Chaitanya Tamhane's second film - really nice. The life of a boy who dedicates himself to learning classical music and does not know if he is doing it right and what he should expect in terms of success. Enjoyed watching just as I enjoyed his 'Çourt'.
Best known for his 'Tuesdays with Morrie' Mitch takes us on a journey with time - to a time when time was not discovered. So there's Father Time and a boy who discovers time called Dor and it looks like Dor is the chap who invents time and messes it up for the world.
Dor gets a chance to redeem himself when he is asked by Father Time to help two people on earth - one who wants more time and one who wants to end her time - a rich businessman who wants to live forever after his impending death by securing his body in a cryogenic facility and a young girl who wants to kill herself after a failed love affair. Dor saves both, gets them together, so they get back and go back to life with more grace. The businessman lives and funds the girls college and she grows up and discovers a cure for cancer.
Didn't make much sense though it had something to do with time. Avoid.
Andrew Jackson was a successful advertising man based out of London. Having tasted success by his early thirties he decided that life was not just about making ad films and money and decided to launch on a project of meeting the really old people across the world and making sense of life. So he and his wife Vanella packed off all their belongings and put them in a container of sorts and took off on a long journey across the world.
So they traveled to Russia, China, India, Bali, Africa, South America, America, Turkey and so many more countries. He and Vanella go through a lot in that time, the uncertainty of not staying in the same place for more than two days, dwindling finances, stretching their dollars, going through health issues especially with Vanella's intestinal obstruction condition.
The people he meets are quite interesting - rather very accomplished people almost. people who met Stalin, worked on the atomic bomb, wrote movies, were with the Ottoman empire, and so many such interesting people who were part of revolutions, huge changes in history, and also many normal people. Some wonderful conversations and insights - like the one he had with Prof Deodhar who talks about watching the ball out of the bowler's hand. Or the one with Morarji Desai and how he beats Andrew at arm wrestling at 93 - and his urine therapy. The one with Charles Bennett the screenwriter, another one with a matador (who fought a bull at eighty), another one with the old twins in China and so on.
The last part when Vanella gets sick and almost dies in Caracas was very disturbing but thankfully she survives and it all ends happily. However I thought the book would be different - with more insights - and apart from the one question that he asks - why did you live so long, there was nothing that explored their philosophy of life or what they learned. Yes, some didn't drink, ate sparingly, worked till the end, stayed happy etc but for the scale of his work, a little disappointing. His story with Vanella's health crisis was most dramatic and I could not read it almost. I was so glad she survived that operation. They go to London and find that all their belongings have been stolen or vandalised and they start afresh. They also have a baby and that was so nice to know. What it does not deliver in terms of the wisdom i looked for, it made up in taking me on the journey of the couple. Andrew wrote those parts with great honesty and feeling.
I bought this book in 2008, in Crossword, Deccan Gymkhana, where Malay and I had gone to visit. I don't know why it took me so long to read it but I always wanted to. I like the wisdom old people have and I loved the conversations I had with Shobha's mother. Glad I ticked it off.
I got the impression that Arya was a serious student of literature from the short conversation we had when we visited the home in Dharamshala a few years ago. Her father Suresh was our class topper when we studied Civil Engineering at Osmania University in the mid-80s and I was far removed from the likes of him, spending all my time in the canteen or the cricket fields. It was nice connecting with Suresh, and visiting him at his beautiful home in Dharamshala. I gave him a copy of 'The Men Within' and I remember telling Arya I'd love to hear her views on it.
Well, here's her review. And I loved the fact that she fully 'got' it, as I wrote it. Apart from reading literature and writing (I heard she wrote a book which I am keen to read), she is studying in her 12th class at Dharamshala, and aims to be an architect.
Here's Arya's review then.
"Reading a cricket novel is like living the sports all over again. This book takes us through a journey of self-discovery, love, friendship, teamwork and dreams. The main characters or students integrate hard work and strong work ethic to bring back the lost pride of The Golconda School. In any society, mediocre people try to overpower the people with dreams. They dictate them to follow mob mentality and advise them to keep dreams buried deep inside their heart. If a person refuses to obey but goes on to achieve in a field that is often looked down upon by society, he faces criticism. This outlook of society has destroyed the careers of many students. As a result, they lost their spark.
This book also revolves around the same idea. After 15 years of a long time, a group of students in The Golconda School got the opportunity to change their lives, their parents and society's perspective with the help of their cricketing coach, Sampath.
Sampath, drunkard turned coach was a former student of the same school who was given the responsibility by the Principal S.Vishwanath to save his school from Kirit Das, a businessman who saw the school playground to be nothing more than an estate worth crores for IIT JEE or EAMCET coaching. All the students who decided to play for the Inter-School Cricket Championship underestimated their coach and took him lightly. Sampath struggled (yet never giving up) to make those students focus on their goal. In the end, the students agreed to teamwork. With Sampath, the team faced many ups and downs during their practice and also had to listen to demotivating criticisms from the people around them especially, from their Maths teacher and Vice-Principal Madhu who found pleasure in scaring the parents for the student's grades and in burdening the kids with their studies. From gaining the infamous name of ones who would disqualify in the first round of the Championship itself to winning the cup, the team worked extremely hard.
When students are ready, they find their coach. As a result, luck happens when their preparation meets opportunity. It is essential to gain a complete perspective, not only in academics but also in extra-curricular activities which helps them to understand and find the right balance which helps them in future. Unfortunately, physical education, art, music, dance are always overlooked as insignificant activities by most people. But all of these have their significance. They teach the young students to find their true purpose for which they desire to achieve perfection in this world.
It is high time when society must stop associating their social prestige and ego with the dreams of any person and allow them to embrace their passion because multiple roads can lead to success. The author has done a brilliant job to bring the qualities required to achieve in a field. One must work hard and work smart; develop proper base that involves concentration, consistency and the basics of critical thinking, strive to fix every single weakness, embrace authenticity and keep up the momentum to be successful.
Any person who wants to become better must read this book. This book has everything which makes you look inward and find out who you are."
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Thanks Arya. That was a very well-thought-out and well-written review. As the author of the book, I really enjoyed reading your views on it.
Be proud of who you are and your work. But watch out for ego.
Pride is a comma, ego is a full stop.
I met Ram at the Times Lit Fest, Bangalore, a year ago. He shared this link of a short film he'd made. I watched it today - found it captivating, very moving. When I spoke to Ram he told me he had been out looking for something else to shoot when this young ten-year old happened upon them, his mouth smeared with white stuff. It's just shot naturally, following the flow of how Santosh went about with his ways, his addiction. Ram followed him through his growing up years and the video takes you right till when he is 19 years and has hopes of a normal life.
Addictions are our guard against pain. It breaks your heart to see how everything is loaded against this kid and you hope despite knowing that it may not, that it ends well.
Good show Ram. Very well done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBfuGQuznQg
This part is the missing part in this video - the whole journey.
You can get more information about Ram and Roam Free Films here https://www.roamfreefilms.com/
I loved this. Uplifting. Watch.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BQ0FaGTHfSWF8l7MHkNDqzcBW6POqC2f/view
