Bandit Queen - From the hindi film diaries

Roles for women in 90’s were as simple as calculating the perimeter of an equilateral triangle.Following are an array of examples in which girls of 90’s were often seen doing

1. Girls playing roles wherein they importuned men using her choking technique
2. Used her cuteness to get him do whatever it takes to marry her, be it breaking off with his parampara, that would consist of 100 members that he/she have hardly met or often making a gentle request to hum some lines, even if he doesn’t know the tricks of guitar
3. Or merely act as a pendulum, who then had to oscillate between 2 or more (then) hot looking men based on a formula of who would make love to me in a better way, thereby putting the audience through a no-confidence motion.
4. Or some jhinchak things wherein they would feature in atleast 2 hot numbers, an eye candy for the audiences(like me), who would leave the theatre with wet memories of the songs than the engrossing story itself.

At the end of it all audiences felt a genuine connect with all those females/girls portraying the roles , so much so that they started naming their daughters after the character names.

If any “Women centric“ roles/stories  were attempted by then directors/writers,they were either trashed by audiences as art movie or ignored by many, unless it is portrayed by an actress who had already made it to masala movie list. If that was not enough we had Indian Censor board suffering from fear of “castigation of Indian culture” which suggested “few” cuts in the movie, thereby skewing the intentions of the movie consequently the emotions, vision of the “makers”.

One such movie was “Bandit Queen” by Shekhar Kapur. Based on the dictated diary entries titled “Goddess of Flowers”, Kapur narrates the journey of a woman from an aborted childhood, to making of a dacoit, to experiencing Love, carnal abuse, series of retributions and finally ending up as a politician.

It addresses the social issues that existed in the 1960’s when women were never given the respect and were given an unfairly treatment, which Kapur appropriately quotes at the start with “Animals, Drums, Illiterates, low castes and women are worthy of being beaten”. Also highlights the casteism where, the Thakurs were the Unch Jaatiwaale and all other at the bottom end of the pyramid.

Young Phoolan is married off forcibly to a Thakur, twice her age to act as a housemaid. She rebels and flees from his home when she is forced into sexual acts, followed by abuse. 

In dusty lands of UP operated many dacoits, off which Babu Gujjar is the the most notorious upper caste dacoit . By now Phoolan is already considered as a centerfold in that village.Gujjar decides to lay his hands and abducts Phoolan,subjecting her to carnal abuses. Vikram Mallah, a dalit and deputy of Gujjar rescues Phoolan by killing Babu Gujjar, thereby proclaiming the leadership of the group.  Vikram teaches Phoolan howto’s of dacoit viz shooting and rock climbing stuffs.

Meanwhile The head of the group, a Thakur is out of Jail, refuses to accept the the idea of the gang to be operated by the lower caste Mallahs. Things get worse when he makes indecent advances to Phoolan, thereby leading to an altercation,shoot-out between the Thankur and Mallahs. Phoolan along with Vikram and his gang escape to a remote city for hiding. By this time the relationship between the two has grown more than love. 

Knowing nothing else to do apart from dacoity, they come back to the UP to carry on their business. On one fine day during a casual conversation between the two, Vikram is killed, leaving behind Phoolan again,Helpless.

What follows is the most disturbing part. Thankurs take advantage of her helplessness. She is gang-raped , dishonoured and affronted in the upper cast community. In the most helpless of times, she is helped by an old friend of her who gives her some shelter to recover from.

Outraged at all this, Phoolan plans for vengeance by joining a gang headed by a Muslim leader. In a ghastly act of retaliation and misjudgment she ends up killing all the innocent upper caste people in the community. This massacre makes her the most wanted and notorious bandit that the governments are looking for. Faced by a series of attacks on her gang, she finally gives up the dacoity and surrenders to the government and joins politics, promising to help for the welfare of the people. 

As mentioned initially, it is just the kind of role one would not want to do but was pulled off by then theater artist Seema Biswas.  A poignant and disturbing role ever written, that sketches the life cycle of a girl from a teenager to bandit to politicians, admiringly is one of the best by any Hindi actress ever seen. 

And final word goes to the Mala Sen(Writer) and Shekhar Kapur , who unfortunately had the guts to make such a brave movie at a time when the masala movies was at its entertaining best. Unfortunate because, hurdles faced pre and post release forced Mr.Kapur to move to West and make movies that he could relate to. 

No matter how many biographies you read, articles you refer to make a movie, the absoluteness of “true story” from one’s perspective can never be achieved and shall always be debatable.
 A disturbing movie in most parts, but engaging throughout. This is highly recommended. 

Christopher Nolan - So far, so bloody awesome!

     When Chris started playing with his father's Super 8 camera at the age of 7, no one from his friends or family had the slightest idea of what this kid had in store for his future. Neither did any of his classmates when he was studying English literature at University College London and making short films pursuing his passion.

But, that kid Chris went on to make his passion as his profession and since then has entertained millions of people worldwide and made studios earn billions with his movies.

Here, we take a look at his career so far and peek at his brilliant work.

• Doodlebug

     Doddlebug was a short film shot in black and white with duration less than 3 mins.But, Nolan packs so much in this short film that it amazes the viewer. It depicts Jeremy Theobald as someone who looks petrified and in search of a bug relentlessly or so it seems. The background score increases the intensity of the visuals and grips the viewer to ponder about what the charcter is trying to do. The climax leaves one thinking and that as a filmmaker becomes Nolan's hallmark!

Did you know ? : This short film has only one character that is played by Jeremy Theobald.

• Following

     Nolan reunites with Jeremy Theobald to attempt his first full length feature film. Its again an intense story revolving around a writer who has this strange habit of following random people and basing his work on his obervations. In one such 'following' act of his, the writer gets into a situation where he has to interact with the stranger he was following. The story then takes the writer and stranger(who is a burglar) into interesting twists and turns culminating into a very gripping climax.

Nolan tries the non-linear narration style here and makes it work brilliantly. Suspense grabs lot more attention with this unpredictable way of story telling. Nolan shot this movie as well in black and white which adds a certain eerie feeling to the proceedings.

Did you know ? : Principal photography of this film took over one year. Because all cast and crew members had other full-time jobs they were only able to film on Saturdays about 15 minutes of footage until photography had been completed.

• Memento

     There have been numerous movies done in non-linear narrative style and each film offers something new to the audience. Memento remains an epitome in such unconventional story telling approach. This movie is arguably one of the most complex to dissect and digest as an average movie-goer but very much an appealing and likeable at that. As one of the most audacious screenplay ever attempted , this movie oozes confidence in every shot and engages the viewer in every twist and turn of the story.

Based on a story of a cold blooded revenge by a man whos dealing with memory loss condition, this movie heavily relies on the performance of Guy Pearce and he excels like an ace. Chris Nolan puts in a commendable effort in managing all the unconventional facets with ridiculous ease and style.

Most of the indian movie watchers would identify this movie as the one that 'inspired' the hugely famous Ghajini movies made in Tamil and then in Hindi.

Did you know ? : The medical condition experienced by Leonard(Guy Pearce) in this film is a real condition called Anterograde Amnesia - the inability to form new memories after damage to the hippocampus. During the 1950s, doctors treated some forms of epilepsy by removing parts of the temporal lobe, resulting in the same memory problems.

• Insomnia

     This movie had everything going for it. Al Pacino and Robin Williams in the main cast with a script that Nolan firmly believed in. Based on whatever I've read about this movie over the years, this one has to be the least appreciated Nolan movie.

Personally, I think that there was nothing wrong with this movie and it was a very well made one.Its a remake of a Norwegian film of the same name.The story deals with 2 detectives who are sent to an Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a 17 year old girl. Al Pacino and Martin Donowan play the roles of these detectives who have to trace the smart murderer who hasn't left many clues behind.

Al Pacino suffers from Insomnia in this town where sun doesn't set, making him lose control over his mind at times and appear unstable! This is where the story adopts the psychological thriller path and departs from being a regular cat and mouse chase. Robin Williams gives a brilliant performance and matches Pacino every bit.

Pacino overcomes the Insomnia and his personal/proffessional conflicts to try and trace the murderer and in the process enthralls the viewer. Nolan has to be commended for the way he has treated this story and added an extra dimension with his detailed portrayal of main characters and their conflicts.

Did you know ? : The only film of his to date where Christopher Nolan had no hand in writing the script.

• Batman Begins

Batman was always the least liked superhero by me of whatever little superhero cartoons/comics I caught up before getting into my 20s. I was in favour of more flashy superheroes like Spidey and Superman. So, I paid little attention when this movie released and was more excited about Spidey movies.

It was just before the release of 'The Dark Knight' that I thought of watching this movie and boy was I happy I did. This movie underplays the 'super'ness of Batman so much and tries to make it all look as real as possible. Bale who was selected by Nolan based on his performance in American Psycho looks every inch of Bruce Wayne/Caped crusader. Nolan who has confessed that it was the story behind Bruce wayne turning into Batman that pushed him to make this movie comes up with pitch perfect screenplay and gives a whole new dimension to this superhero. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Liam Neeson form the inspiring supporting cast. This movie kicked off the franchise reboot in a big way and set up the stage for bigger things.

Did you know ? : During filming of the scene where Batman is being towed by a train through the streets of Gotham, so much steam was used that it would "rain" on the cast and crew for several minutes after each take.

• The Prestige

Undoubtedly, my most favourite Nolan movie so far!!

Nolan bases this movie on the story of a stirring rivalry between two magicians who make humungous effort to outdo each other at every possible attempt. The rivalry gets bitter with their personal and proffessional lives getting intetwined with each other. The story eventually boils down to efforts put in by one magician to try and break the trick of the other.And then his attempt to do something bigger. All this ending with a great climax that leaves the viewer awestruck!

Bale and Jackman do brilliant jobs taking the centre stage and do total justice to the rivetting screenplay by Nolan brothers. Its a very imaginative and interesting screenplay (based on Christopher Priest novel) which gets beautifully complimented by stunning camera work. The rest of main cast consists of Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson(ooooh) and Rebecca Hall who deliver great performances as well.

As I keep repeating it, the screenplay has a major role to play here and Nolan ensures that things portrayed remain as real as possible making justice to the theme of magic. This movie is truly master class and is really a mark of an intelligent movie maker.

Did you know ? : The main characters' initials spell ABRA (Alfred Borden Robert Angier), as in Abracadabra, a common word used by magicians.

• The Dark Knight

Like all his other movies, this one was also based on a fine screenplay aided by brilliant background score.But, for me it will be just one thing that'll primarily flash in front of my eyes when I think of this movie, HEATH LEDGER!

Nolan was destined to make this movie. He was always destined to cast Heath Ledger as the Joker and give him the one of the best roles of his lifetime.

I had no words to say soon after I got out of the movie theatre. Heath Ledger was all over my mind. His version of Joker vastly different from Jack Nicholson's version had created an impact beyond belief! Every scene that had Ledger in it was a scorcher. His eyes, the face paint, body language, dialgoue delivery and his evil laugh were all just perfect. He made Batman look spineless at times and made audience root for him instead of the caped crusader!

Ledger managed to take the movie from 'Level : Above average' to 'Level : Brilliant' all by himself and rest of the cast had to just be awesome selves to try and match Ledger. It was one helluva cast consisting of usual suspects Bale,Caine and Oldman with additions to the cast like Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal.

May be Nolan would have had Joker as part of the the last movie of the Batman Trilogy if Ledger was still alive or may be he wouldn't have. But, this one movie cemented Ledger's place amongst the best actors ever!

  

Did you know ? : In preparation for his role as The Joker, Heath Ledger hid away in a motel room for about six weeks. During this extended stay of seclusion, Ledger delved deep into the psychology of the character. He devoted himself to developing The Joker's every tic, namely the voice and that sadistic-sounding laugh (for the voice, Ledger's goal was to create a tone that didn't echo the work Jack Nicholson did in his 1989 performance as the Joker). Ledger's interpretation of The Joker's appearance was primarily based off of the chaotic, disheveled look of punk rocker Sid Vicious combined with the psychotic mannerisms of Malcolm McDowell's character, Alex De Large, from A Clockwork Orange (1971).

• Inception

People say the Warner Bros let Nolan make this movie as a token of appreciation for his Batman movies. True or not, I don't really care.

Inception is one of those rare movies that start with a feeling of “Are you frikkin kidding me ?” and end with “Holy mother of GOD!!”. Its an added responsibility on the viewer to pull his dropped jaw back to its original position and start thinking of his schedule in next 7-10 days so that he can take some time out to catch the movie again.

Inception had everything going for it. New story, brilliant performances, eye catchy and justified graphics that are ably handled perfectly by Mr.Nolan with ridiculous ease.

Did you know ?  : Nolan rejected producer’s suggestion of making this movie in 3D.

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Nolan has proved his merits over and over again with utmost efficiency. We can hardly wait to watch his future projects and will keenly wait for his movie to hit the theatres.