MOMA(Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art),New York: 12.12.2008: Film: Herbert, Director: Suman Mukhopadhya.An adaptaion from a novel by Nabarun Bhattacharya. This film is layered and as the director himself said, he places the protagonist Herbert Sarkar as a prism reflecting events from 1950-early 1970's, Bengal, India. It is a film that deals with issues of cultural imperialism especially of the Babu's of Bengal and their respective colonization.
The film is in Bangla, with english subtitles. It is a very niched film and requires specific knowledge capital(for instance knowledge of the state of Bengal post independence, the setting in of decadence, the naxalite movements of the 70's etc.)What makes this film unique is that the protagonist does not receive any formal education so to speak. He bunks school to spend time looking at pigeons, people, aeroplanes and Buki, his love interest.Therefore, he is never really instructed in how to figure out this world. Yet through the short span of his life, he is subject to events and happenings that he must deal with. That he is literally thrust into these social events, that he unconsciously becomes a 'comrade', that he unconsciously ends up reading from the little red book, that finally he is accused of being a terrorist reflect the chaotic modern existence of the modern man.
Herbert is a failure, in every aspect, he does not have a profession until much later, even then he is accused of being a fraud, a cheat, he somehow rationalizes the death of his friend, Robi, as his fault, a failed lover, an uncle who is as trivial as Tristram Shandy. He is the local clown, the joker that walks like an Ostritch bearing a black overcoat, a mockery of the colonized mind. Suman's film is a critique of how we as modern human beings seemed to have failed miserably.
The most heart rending is Herbert's inability to deal with accusations of cheating people. He vehemently refuses allegations of having played around with people's emotions. The audience is acutely aware of Herbert's sincerity, because through 145 minutes, the audience has seen Herbert's life, his triumphs but mostly his failures.His inability to forge friendships, his pathetic destiny to run underpaid errands for his cousin Dhanna, to b
Would Herbert have been totally different had he received some sort of formal education, that would teach him how to rationalize? His reactions would have been more sophisticated, somewhere perhaps the society would have feigned respect for yet another madman. Is it inevitable to become part of systems? Or was it merely as Dryden had written:
"There is a pleasure sure in being mad, that none but the madmen know"
The colors used in the film were primarily shades of blue, the twilight etc.
Suman believes that India is more than Bollywood and Indian films lie in its regional voices and stories.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Sex and the City: All the cliches that you ever heard about New York are in this film. But I am in New York, I am a 20 something, I am single, and happy. So heres the lead into remaining single for a long time to come. Its not a rip from the film "how to lose a guy in 10 days": they stuck around for 10 days because each had something larger than their 'love interest' at stake. But reality is far more exciting and doubly so when your in the City of Angels. The following discourse maybe both invaluable and worthless:Dates upon a whim, which tend to prolong themselves from a drink to dinner at a diner to haunting some of the more cosier cafes around the corner to ofcourse the promise of a 'kiss at the end of an evening...' Its about 'love' and everything that it entails. The things that you could/could not do depending on where you wanna drive into.
1) Talk constantly. About anything and everything. You have to have an opinion about everything. You could tolerate their views, but its just a rebound phase and it does not really matter.
2)Talk about your past boyfriends and relationships. And how much you wish things had worked out, that you were with them even as you drink that Cocktail, but most importantly that you are a pathetic learner, you never learn from your mistakes...glee...glee.
3)Say that you hate the one thing that he likes. For instance if you know that his element is Wine or fish or the sea life, insist how much you think all wines taste the same, that you thing Fish have no emotions and that you get nauseous infront of the wide spaces of the sea.
4)Be a shameless tease. There is a very careful distinction between being a succesful flirt and being a tease. You know, tease him crazy, get ever so close, have fun and do the touching and feeling and then ask questions like 'are we a couple?", "Does it look like we are going around?", "Do you think the others who see us will think we are together?","But you know dahling, we are not! Its only eveident because I did not say 'Darling' I only said Dahling".
5)Get drunk: and act worse than you feel. So there is no way he is going to take advantage of you. He will be worried shit. If he says he never took whiskey because its too strong for him, you order your second shot deliberately-stubbornly pretending that you can totally hold your liquor.
6)Continue to be stubborn like an Ox. Dont listen to anything he says, although you know that he knows better. For instance its below freezing and you dont have a scarf. You simply will not wear his scarf. Then he will be forced to say things like"Its clean you know", just so that you listen to him and you look at him doubtfully-I mean we are still talking about adult dating here.
7)Steal Candies from a store and tell him that this is totally not your style.
8)Plan out his life for him. Tell him you would like to take a roadtrip with him in 10 years. And if he says he cant because he would have a wife and kids and that his wife might have trouble letting him go with a 'particularly attractive' woman-tell him you wont remain so in 10 years and fish shamelessly and persistently.
9)If he turns out to be a foodie-look at him incredulously. eat particularly less when he's around and make him concious that you hate food, anything to do with the kitchen, that after a good love making session you'll never be able to cook him bacon and Pancakes-rather he might have to do it for you.
10)Invite yourself over to his place, just to taste his tall claims at cooking and be openly critical about it. Ofcourse you're only being yourself when you say you hate it that there is no salt in the marinated duck.
11)Never explain yourself logically:You dont want him to take out his car because you hardly know him and it weighs down on you like a huge favour, tell him your worried about global warming. If he argues that all Pornography is not violent and you suddenly begin to see his enlightened point of view, still argue otherwise, and irrationally if the need arises. Warn him that nobody wins an argument with you and never admit that your wrong.
12)Finally when you have had a rollicking time, at the end of the night, just indifferently kiss him on the cheek and go home.Act as if you could have had as much or more fun with just about anybody else. Post this call up numerously at odd hours without leaving any messages, apologise franctically and furiously for the misdemeanor of the previous night, that everything was such a huge mistake.
And even before you know, you would have lost the man.
The point is that whether you chose to be in a relationship or not is entirely dependant on you. Just as its therapeutic to be single, to do things alone for yourself, its also important to fall in and out of love or something like it.
1) Talk constantly. About anything and everything. You have to have an opinion about everything. You could tolerate their views, but its just a rebound phase and it does not really matter.
2)Talk about your past boyfriends and relationships. And how much you wish things had worked out, that you were with them even as you drink that Cocktail, but most importantly that you are a pathetic learner, you never learn from your mistakes...glee...glee.
3)Say that you hate the one thing that he likes. For instance if you know that his element is Wine or fish or the sea life, insist how much you think all wines taste the same, that you thing Fish have no emotions and that you get nauseous infront of the wide spaces of the sea.
4)Be a shameless tease. There is a very careful distinction between being a succesful flirt and being a tease. You know, tease him crazy, get ever so close, have fun and do the touching and feeling and then ask questions like 'are we a couple?", "Does it look like we are going around?", "Do you think the others who see us will think we are together?","But you know dahling, we are not! Its only eveident because I did not say 'Darling' I only said Dahling".
5)Get drunk: and act worse than you feel. So there is no way he is going to take advantage of you. He will be worried shit. If he says he never took whiskey because its too strong for him, you order your second shot deliberately-stubbornly pretending that you can totally hold your liquor.
6)Continue to be stubborn like an Ox. Dont listen to anything he says, although you know that he knows better. For instance its below freezing and you dont have a scarf. You simply will not wear his scarf. Then he will be forced to say things like"Its clean you know", just so that you listen to him and you look at him doubtfully-I mean we are still talking about adult dating here.
7)Steal Candies from a store and tell him that this is totally not your style.
8)Plan out his life for him. Tell him you would like to take a roadtrip with him in 10 years. And if he says he cant because he would have a wife and kids and that his wife might have trouble letting him go with a 'particularly attractive' woman-tell him you wont remain so in 10 years and fish shamelessly and persistently.
9)If he turns out to be a foodie-look at him incredulously. eat particularly less when he's around and make him concious that you hate food, anything to do with the kitchen, that after a good love making session you'll never be able to cook him bacon and Pancakes-rather he might have to do it for you.
10)Invite yourself over to his place, just to taste his tall claims at cooking and be openly critical about it. Ofcourse you're only being yourself when you say you hate it that there is no salt in the marinated duck.
11)Never explain yourself logically:You dont want him to take out his car because you hardly know him and it weighs down on you like a huge favour, tell him your worried about global warming. If he argues that all Pornography is not violent and you suddenly begin to see his enlightened point of view, still argue otherwise, and irrationally if the need arises. Warn him that nobody wins an argument with you and never admit that your wrong.
12)Finally when you have had a rollicking time, at the end of the night, just indifferently kiss him on the cheek and go home.Act as if you could have had as much or more fun with just about anybody else. Post this call up numerously at odd hours without leaving any messages, apologise franctically and furiously for the misdemeanor of the previous night, that everything was such a huge mistake.
And even before you know, you would have lost the man.
The point is that whether you chose to be in a relationship or not is entirely dependant on you. Just as its therapeutic to be single, to do things alone for yourself, its also important to fall in and out of love or something like it.
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