roy, a poet of light and shadow, draws you in with sheer lyricism. Cinema here is more than just the telling of a story.

On a stormy night, Devendra (Dilip Kumar) and his friend (Tarun Bose), who are on their way to railway station, take shelter in a creepy and deserted mansion. Exploring the house, Devendra finds a painting of its former owner, Raja Ugaranarayan, and feels he has painted the portrait.

This cues a flashback to his previous life as Anand, when he worked as a foreman on a timber plantation, owned by Raja Ugaranarayan (Pran).In the hauntingly beautiful jungle, he sees Madhumati (Vyjantimala), a beautiful village belle, and falls for her elemental appeal.

Initially her father, the Pan Raja (Jayant) disapproves of their relationship, but when Anand vows to marry her, everything works well. But, the wicked Ugarnarayan casts his evil eye on Madhumati. When Pan Raja goes to the city, Ugaranarayan arranges for Anand to visit a nearby village. And then the news of Anand's accident reaches Madhumati, and she rushes to the mansion, little knowing that this is a plan to trap her…

'Madhumati' won 9 Filmfare Awards.

(Best Art Director—Sudhendu Roy, Best Cinematographer—Dilip Gupta

Best Dialogue Writer—Rajinder Singh Bedi, Best Director—Bimal Roy

Best Editor—Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Best Film—Bimal Roy

Best Music Director—Salil Choudhury, Best Playback Singer – Female—Lata Mangeshkar For the song 'Aaja Re Pardesi,' Best Supporting Actor—Johnny Walker)

Vyjantimala is excellent, and Dilip Kumar's convincing turn at befuddlement, earnestness and fascination anchors our belief in the events.

The story, punctuated by plenty of dark cloudbursts, sustains its suspense through complications that include a flashback within the flashback a train wreck in the frame story, and no less than three different embodiments of the heroine.The film deploys an eerily romantic atmosphere, enhanced by Salil Choudhury's background score and Hrishikesh Mukherjee's editing.

The imagery evokes passion, linking the beautiful Madhumati with nature and tribal cultures, beyond the grasp of capitalist appropriation.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? — A crucial event in the birth of contemporary American theater.

[24 February 2005]

'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' a famous and shocking black comedy, is based on Edward Albee's scandalous play of the same name. First performed in New York in October of 1962, it captured the New York Drama Critics Circle Award and the Tony Award for the 1962-63 season.

A well-constructed piece of work, having philosophical significance in context of the drama of the absurd, it mingles the reality with fantasy to present a savagely satirical attack on spiritual sterility, conformity, hypocrisy and the deep feeling of the tragedy of alienation.

We are introduced to George (Richard Burton), a middle-aged history professor, and his acerbic wife, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor).The movie presents an all-night drinking bout of the couple, joined by a vacuous biology professor, Nick (George Seagal), and his wife, Honey (Sandy Dennis).Through the verbal torturing of one another, George and Martha eventually achieve catharsis by exercising their fixation about a nonexistent son.

George and Martha, the older couple, had created an imaginary son to sustain themselves. At first drawn together in their horror, Nick and Honey soon find themselves sucked into the spiral of buried resentments and unspoken rage.Yet as the seemingly perfect marriage of Nick and Honey begins to reveal its many flaws, George and Martha find their own twisted bond within the mutual rancor…

Nominated for 13 Categories,the movie won 5 Oscars.(Best Actress in a Leading Role—Elizabeth Taylor, Best Actress in a Supporting Role—Sandy Dennis, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration— Richard Sylbert, George James Hopkins, Best Cinematography— Haskell Wexler, Best Costume Design—Irene Sharaff).

The performances are brilliant. The on screen chemistry between former real-life couple Taylor and Burton adds sparks to Ernest Lehman's tight script. Haskell Wexler's phenomenal black-and-white cinematography only heightens the emotions on this non-stop two-hour roller coaster. The title of the play was taken from a one-time popular song, 'Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?' An exploration of the myth of the American Dream, it impresses us as an exquisite piece, illustrating the significant place of illusion in modern American life. The personal failures of the characters represent the failure of a culture, and the unborn son is symbolic of the American dream of the fulfillment and happiness.The metaphor certainly reaches beyond the immediate to the American scene in general, and the film successfully communicates the ethos of artificiality.

The technical dexterity of organizing incidents into a close-knit fabric of emotion and action is superb, and that's what makes this one a gem in American theater.

Great Expectations (1946)

Great Expectations—Dickens' Classic! Lean's Masterpiece!

[24 February 2005]

In this adaptation of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, director David Lean pares back the subplots presenting a leaner, streamlined version of the novel.

The story follows a young orphan, Pip (Anthony Wager), who is living with his shrewd sister and her good-hearted blacksmith husband.One day, while talking to his mother's grave, he is caught by a dangerous convict, Magwitch (Finlay Currie), who persuades him to get food for him.

He is also made to visit one Miss Havisham (Martita Hunt), who has confined herself to a musty and oppressive tomb, after her to-be-husband never showed up. The old woman has adopted a girl, Estella (Valerie Hobson), and Pip falls instantly in love with her.

As time goes by, Pip grows-up to become a fine gentleman (John Mills) and works as a blacksmith's apprentice, until one day, due to the efforts of an unknown benefactor, Pip is taken by a lawyer, Mr Jaggers (Francis L. Sullivan), and set on a course of social advancement in London.

Once in London, Pip shares his apartment with elegant young Herbert Pocket (Alec Guinness), who teaches Pip the ways of gentlemen.All the way, Pip believes that Miss Havisham is his benefactor, and that he is being groomed to marry Estella.

But Miss Havisham has brought her up for one purpose only – to break hearts. As if it was not enough, Pip comes to know who his real benefactor is…

The movie won 2 Oscars, out of its 5 nominations.

{Best Art Direction-Set Decoration— John Bryan, Wilfred Shingleton

Best Cinematography— Guy Green}

'Great Expectations' stands No. 5 in the British Film Institutes' list of top 100 movies!

Francis L. Sullivan as Jaggers cuts an imposing figure, dismissive of his social inferiors, yet fair-minded and direct with Pip. Director Lean deftly represents Dickens' disdain for the iniquities of Victorian society.The sterile upper class frivolity in London stands effectively in ironic contrast to the honesty and earthiness of country life.

Lean brings Dickens' classic set pieces to life – Pip's encounter with Magwitch in the churchyard, Pip's first meeting with the mad Miss Havisham and the ghoulish atmosphere in Mr. Jaggers' office, whose walls are decorated with the death masks of clients, he has lost to the gallows.He makes us care about the characters, and casts a cinematic spell,bringing into play a powerful visual narrative that hints at big themes and elemental forces!