Movies

As I wait for signs of Spring  - or at least the possibility of leaving my appartment for a bit of outside time - I have taken to watching  movies on YouTube. And I did make a discovery: unwatchable movies can actually be gone through if one takes them a bit at a time. Interesting. (Are movies made with this in mind in the Internet Age?  Another discussion, no doubt).

My first was an English movie, with Michael Caine as a retirement-age vigilante, Harry Brown. Was it pappy-porn? No doubt it could be seen as such. Yet the grit in which Harry and the lot live in this government-housing East London is well beyond what poverty, laziness, neglect or what-not could generate. It is pollution, environmental pollution which stains everything. And shrouds things in hopelessness. A transition movie, then.

My second find was Chicken Tikka Masala (from a scenario by an 18 year-old) and featuring a mix of English and Bollywood actors. The movie makes little immediate sense from an English perspective and neither, I am willing to bet, from an Indian one. The clue to that is in the title: Chicken Tikka is a spicy Indian chicken dish on a skewer.

The Masala version, eaten in England, is served in a gravy-ish tomato sauce to English tastes. Remind me never to order that!!

The hero is an Indian student in England whose Indian family joins to arrange for him a  traditional  marriage. Problem is, bloke is a homosexual living with his bfriend and English family. Hilarity ensues until, at the end, his confesses his true orientation and his family accepts his condition. Where’s the rub?

The mix of characters is odd at many levels. The Indian hero is played by someone from Trinidad. He and his chosen bride form an extremely odd couple. He  also pretends to be the lover to a larger blue-eyed English woman whose daugther calls him daddy. The long marriage ceremony which the family consents to is daunting, yet in moments, beautiful. One almost wishes for it be true, and for these bewildered souls to find peace together. But of course this is impossible, political correcteness will prevail.

The movie plays out a bit like an absurdist construct, each character living his own version of things in the face of reality. (And the folks reviewing the movie are having some trouble: is she the boyfriend’s mother, sister, aunt?) A suffering large woman made the butt of jokes of all can never be a comic stock charcter because this involves a double layer of insult: one is laughing at someone who is being laughed at. Vanessa is an advanced vodka alcoholic, foul-mouthed to drown out every insult and smirk around her. I like her.

No doubt the evil of arranged marriages is a well-worn meme of Indian cinema. Yet do we ever appreciate the immense richness of the culture. England has nothing to teach India about sexuality. One reads up on something as esoteric as transgender and India has Gods and Festivals on the case going back centuries. An interesting movie.