Drishyam - Hindi Film

Hindi Film Drishyam Poster

Drishyam is one of the best scripted movies of recent time. It is no surprise that the film has been remade in Kannada, Tamil, Telegu and Hindi from the original Drishyam (English translation: Visual/The Sight). It is is a 2013 Malayalam language Indian drama thriller film written and directed   and starring Mohanlal and Meena in the lead roles.

Aristotle and subsequent literary theorist went on harping that ‘Plot is the soul of the play’. For films, script is the soul of the film. All that is said about plot applies to script. There should be not a single scene (frame), character or dialogue which is unnecessarily present in the play or film. Even if a dialogue or character or scene is deleted, the play / film seem to be incomplete. In Drishyam, all characters, dialogues, scenes are harmoniously arranged. All the events are so well chosen and so meticulously arranged that one has to watch this film time and again to find any sort of improbability. All the laws of probability are tried and tested; and all stands strong to give robust and resilient scaffolding to the script/plot.

Some questions are obvious. Say for example,

·         Why is the protagonist’s profession cable operation? Why is he so obsessed for Bollywood films?

·         Why the protagonist is the father of two daughters and no son? Why is one daughter a teenage girl and another small kid?

·         Why they (husband and wife) are not formally educated? (Hmmm . . . Education ruins mind’s ability for divergent thinking . . .  and does films, which gives exposure to art and literature, sharpens divergent thinking? Interesting to think so. . . .)

·         Why does the protagonist have bad relations with one cop and decent with all others?

·         Why was the new construction of Police Station so importantly present as a recurring motif? This was the master stroke idea of the director.

Well, one can argue that it is not fair to apply theory of play on film. Films are not only performance like plays, it has something of narratology as well. Films have elements of play as well as novel and something more than that. So, it becomes necessary to see if the said film qualifies to be of some quality so far as narratology is concerned.

Well, this film (Drishyam-2015) is directed and scripted so well that it can be a beautiful case study of Gerard Genette’s Narratology. The five main concepts used by Genette in Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method are:

1)      Order

2)      Frequency

3)      Duration

4)      Voice

5)      Mode (will write in detail with illustrations from film when I will can have some time)

Films make extensive use narrative techniques like ellipses and flashback. Drishyam has near perfection in the use of both ellipses and flashback. They are used so well in the film that one cannot think of better timing for it that found in the film The ellipses when

·         Sam is showing clippings in mobile to Anju

·         Sam demands Nandini in liew of Anju

·         Reconstruction of entre episode to make people remember dates of event

·         the replacement of dead body

·         and above all, burial of the body in the police station!

is marvelously mingled with the flashback. The timing and frequency of events along with changing focalization are so well scripted and directed that one not only gets glued to the screen but feels the real thrill. A very well made family thriller!

Yes, the film is typical Bollywoodish masala movie which lacks realism. But it is bound to be as the protagonist is voracious watcher of Hollywood – Bollywood masala movies. What else can he think of if not filmy ways to solve family crisis!

Performance wise, the film is average. None of the actors were able to rise above the script. Credit may be given to script for being so that actors are overshadowed. I have not seen Mohanlal in Malyali and Kamal Hasan in Tamil version of this film. But one can sense that they would have done something better than Ajay Devgan who seems dull, stale and flat in Hindi version. It was surprising to see Tabu failing to deliver powerpack performance. Is it the director who failed to extract best performances from these experienced actors? May be. The ultimate crefit goest to Jeetu Joseph - the original writer / director of this story and script.

Drishyam - Malayalam Version - Film Poster

Drishyam - Tamil Version - Film poster

Philosophically speaking, the concept of the discourse analysis between ‘seeing is believing’ and ‘seeing is deceiving’ would have been exploited fruitfully. But it goes in vain. It just remains at superfluous level.

Last word . . . a film is worth watching and has got some interesting material for academic discussion on plot structure, character portrayal and recurrent motifs.

Postcolonial Studies: Film Screening: Midnight's Children and The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Screening films related to the themes of Postcolonial studies with a task to review these films

1) Midnight's Children: 

From one of the most acclaimed novel Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, emerges this drama Midnight's Children 2013 film highlighting the lives of two individuals born at the stroke of midnight when India achieved its independence from the British. The legendary yet dramatic Midnight's Children movie features a great story that marks it as an epic saga of the decade. This movie takes us through all the ages beginning from the grandparents to the grandchildren. Switched at the time of birth by a nurse at a Bombay hospital, the lives of the two individuals are mysteriously intertwined. As fate would have it, one (Saleem) is a son of a beggar woman whereas the other child (Shiva) becomes the destined son of a wealthy couple. Over a period of time, their fate makes them face each other on the field of rivalry, politics, romance and class.

The Midnight Children film is a controversial potboiler that has tragedy, romance and comedy. A journey of two individuals through the tragic disasters, trials and triumphs gives you an incomparable experience of watching India in the early years of Independence. It offers an astute view of the divide when the rich become poor and poor rise to power. Brilliantly directed and compiled by Oscar nominated director Deepa Mehta, the movie features some unforgettable moments that make your heart bleed and then there are those that bring a smile to your face. Midnight's Children English movie has a dramatic and mysterious touch that gets you an entire picture of India's journey through all its trials. Offering some fodder for thought and complete visual delight, this Midnight's Children DVD is a story that touches your soul. (This blurb is taken from Amazon product details)

The problem is that some - in fact a good many - of the events of Midnight's Children actually happened. it is not a historical novel in the conventional sense, but what Timothy Brennan has called "patches of straight history" are woven into the extravagant, nonlinear, fictional narrative of the novel's hero, Saleem Sinai. This "baggy monster of a book", as Rushdie has described it using Henry James's phrase, contains a detailed, chronological survey of the major events in India from the Amritsar massacre of 1919 to the end of the Emergency in 1977. In fact, Rushdie himself has said on several occasions that the novel is actually 'about' history and the way in which memory recovers and recreates the past. Not many critics, however, have chosen to pursue this approach to the book.

Rather than explore the novel's relation to history, the Academy has discussed it as a 'postmodern epic', a work of magic realism (or not), and a hybrid text that crosses elements of the Indian oral tradition with a critique of earlier British writers such as E. M. Forster and Paul Scott. 

From - Katherine Frank's  'Mr. Rushdie and Mrs. Gandhi' (https://www.jstor.org/stable/23539764)

Refer to this article to understand Hybridity and Postcoloniality in Midnight's Children

Fundamentalism

2) The Reluctant Fundamentalist: 

A young Pakistani man is chasing corporate success on Wall Street where he finds himself embroiled in a conflict between his American Dream, a hostage crisis, and the enduring call of his family s homeland.  It is a 2012 political thriller drama film based on the 2007 novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist byMohsin Hamid, directed by Mira Nair, starring Riz Ahmed and Kate Hudson in lead.^[4] The Reluctant Fundamentalist is a post-9/11film, a movie about the impact on one man of the Al Qaida attacks and the American reaction to them. (Wikipedia)

3) The Black Prince:

The last King of Punjab, Maharajah Duleep Singh's kingdom was one of the most powerful and prosperous kingdoms of the 19th century before it was annexed by Britain. Placed on the throne at the age of five, he was robbed of his legacy by treason at the hands of trusted courtiers. He was then torn away from his mother and taken to England by the British at the age of fifteen. While in England, he was introduced to Queen Victoria, who took an immediate liking to him, calling him The Black Prince. Meeting his mother again after thirteen years, the Maharajah is awakened to the realities of his former life in Punjab. He then begins the arduous journey to regain all that was lost, and re-embrace the faith of his birth, Sikhism. As the character of Maharajah Duleep Singh evolves, is torn between two contrasting cultures - his royal ancestry from the Kingdom of Punjab as its last King, set against his upbringing in the UK as he embarks in a new journey of exile, away from his mother. Duleep Singh's lifelong journey to regain his identity, dignity, and Kingdom took him across the world but his struggle was not met with success. He never won the chance to set foot again in his own land of Punjab.(CBFC/DIL/2/62/2017-MUM)

Provider:Vista India

Rating

U/A

Release date

2017

Running time

2:00:54

Language

Punjabi

Actors

Satinder SartajAmanda RootShabana AzmiJason FlemyngRupinder MagonSophie StevensDavid Essex

Director

Kavi Raz

Producers

Kavi RazJai KhannaJasjeet Singh

Writer

Kavi Raz

How to Analyze a Film:

Read this in detail to understand basics to analyze a film

Points to remember while reviewing a film:

• A film review should have a number of purposes:
• To inform. The review needs to tell people who is in the film, who it is by and where or when readers can see it.
• To describe. The review should describe the story, characters and some of the action - without spoiling the plot or giving too much away!
• To analyse. A good review gives an opinion on whether the film is good or not and why.
• To advise. Finally, the review should tell the reader whether or not to go and see the film.. .  Read BBC link from the below given links for further study.
• A good movie review should entertain, persuade and inform, providing an original opinion without giving away too much of the plot. A great movie review can be a work of art in its own right. Read on to learn how to analyze a movie, come up with an interesting thesis and write a review as entertaining as your source material.
• Method 1 of 3: Studying Your Source Material
• 1. Gather basic facts about the movie

2. Take notes on the movie as you watch it.

3. Analyze the mechanics of the movie

Method 2 of 3: Composing Your Review

1. Create an original thesis based on your analysis.

2. Follow your thesis paragraph with a short plot summary.

3. Move into your analysis of the movie.

4. Use plenty of examples to back up your points.

5. Give it some personality.

6. Wrap up your review with a conclusion

Method 3 of 3: Polishing Your Piece

1. Edit your review.

2. Proofread your review.

3. Publish or share your review (in form of COMMENT under this blog and also on your personal blog) . . . read more on wikihow link given below.

Some examples of reviews:

1. To do cinematic justice to Salman Rushdie’s novel “Midnight’s Children,” it would take a razzle-dazzle entertainer with Bollywood flair and a literary bent, someone equally at home with comedy and allegory, ghosts and little snot-nosed boys, Indian history and Indian myth. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/movies/midnights-children-adaptation-of-salman-rushdies-novel.html?_r=0)
2. Though a bit literal for a film that traffics in magical realism, Deepa Mehta'sMidnight's Children is both dreamy and dramatic, a fascinating view of Indian history seen through the prism of a personal -- and occasionally twinned -- story. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marshall-fine/movie-review-imidnights-c_b_3153638.html?ir=India&adsSiteOverride=in)
3. The film, directed by Deepa Mehta (“Water”), is stunning to watch. Between the colorful textiles and the lush landscapes, the elephants on parade and the stilt walkers, “Midnight’s Children” is a visual treat. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/midnights-children-movie-review/2013/05/01/123822fa-b1cb-11e2-9a98-4be1688d7d84_story.html)
4. As a result, Midnight’s Children has neither the magic nor the realism of the magic realist narrative it regurgitates into soft, digestible pablum for a Western audience it clearly expects little but cooing approval from. (http://vancouverweekly.com/midnights-children-film-review/)

Some examples of reviews of 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist':

1. Relations between east and west, and the experience of the subcontinent diaspora in Britain and North America, have been the predominant concern ofMira Nair. Her perceptive, generous, inquiring films have pursued issues that the older, more reserved, less politically engaged Merchant-Ivory-Jhabvala team held back from. Based on a well-regarded novel by Mohsin Hamid, this schematic film interweaves two narratives in 2011 Lahore. (http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/may/19/reluctant-fundamentalist-review-mira-nair)
2. In his slim 2007 novel, “The Reluctant Fundamentalist,” the Pakistan-born writer Mohsin Hamid takes these two words and rubs them together until they throw off intellectual sparks. Written as a monologue, it is a somewhat claustrophobic blurt of a book that, given world events, continues to feel eerily timely. (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/movies/the-reluctant-fundamentalist-directed-by-mira-nair.html)
3. The story is recounted in flashback by Changez, now an academic back in Lahore, to an American journalist (Liev Schreiber) on the trail of a kidnapped professor. How deeply is this reluctant fundamentalist implicated in anti-American insurgency? Nair, adapting from the 2007 novel by Mohsin Hamid, draws a terrific performance from Ahmed as the divided hero, mild-mannered then warier by degrees. (http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/film-review-the-reluctant-fundamentalist-15-8609955.html)
4. But Khan's challenge comes less from without and more from within. He questions his identity, while his conscience struggles with his ethical choices. He is a Third World man rising to the heights of an imperialist nation. As an American, he benefits from our foreign interventions exploiting his "own people." Further, he contributes to the problem: In arranging mergers and acquisitions, he himself drives thousands of people into unemployment. (http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-reluctant-fundamentalist-2013)

A few Reviews of The Black Prince:

1. https://www.criticalmuslimstudies.co.uk/the-black-prince-and-coloniality/
2. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jun/17/how-film-and-tv-romanticises-life-in-india-after-the-raj

Reading resources on 'How to review film?'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/english/creativewriting/movingimagesrev2.shtml

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Movie-Review

http://twp.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/film-review-1.original.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_studies

Worksheet: Dr. Faustus: A Play by Christopher Marlowe

(Draft of the post)

Doctor Faustus: Christopher Marlowe

Quiz on the Play: Dr. Faustus

Thinking activity :

1) The play directed by Matthew Dunster for Globe theatre ends with this scene (see the image of Lucifer). What does it signify?

Last Scene: Lucifer with wide wings

2) Is God present in the play? If yes, where and how? If No, why?

3) What reading and interpretation can be given to this image (see the image of Daedalus and Icarus) with reference to central theme of the play Dr. Faustus?

Father Daedalus and Son Icarus

4) How do you interpret this painting?

5) Read this article by Bhagat Singh. In light of the arguments made by Bhagat Singh in this article, can you re-write last monologue of Doctor Faustus?

6) Summarise articles discussed in the class:

• Marlowe and God: Tragic Theology of Dr. Faustus
• Myth, Psychology and Marlowe's Doctor Faustus

You can take help of below given reading resources.

1) View presentation on contribution of Christopher Marlowe to English Drama:

Christopher Marlowe's Contribution to English Drama from Dilip Barad

Themes in Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus from Dilip Barad

Students' Fight for Academic Freedom

There are two interesting poems (Tagore's Where the mind is without fear' and A Mysterious Marriage by Freedom Nyamubaya - Zimbabwe) on the idea of 'Freedom'. As and when we celebrate 'The Independence Day', these poems ring the bells of our conscience. These ringing chimes pierce the soul when we read the stories of life of young students on University campuses. 

After reading this (This Independence Day, Here's To The Students Fighting For Freedom: From Delhi To Pondicherry), we can feel the truth of this poem:

Once upon a time

there was a boy and a girl

forced to leave their home

by armed robbers.

The boy was Independence

The girl was Freedom.

While fighting back, they got married.

After the big war they went back home.

Everybody prepared for the wedding

...

Even the disabled felt able.

The whole village gathered waiting

Freedom and Independence

...

Independence came

But Freedom was not there.

An old woman saw Freedom’s shadow passing,

Walking through the crowd, Freedom to the gate.

..

Independence is now a senior bachelor

A lot still say it was a fake marriage.

You can’t be a husband without a wife.

Fruitless and barren Independence staggers to old

Age,

Since her shadow, Freedom, hasn’t come."

And our deep cravings for what Rabindranath Tagore said in this poem flares up, once agian:

Where The Mind Is Without Fear

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

We can't escape from our memory of W B Yeats's these lines from 'The Second Coming'

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
    Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
    Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
    The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
    The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
    The best lack all conviction, while the worst
    Are full of passionate intensity.

And the journey which we began as a Nation on 15th August 1947 with the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who used to keep Robert Frost's  famous poem (Stopping by woods on a snowy evening) always before his eyes, sees no destination in near future:

And miles to go before I sleep,   

And miles to go before I sleep

It is the truth universally acknowledged that no nations can have FREEDOM, if their academia is not free. Any form of social equity, idea of equal opportunity, liberty or brotherhood must first be practiced (yes, PRACTICED, not merely PREACHED) on the University campuses. Then and only then, we can imagine these virtues to percolate in society and we can think of materializing Tagore's idea of Freedom. 

There is interesting movement for Academic Freedom

Its statement reads:

‘We, the undersigned, believe the following two principles to be the foundation of academic freedom:

(1) that academics, both inside and outside the classroom, have unrestricted liberty to question and test received wisdom and to put forward controversial and unpopular opinions, whether or not these are deemed offensive, and

(2) that academic institutions have no right to curb the exercise of this freedom by members of their staff, or to use it as grounds for disciplinary action or dismissal.’

Click http://www.afaf.org.uk/ to read more.

Universal Human Laws in 'The Waste Land'

Universal Human Laws in the modern epic 'The Waste Land' by T.S. Eliot.

The connection between epic and myth is that of an egg and the chicken. Just as the famous riddle by Sphinx ("What is the creature that walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon and three in the evening?"), whether the egg came first or the chicken is the riddle which puzzled many for centuries. Is myth the product of an epic or does epic sprout from the myth? The sphinx riddle was answered by Oedipus ("Human Being") and the 'egg-chicken' one by scientists ("Researchers found that the formation of egg shells relies on a protein found only in a chicken's ovaries. Therefore, an egg can exist only if it has been inside a chicken"). Similarly, we can say that myth pre-exist the epic. In fact, epic poet legitimizes myth as history or truth. The epic is the daughter of the mother, Myth/s. Thus, an epic can be studied as myth. The tools and theories to study myth can easily be applied to epic.  

Are myths / epic subtle codes that contain some universal truth? Are they a window on the deep recesses of a particular culture? Or are they just entertaining stories that people like to tell over and over? Functionalism explains human society as a whole in terms of the function of its constituent elements; namely norms, customs, traditions, and institutions. A functionalist reading of myths/epic might extract the universal human laws.

Have a look at this presentation with various Universal Human Laws in 'The Waste Land'.

Universal Human Laws in The Waste Land (T.S. Eliot) from Dilip Barad

Task:

After studying these Universal Human Laws, would you like to give priority to the UHLs which you find more Universal than the other? Click this link to open an online form and give your priority: