• "Patang," by Prashant Bhargava
I visited India only once, for less than two weeks, but I left a part of my heart there. I can't say I know it well, but I know how it made me feel, and it seemed impossibly exotic and absolutely comfortable at the same time: I was curiously at home in a strange land.
At an event in my hotel, I met a police chief's wife, who invited me to her home for dinner. Just like that. The families seemed to function in the ways of families I knew. The fact that so many people in this far-away land spoke English made it more accessible to me. I loved the way so much of the talk circled around philosophy. I developed a particular love of the exuberant music, colors, scents and tastes. It occurred to me that no women can fail to look well-dressed in a sari.
But these are all superficial tourist truisms. I have learned more in my reading, but so could you. It's in the movies where I find sensual and instinctive insights. I like Bollywood, and the classicism of Ray, but there's one area of Indian films I've missed, or remain ignorant of: The low-budget indie scene. Sometimes, all over the world, such films are freed of the lockstep of plot and have a better feeling for the thing itself.A new film named "Patang" in this year's Chicago Film Festival opened a new world for me. It plunges head-first into a family based in Ahmedabad, where India's largest annual kite festival is celebrated. It reflects the way Indians live in each other's pockets (to borrow the the British expression). Homes and businesses, temples and roadways, are all crowded close together, neighbors know one another, and it's all held together by a network of the most baffling and chaotic traffic in the world.
This film is joyous, but more than that: It's lovely in its construction. The director, Prashant Bhargava, born and raised in Chicago, knows what his basic story line is, but reveals it subtly. The story in outline would be simple enough for a made-for-TV movie. There is nothing simple about "Patang." The bare bones of the story: An affluent uncle from Delhi named Jayesh (Mukund Shukla) pays a much-delayed visit back home to his family in Ahmedabad, bringing along his daughter Priya (Sugandha Garg), who hasn't seen these relatives in years. He meets his mother (Seema Biswas), his grandmother Ba (Pannaben Soni), and his nephew--the son of his brother, who died of a heart attack. The nephew, Chakku (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) resents the way this distant man descends grandly on the small town relatives and feels he has the right to make suggestions and changes. There are many more details, but that's all I choose to reveal.The story line becomes fully clear only towards the end. In form "Patang" looks almost like a cinema verite documentary of this family, surrounded by the city and the kite festival. Although it was years in the making, many key shots were obtained during the festival itself, and we see the skies over the city filled with thousands of dancing, dueling kites, as every single rooftop is occupied by people. Below in the streets, bands, fireworks and food vendors create a tumult. There is a little romantic subplot, involving the daughter from Delhi and Bobby (Aakash Maherya), who begin a flirtation on the rooftop and continue it during a motorbike ride.
The family house itself is a character, and there are a few extended shots of its graceful, playful architecture and happy colors. Many interiors involve a photograph of the dead brother, whose soul seems to inhabit it. Meals are prepared and shared on a table in the street. The food looks delicious; fingers are often used. People are teased to perform songs. Gossip and chatter run wild. No attempt is made to lay all this out logically; indeed, we only gradually come to know who the characters are. It's clear enough, but not underlined and pounded home.
We meet a young boy named Hamid (Hamid Shaikh), who is delegated by a kitemaker to deliver a parcel of kites to this family home on the big day. His mission ends badly. A search goes up for Hamid. Meanwhile, on a bridge, Priya and Bobby begin a flirtation. Both are good looking. Her eyes dance with merriness. They've been together a few hours. In a lesser film, this would be a love story with a happy ending. "But Bobby," she says, "we hardly know each other. Do you expect me to leave behind thousands of friends in Delhi?"
He does. Now watch carefully. Their flirtatious conversation is filmed in close ups and closer-ups. The effect is intimate and sensual. In one shot only, cigarette smoke coils from her mouth. We never otherwise see her smoking This establishes in a moment that she is more worldly than the boy. She kisses him, but that will be that: This is only a few-days visit.Back at home, the frenzy of the kite-flying takes over. We learn that the kite strings are coated with powdered glass, and the idea is to cut another kite out of the sky and rule the clouds. This is never explained in so many words. We have to observe for ourselves that the kite-fliers protect their fingertips with tape. Such facts are embedded in the film, to be discovered in context. So is the mystery of the nephew's resentment, which is explained obliquely by indirect dialogue. We are immersed in the life and sort it out for ourselves. The effect is curiously like being invited into this home and learning while we stay.
Prashant Bhargava was born and raised on the South Side of Chicago, went to grade school and the Kenwood Academy. How did his background produce such a lovely and successful indie film in India? From my point of view, the story begins about 25 years ago, when his father, Vijay Bhargava, started taking my film class at the University of Chicago's downtown extension division. Vijay was smart, affable, good company. He always saved a seat for me in the back row. During the complete silent features of Buster Keaton, we worked our way through oatmeal raisin cookies and peach Snapple. He loved movies, knew a lot about them, and when I was going to the Calcutta Film Festival he set me up with his cousin, who showed me all over town, including the Victoria Memorial, an architectural wedding cake that he regarded with a certain pleasure, considering Victoria had once appointed herself Empress of India.Last week I was signing my book at Barnes & Noble at Webster Place. Since I can't speak, I like to shake everyone's hand before a signing. There in the line was Vijay! I hadn't seen him since before my surgery in 2006. He introduced me to his son, Prashant, who had made a film that played at the Berlin and Tribeca festivals, and others. They gave me a DVD. I brought it home and was delighted by it.
Prashant told me his dad spent over 25 years working in the administration of Michael Reese Hospital. "After 20 years of attending your class and supporting my career as a director and designer, he has taken up acting!" he told me. "He has taken over 25 classes at Chicago's Act One Studios. He is a gardener as well, and recently completed a master gardening course at UIC."
As for his mother, Ranjana Bhargava, who catered the meals of the cast and crew of his film: "For over 35 years, Ranjana has spearheaded efforts to serve the needs of women, immigrants and other marginalized communities in Chicago. She has led and managed numerous non-profit organizations, including Apna Ghar, a domestic violence shelter serving predominantly Asian women and families. She now teaches vegetarian Indian cooking on the south side of Chicago in our home."
Prashant attended Cornell, majored in computing, moved into film titles, music videos and live action commercials. "The seeds for the movie 'Patang' were based on the memories of my uncles dueling kites," he said. "In India kite flying transcends boundaries. Rich or poor, Hindu or Muslim, young or old -- together they look towards the sky with wonder, thoughts and doubts forgotten. Kite flying is meditation in its simplest form.
"In 2005, I visited Ahmedabad to experience their annual kite festival, the largest in India. When I first witnessed the entire city on their rooftops, staring up at the sky, their kites dueling ferociously, dancing without inhibition, I knew I had to make this film in Ahmedabad."
Prashant with his mother, sister Anurima, and father.
And so he did. "Inspired by the spiritual energy of the festival," he told me, "I returned the next three years, slowly immersing myself in the ways of the old city. I became acquainted with its unwritten codes of conduct, its rhythms and secrets. I would sit on a street corner for hours at a stretch and just observe. Over time, I connected with shopkeepers and street kids, gangsters and grandmothers. This process formed the foundation for my characters, story and my approach to shooting the film.
"I found myself discovering stories within Ahmedabad's old city that intrigued me. Fractured relationships, property disputes, the meaning of home and the spirit of celebration were recurring themes that surfaced. The film's joyful message and its cinematic magic developed organically. My desire was for the sense of poetry and aesthetics to be less of an imposed perspective and more of a view that emerged from the pride of the people and place."
And that's what happens. His film took three years of research, was seven years in the making, had 90% non-actors, improvised its takes based on the script. And it flies as free and colorfully as a kite.
PATANG - Preview Trailer from Khushi Films on Vimeo.
Q&A: Director Prashant Bhargava and producer Jaideep Punjabi at the
Tribeca Film FestivalPost Screening PATANG Q & A at Tribeca from Khushi Films on Vimeo.
Roger,
Thank you for inspiring my dad and me! Touched deeply.
Prashant
www.facebook.com/patangfilm
Ebert: You made a lovely film.
The film comes alive with your description, and you have a way of interjecting your life experiences that just make it accessible. I watched the trailer and would really like to see this movie. Is there any chance that it will ever get screen time in theaters in and around the Boston area?
Sounds like a delightful film. I've only seen a handful of Indian movies. I like the ones which are not in the Bollywood romance style with it's choreographed dance routines and sing-alongs. My foreign film tastes are more Japanese and Chinese, but I should certainly broaden my horizons to include India. Isn't it the biggest film industry in the world? If not, it must be very close to the top.
I remember attending a kite festival about ten years ago. There was an 'expert kite flyer' working the crowd. He had a large, very expensive looking kite. It must have been ten feet across with glistening wings and lots of wires. In fact, he had at least four wires leading to his hands. It was more like a flying puppet then a kite.
He had such control of his kite, he would swoop it down into the crowd and have it stop on a dime just above someone's head. They wouldn't even notice, but everyone else did. Then he'd flip the kite sideways and with the very tip of the wing - tickle the hair/hat/shoulder of the 'victim'. We, the crowd, love'd it. When the person turned around to see who the culprit was the kite would blast away skyward in a flash and then come down to some other person. He had all sorts of tricks. He would almost animate his kite and make it appear playful, or shy, or excited. Fun stuff.
Intriguing review, of sorts, Roger. I'm putting this film on 'the list'.
Thank you, Roger. The universal appeal of kites, their sometimes graceful and sometimes comical flights, make them a natural background for a film. And what astonishing colors permeate everyday life for all the peoples in India!
As a second generation Indian American, I have great appreciation for this post, and for the effort this young filmmaker took to get the movie right. I think it's a shame, although perhaps inevitable, that Indian movies, especially Bollywood movies, are treated as interesting oddities by most of the American public. I remember that I once responded to your review of Monsoon
Wedding by thanking you for avoiding the use of the dreaded word "exotic", which always carries the "inscrutable foreign" connotation with it. I wish we got to see more movies here that could simply be transpositions of American movies, rather than overblown musicals.
I hereby issue a worldwide APB for Indian Idiot (H.W). You're comments are requested for this entry.
P.S: Here's a cool version of our mutually favorite Cohen. It includes the written lyrics.
Leonard Cohen-By the rivers dark
youtube.com/watch/?v=gEsNn4NK3T0
Denver Idiot (J.L.)
I hereby issue a worldwide APB for Indian Idiot (H.W). Your comments are requested for this entry.
P.S: Here's a cool version of our mutually favorite Cohen song. It includes the written lyrics.
Leonard Cohen-By the rivers dark
youtube.com/watch/?v=gEsNn4NK3T0
Denver Idiot (J.L.)
Never seen no kite herearound in a billion years. Nor is it Roger's Dreamland. I'll have to read this whole thing sometime.
Kites are a joy! I remember my kite flying away from me when I was in the second grade. The string just slipped through my fingers and the kite sailed away to sea. That was 1953 in Los Angeles. Some time in the seventies a friend and I went on a moon light hike in the Smoky Mountains. We hiked up to Rock Top. The last stretch of the trail was in the light of a huge moon. It was so bright our shadows were giants on the trees behind us. At the top we flew a plastic kite into the darkness. We simply hear it rattling in the wind above our heads. This past summer I found a red biplane kite at the thrift store for $5. I plan to buy some string and take my husband out for some kite flying time; perhaps in the Smokies. I cannot wait to see Patang. I imagine it may never come to Knoxville TN, but I will hope.
Apologies for the off topicness, but:
Roger, I've been told of an Apple event in the mid-late 1980s where you and Gene Siskel rated Apple Commercials. Does a video of said event exist?
Ebert: Yes, we did. No video that I know of.
After reading this, I was inspired to write an online friend that I had lost track of over time. I remember her telling me about how they flew kites on a certain holiday. I thought that was an excellent way of celebrating, and I told her so at the time. However, I never imagined they did it from the roof tops. Thinking as an American, I automatically imagined them going out into the country, to parks like we would.
From what you describe of this movie, it and others like it are a real blessing. I wonder if everyone else in the world is as ignorant of how we live as we are of how they live. It's really a shame that we don't know more about each others cultures.
This is terrific, Roger. You've captured, on the one hand, the joy of ethnography (yes, many of us believe there is such a thing) and, on the other, the intense pleasure of appreciating a well constructed work of art. Thanks.
Dear Sir, Am a movie fan and greatly benefit from your reviews. Thanks a ton. Hoping that this movie is released in India too
Wanted to suggest a hindi movie Raincoat for your viewing pleasure.
IMDB link is as under
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405266/
Thanks once again for your wonderful reviews.
Your patronizing sentimentality is much appreciated... you are doing your mite to promote the tourism aggressive..you might even get an award from our side..
Ebert: I did not intend to patronize, old friend. Please point out my transgressions. I'm very serious. I want to learn.
Well, I know no one's is interested in reading my emails. But I think this one might be of interest because it's directly related to this blog. I mentioned earlier writing an online friend in India, with whom I had lost touch. Here's her reply. I hope it adds to the thread:
>>It's so nice to hear from you after so long. And it's really generous of you to think of me when your friend told you about the kites...:)
And there are two holidays where we fly kites, the major one being the makar sankranti which is celebrated on the 14th of january each year. The other one is our independence day.
It is really fascinating to see the sky like that, covered in different amazing bright colors. It gives the sky a new life. Though I have always been really clumsy at flying kites and I always end up losing mine in the sky, I still love the festival a lot...:)..
And yes, mostly people fly their kites from their roof tops, it gives them a better angling with the wind or something. Sadly, many people especially kids end up losing their lives when they fall down from the roofs or their string of the kite gets tangled with a live electric wire and they get an electric shock...:(
One of my classmates in grade 2 was a victim to it. He is no more.
Yet, it is one of the most beautiful festivals in India, especially in the state of Gujarat and Maharashtra, given the safety and precautions are kept in consideration.
hope everything is good on your side..
Plz do tell me how are you and how are things going...:)
and yeah...keep in touch...:)
bie...
: )
"..Please point out my transgressions..."
Nothing, really. Commenting on your blog has become a minor addiction while fishing for the occasional rejoinder, like this. Transgression wise, perhaps a monotony has set in your blog and this one was somehow slightly off putting like being shown a mirror and finding a stranger there. India may not belong to me but I have a shareholder's claim. To take away the ugliness from the beauty is also to belittle, as could be said of US too. Two weeks in the company of senior bureaucrats and a movie or two made by Americans who merely look like us locals is a long way from. No one to sentimentalize the "homeland" like the offspring of fresh immigrants.
It's great to be learning in ripe years. It is edifying to interact with a highly intelligent individual from a universe as different as it is the same. But I think you are much more set in your ways than I am. Because of the long acquaintance, perhaps I grant myself the liberty of expressing myself more plainly than politely.
Wishing you a long life in continued vigor of body and mind.
Ebert: I tried to be clear that I was no expert, only a tourist. I could have added one of those routine paragraphs about the poverty of India, but that wasn't what was on my mind when I wrote it.
DearER,
Your appreciation of Patang ignites my memory of Ahmedabad where I had been a couple of years back as a jury in a film fest.
Fortunately I had to stay in the old city of Ahmedabad in a heritage hotel made out of a Purana Haveli (age-old mansion) of 200 years old !
This blog of yours, inter alia, fondly recalls your visit to my little home in Calcutta. And the most beautiful memories that you locked in forever in your camera !.. I distinctly remember the way you sat on floor (considering your the then volume :)) to taste a little bit of traditional Bengali food, including "rosogolla" the sweet, in the traditional way, on a banana leaf. It seems just like the other day. To me. Still. And the way you praised the 4 yards length sari that my wife wore. And our little daughter danced to your joy ! And how you appreciated my efforts for the Subrata Mitra Retro for the Cal Film Fest.
And your comments while traveling through the city roads on a huge car, provided by the fest, without noticing a single accident on such a congested city.
Only 12 years have passed.
More to come.
From India.
From YOU.
Love & regards.
sanjoy
Ebert: Dear Sanjoy, I will NEVER forget that visit and your family! And how we walked there through streets crowded with life, where many people knew one another. It was an experience of lifetime.
It's so amazingly nostalgic as I read thru this essay.
In fact, I am visiting Ahmedabad - my hometown - in January when the kite festival is celebrated on 14 & 15. I extended my trip just to make sure that I don't miss it. Such joys (along with Holi, Diwali, Navratri) are priceless and near impossible to replicate in other parts of the world.
Thanks for this Roger (just like your other writings...). It's always a delight...
(On a side note: my dad is one of the finest kite-flier I have ever seen in action. If I do get a video, I will share it on my facebook - you are on my friends list).
perhaps a monotony has set in your blog
Myself, I think this is the least 'monotonous' blog thread that Roger has made in a while. But they usually seem like what a presonal blog ought to be. Roger writes about people he likes, Tilda, the book he just published, movies he likes, etc.
I've never been much good at blogging, preferring the world of ideas over everyday life.
And I think everyone can learn if they really apply themselves. I've been making an effort to reply to specifics in the entries. Hope I've succeeded, Roger. I also hope that the email from my friend in India is posted, because I do think it pertains to your entry -- and she's someone who was born there and seems enthusiastic about her country. (In case it's bothering you, in the email, she said, "your friend". I simply said, "someone told me." But I didn't see any reason to alter the email.)
Anyway, I enjoyed this thread very much. I didn't think there was a boring sentence in it.
"....I tried to be clear that I was no expert...."
The fault is on my side. My apology. To be asinine is human.
Ebert: Yes, and to be human is divine!
Excellent post. I feel like unless my wife has a serious change of heart (about it or me), I'll probably visit India via the cinema. Patang looks extraordinary, and I can't wait to see it. I've been taken with the films of Ray and Nair, though I've tried and failed to get through Bollywood productions (David Bordwell notes the repetitive structure--A Star, Six Songs, and Three Dances--and it holds true. I read every post, Mr. Ebert. Thanks for your passion and compassion. I look forward to reading your memoir and your Video Companions were the motivating inspiration for my passion for cinema. Thanks. 50percentfinished.wordpress.com
Twitter: 50percentfinish
I shall notify HW forthwith. However, he's just got married and may be busily occupied.
I've got invitations, but India frightens me... having grown up in an overcrowded family.
And this, too. I can't high-step like this:
http://www.wimp.com/indiapakistan
And the really funny part is when they get their heads shot off.
Well, Agent Miller, if Roger's blogs weren't music to me I'd stop reading in a moment or two. Even the "evolution" blogs. Anybody who doesn't hear the melodic literary variations this guy uses, no matter what the subject, is tone deaf and ought to see somebody about that.
And although I'm having trouble making a decent enemy of you, it's because you yourself nearly know the song.
Just to clarify, so many people in India speak English because it's an official language of the country along with Hindi. Language was a major obstacle to Indian unification and independence, a problem inadvertently assuaged through the teaching of English by British imperialists. Hundreds of languages are spoken throughout India, but English tends to be the language of commerce and research. It's even becoming more common on Devon Avenue.
it's because you yourself nearly know the song.
~~~~~~
Sigh.
And what song is that?
And by the way, I'm determined that you're not going to get my goat, which actually wouldn't make too bad of a title for a song: "Your Not Gonna Get My Goat."
Uhm, you do know that the "perhaps a monotony has set in your blog" was a quote? I bolded it, but the bolds aren't as bolded as they once were, so they don't stand out as well. Plus I suppose I should've used quotation marks.
But anyway, "Agent Miller" is attempting some self-improvement. How about you? (And no, bragging about how mean you can be is not the kind of improvement I'm talking about. Granted, it's an improvement -- just not a desirable one.) I only bring that up because I read you bragging about being able to Twitter meaness better than anyone else a couple of weeks ago.
For anyone who is interested in knowing more about Indian movies beyond the formulaic Bollywood fare, I can suggest a list of personal favorites. These movies would reveal more about living in India than a guided tour through the country lasting 12 months as I feel they have captured the essence of living somewhere in India.
While I may not be a good judge of the artistic perfection achieved by the films, I can wholeheartedly say that every one of these films moved me, in some way.
1. Khosla ka Ghosla
2. Udaan
3. Black Friday
4. Phas Gaya Re Obama (not on imdb)
5. Peepli Live
These movies are in no way perfect, but in their own unique ways, they will let you catch glimpses of the joy and agony of living in India. Read up the summaries and give them a go, if you feel up to it!
What do you mean "and what song is that," Miller? That's why you only nearly mean it.
Yes I know it was SM Rana's quote.
"..old friend...I'm very serious. I want to learn...."
So am I. Because "there are promises to keep." Time presses. Being friends is a burden of responsibility. But I shall not go on and on.
Who am I to teach? You are a savant and on the genius scale (f* Nabokov, god bless him) and I could hardly have been even a contender, if it mattered much. Moreover, you have been doubly blessed to be forged and purified on the crucible of suffering. Yet the Genie of Natural Selection, like the deity of the New Testament, at times takes seemingly arbitrary pity on the humble peasant more than the illustrious. I was drawn to you and in my clumsy way tried to communicate and finding obduracy, a note of disrespect or pique may have crept in, more to gain your attention in I realize a foredoomed attempt to communicate, than to draw it to myself. Not least you being a public figure and this site a public place. We are separated by continents, geographically and spiritually, if not not intellectually.
I am nothing much but I have been fortunate to encounter great teachers. They have taught me the Great Questions, and a way to address, if not answer them. The good old "Who am I? Where from? Whereto?" And death. Without raising or grappling with these, the rest, movies included, is flotsam and jetsam. You on the other hand have adopted a POV based on the TOE which reduces life to botany. With the greatest respect, in my most humble opinion and belief, this is severely inadequate constrictive a foundation for a viable philosophy for everyday living.
Ones posture and attitude to death ( I wish there was a nicer, less unpleasantly loaded term for it) determines one's attitude to time and in the way we live the present moment.
.."C. G. Jung said, "From the middle of life onward, only he remains vitally alive who is ready to die with life." [C. G. Jung, The Meaning of Death (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., 1959), p. 6.] Jung's remark probably originated from his belief that the latter half of one's life is especially important. In a way, however, to be ready to "die with life" may be necessary throughout one's lifetime. Perhaps we can say that only those with such a determination will prove to have lived a truly vital life.
.."In his study, "The Relation between Life and Death, Living and Dying," Dr. Toynbee wrote: " 'In the midst of life we are in death.' From the moment of birth there is the constant possibility that a human being may die at any moment; and inevitably this possibility is going to become an accomplished fact sooner or later. Ideally, every human being ought to live each passing moment of his life as if the next moment were going to be his last." Although conceding that perhaps it may be too difficult for any human being to live permanently on this ideal level, he went on to say, "What can be said with assurance is that, the closer a human being can come to attaining this ideal state of heart and mind, the better and happier he or she will be." [Man's Concern with Death ed. Arnold Toynbee (London: Hodder and Stoughton Ltd., 1968), p. 259.]"..Daisaku Ikeda
and
"..If in a single moment of life we exhaust the pains and trials of millions of aeons, then instant after instant there will arise in us the three Buddha bodies with which we are eternally endowed.."Nichiren
Wishing you lots of creative writing and wonderful movies, friend!
"..And the really funny part is when they get their heads shot off..."Tom Dark
Cross fingers it doesn't get too funny..
Why, Donald. I am never mean. Didn't I write that? Is it not written, "Mean, I never am?"
There are ambidextrous people. I have met only one, but Bill was enough. Ambidexterity is really impressive. Similarly, there are those who are quadruply ironic. I am cursed this way. Makes ME laugh, tho'. Plus, I never brag. Ironically, it's fun to appear that way and sad not to.
I like SM Rana's postings. He is a thoughtful observer, cloaked in humility. It is a trick we would do well to learn in America. Indian blogs are generally more sophisticated than ours, even the kids. Our ancestors were boot-shuffling illiterates, but India has been speaking English longer than we. Even when they are more comfortable with one of many Tamil dialects than with English, and so make what are errors to our mono-lingual eyes, there is an imaginativeness that ought not escape us rough-hewn descendants of European rejects and nut-cases.
Plus, so I read, the number of Indians qualified for Mensa outnumbers the population of the United States.
My friend Sriram has been educating me in Bollywood -- I haven't even yet got to "Lagaan" -- and he tells me Deepa Mehta's films aren't so popular there. Although he stylishly disdains typical Bollywood films, I have noticed that they require a longer attention span than to which we meat-eaters are accustomed, and further, an attention span that goes in different directions than the linear paradigms to which our predatory mental habits are habituated.
People, if in their dreams, are rather expecting China to become the next world power. I doubt this, as their political system has taken too high a dose of antiquated Western predatory gobble-and-excrete mental habits. They will continue to rise in this outdated fashion, then burn out, as we in the U.S. appear to be doing.
I say India is the Next Big Thing, and not by anachronistic virtue of gobbling and excreting more than anybody else. Nor will it be the result of its export of Hindu mental products, which have sold here for several generations owing only to their similarity to the gobble-and-excrete respectabilities of the monotonies inherent in a monotheistic Christian-based culture.
Yet learning to get along among a vastly confusing array of gods, plus the practicalities of getting along in a vastly confusing array of people, prepares them for even joyful survival better than anything else I know of.
Now, I'm not sure I'd like to hear SM Rana's explanation how he may rectify "Natural Selection" to Nicheren Buddhism and the Gohonzon as I understand it, but if his mind is surviving happily with such thoughts, I'd like to study this quietly. Some questions are best asked silently.
Mr. Ebert, may I suggest that you watch a Hindi film called "Dhobi Ghaat"? It has all the looks of an independent film but it has been produced by a top star of Bollywood who has nonetheless time and again showcased his creativity and sensitivity within the constraints of commercialism.
I make my suggestion because as an Indian, I've rarely seem a film like it in all my life of watching any kind of film, arty or Bollywood.
John in Denver said:
"I hereby issue a worldwide APB for Indian Idiot (H.W). You're comments are requested for this entry."
Hello old electronic friend. It is grand to be thought of well and to be remebered....? Better still to be remembered. Aye it is.
I am not usually one to deny a friend a request if it can be helped and I am in my right senses, though such coincidences it is more frequently than I'd like to admit not been my good fortune to enjoy.
So, what do I tell you?
I am truly at a loss for words. I typed a bunch of them, but they seemed trite and unnecessary projections, apparitions, between myself and which I am trying to put material distance. It is time, as is said in Corinthians 1:13 to let go of childish things. That passage has seen one of the most moving translations to film in "Three Colours: Blue"
Please bear with me, I shall be back in some time.
Tom, thanks for letting me know of John's comment.
Rog, I hope you're well. Always a pleasure to return here. As ever, you have my gratitude and best wishes.
P.S. John, thanks for reminding me of that Leonard Cohen tune, it is good accompaniment for periods of languid brooding.
P.P.S. Hello and good wishes to Marie and all the old gang.
@Tom Dark
.." I'd like to hear SM Rana's explanation"..Tom Dark
Thanks, Tom, for your words, and the question. I'm somewhat intimidated by your quadruple ironies which travel with the speed of light, accompanied with thunder and flashes, leaving mere mortals in a daze. If life had not taken tangentially, I coulda been among the best of second rate physicists or mathematicians, and with that kind of turn of mind I do not find, or ever found from day 1 any problems between Soka philosophy and practice, and Natural Selection, to take an example. Our brain is but a puny part of what we have, like the stars which you saw in your ranch, which are actually there". The Gohonzon is solid gold. It's the most solid thing there is. I can't tell you how solid it is. and it's us. It's the real thing, I trifle not. Chant first, think later. First eat, then judge. I understand little but tried and tested in the field. You had asked about this earlier but then politely slunk into the crowd. To quote Daisaku Ikeda:
"Life is the accumulation of all the moments we live. One who cannot live meaningfully today cannot hope to lead a brilliant life tomorrow. No matter what grand plans one makes, if he does not value each moment, they will be just so many castles in the air. All the causes in the past and all the effects in the future are condensed within the present moment of life. Whether or not we improve our state of life at this moment will determine whether we can expiate the evils we have caused since the infinite past and be able to build up good fortune to remain for all eternity. The key is whether or not we have faith strong enough to decide that this may be the last moment of our life. The above passage, therefore, gives us the principle for changing our karma."
and from Nichiren (thirteenth century)
"And if one were to be at the end, even if one’s faith were weak and one’s sense of rejoicing diluted like the frailty of a child of two or three, or the inability of a cow or horse to distinguish before from after, the blessings one would gain would be a hundred, thousand, ten thousand, million times greater than those gained by persons of keen faculties and superior wisdom."
Indie films are slowly becoming popular but most of the box office hits here in India are for the masses. It's very sad that movies such as Udaan and Dhobi Ghat (someone had mentioned these) were not appreciated by the Indian people. As an Indian, I wish that these movies, which have received acclaim elsewhere, are forgotten so easily. Many Bollywood films are made with masses in mind and very few are extremely good.
I recently watched Drive and, I sensed that a lot of people in theater hall had come thinking that it was something like Fast and the Furious. It was obvious that the crowd was getting impatient with film's minimal dialogues and action.
Aha, HW, my favorite Indian Sikh who enjoys the pleasant poetry of Corinthians and Leonard Cohen. It is good to hear your thermionic voice again.
This entry simply sparked an interest in reviewing some of the bygone Journal discussions related to the current topic. Came across some amusing exchanges between friendly idiots. So thought I'd say hello.
Thanks to Tommy D. for the assist.
And lest we forget the words of that venerable Zen poet, that lover of India, Leonard Cohen...
"Ring the bells that still can ring
forget your perfect offering
there is a crack, a crack in everything
that's how the light gets in."
Anthem
I saw Patang yesterday at the Mill Valley Film Festival. Prashant Bhargava addressed the audience afterwards and explained that the kite festival originally celebrated the turning of seasons, signifying a change in the wind, for crops, lives, fortunes. A wonderful film. Scenes of the kites reminded me of The Red Ballon, and its promise of freedom. I thought the sister-in-law was especially well-portrayed. Real people, living real lives - the family of man.
I read your entry and Rana's. That's one of the superb things about the internet--being able to read enlightening and extraordinarily well-written compositions.
I placed a composition on Tea and Empathy and had to admit to myself that it was a real POS. But anyway, you've got to work with what you've got. Some days are better than others.
Indeed, SM, I've read multitudinous comments from those who say they have no problem reconciling Darwinian Evolution with their beliefs in the divine and never once has a worthwhile explanation been offered.
"God does not play dice with the universe," Einstein opined. That should be enough for those with the facile woo-woo don't hurt me I'll give the lip service you want, to stop. But they do not.
They are the same as Brady on the witness stand in "Inherit the Wind."
Drummond asks him, if Adam and Eve were the first people, who was that bunch outside the Garden of Eden? Brady was satisfied that there was no contradiction precisely as the political arms of the various churches are that there is no contradiction between their All That Exists God and sheer, meaningless randomness creating a universe jam-packed with matter and "anti-matter" and "laws" and so on. As they understand nothing of either, why rock a sinking boat any further with honest questions?
Pick a number at random, and that will be the exponent of proportion for which Science, espousing such an idea, overrides any cozy religious belief for sheer irrationality. Even the one about turtles forming the world.
Small wonder Obama continues to push the insanity of nuclear power as he's been paid to do from the start, while mutant plants are already showing up as far as Durango, Colorado, and the infant mortality rate has skyrocketed since last spring.
All one has to do is wave a dismissive hand and poof, the world needn't make sense. No need to pay attention!
So? I challenge you: show me where the vast, endless consciousness by any name, Gohonzon will do, ever formed a thing at random.
Well, Tom, to start with God plays dice all the time. Ask any physics guy. Einstein notwithstanding.
I don't know about divine, I don't believe in rope tricks or dead men walking.
Roger has quipped in this very thread that to be human is divine. If the man on the ground is divine why do you worry about one in the sky?
If a Human Being is not divine, what is? That is all the divinity one needs.
What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the
world! the paragon of animals!
The most rational starting point is how to make the world a better place, to reduce or eliminate suffering. I'm sure Jesus, Moses, Mohammed started with that and would have few quarrels if they sat across a cup of tea. It's hard to reconcile with the kind of rationalism which manages to reconcile with the manufacture or use of wnds.
Visiting new worlds, standing out of context of our familiar realities, jolts us out of a vapid glare.
India is everybody's dream....deeply rooted in our symbolic subconscious perceptions whether we have visited there or not. (Someone else on this blog was citing Dr. Jung, and I think it is fitting to bring in his beliefs about collective human archetypes and experiences when discussing Indian culture, and dream reality).
However, physical traveling is a potent form of expanding self-awareness and understanding.
To walk out of a comfortable existence to be met with the crashing waves of strange cities and people, places everything in a larger,much more far reaching looking glass.
Before visiting so many of these Far East off the map global joints, you were at home believing that your own city and country was the entire universe, and everything else was an obscurity that did not seem to effect you.
Only to find yourself, perched on top of a small mountain tea house, in an unknown Asian city of a few million that does not even have a McDonald's, being served tea by an Asian man in a white coat, hair slicked back, who pours from a hand that bends like an elegant lily. Eyes widened at the foreigner he has never seen before with legs crossed in linen pants and colorful tunic in his small shop. Both surprised and deeply changed by the simple encounter.
Roger:
I'm glad you recommended this film as part of the Chicago Int'l FIlm Fest. I was even more glad to find out that it was playing at the Vancouver Int'l Film Fest and that there was still one showing left. It was touch and go, but I was able to see the film in a nearly sold-out theatre. I do think there is one correction to your overview. I am almost certain that Seema Biswas is actually his sister-in-law (and "Ba" his mother not grandmother), since Seema has a short speech in which she says how she was glad that he essentially helped his older brother court her.
It is remarkably self-assured for a first film, and I also agree with you that there are no tidy endings (as would be the case in most lesser films). There does seem to be perhaps some movement towards understanding between the various characters, but only a few steps, not some total catharsis and reconciliation. Still, the film offers hope that if the uncle does return on a more regular basis, then he may cease to be such an outsider. I was actually astounded that it was only slightly over 90 minutes, since so much was packed into the movie (and I mean that as a compliment).
Eric
I suffer pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying things) so will not be seeing Mr. Bhargava's film.
Ebert: You're afraid of kites?
Reply to Mr. Ebert:
Yes sir, I am deathly afraid of kites. Worse yet, I am also severely Pteronophobic (fear of being feather tickled).
I saw this film in NYC sometime back and while it was nice enough in many ways, there was one big problem that would not be immediately apparent to a non-Indian audience. The film is set in the state of Gujarat, and takes place during one of the most quintessentially Gujarati festivals but... all the language, and even the music was in Hindi.
I'm sorry, this is going to sound like nitpicking and I realise the director might argue that since he is not himself (I assume) a Gujarati speaker, it would have been too difficult to do the film in Gujarati and at least this way a film was done that presented this world in a way that was clearly enjoyable by viewers like you and I guess all that is true. I am half-Gujarati, but am not at all hung up about my Gujarati identity (in fact, given the state's current politics I'm rather averse to it, and lets see how soon the trolls get onto that statement).
And yet, even my barely present Gujarati feelings were enough to come in the way of appreciating the film as you did. It seemed to hint at an inner falsity to the film, the deliberate creation of a piece of exotic artifice that will play well at film festivals abroad, but might be derided in India. Which, I guess, is a reasonable enough career choice for an American based filmmaker, but not a good indication for the integrity of his future work.
Fascinating background. I saw this film a week or so ago at the Vancouver International Film Festival by sheer fluke. Picking up my tickets for the day and late for the first screening, I didn't check what they'd given me. With only minutes between screenings, I ended up, for my second feature of the day, in "Patang", more than a little confused. It turned out to be a very happy accident. The picture was delightful and everything you said in your review matched my experience.
"Patang" will play at the Roxie Theater in San Francisco on Nov. 11, 2011, as part of the San Francisco International South Asian Film Festival (which mainly showcases non-Bollywood-style films):
http://www.thirdi.org/festival/film/2011_film_pages/Patang.html
really thanks... i will be in India after 2 weeks.. and i will tell u about my experience
I saw the film in Chicago and I am from Gujerat and I was amazed that, barring language issue you bring up, how authentic this film is. The feeling of family, the role of the eldest sister in law, the roof tops are all very real to me. Its pace and an unusual way of story telling reminded me of place I left long time ago. I think you are little unfair in chiding the director for not making it in Gujerati, If your logic were to be applied to many great films, Dr. Zhivago should have been made in Russian and Hiroshima in Japanese. The fact that the director spent three years in Ahmedabad learning about the culture and the place is his tribute and conveys his respect for this wonderful culture.