DAY 3 AND 4 AT MAMI

Day 3 was a day off for me! It was a Sunday and I had commitments at home to keep. However I was keen to watch the ‘25 short films’ that were part of the ‘Dimensions Mumbai’ theme but I was informed by friends who were at the venue that the crowd was thick and large which meant the usual chaos and I was not up for it.

The Spanish film ‘Beautiful’ was to be re-screened at night 10:30 pm in two screens simultaneously but by then I had given up any intentions I might have had to visit the festival.

Day 4 started for me at 3:45… I was late and thus rushed into the South Korean movie “Mother is a whore” Directed by Lee Sang Woo. The reason I rushed into this movie was because by the time I reached the venue all other films were 15 minutes into their running time and i hate to even miss the national anthem!! I had not read the synopsis and hoped it would not be literally what the title suggested but in fact would be a depiction of a dominant or difficult character/ personality of a mother and the influence of such a character on the family! Something like James Brooks’ “Terms of Endearment”- a superb film.

“Mother is a whore” like most of the Korean films I have seen this time was a mix of various issues. Sang Woo- the director himself- plays a 38 year old looser who is a pimp for his mother who is a whore. Contrary to what the society things Sang Woo does not solicit his mother for his individual monetary interests but because it is the mother who insists on doing so. The father thus has left them and remarried a younger woman who has a son and daughter from her previous marriage. There is friction here between the father and son i.e Woo's character, also between the father and his present step daughter. The father also rapes his step son causing him to withdraw into his room never to come out. As I said there are these multiple issues all connected at some level and largely speaking of the break down that’s occurring in the lives of all the characters. The name of the film truly makes no justice to the conflicts that it offers or tries to address. It in fact takes away the focus unnecessarily.

The second film I saw was “Khandar” Directed by our very own Mrinal Sen starring a delectable milieu of Naseerudin Shah, Pankaj Kapoor, Annu Kapoor and Shabana Azmi. Three friends’ visits the ruins of what was once a flourishing ancestral property of one of them- Pankaj Kapoor. The only inhabitants of these ruins now are an old, blind, paralyzed mother and her beautiful unmarried daughter- Azmi. The man with whom her marriage was fixed many years ago has married of and lives in the city. The sick mother however does not know this and still believes that he shall return to wed her daughter. Telling her the truth would surely cause great harm to her psyche. The conflict begins when one of the three friends- Naseerudin Shah- is mistaken by the blind mother to be the man chosen for her daughter. She cannot be told the truth while Shah cannot marry Azmi having come on a three day weekend trip. The tension between them is beautifully captured amidst the ruins of their surroundings. The end however is realistic as Shah returns to the city leaving behind Azmi who becomes a mere subject of the photographs that he has taken. Although initially the aging walls and broken structures make us cringe for the ruins that they are, by the end of the film it is the life of Azmi’s character that seems much more ruinous than the degrading property.

The third and last film of the day was “Everything must go" a film from USA directed by debutant director Dan Rush. This one was a very typical Star Movies/ HBO kind of flick. I wanted to see something lighter and also Chandan Cinema where it was playing being spacious and huge, I headed there. Nick Halsey (Will Ferrell) has a drinking problem ‘coz of which he loses his job. He comes home to find all his belongings on his lawn as his wife has locked the house, changed the locks and left him! There on begins his journey to deal with the loose ends in his life. It’s a film to watch if you intend to have a lazy afternoon and its playing on TV anyways. There is nothing spectacular in the film but there is nothing much annoying either. I love Will Ferrell as an actor and he holds the film well. However there are plenty of loopholes in the screenplay making a critical mind raise lot of questions... over look it to get through the film.

And Now for Day 5….