Two shades of Grey - From "Luv Shuv te Chiken Khuraana" to  "Skyfall"

Interesting development in the last few days.  Two completely different movies with one common theme.  Shades of Grey. (No – not fifty – just two!)

Some facts first. Luv Shuv te Chiken Khuraana - small budget "multiplex"  movie - completely unknown ensemble cast (except for Kunaal Kapoor - he of the Jesus Christ look and the "Rang de Basanti" fame).  The story is straightforward - young punjabi lad steals money and runs away to London to seek fame and fortune. Runs up debts, is on the run from ‘enforcers’ in the mafia, and returns home to ‘find’ the money.  In the process he finds redemption and roots. And stays back to run a dhaaba, and build a life with his childhood sweetheart.  Where does Chicken Khuraana come in you ask? Ah - well – that’s the name of a recipe - created by his grandfather - with the secret ingredient being marijuana - for that lip-smacking, sensory memory which few in the community can forget.  So the plot line is that the family business and wealth has been created by doping the community and personal redemption is achieved by continuing the family business.

Loved the movie.  But I saw it with family and they didn't get it. What was interesting was not that they hated it – but they just didn't get it. There was discomfort as well - having the principal protagonist slyly plot his way to sell the family property and find his "raison d'etre" by accident – too many shades of grey there.  Then there’s the female lead – someone who is engaged to the hero’s brother but is not conflicted about sending “I am available” signals to her brother-in-law-to-be.  Its a realistic portrayal – you can see her going through with the marriage in case her signals are not reciprocated. Pragmatic? Yes. Grey? Very.

The level of discomfort with “shades of grey” characterization struck me as interesting. Its difficult to see a hero as a flawed human being, and its disturbing to know that if you were to meet him / her – you would like him.  What does that say of you?

And so -  on to Skyfall.  The entire team from the office went and watched it and the universal opinion seemed to be “no gizmos, no gadgets, no gals – what nonsense” – except of course after a couple of beers the language was a lot more – ‘flowery’.

When I went and watched it – by myself –  I loved it.  I like this “avatar” of Bond – he’s a thinking man, with a brain and a heart and he gets the job done.  He’s as cold as ever – but its not the ruthless, “I am an emotional zombie” cold which was the hallmark of the Bonds of yore – instead it’s a kind of flash frozen heat. Its controlled and all the more potent for it.

And yes, that is incompatible with indiscriminate sex – anybody with a brain won’t sleep around because when you have the power of discrimination it precludes promiscuity (It’s the difference between a gourmet and a glutton!).   As for the lack of gizmos - the movie makes the point well - when your world gets to be as technologically interconnected as we now are - individualized gadgets look redundant.  The whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

What you get is a thinking man’s movie – with understated humor, with the “in your face” action substituted with undertones of menace.  Because the movie gets into the heads of its principal characters  – be it Bond, M or the villain, it is grey. Those shades of grey make for discomfort for an audience which wants simplicity and escapism.

The most ironic thing is that Skyfall is actually about simplicity – about “going home to make your last stand” and the need for human and humane intelligence in a technologically interconnected world, which as M puts it “is not more transparent – its more opaque – because you don’t know who the enemy is anymore”.

As an audience we’ve been fed with computer generated animation and breath-taking special effects. But none of them have been real or very “doable”.  You only have to seen one “The Making of …” program to realize that.  If you watch the actors rigged up in their safety harnesses, hamming their reaction shots for the camera, against the backdrop of blank blue - it kills the enjoyment of the movie.

 I am told that the stunts in Skyfall are real - they were done by real human beings and not CGI'd (Computer Graphics Invented).

So, when we are presented with a combination of "real" action and those shades of grey wrapped up in simplicity – we - as an audience -  don’t seem to find it engaging enough.

Interesting.

Mad Mark

There was a film in the late 1970’s –Mad Max – it was Mel Gibson’s first claim to fame. Set in the future – with crazy motorcycle action – it also opened up Hollywood to films from Ozland.

The film came to mind because Kumar and I found India’s answer to Mad Max.

Tucked away in the sleepy foothills of Mudumalai is a place called Wild Haven. Its an innocuous looking dirt road turnoff as you drive up from Mudumalai to Ooty (by the short-cut road – which is 36 hair pin bends and a quick 20 mt drive up the mountain.. but that’s another story).

So. Back to Mad Mark. Wild Haven is famous because it’s a place where wild elephants wander into your garden to be fed with jackfruit and pumpkins.  The owner is an eccentric alchoholic –his name’s Mark and he looks like a cross between a satyr and a faun. Hes all of five and a half feet, dark, with a thin, wasted frame, bloodshot eyes, a thatch of salt and pepper hair. He speaks or rather spouts four-letterease – (a dialect of  hinglish where every fourth word is a four letter word).  He owns about 2000 acres so doesn’t have the pressure of earning a living – but as is the case with great wealth – it has only succeeded in embittering him from his family – and hes quick to curse his sister to perfect strangers.

 Mark has three elephants – Socrates, Ronaldo and Elvin - all male, tuskers, lone animals. Wonder if they are also a reflection of him.  At any rate these animals wander around his bungalow and when hungry, which is always, make their desires known by overturning the odd jeep, or breaking the odd window or roof. Whereupon Mark will throw them some jackfruit. Since it’s the breeding season, all three of the elephants are in heat – so they often have 5 legs not the standard four.  In case you didn’t know - the breeding season makes male elephants extremely aggressive.

Mad max – the movie was all about the quintessential bluff – and that’s the connect with Mad Mark. The elephants are aggressive and not above reaching out a trunk to feel your clothes to see what you have for them. When they get to close for comfort – Mark – all 47 kgs of him – will brandish a thin bamboo and threaten them with “kucchi” – that’s street tamil for “thorny stick”.   Each of these encounters ends the same way, the drunk stands on a staircase and stares down a 2 ton elephant – which will turn broody, shake its head a couple of times and then back away.

We spent two hours there – enclosed are a couple of photos – but they don’t do justice. (The center photo has Mark silhoutted against Ronaldo)

The abiding mental image I have is when Socrates went for our jeep and Mark charged at him – and it’s the first time, I have seen a 2 ton animal cringe, fold into itself and shy away from one thin, bamboo wielding maniac. I’ve seen lanky teenagers with the same body language after being yelled at by their fathers. The elephant side-walked away from Mark and (I swear) had a sulky look on its face as it moved away to a corner of the property.  It didn’t return for the rest of our visit.

My take? Besides the fact that Marks a maniac – fundamentally he’s messing with the man-nature balance.  We saw several wild, lone,  tuskers during our stay in the forest – but none of them were as aggressive as Socrates or Ronaldo and I am told that a steady diet of jackfruit can intoxicate an elephant (Yes – that’s all thats needed here – add alcohol to raging hormones!). 

 There will come a time when Mark will overstep or the elephant will actually call his bluff. I hope that the incident is over quickly and painlessly for all concerned.  And they can put it as an epitaph “ Here lies Mark – he walked with the elephants”