Welcome to Sajjanpur

If you have read my blogs, you’d know that I analyse critically the movies I see. I highlight the bloopers in the movie, and sometimes even suggest what could have been done to make the movie better. But this time I have no criticism and no suggestions. Welcome to Sajjanpur is a welcome respite from the senseless, meaningless movies releasing like people from projects in IT companies.

Welcome to Sajjanpur uses humor (as opposed to misuse, as done by a lot of movies these days) to tell grave realities of our society. Shyam Benegal, intricately weaves - a political saga, a child-widow problem, a human organs business, harassment of girls due to superstition and aspirations of an educated average village youth - by humour. Most comic sequences in the movie not only tickle you but also pose some thought provoking questions about the society we live in. The hegemony of the illiterate, Hindu MLA candidate, the helplessness of the Muslim opponent and the pains of the eunuch who finally wins the election – all points to the problems prevalent in the political space. Another heart throbbing story was that of a child widow who got a decent suitor. Both the families were more than happy with the relation but the couple was hung alive from tree by the society who took widow remarriage as a crime. The story of a woman whose husband goes to the city for work, not only describes the emotional trauma a woman (and more so a man) separated from her (his) spouse for four years go through but also hints at the organ-sale racket when her husband writes her that he is going to sell his kidney to buy a house for them. The most humouros of the stories, the story of a girl who was not getting a suitor because she was a “mangalik”, hints at the superstition of which our society is a victim. The girl, diagnosed as mangalik was prescribed to marry a dog born on a Saturday!

The movie ends in an overall positive note. The letter writer turns into a novelist. The manglik gets married (to this writer). Munni wins the election and is influential in the parliament (though Benegal doesn’t say whether the influence was good or bad). However, the hanging of the couple sensitizes the audience about the backwardness of our society.

I have purposely avoided using the names of the character or actor which played the roles. The characters represent average villagers – not only of Sajjanpur but of any place in India. All the actors did full justice to their characters. Sreyas Talpade, Amrita Rao, Rajeshwari Shachdev, Illa Arun, and all the others did an amazing work.

The music of the movie is good – not outstanding. The lyrics of the songs are really meaningful and add to the overall flow of the movie. I, especially, remember one song sung by the eunuch while campaigning. The song goes something like – “Pehle raja aye, phir rani aayi – ab munni jitegi”. It means – first there was the kingdom of “kings” – probably hinting at the Mughal rulers – all male. Then came the Queen – probably hinting at the British Queen and now Munni (the eunuch) is going to win.
If I still had to find one thing in the movie which I liked comparatively less was the dripping of nose instead of eyes of Illa Arun. But, still I think, it did good job in lightening the issue at hand. See, I still cannot find one clear “flaw”. The light but realistic treatment given to such heavy, grave subjects is really amazing. I had not seen such an amazing movie with such varied shades and colors in recent times – some part of the movie being painted with bright, cheerful colors, some with grim, dark ones and some with obscured colors whose myriad shades pose serious questions to the audience. You must have guessed by now (given the number of times I used the word ‘amazing’) that I found the movie, well, amazing :)

Rocking Rock-On

A shaadi-ka-song in a rock album – this is exactly what Rock On turned out to be. The switching of the storyline between the “rocking” past and the mundane present was brilliantly done. This aroused curiousity in the audience to find out what went wrong among the friends. The characters of the film were well-designed. I could, kind of, associate myself with KD or Aditya. Now, don’t get me wrong here. I don’t mean that I am as rich as Aditya/KD are shown – nor I was part of a rock band – nor were the characters inspired by me – I bet u didn’t see my name in acknowledgements. But, rock was an integral part of our college life - rock competitions during fests, rock performances during freshers’/farewell, rock songs played in gachhtolas and canteens. I was never and am still not into rock, but somehow, rock did get into me, though very little. And now, I am leading a corporate life where disco nights have taken over rock shows and cafeteria over canteen. Outwardly, it all appears great. But somehow, there is a yearning to go back to the good ole days. This was portrayed in both KD’s and Aditya’s character.

The movie went well , given that it was targeted for not-so-rock-savvy Indian audience who thinks that Boyzone in a rock band. It doesn’t get into the darker/harsher side of the rock genre. The music was good and went well with the story – kudos to Shankar Ehsaan Loy. The movie and the friendship did reminded me of DCH but then, any movie showing urban-contemporary friendship is bound to be compared to or associated with DCH.

But. the brain tumor thing was too much of melodrama – though not explicit. The movie could have been just about a rock band. Why does someone need to have brain tumor, of all the deseases? This was similar to the stand of the music company owner. When Magik won the Channel V contest and was offered an album , the audio company asked it to add a shaadi-ka-gaana to the rock album. C’mon, this is the limit. This is highly unrealistic. Given the era in which the movie was set, it unrealistic and irrational of the audio company owner to insist for a marriage song to a rock album. The company should have analyzed the taste of rock fans. Which rock fan would have bought that album if it had a marriage song? Also, which non-rock fan would have bought it if it had 7 rock songs? – This reminds me of the behavior of a lot of politicians! Similar to this shaadi-ka-gaana thing was the brain-tumor saga. This made the film lose it’s realistic treatment it was given before Rob’s tumor case. Also, the PJs cracked by KD do not go well with rock stars – I don’t blame the director/writer for this - as the kind of jokes rock stars crack wouldn’t have got censor certificate. Also, the “response” of the audiences shown in the rock concert was too made-up. No headbangs, no rock-on gesture by hands. Rock show is not complete without these. The director/choreographer should have visited at least one proper rock show.

Overall, I’d rate this movie 7/8 (in proportion to 7 rock songs out of 8 songs in the album and 1/8 of the film having the brain-tumor stuff. The treatment of the film is fairly realistic. The music is superb – goes well with the movie. The acting of each of the actors is brilliant. The screenplay is amazing as wel. You don’t feel guilty of wasting some 2.5 hrs. I’d say it’s worth spending not only for the ticket but also for cola and popcorn

The Lost Phone

1/26/08:

I got a call from a friend, Samudra at about 10:30 pm asking me to join for a cup of tea at Gurdwara. For people who don't know, there is a very famous tea joint near the Elgin Road Gurdwara. People from far off places come here for a "bhand" of tea. People generally come after having dinner and it's normal to find crowd here till mid-night.

Getting back to the story, I said that i won't be able to join because i was home after months and wanted to spend some time with my family. But giving in to his persuasion, i put on a jacket and stepped out. The whether was chilly ( by Kolkata standards). I walked my way through the mildly foggy night to Gurdwara. I found Samudra and Anu, common friend of ours, both holding a phone close to their ears. I jutted in and greeted them with the customary, "Hi Guys". Samudra said that he had lost his phone - Motorola L9. I got a bit serious. Anu was casual though. He told me that the phone might have slipped out of his jacket in the cab, by which they came to Gurdwara. I asked some stupid questions, like, do u know the name of the driver/car number? Of course, he didnt know. And i bet most people dont remember the number of the cab in which they travel. That is the last thing one would like to remember ( think again).

I asked him to call up the service provider's (Smart) helpdesk to see if they can track the phone. But it wasn't easy. Neither I nor Anu had used Smart phone and didn't know the number through which one can contact the helpdesk from other service providers' connection. So i suggested him to call up any friend of his who was using Smart and ask him to call up the helpdesk and ask for the number. Anu, during all this, was trying to call up Samudra's phone, expecting (?) that the taxi driver would pick up the phone. Samudra, could not recollect number of any friends having Smart connection. Hasn't the technology made us worse? I used to remember at least 10 numbers before i got my first mobile. But after getting a mobile, i don't remember even the number of the person whom i call 10 times a day. Samudra called up one of his classmates, asking him to give him the number of their classmate having Smart connection. I forgot the names of both his friends (whom he called up and the other "Smart" guy). Samudra called up the other Smart guy and asked him to enquire about the helpdesk number.

Anu was still listening to the irritating "not reachable" message. Samudra, got his senses back and asked, out of formality, whether we wanted to have tea. I denied. Anu wanted to have one. He wasn't tensed. Finally, we got the call from the "Smart" guy who gave us the helpdesk number. Just forgot to add - Samudra, had gone to a nearby PCO to check if they knew the number but in vain (No wonder i forgot to mention it before ;-)). Samudra called up the helpdesk and after the usual long time, the customer care executive picked up and told that they cant help in anyway apart from barring the number. Period.

Samudra, then, called up his home. Well, a little flashback here. Before coming to Gurdwara, Samudra was near Purna Cinema. His parents had asked him to come home early for no specific reason. Samudra, in a holiday mood, thought of going for a tea-chat before going home. Back to current story. His dad, having faith is police, suggested that we file an FIR.

So, we took a taxi and headed towards the "nearest" police station. In the taxi, i narrated the incident to the Taxi driver (don't worry, i am not going to repeat it). We requested him to inform us if he found any co-taxi driver finding a phone ( of course, we exchanged numbers).

We, then, entered the police station. It was something like 11:15 pm. We again narrated the entire incident. The policeman asked if we remembered the car number. We said, we didnt. So, he said that how do we expect them to find the phone ( how true!!). He, nevertheless, asked us to write all the details and submit it to Kalighat Thana because the area where the phone got lost was under Kalighat thana's jurisdiction. This was heights. Anyway, we came out and decided to go to Kalighat Thana the next morning.

Meanwhile, we kept trying Samudra's lost phone. Suddenly, when were leaving the police station, the phone rang. Somebody picked up. Samudra said that it is his phone and had dropped it in the taxi. The person asked us to collect it at Forum, where he currently was. We asked him, about his car no, to which he didn't reply. However, he said that his name was Prem Chand.

We caught a taxi and headed towards Forum. We enquired each taxi there to check if it were "Prem Chand's". We kept asking taxiwalas which stopped there. We were there till 1 pm asking all the drivers if they were Prem Chand. One taxiwala, said he was!! We requested him to give back the phone. He was shocked. He seemed to get a bit nervous. He confessed that he thought that we are potential passengers looking for this Prem Chand driver. Finally, we thought of going to Kalighat Thana the next morning.

Next morning we reached Kalighat thana at about 10 o'clock. The moment i entered the thana i was overwhelmed with the vision I saw there. We were asked to be seated on a chair and wait till our turn comes. I observed, how different was a police station from the corporate offices.

First, the "babu" culture struck me. People spend too much of energy in useless (?) sycophancy. When an officer came, everybody, including the civilians sitting there, stood up leaving all the work aside. And saluted him. This might be showing respect to him, but i wonder whether it serves any practical purpose. I am a software engineer. In our office or for that matter in any of the IT offices, we don't see this culture. Work takes the priority. If I am in between something and my boss comes to my cube, i can, without any hesitation, ask him to wait till i finish the work. Even he would appreciate this. After all, our common goal is to get the work done. But here, the person (probably a senior officer) took more priority than the work!!

Second, i was simply amazed by the way the shelves there we hosting "files". I wondered whether they had ever heard of a device called computer? how would they find out a particular file from the "lot". Haven't they heard of anything called database? The truth seemed to be very different from what is projected. India is considered IT HUB. We, supposedly, seem to have an edge over other companies in the field of IT. But, here, in the police station, they still stayed in primitive way. We always crib about the police not doing it's work properly, blah blah... But have we ever thought of upgrading the infrastructure? ITising the police stations/system would certainly speed up the processes.

Third. In a time when we are talking of world as a global village with virtual cyber-continents, we have to run from place to place so that the information goes to the right blackhole. If we had an online FIR filing system, we would have filed the FIR that night itself. This wasn't a critical case. But had a critical case being delayed by hours because one had to go to the right police station, we can only imagine what could have happened.

Anyway, it was, i would say, a different experience for me!!