Films Showing Mahatma Gandhi And The Wicked Rich at MAMI Festival
By Vidyadhar Date
22 October, 2012
Countercurrents.org
A highlight of the current 14th Mumbai film festival MAMI is a film from South Korea which brilliantly exposes the cruel and selfish ways of the rich. `I like disturbing the rich and the powerful,’ says Im Sang-Soo, the director of the film The Taste of Money. What a refreshing statement that to hear considering that so many artistes refuse to take on the powerful.
Lust, crime and intrigue are part of the super rich household of the head of a powerful conglomerate in the film. One of the victims of these crimes is the house maid with whom the tycoon has an affair. Even while the aeroplane is carrying her coffin to her home country, Philippines, the daughter of the wealthy man engages her young employee in vigorous sex in the plane’s toilet. Can the rich become more insensitive ?
Before turning to another film, let me cite a play Arthur Miller, the celebrated American playwright, wrote in his late eighties . The play suggested that if Jesus Christ were to be alive today, the rulers would find him very inconvenient, would crucify him and sell television rights for the crucifixion for millions of dollars.
The satire Resurrection Blues is set in an unnamed Latin American country with military dictatorship but it is applicable to the US as well. Writing with bitter satire , the eminent writer of such famous plays as Death of a Salesman, says a day might come when they will privatize executions and collect money from spectators to show the killing.
In India if Gandhi were to come alive our rulers may not be so callous as kill the Mahatma. But in actual practice, they are already certainly slowly killing his legacy even while paying lip service to him.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh rode on a train in South Africa in 2006 to the railway station where Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was thrown off for traveling first class with a white passenger. This incident was a trigger for Gandhi’s launching of satyagraha as a peaceful form of protest. But this was clearly a lip service on the Prime Minister’s part because the agenda of neoliberalism that his government so ardently espouses deeply undermines Gandhi’s path. If Gandhi were to be reborn today, Mr Singh would accuse him of displaying negativity. Mr Singh looks simple but there may not be a politician more anti-Gandhi in economic and social thinking.
The popular attitude to the Mahatma and his teachings is probed in a fascinating manner by well known film director Girish Kasarvalli in his Kannada film Kurmaravatara which was screened at the festival on October 19 at Inox Theatre at Nariman Point. It shows what happens to a simple common man once he is cast in the role of the Mahatma in a television serial because of his resemblance to the Mahatma. He starts reading the Mahatma’s teachings and then starts practising Gandhian values. But while he becomes popular for his role, he is told by his director and family to stick to the role on the screen , not to practise Gandhism . For many people in the world out there in the open Gandhi’s teachings are inconvenient because Gandhi challenges the status quo at every step.
Kasravalli makes no comment on current politics at all but his film comes at a highly appropriate time and is a subtle commentary on the language politicians are currently talking now , their language says greed is good, selfishness is a virtue, acqisitiveness is admirable and money is an end in itself.
.
How unGandhian in spirit some people are even when they espouse Gandhi in film was apparent some time ago.Film star Sanjay Dutt, who played an endearing main role in the film Lage Raho Munnabhai failed to recognize in real life the actor who played Mahatma Gandhi in the same film !.
The film is important but the story one heard about Sanjay Dutt creates serious questions of his credibility. Dilip Prabhavalkar, who played Gandhi, is not an ordinary actor. He is a well-known face, his television Marathi serial Chimanrao proved to be so popular some 20 years ago that he became a household name even in non-Marathi-speaking homes.
It seems that after the release of the film Prabhavalkar found that Dutt did not recognize him at a meeting and had to tell him `Did you not recognize me? I played Gandhi in the film.’
One reason cited for Dutt’s failure is this. During the film’s shooting Prabhavalkar used to come well in advance and be ready with his make-up . Dutt used to arrive just before his shot , do the shooting and go away. He never saw the Gandhi actor without make-up.
But this also shows how deeply insensitive, class conscious and star status-ridden the Hindi film industry is. If this can happen to a man of Prabhavalkar’s stature, one can imagine how actors down the line and artistes cruelly named extra are treated by the stars.
What Dutt seems to be good at is the commercial approach to films, switch into a role and switch off. You can suddenly enter into a tragic role without much preparation and still make a success of it. But that is not the best way of acting. Good acting needs tonnes of preparation, reading, immersing oneself in the role. One does not expect our guys to read Stanislavsky, the most famous guru of actors, but how can they ignore the basics ? It is this callousness towards serious thinking and world cinema that shows in the conspicuous absence of most film stars at international film festivals in India. Of course, some of them do go to Cannes and other festivals to show off and for photo opportunites.
Another troubling aspect is the complete hold of Hollywood over the imagination of most people in the Indian film industry. Many Indian films, not to speak from different parts of the world, are far superior to most of the fare from Hollywood but we continue to be in awe of the American movie industry, behaving even slavishly before big stars.
In the Mumbai festival’s opening film Silver Lining Playbook was an American one and directed by David Russell. There were far better films in the festival but this one was chosen apparently because Anupam Kher played a role in it . It is a small role of a psychiatrist with a few scenes and one has no problems with that. The trouble is we totally lack perspective and think this is some kind of a great achievement and we gloat over it. . It is all right for Indian actors to play even roles in Hollywood but let us not be proud of these things. Films from several small countries would beat Hollywood films hollow any day. But the glamour of Hollywood persists because of our complete slavishness and inability to look beyond the USA. Some of the finest films the world over are great without a star cast. And it is troubling to find extremely shallow Indian stars attracting so much attention at film festivals when far more talented but less famous artistes are ignored, not recognized. And it is pathetic to find superstar Amitabh Bachchan become a brand ambassador for Gujarat government headed by Narendra Modi. And when he is attacked for that role, he goes about defending himself saying he is doing it for the glory of Somnath temple, Gir lions and the like. He has all the money in the world and fame. This is a time when he should be doing introspection, doing and supporting serious cinema, not playing to the gallery.
Vidydhar Date is a senior journalist and author of the book - Traffic in the era of climate change . Walking, cycling, public transport need priority. [email protected]
Comments are moderated
