Monday, September 24, 2012

Films that touch your Heart, Part I....(BARAKA, 1992)

So what do you expect when you go to a theater to watch a film? Do you expect to laugh or get enamored, get stupefied or just simply to see your favorite star right in front of you and wished if you could take him home? Or may be it is just for relaxing - relaxing at the cost of 1500 Rs (at least), and gladly most of us can afford it. In the multiplexes different show timings allow you to witness different types of people - the night show generally is patronized by people with expensive cars and cell phones with 'cheap - looking' ( but they are anything but cheap) clothes, and trying to project the idea of how difficult it is for them to relax, but to come to a movie theater, spend some money, look cool, allowing the entire audience know that they have a mobile phone (it will evidently ring during the movie) and showing off the world their act of 'cleanliness', by feeding even the floor their popcorn and paper napkins. The scene sort of changes in the evening and the afternoon shows (sorry you can't use the term matinee show anymore, thats so psss !!), you get to see a mixture of younger and elderly crowds - the former coming into just to enjoy some quite moment with their loved ones, as in India we lack the concept of lovers point, and probably also because the RSS people will commit suicide by sheer depression, and we definitely can't risk that or may be just to hangout (films are not the priority), while the latter simply to enjoy an afternoon, see how much the world has changed since their times, and purges their lips, when they see a couple holding hands. I have seen this increasingly in Kolkata, where this specific lot comes only to watch an Aparna Sen or Rituparno Ghosh film, and shall be the connoisseur of Bengali culture. How would you identify them? Well, they shall mostly have short feather-cut white hair or long hair neatly tied up in a bun, very classy glasses, junk jewelry, clad in fabulous Fab India sarees or kurta pyjama, and very efficiently surfing their latest kind of mobile phones. They will hate if you even whisper during the movie, as if, if one word is missed they won't get the 250 Rs worth of experience.
           And finally after so much drama happening outside, you enter the auditorium only to wish that the coming 3 hrs would be as nice for you as you would have felt gulping down Swensen's chocolate ice cream on Belgian waffles, but then it turns out to be just Karela fry, especially if you land up in a movie like Kya Super Cool Hai Hum ( I wonder to whom the title refers to). I was aghast to see Tusshar Kapoor. I mean how ugly, incompetent a person can be, is simply alarming. I mean he seriously needs to work really hard in order to be so pathetic. I am not even attempting to describe the rest of the cast, I shall die of constipation for sure. So its better to leave the subject as soon as possible and lets talk about a movie which very graciously has touched my heart, and I did not even have to spend a single penny. All thanks to film piracy in the form of 'Torrent.' That wonderful film is 1992 released BARAKA (96 mins), directed by Ron Fricke. If I have to describe the film in one sentence, then the film does not have any storyline, no plot, no dialogues, or actors, except for the fact that it is kaleidoscopic - a global compilation of both natural events and by fate, life and activities of humanity on earth. If you have never been speechless after watching a film, then Baraka is the one for you. And if that does not happen to you, then you are the perfect audience for all the obnoxious Salman Khan movies (not that I have against anything him). The only other movie I could think off which blew me in recent past was 2010 released bengali film 'Arekti Premer Golpo,' starring Rituparno Ghosh and Indraneil Sengupta, which I can talk about it later. You know Baraka is one of those films which starts very gently and silently with no such dramatic effects, but leaves an impression in your mind forever. The film came to me by accident, and how beautiful this accident has been and a biiiiiiiiiiiiig bear hug to torrent, as such films never get to see the sunlight in this country but because of torrent, we get the privilege of such films in our drawing room.  The music is scored by Michael Steams starring Dead can Dance, L. Subramanium, Ciro Hurtado etc, and the tunes simply pierces through your heart and takes you to some other world. The movie starts with a misty early morning scene at the Durbar square in Kathmandu, then the Pasupati temple, Bhaktapur Hanuman Ghat and then to the Wailing Wall of Jerusalem. The scenes one by one just sweeps you and you simply stare at the screen, because you don't know what to feel. Every scene has a different story to tell, and that gets conveyed to you without any dialogue, but only through beautiful pictures and music. How very easily and explicitly various cultures and traditions comes out in every scene - they are intermingles but so yet distinct. The film has number of tracking shots through various settings and has a sort of a universal cultural perspective. There are few shots of Gunung Kawi, Tampak Siring temple in Bali and the tribals worshiping and then directly moves to Mount Bromo in Java. The shift is crisp and sudden and so breathtaking. The camera moves right from above the mouth of the volcano and you can see the hot molten materials inside the volcano. And you are just speechless.
                      India is of course present, but not the Taj Mahal or the scenic beauties of Ladakh. They chose to show the mighty Varanasi Ghat and the people in there. After capturing the Ganga and her beauty, I was stupefied to see the director unfolding the burning rituals of dead bodies on the banks of this old city. Believe me, but there are numerous scenes including one close shot up of a dead body in the funeral pyre, that is the part of this 96 mins journey. However, here, I would ask you not to seat up and splurge out with nationalistic feeling and arguing about the depiction of the east by the west has always been like that, i.e. deadly diseases, poverty, illiteracy etc, but to understand, that with Taj Mahal and Qutub Minar, these rituals are also very much a part of this country and that by capturing these, is in no way the celebration of Indian poverty. I have always believed that Varanasi has a separate identity of her own, and so much is going on simultaneously. Each has a different side, and it is crucial for us to acknowledge those sides also. These are very much a part of the Indian heritage. So don't get all upset...feel it, enjoy it and then analyse it.
           I won't say more, then probably you won't find the interest to watch it. A sequel of this film called Samsara has been released internationally in August 2012. We only hope that India too get to see such wonderful films, but if not, use torrent, or watch it online. I assure that you won't regret. Till the time here is the link for the trailer of Baraka... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XO1nSVy8q8I.....watch the film with an open mind, understand the scenes and you shall get so many flavors. Its a journey of a lifetime.

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