The storyline, as Spiked summarizes it, is:
The film, a comic satire, tells the story of Natha (Omkar Das Manikpuri), a poor farmer in the fictional state of Mukhya Pradesh. Faced with the prospect of losing his ancestral land, Natha is convinced by his brother to commit suicide so that his family will receive a compensatory 100,000 rupees from the state government. As Mukhya Pradesh is preparing for elections, Natha’s story is picked up by the media and quickly becomes the focus of political debate and of competing media outfits. Eventually, the humble farmer, his family and their goats are virtually imprisoned in their shabby house, surrounded by raving flocks of TV reporters, while politicians show up bearing gifts of hand pumps and TVs for which there is no well or electricity.Sounds promising.
It so reminds me of a Tamil film from three decades ago, called "Thanneer Thanneer", which in English would translate to "Water, Water." Adapted from a play, the movie was one sarcastic tragic-comedy on the plight of the poor, the bureaucracy, and the self-promoting and self-aggrandizing politicians. It was brilliant.
There are wonderful stories to be told, given the vastness of the country. It doesn't always have to be about poverty and politics either. Even the lives of the millions of middle class are ripe with stories. I can't understand why instead the movie folks churn out the same old formulaic movies over and over.
More than the formulaic movies themselves, I am concerned about what comes across as the death of the arts in India. The last couple of times when I was in Chennai for extended periods of time, everyday I scanned the paper for listings of plays and off-beat films. It can't be that the paper systematically did not list such. It was rare. I couldn't believe, and still cannot believe, that a city and a culture with a rich history of literature can be so devoid of live performances. Movies and television have completely taken over. Perhaps the education system too does not encourage the arts, with its focus on promoting science and technology?
Even in the small town of Neyveli, I have watched Tamil plays--at the "Sangeetha Sabha." That was more than thirty years ago, and before the age of television. I still crack-up when I think about the clever and punny dialogs in one of those plays that capitalized on the slang and near-dialects in Tamil in different parts of the state, including the "Tirunelveli Tamil" with which I could easily identify. Perhaps even Neyveli's cultural life has changed since then.
Anyway, last year in Chennai, one day I spotted something interesting in the paper--about an Italian film that would be screened. For free! It was not at a movie hall, and I had a tough time locating the venue off Anna Salai. Finally, I reached the place.
I walked up to the door, and the older gent at the table there asked me whether I was a member. I explained to him about me visiting from America and having seen the note in the paper. He clarified that the movie was being screened for members of the Film Chamber or some professional group that was involved in the movie-making industry! He suggested that I wait and talk to the boss to see if I could watch the movie.
A few minutes later, the boss appeared, and he half-heartedly okayed my request. The movie itself was nothing to write about. But, the experience was strangely surreal. Sitting in a darkened movie hall in Chennai, with a whole bunch of strangers who were whispering in Tamil, while watching an Italian movie with English subtitles. It was the experience that was fantastic.
. Selections included from the very old to the contemporary. I was hoping that there would be some kind of a book reading that I could attend.A few minutes on Google, and I had the email address of that professor. She replied that there would be a book-reading and invited me to that.
It was truly an O'Henry moment of irony--the event was to be held the weekend after I was scheduled to return home to America!
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