An Autumn Afternoon

Another movie experience, this time an excellent Japanese one!

If you google the name of the movie, you can find out how to view for free!!

If you can’t figure it out, you can contact me!!!

“An Autumn Afternoon” is a post Second World War movie which strongly depicts the socio-cultural norms of the Japanese society, especially concerning women and marriage. It also shows that Japanese women could be assertive, though they come through as domesticated and subservient wives in our imagination.

They were not.

However, they also listen to their parents (in this movie it was the dad who is the match maker for his daughter who thinks she could not possibly find a match by herself, and who is also worried how her father would live once she gets married and leaves). The daughter (Michiko in the movie) eventually marries the lad suggested by her dad.

Sounds Indian?

Yes, it does for the most part, except for the quiet assertiveness in the late Forties and Fifties/Sixties when Indian women dare not raise their voices against their dads or husbands. We know that they often do so nowadays.

The movie depicts the complex situation arising out of the potential loneliness which could affect Michiko’s dad (Hirayama) after Michiko’s departure from the Hirayama home post her marriage. Hirayama initially dithers on making a decision concerning his daughter Michiko’s marriage, and comes under subtle pressure from his long-time classmates and drinking buddies, who tell him that he has a duty to do so quickly.

The strong patriarchal Japanese society can be understood in this movie, though Hirayama comes through as a gentle dad who realises his responsibilities (even for funding his first married son’s purchase of a refrigerator!). The movie also shows a contrasting situation with one of Hirayama’s classmates, Sakuma, who did not do his duty of marrying off his daughter at the right time. The scenes involving Hirayama, Sakuma and Sakuma’s daughter are touching and convey why it is so critical not to continue to depend on one’s daughter and let her go her own way. Sakuma’s daughter continues to support her dad and leads her life as a lonely spinster.

The movie shows another drama playing out in Hirayama’s first married son’s home – between Koichi (Hirayama’s first son) and his wife, Akiko. It is fascinating to watch how Akiko firmly deals with her husband Koichi when it comes to his spending habits. I can’t imagine such a scene in a typical middle-class Indian household even in the Sixties or Seventies.

Hirayama’s exposure to Sakuma and his aging daughter pushes him towards getting his own daughter married off as quickly as possible. He decides he cannot continue to be selfish just for his own convenience. Michiko’s marriage finally happens. While Hirayama is happy, he is also not happy. You can see that in the final scene of the movie when he is left all alone.

“An Autumn Afternoon” is not a fast moving movie, you need to have patience to understand Japanese culture and social norms. Drinking alcohol is a deeply entrenched habit in Japan, and the movie shows plenty of drinking sessions. Hirayama and his buddies keep drinking almost non-stop, but they also talk sense discussing their families and business.

That is the way Japan operates, I guess even today.

If Japan today has one of the lowest reproduction rates, you know that there are many reasons but you can figure out at least couple of reasons if you see this movie. It will also make one understand a complex society based on strong traditions, much like India. The contrast is stark – Japan is also one of the most modern nations of the world with a big impact, belied by its small population (which is shrinking), which rather quickly recovered from a devastating defeat in the Second World War. I have not yet understood how the traditional face of Japan syncs with its most modern inventions over the past seven decades.

What does the name of the movie signify? I am copying here from a website “it is a mediation on sacrifice – an examination of how a parent, after raising and caring for a child for 20 years, must learn to let go for the betterment of that child”.

Life moves on, and it is very important for parents to realise their duties and responsibilities towards their children without holding them back all the time. Indian parents often fail to do this effectively. How can children blossom into their own adulthood if we continuously hold them back based only on our principles (which are rarely updated)? This is the essence of “An Autumn Afternoon”.

I will be remiss if I do not even mention the director’s name – it is Yasujiro Ozu, known as one of the greatest movie directors from Japan. His sometimes emotionless portrayal of Hirayama conveys the Japanese sense of stoicism against the onslaught of impending life changes.

Good movie, regarded as one of the greatest Japanese movies of all time.

See it!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

24th March 2024

Train to Zakopane

During my meandering around a free streaming movie portal (not revealing its name!), I sometimes do come across some interesting and time-relevant movies. Of course, before I start viewing any movie at all, I spend a few minutes reading up reviews and the Rotten Tomatoes score of the movie. I have to confess that occasionally, the high score or good review has not always translated into a good movie experience. But that needs to be accepted as we should not let ourselves be solely influenced by such scores. Instead, I look at the pedigree of the director and actors, as well as at the story plot as outlined in Wikipedia (for instance). Sometimes, I decide not to waste my time and drop the movie altogether. However, many a time I have pursued a specific movie based on what I read up.

There are, of course, several such good ones to recommend. In this blog post, I am writing about an anti-semitic movie (very relevant in today’s charged geopolitical atmosphere) set in Poland, “Train to Zakopane”, released in 2018. Zakopane does exist, though I have never heard of it till last week. It is known as the “Winter Capital of Poland” (!), I thought Poland is cold anyway. It is a resort town in Southern Poland with a scenic mountain range.

This movie does not have a good score or reviews, but still I decided to see it because it was Polish and had a prevalent description of Jews in Poland that I wanted to understand. The movie is set in the pre-war days of 1928.

Most of the movie happens on the train to Zakopane, hence its name. It is fascinating (to me at least) how the main characters interact with each other almost continuously. Mike Falkow is a Jewish businessman from Russia travelling on the train, and Tanna Frederick is a Polish nurse also in the same cabin on the train (their actual names are used here). Mike repeatedly tests Tanna on her strongly anti-semitic views based on her bad experiences with Jews, without revealing that he is actually Jewish (no one in the cabin suspects him as Jewish). He slowly but surely falls in love with Tanna, though he has a deep struggle on accepting her views of Jews, which he thinks are totally misplaced.

Tanna’s strong contempt of Jewish people is shocking (I do not have a sense of it from any European that I have met) and sometimes intolerable, even for a viewer like me. I started to understand the concept of “people hate” during this otherwise civil conversation pieces of the movie as these play out in the train and then at the resort town of Zakopane. I did not know or understand that one could hate a complete set of people based on a couple of experiences (which destroyed Tanna’s father’s business).

There are a couple of points to note: Mike’s pain in his heart as he continues to be bombarded with anti-semitic rants from Tanna non-stop, though he does not show it visibly, but we can understand the consternation it causes him as his whole race is being vilified. That forms eventually the basis of most European countries turning against Jews in concert with German Nazis. While I cannot say that some anti-semitic views could be the cause of so much hatred, I am beginning to understand what happened in societies in Europe. Though I believe that such hatred should have been nipped at the bud by assertive governments, instead of being allowed to flourish.

Secondly, I did not like the character of Tanna, though she was charming and displayed a certain vulnerability. It was not difficult to understand why Mike falls in love with her, but then I did not know that he had worked out a different plan when he heard her say “I can smell a Jew from a kilometre away”, or something to that effect. And therein lies the twist in this movie happening towards the end.

I liked the movie, though it slows down considerably after the couple gets down unexpectedly at the Zakopane railway station instead of going ahead to their intended destination of Warsaw. But my wait was rewarded as Mike claims his fragile, yet impactful revenge of sort.

I will leave for you to decide whether this is a worthwhile watch.

As we all know, anti-semitic views are back in fashion in many countries, including the U.S. We can only hope that human societies have learnt from historical past (as recent as less than a century ago), and would not be compelled to repeat those severely bad racist and anti-Jewish sentiments across social media (happening despite all best attempts). It is not right to compare anti-semitism with any other kind of social hatred, relevant or not. Each social situation is separate, distinct and unique, and has to be dealt with by societies as such in a just and equitable manner.

Have a good movie weekend folks,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

23rd March 2024

Misbehaviour

“Misbehaviour” is a delightful British movie based on true events which happened in 1970 at the Miss World contest in London.

As I was seeing the movie and replaying some key very impactful statements, it struck me how far the world has come from those days – how much social progress has been achieved, though it still falls short in several key aspects. I am referring here to the Women’s Liberation Movement which surged in popularity from the 1970s. If women have achieved progress today, it is because of those valiant women who fought tooth and nail against discrimination at the Miss World Contest (not the only such event, but it was the most prominent one happening in a Western country, engineered by White British women).

The movie itself is an enjoyable one with amazing actresses, chief of whom is Keira Knightley.

One cannot believe today that British universities such as the famed University College London (!) could act sexist, dismissing the dissertation topic of Keira (I am using actual actress name here) focusing on women workers as not really relevant. For a feisty young single mother, it was a huge slap in her face, and she shows that vividly in the movie. Quite relishing to watch her serious face full of indignation!

We can debate about protestors (they are called arsonists and anarchists in the movie) and their tactics till the cows come home. I, for one, believe that public protests on causes which are critical to humanity’s social progress, are very pertinent, and should be allowed. The powers that be could choose to ignore the protests and the protesters, and the social motivations behind the protests, but they would do so at the peril of their next electoral victories in the next elections in a democratic nation.

The funny part is how older women despise the protesters. Keira’s mother admonishes her for her protest affiliations with some choicest statements – you would have to experience the same for yourself. In a gist, she says (not exact quotes) – “you think you can do what a man can do, or you can be as free as he is”. The simmering conflict between the personal choices of the modern 1970 woman (Keira) and her mother who points out that had she not taken care of her children when they grew up, what would have happened, is simply fascinating, not the least because we can easily compare with what we ourselves have gone through in our own lives in similar situations.

I would be remiss in my responsibility as an active movie viewer if I do not mention that the 1970 Miss World Pageant was the very first one wherein a Black woman was crowned Miss World and the runner-up was also a woman of colour. So, the pageant did make a huge social progress in terms of accepting that beauty exists everywhere irrespective of colour.

Participation and active involvement of women in all spheres of social endeavour has enriched societies world over. Moreover, women’s active political activism has shaped political discourses in democratic nations, though they have, so far, not been able to reach the pinnacle of governance (except for Golda Meir of Israel and Indira Gandhi of India). However, if women are taken seriously in political engagements, it is because politicians in democratic nations have come to realise that women’s voting choices will never be predicated on how their husbands vote. They have their own independent thoughts, if not a public voice always.

Look at some other areas where women have made huge progress. One such issue is “equal work, equal pay”. For a very long time, professional male tennis players earned a lot more than professional female tennis players. No longer. Both males and females earn the same in professional tennis. However, discrimination does exist in corporate business as everyone knows but afraid to discuss publicly. Only elite and really progressive companies follow the egalitarian principles of avoiding male-female discrimination in employment, promotions, etc.,

It was hard to believe that this movie was filmed in 2020! The amazing realism of the 1970s scenes evoke a certain nostalgia of those times when things were so different and so simple (!). Now the world is ever more complicated by social media activism. I imagined how it would have been if social media were to exist in 1970. Oh, what a fun it would have been.

“Misbehaviour” is surely a movie worth watching, while carefully grasping its social implications for women’s progress. Women and children still continue to suffer in conflict zones. Women are still being discriminated even in developed countries (forget the still developing or theocratic countries). But a powerful statement was made publicly in 1970 and it reverberated through the ensuing years. It made huge progress possible, and shall I say, inevitable.

Good choice Vijay (I like to congratulate myself for my ever-expanding search for good movies).

Cheers, and Have a good weekend folks,

Vijay Srinivasan

24th February 2024

Kitchen Brigade

I like French movies because the French directors are bold in their exploration of human life, emotions and sentiments. Some of their movies will never be replicated in Hollywood, and surely, in Bollywood. Their intense ability to craft and experiment with human emotions in almost life like situations defies belief sometimes, but critical observers are likely to see their merit and similarity with real life.

It is easy to believe that France appears to be a racist country, going by the way it treats its Black & Muslim population (around 10% of its population or close to 6M people are Muslims, most of them being Blacks). But that perception is not true as France also has striven hard to integrate Muslims into its highly culturally oriented society, better than some of its other neighbours.

French cinema and its free-wheeling, open culture (very secular) go hand in hand. You cannot divorce French cinema from its intensely French society. There are several Black actors who have made it to the top of French movie industry. Who can forget Omar Sy? See his very famous Lupin serial on Netflix, which portrays Arsene Lupin, a character from the classic French tales by Maurice Leblanc. I could not stop seeing Lupin, and I always wanted more of it.

Lest anyone forget, France occupied some African countries as part of its colonisation drive, and most of its Black and Muslim population comes from those colonised countries.

Given the above context, you will not be surprised that I chose to see a uniquely French movie with couple of famous White French actors and the rest made up of some delicious acting by many Black immigrants. That movie is “Kitchen Brigade”. I am not sure how you would be able to stream it, but I was able to using some tech.

Since I have a low tolerance for nonsense, I thought I should kill it off because the movie was boring in its first 20 minutes or so. But I persevered and was rewarded rather quickly.

If not for anything, you should see the movie for the manner in which it depicts the utter vulnerability of undocumented minors (and a few adults who managed to slip into the country posing as minors) in modern France. The director Louis-Julien Petit does a great job in demonstrating the frustrations inherent in the dreams of these immigrant folks who are cared for by the owner of the shelter and his associate who wish to train them and find them jobs in France.

The star of the movie is of course the newly arrived chef of the hostel’s cafeteria. She is gruff and easily given to anger – always getting irritated more because she was kicked out of a fancy Paris restaurant into what she thinks a useless job at a shelter for immigrants.

How the movie director crafts a change in her mindset and creates emotions in her is the crux of the movie. The chef evolves into an exacting but kind individual who dedicates her time to teaching the fine nuances of French cooking to the immigrants in a hostel setting. She demonstrates that gastronomy is not divorced from immigrant issues, and the two can co-exist.

Let me not spoil the story by revealing too much, and this is not a movie review. I liked the movie and its very positive message to the French society (and to the Western world at large where discrimination still persists against Blacks and Muslims). I especially liked the manner in which the director ended the movie showing 100% immigrant driven restaurant in a “Cook” competition on live TV, instead of focusing on how our chef star manages to win the competition. He allowed the actual chef to recede into the background to the surprise of the TV crew and the diners at the restaurant.

The way a French director usually deals with human emotions is so different from how an American director does it – so life like and so very touching. The faces of the immigrants who are getting deported as their bone ages are more than 18 years old and their harrowing utterances that their families back home depend on them for money are the tell-tale every day occurrences in France, and it takes courage for French movies to tell the story as it is – rather than sugar coat it. Like every advanced Western society, the French society is dealing with undocumented migrants – it cannot escape its colonial history.

But the best way for migrants to assimilate into the French society is crystal clear – speak French as though one is a native (which is a fact as most of the migrants are from French colonies) and then make the almost impossible leap into French gastronomy (which is considered tough even for a local, average French citizen) as one option (among several).

This movie shows it is possible. Our French chef (Audrey Lamy) continues her hostel chef teaching crusade with increased zeal after the cooking competition win by her first batch of migrant minors! Her second batch is now on!!

Have a good weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

10th February 2024

The Other Son

Given the dominance of the Israeli – Palestinian conflict that has been going on for the past several months, I am sure curious people search the internet to decipher the origins of this never-ending problem. Why is it so important, why is the U.S. involved so much, why are the two major religions always fighting over a piece of land, why is there a lack of active support for either side globally, when is this conflict likely to end, will there ever be a Palestinian State, and so on and so forth. Even if you are very far away from the conflict, you would still be impacted in some way (witness oil prices going up!).

I did not search the internet, as I was quite familiar with the problem. I also visited Israel in 2018, so I could claim that I know something more than most other common people who might not take the trouble to visit such a problematic zone. It was really a great opportunity which I grabbed quickly.

But what I did instead was to search for movies involving both sides of the conflict. I was pleased to discover that there were many movies – though I only saw two of them. One such movie which fascinated me was “The Other Son”.

“The Other Son” is actually a French movie which interested me even more. Amongst all movie genres, the French have established their name strongly, willing to experiment on rather difficult issues involving mankind some of which might be considered taboo in other societies.

This movie is about the human complexity which arises like an insurmountable mountain in the lives of two opposing cultures – an Israeli army officer and a Palestinian car mechanic, whose kids were unintentionally switched at birth in the hospital. The result? The child born to the Israeli parents grows up as a staunch Palestinian, and the child born to the Palestinian parents grows up as a Jewish boy steeped in respective traditions and mindsets.

The director (Lorraine Levy) does a fabulous job orchestrating the emotions which impounds both the families. Though the fathers wish to keep the problem as a secret, it is impossible to do so as the Israeli Army refuses to take the “Jewish” boy as a conscript in their military draft program, because he is actually a Palestinian. The secret comes out in the open and both boys learn of their respective rearranged destinies. How the Jewish mother takes on the problem and breaks it open to her non-biological son surprised me with an openness we do not normally encounter. We are usually stealth-minded with complex problem handling.

Both the mothers are more willing to face the problem and try to connect with their real sons in several ways. But the fathers remain morose, and stay committed to their “adopted” sons rather than their real sons. The beauty of this movie lies in its depiction of a developing friendship between the two boys who also take the trouble to cross the borders in opposite directions to meet with their real families.

If you understand the conflict raging between Israel and Palestine, you would know two things – Israelis and Palestinians consider each other as “enemies”, and their respective religions lead to what can be termed as religious war, because both claim sovereignty over Jerusalem. It is a very complex scenario for which a resolution can never be found.

In the middle of all this war, how can two families on the opposite sides deal with each other? It is almost impossible when Palestinians look at Israelis as oppressors, and Israelis look at Palestinians as terrorists. You could see vestiges of such emotions and feelings in this movie.

The director has shown how two teenagers on either side actually do not bother about the conflict that much – they wish to go their own ways in life, they do not want to fight or kill people in a war. Will they kill each other because of their race or religion? Surely not.

Understanding the issues revolving around their true identities and aligning their families around the same appears to be a rather difficult proposition at first, but gradually the director lets the story play out – there is no real “end” for this movie except for the fact that the boys would remain as friends forever and the families would remain in touch. The “reverse” switch of the boys is not going to happen!

I liked the movie and the actors, but more than anything else the ability of the director to fuse together a very difficult subject matter around conflicting emotions which hit two families rather unexpectedly. The best acting was by the two boys who displayed immense depth. And also the respective moms!

Hopefully, the next generation should show the way out of this perennial conflict which has inflamed the Middle East.

Have a good weekend, folks,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

27th January 2024

Bernard Tapie

If you have not seen the Netflix serial “Tapie” you should not miss it. It is a real-life story of a famous French entrepreneur, showman, pop singer, actor, TV star, politician and sports personality – he did all of these things and more!

I saw the serial and then read up about Tapie – I have never heard about him previously. He is surely a fascinating character worth studying whether you are a management student or not. He apparently did everything “off the book”, he never followed any MBA teachings!

His business (and also life) decisions appear to be random, with no apparent logic or analysis. He overrules more well thought-out analyses from his life partner or business advisors recommending a totally different course of action. He falls into politics and also gets ejected out of it very fast. He was a totally unconventional character, a politician that the French political elite disliked almost instantaneously.

While Tapie made a series of mistakes in business, he recovered every time with bigger and riskier bets, and turned failing businesses successful. He demonstrated to the French people how he can still be successful as a business owner without coming from a pedigreed background. How can a business novice like Tapie acquire established companies for just one French Franc (this was before the Euro)? He provides a fascinating insight into how his mind works in dealing with such huge challenges. It appears to be “random”, but his brain is overworking all the time with non-traditional approaches to solving business problems.

One does not encounter a business tycoon like Tapie often. The closest comparison would be Elon Musk who is actually crazier than Tapie.

Tapie fell flat when trying to bribe a soccer team, of all things. When he was terminated as Urban Affairs Minister of the French Cabinet, he concluded that politics would not be his game anymore. He quickly switched to sports, as he felt a “high” when he could chalk out a winning strategy for his Marseilles team, much like he did with his other businesses. He gave rousing speeches to his team, especially when they were down. Very compelling and motivating. His team tried to give him their best (Tapie was the President of the Marseilles Team). While doing all these things, he continued his business ventures!

When talking to errant teenagers in the outskirts of Paris, Tapie concludes as follows: he says in front of the French Cabinet: “If they know they can’t win, why would they even play? Give them hope and they’ll join the game. And they’ll give it their all. I guarantee you”.

When Tapie figured out that to win the European Championship, he needed to defeat the Valenciennes Team in the French competition, he lost control of his senses. Against the best suggestions of his Team Manager, he pushed for bribery – making one of his team players bribe the captain and two other top players of the Valenciennes team.

That became the downfall of Tapie. It is very instructive to listen to the long conversation between the French Prosecutor and Tapie on this whole episode. The Prosecutor does an amazing job of trying to appeal to the good senses of Tapie to make him confess to the bribery charge, which Tapie obviously refuses.

How the baser instincts of humans can eventually dominate even a smart, sharp and intelligent person, against all recommendations, and push that person to commit a crime is a wonderful lesson for all business people, and in fact, to all people.

You can read about this unusual kind of business tycoon in the links as below:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bernard-tapie-france-prison-netflix-b2413685.html

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/oct/05/bernard-tapie-obituary

It is difficult not to like Tapie – he was so different from the usual French elite, business or political. He made a name for himself in whatever he did, including his jail time. The French people, by and large, loved him (despite his material success which the French do not normally like!).

See the serial for yourself!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

24th September 2023

Parasite

Travelling from London to Dubai took 6 hours and 40 minutes. It afforded me to see couple of movies. Emirates Airlines has probably the best collection of movies on the air, and also Wi-Fi for selected social media apps for free. Once the flight reaches cruising altitude, you can WhatsApp your family and friends without paying anything, and that is a great experience!

I chose couple of movies – the first one was the famous Korean movie Parasite, which won the Oscars in many categories, being the first ever non-English film to win the award for Best Picture. It also won many other film awards – Cannes, BAFTA, etc.,

I liked the movie, but was not totally awed by it. I think I lost interest when the typical Korean violence which is often gruesome startled me towards the end of the movie, when the guy who has been holed up in the basement of the Park home (Park is the wealthy businessman who lives in a palatial home) comes out and starts murdering people in the birthday party that was being hosted for Park’s son. While it is totally understandable that the “basement” guy would want revenge against Park’s driver and his family for what happened to him and his wife, the appalling manner in which the violent sequences have been shot upset me. I am still not sure that the gruesome violence was necessary in an otherwise excellent movie in which an unusual story plays out in a somewhat comedic manner. Further, the driver kills Park (his employer) and then disappears, and nothing is known or shown about what happened to Park’s remaining family members (his wife, daughter and son).

I could guess, however, that Park’s driver was hiding in the same basement. It was however, inscrutable that he learnt Morse code (!) and transmitted the code sequences to his son every evening via a light bulb in the living room of the house, hoping that his son would see the same, and recognize the message. Towards the end, the movie devolves into some confusing shots – like the son working through his career to make enough money to buy Park’s house, while still appearing to be the same boy!

In any case, Parasite has been much loved and is surely a movie worth seeing, simply for its unusual story and directorial skills. The key take-away from the movie for me is that wealth inequality is unsustainable. Poverty is a big issue which affects the driver’s family and forces his son and daughter to come up with devious schemes to infiltrate the rich Park family in interconnected ways. None of what they did to secure employment with the Park family is illegal. In a way, you get to appreciate their cleverness and planning, though they might come out as cunning and remorseless, especially when ejecting the previous chauffeur and the house keeper. The entire effort demonstrates the fact that their frustration in leading a seriously poverty-stricken life has not damaged their thinking and scheming prowess.

The other critical learning is that wealthy folks should not disparage the poor people working for them. In the movie, Park (the rich homeowner) says that the odour of lower class people like his chauffeur is nauseating (or something to that effect) – he assumes that nobody heard him as he was mentioning this to his wife, but his own chauffeur hears it. That provokes Park’s driver to eventually kill him in the melee which breaks out during the birthday party.

Well, I was hoping to see this movie sometime, and it was good to get the opportunity. In the Emirates movie selection, Parasite has been recommended by Penelope Cruz as one of her all-time favourites.

See it and decide for yourselves.

Have a good weekend,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

26th August 2023

What’s love got to do with it?

The selection of movies and TV shows on Emirates flights is breath taking. The only other comparable airline in this aspect is Singapore Airlines. I flew the Emirates Airbus 380 last week. It was a comfortable flight (especially for long haul) even in the Economy Class, and the screen size was rather large. In order to keep me awake to be on the same time zone of my destination, I decided to see couple of movies.

Usually I am not a big proponent of Hindi movies. I like to see French, Italian, Spanish or Turkish movies with subtitles. My preferred genres are mystery, thriller, espionage and action movies.

So when I selected “What’s Love Got to do with it” by Shekhar Kapur, I was myself mystified. Did I fall for the Director or the lead performers? I can’t say, but decided to see the movie nonetheless, very sure that I would drop off and switch to another movie from my favourite language or genre quickly.

But it was not to be.

I liked this romantic comedy movie (usually termed as “romcom” by reviewers), though I knew how the movie would end. I always had some fascination for “arranged” or “assisted” marriages which is the subject matter of this movie.

My own marriage was an arranged one (if you take into consideration the fact that my prospective partner was introduced to me by my mother, and she had already spoken to her parents). As the movie depicts “it is better to fall into like, and walk into love”. In a sense, the proposal in arranged marriages is from one set of parents to the other set of parents, rather than from the guy to the gal. Strange, but this is still the practice in many marriage proposals at least in India.

However, in my life, I had mostly encountered couples who had fallen in love by themselves in a random fashion and so could be considered as partners in a “love marriage”. However, even this idea is on the decline now. The most likely approach to the selection of a partner nowadays is via dating apps. While these are mostly algorithmically established “matches”, it does appear to have had an irreversible impact on the manner in which dating and potentially marriages happen these days.

All the while we have to keep in mind the real fact that we do not get to choose who we fall in love with. Unless it is a “pre-arranged” love resulting from some prior connection, which is kind of “arranged” or “assisted”.

This is the mystery that the movie is trying to explain to the mostly Western audience (being a British movie production). And, it is not the first time. The Western audience is always puzzled how two young people can be asked to get married, and then fall into love. Is it not the other way around? How can these two strangers deal with their different persona and backgrounds, and establish a personal chemistry?

We all know that when our heart is not engaged, any kind of interaction is going to fail however arranged or assisted. That is what happens to both the hero (Shazad Latif) and the prospective heroine (Lily James) respectively in their own efforts in finding love from different sources.

Is it not fascinating that the movie tries to make a case that for romance and marriage to prosper and continue forever, it is better to “simmer than boil”. The love has to persist in a continuing simmering fashion rather than brought to boil in a rather sudden way. And don’t we all know that?

The discovery from the movie’s story is that the good old-fashioned traditional matchmaking (direct or indirect) is still one of the options open to both Indian and Western parents (or any parents for that matter). But if it doesn’t work out, do not despair. Support the “old flames” that have been simmering for a long while and lying undiscovered. Maybe there is enough ammunition there to sustain a long, long romantic relationship.

Did I enjoy the movie?

Yes, very much. The ending was clear while the movie was rolling. The arranged marriage was not going to work out, which was clear from the moment when the Pakistani bride swoons to wild music and demonstrates openly her affection towards her own past flame which has not died down.

And on the other side, the British love flame continues to simmer, and ultimately culminates in a lasting romance.

Which is what I expected anyway.

Not my kind of genre. But quite fascinating for a change anyway.

Enjoy the movie!

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

29th July 2023

Certified Copy

In India, it is very common for any government agency or a bank to ask you for an “attested or self-signed” copy of your original documents for verification. The agency will then check the copy against its original before stamping the copy as acceptable or verified and certified “true” copy – for example, in a KYC (Know Your Customer) verification. This happens so often that I used to keep a set of copies of my original documents at all times. Your signature on the copy has to match with what is there on the document, for example a passport.

This process is not a standard practice that is required in Singapore for quite a long while, as almost all verifications are done digitally. And India is moving towards that kind of digital verification regime with its national identity card known as Aadhaar.

This post is not about the physical or digital copies of documents! I am going to write about an excellent movie that I recently saw – it is “Certified Copy” by the famous Iranian director, Abbas Kiarostami. I was wondering how a movie can be named as “Certified Copy”!

Usually, I get interested in the story line of a movie and wish to see it. Other times, it might be because of the actors that I always liked and so I would want to see the movie. Many a time, it is because the movie has been rated highly on Rotten Tomatoes. I do not know the actors in this movie (French actress Juliette Binoche who won the best actress award at the Cannes in 2010 for this movie, and English actor William Shimell for who this was his debut performance). But I got intrigued by the story line which dissects human relationships beautifully in a rather mysterious manner that you lose sense of whether these two people are really random acquaintances or were originally married.

This movie has been written about by many reviewers, so I do not need to add anything further apart from my perception of what is the director’s intent. I think the director has tried valiantly to communicate that the couple is indeed faking a relationship which did not exist to start with, and in trying to act it out as they enjoy their mutual companionship. They both probably think that they “could” have been married in the past, and would have loved to have been in that kind of arrangement. Their seemingly intense differences of opinion on the “fake vs original” concept of Shimell’s book “Certified Copy”, and their apparent fights in cafes etc., tell us that this is how a normal couple would have behaved in an intense relationship. I almost thought that both of them wanted to have been married, or even to be married at the current moment. It is somewhat eerie, especially during the last 10 minutes of the movie when as a viewer, you cannot figure out in which direction the director is taking the movie along – how is he going to reconcile the apparent strong differences between Binoche and Shimell, and settle them towards a new relationship, for example. Only when the Church bell rings 8 times when Shimell’s train is scheduled to leave at 9 PM, I realised that he is going to miss the train, and that is the indication that both are now falling in love, though it appears to be a copy of what could have been their original married life.

“Certified Copy” is a complex movie with intense dialogues, and many a time I had to replay some sections to understand what is going on. It is incisive, complicated and mysterious, and that is what I love about such movies. Abbas is famous for his car driving scenes, and this movie is no different – long drives with the astounding Tuscan landscape (Italy) unfolding with Cypress trees all along the drive, while there is a huge dialogue battle going on between the two actors in the car!

There are many nice dialogues in this movie, look at a sample from Binoche telling Shimell towards the end of the movie – “If we are a bit more tolerant of each others’ weaknesses, we’d be less alone”.

Beautifully directed and acted, this movie should be in the watch list of all discerning movie goers. Available for free in several movie streaming sites.

Have a great week ahead, folks,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

23rd July 2023

Matchstick Men

Sometimes, you want to “escape” from reality of your life and take a look at something that you have never experienced in your life. James Bond? No, not so escapist, something from the realm of ordinary life which appears to be believable, but yet is not practicable in your own life. You can never do what you are about to see.

“Matchstick Men ” is one such movie based on conning innocent people. Brilliantly acted by Nicolas Cage (one of the actors I like, he was the reason I chose this movie that I have never heard of), the movie is a reflection of what can happen when you trust your con partner too much. The partner learns from you and pulls a big con on you at the end, and you would have never expected that. I did not expect the final con of the movie, when his apparent daughter colludes with his partner to pull a very big con on Cage. I could have never predicted that, given the partner (acted by Sam Rockwell) appears to be totally committed to Cage.

And Cage’s daughter? Acted excellently by Alison Lohman, I would have never guessed the bigger plot that she was engaged in, while delivering an innocent performance as a “concerned” daughter who also wishes to learn how to execute cons from her dad. I really thought she was Cage’s long lost daughter from his wife who was pregnant when he left her.

This “con within con” kind of exposition makes an interesting movie. Ridley Scott, the director, needs no introduction. For him, this is indeed a rather “light” movie, almost a comedy of sorts.

I have never met a person who has this OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) problem in my life. Cage has OCD problem in this movie, and that makes it a quirky issue, as conmen are supposed to have a straight face when conning people, right? It is amazing to see his performance as a serious sufferer of OCD, dependent on medications all the time, while trying to design the next con. Cage beautifully demonstrates what happens when he gets panic attacks. It is a sight to watch on several scenes in this movie, especially the pharmacy scene.

The simultaneous acting displays of being a conman and also a “new father ” to Alison, would have drained a normal actor. But not so with Cage. He also suffers OCD induced attacks at the same time! Such characters we don’t see in our life. But I guess, in the Western world all kinds of people appear from nowhere, who have all kinds of problems. Probably it is the usual problem of the plenty.

The intimate way that the movie plays out actually makes one believe that all the con scenes are distinctly possible, while maintaining the possibility of a normal life for the characters involved. Actually, the “normal ” life of the characters is rather convoluted, as they are all engaged in some con or the other, even trying to con the master con artist (Cage).

“Matchstick Men” is a nice movie worth watching. I would recommend it just for witnessing the acting prowess of Nicolas Cage and Alison Lohman. Both have delivered excellent performances. I like the movie also because I am never going to encounter such characters in my life, not these kinds of sophisticated con artists. Many of us won’t either. That makes the movie quite attractive from an experience standpoint.

Have a good week ahead, folks,

Cheers,

Vijay Srinivasan

09 July 2023