The Photoshoot of My Life

I have given gifts to people. Books, show pieces, cards,..flowers. But none as personal, as intimate, as full of love and lastly, as satisfying as this one. 

This photo shoot for my little niece. Each prop, each theme, selected with so much care, the number of prayers said so that the baby would cooperate, the eagerness and perseverance with which it was executed, the relief and gratitude I felt at the end of it all... 

When she grows up, this will be to her, the celebration of a childhood that will never come back...

Guilty by Suspicion (1991)

Watched ‘Guilty by Suspicion’ (1991) on Primevideo.

A film about Hollywood Blacklist, McCarthyism and the House Un-American Acivities Committee.

‘In 1947, the house committee on Un American activities began an investigation into communism in Hollywood. Ten men who refused to cooperate with the committee were tried, convicted and sentenced to prison terms after the Supreme Court refused to hear their case. Thereafter no one called to testify, either in public or in secret could work unless he satisfied the committee by naming names of others thought to be Communist’

David (De Niro), a director in Hollywood returns home to find that suddenly there has been a rising tide of McCarthyism and random people have been summoned by the committee on the basis of suspicion that they are communists or communist sympathizers or friends or relations of communist sympathizers.

….while the reality of most people is such as this.

‘In New York, this girl took me to a meeting. Some people thought we could help the folks in Russia. By sending canned goods and clothing. Russia was our ally. The Germans were attacking Stalingrad. We were both fighting the damn Nazis…’

David finds that he is being accused of association with Communists. He was named by a friend who was being investigated and was compelled to name other people.

He is approached by a lawyer, arranged by a producer to help him, and asked to appear before the investigating committee and name his friends and colleagues who attended some communist meetings years ago. 

‘Did you think I'd be a fucking stool pigeon?’so saying, David walks out; he will not ruin the lives of his near and dear ones, because attending some innocent meeting which many people did, years ago, meant nothing.

But suddenly, nobody wants to give him work. No producer wants to be associated with a communist sympathizer. Its a very serious matter, not easily ignored or tackled as he had believed.

His wife, Ruth (Annette Bening) though estranged, probably separated, supports him and stands by him in his crisis. When he vacates his house, she accommodates him in her home.

(Those, probably were the good old days before feminism turned the heads of women and made them capable of becoming completely hostile, vicious and venomous towards their once husband, that they had shared their bed and board with, losing all sympathy for the man, the human who had provided for her, and turning stone cold, exacting from him his pound of flesh even as he was bleeding)

One day, he is summoned by the committee. These last ten minutes of the movie showing investigative questioning by the committee were excellent. The best I have seen so far. 

Committee: ‘Witness attending a rally of the federation of atomic scientists at the Institute of technology, April 17, 1946. The topic of that rally was the elimination of the atomic bomb as a strategic weapon. You were there as a member of the Hollywood peace forum?’

David: ‘Yes’

Committee: ‘Statement made by the chief of the FBI J Edgar Hoover: the Hollywood peace forum cries for peace every chance it gets but has only one purpose: to disrupt public opinion on the matter of the atomic bomb long enough to give the Soviet Union a chance to complete it's preparation for war, I.e., their bomb’

David is asked to name people but he argues with them and questions them boldly, like a hero and refuses to give away names.

Thousands of lives were shattered and hundreds of careers destroyed by what came to be known as the Hollywood blacklist.

People like David and Ruth (his wife) faced terms in prison, suffered the loss of friends and possessions, and were denied the right to earn a living.

They were forced to live this way for almost 20 years. It wasn’t until 1970 that these men and women were vindicated for standing up - at the greatest personal cost - for their beliefs.

From my notes…

‘1951, house committee on Un American activities, LA, California’

‘She wouldn't swear to a loyalty oath, therefore it wasn't in my best interest to marry her’

‘83257 American battle casualties in the Korean War’

‘I'll have to stay away from mirrors all my life. I can't do that. I like looking at myself too much’

Says Joe, who'd rather go away to London than appear before the committee and give away names of innocent people and ruin their lives

Convicted Communist Spies Julius and Ethel Rosenberg sit on death row condemned to die in the electric chair for acts of espionage against the US 

‘Wait till they put your nuts in a vise’

Vise - any of various devices, usually having two jaws that may be brought together or separated by means of a screw, lever, or the like, used to hold an object firmly while work is being done on it

‘Don't forget, we've got a lien on your house’

Lien - the legal claim of one person upon the property of another person to secure the payment of a debt or the satisfaction of an obligation

‘I wouldn't let these guys run a tractor much less the country (politicians)

‘Those libraries ought to be burned. They are full of Communist filth’

#westerncinema

Big eyes (2014)

Watched ‘Big eyes’ (2014) on Netflix.

Truth is stranger than fiction.

A Tim Burton biographical drama about American artist Margaret Keane of the 1950s and 60s who famously drew pictures and portraits of people with big eyes, and whose husband Walter Keane took credit for the creation of those paintings and their phenomenal success, until the lawsuit and trial, after which the truth was revealed and Margaret found freedom from years of oppression by a revoltingly unscrupulous man.

In 1958, Margaret (Amy Adams) leaves her husband and moves to San Francisco with her daughter Jane. She initially finds a job painting illustrations at a furniture factory.

One day, while creating portraits at a street art show, she meets Walter Keane (Christoph Waltz) who happens to be selling his paintings of Parisian streets.

He proposes to her and they marry.

When asked why all the children in her paintings have big eyes, she says, ‘When I was little, I had surgery that left me deaf for a period and I couldn't hear so I found myself staring. I relied on people's eyes’

It is not easy to sell her paintings and they struggle but Walter uses his sales and marketing skills besides not so honourable tricks and connivances to sell her art. She is overjoyed at the sight of dollars, and when he says she can stay at home and paint while he will go out there and sell them, she readily agrees. But when she finds out he has been selling her art as his own work, she is upset. 

But the arrangement continues, because the money comes pouring in and it’s too late to let the world know the truth, says Walter.

To keep their secret, she locks herself up in her room while painting and even lies to her daughter about what she does in there.

One day, she finds out that even the Parisian scenes were not painted by Walter, but by another artist, that Walter is a bag of lies who knows nothing about painting.

He is awkward for a while when he is found out, but gets back again to intimidating her to paint for New York World’s Fair.

One day, when Walter drunkenly starts throwing lit matches at her and daughter Jane, the two run away to Honolulu, Hawaii. 

Margaret asks Walter for divorce but Walter demands he will sign the papers only after she has given him the rights to every one of her paintings. And he doesn’t stop at that. He wants her to paint a hundred more of the Big Eyes!

Margaret agrees and begins mailing him the paintings.

One day, they are visited by Jehovah’s Witnesses who talk about truth and honesty. Both mother and daughter are impacted by the talk and keep mulling over the subject.

The next painting Margaret sends Walter is signed MDH Keane instead of the usual Keane. Also, Margaret goes on a Hawaiian radio show and reveals the complete truth of her paintings, making national news.

Walter gets a newspaper to print a story to claim Margaret has gone nuts.

Margaret sues both Walter and the newspaper. 

‘17 million dollars. The art world is abuzz. Today, at federal court, lawyers will present their opening arguments in the case of Margaret Keane vs. Walter Keane and Gannett Newspaper, a trial that could produce the largest libel and slander reward in Hawaiian history’

The newspaper is acquitted by the court since Margaret had herself stood by Walter’s claims of being the painter of Big Eyes, before her separation from him. 

However, Walter must still defend himself. 

Walter becomes his own lawyer and defendant and witness and makes a spectacle of himself.

‘I cannot stomach one more wild tangent or shaggy dog tale. You're not testifying, you're filibustering’, says the judge to Walter.

He then asks both to paint a Big Eyes painting in the courtroom in one hour to provide conclusive evidence of their claim. Margaret completes her painting, but Walter just sits there ‘waiting for inspiration’.

The closing credits state the following.

‘Walter never accepted defeat, insisting he was the true artist for the rest of his life. He died in 2000, bitter and penniless. He never produced another painting. Margaret found personal happiness and remarried. After many years in Hawaii, she moved back to San Francisco and opened a new gallery. She still paints everyday’

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All those who thought America was always progressive and cannot stop smirking at our Indian society, just read this.

‘I have never acted freely. I was a daughter, and then a wife, and then a mother’, says Margaret.

‘You were raised Christian, you know what we are taught. The man is the head of the household. Perhaps you should trust his judgment’ says the priest to Margaret when she confesses their ‘big lie’ to him and seeks his advice on right action. 

‘Sadly, people don't buy lady art’, Walter persuades Margaret when she is upset that he takes credit for her work.

‘We don't use my name since people don't take women's art seriously’, Margaret assures someone, perhaps her daughter or friend who finds out the truth.

‘Jehova's Witnesses. They don't celebrate Christmas, can't salute the flag. They won't even let Janie go to the prom’

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Lines noted…

‘I am not very good at tooting my own horn’

‘Walter filled the void in my life’

‘Walter has filled a lot of things. He's diddled every skirt on the art circuit’

Diddle – to cheat, swindle; hoax

(Slang) – copulate with

‘What can I do for you?’

‘I am just looking at the John (loo)’ 

(Masterpiece) 

‘Da Vinci has his Mona Lisa, Renoir has his Boatman's Lunch. Michael Angelo, Sistine Chapel’

‘Art should elevate, not pander’

‘Why does someone become a critic? Because he cannot create’

Kitsch (critic referring to the painting) 

Kitsch - something of tawdry design, appearance, or content created to appeal to popular or undiscriminating taste

‘I am concerned about my old pal. The Hawaiian heat may have cooked his brain’

#westerncinema

Closed Minds

My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002)

Watched ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’ (2002) on Netflix.

About a Greek family living in Chicago, with some light-veined Greek cultural chauvinism and the family fuss about Greek weddings.

All throughout, I was reminded of our own Indian society - close knit families, the pressure on daughters to get married at the right age and have children at the right age, the entire family’s involvement in the marriage starting from election of the bride or groom, to the details of the ceremony, the insistence on marrying not just within religion but also within the ethnic group, cultural chauvinism in general, loud aunties and uncles and so on…

Fotoula Portokalos or Toula is a Greek woman living with her family in Chicago, still unmarried at 30, taking care of her family restaurant.

When she wishes to go to college to learn computers, her father is reluctant to let her go and her mother has to convince him to approve.

When she chooses to marry Ian, an Anglo-Saxon, not Greek, father Gus is upset. Moreover Ian is vegetarian.

It is not enough that Ian is Christian, he has to to be baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church for the father to bless them whole heartedly.

Toula’s grandmother, a ripe old widow in black is still raving about Turkey, the enemy of Greeks and will not reconcile herself to the truth that Greek and Turkey are now friends. 

Years after the weeding, Toula’s daughter too must go to a Greek school…

----------------------------------------------------

A sleeper hit, the film became the highest-grossing romantic comedy of all time, despite never reaching number one at the box office during its release. It was the highest-grossing film with that distinction for 14 years until the animated film Sing in 2016.

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And there’s plenty of Greek pride and cultural chauvinism and jingoism from Gus, the patriarch of the family.

‘Name 3 things that the Greeks did first... Astronomy, philosophy and democracy’

‘Give me any word and I will show you the root of that word is Greek’

‘Arachnophobia’

‘Arachna is spider in Greek’

‘What about Kimono?’

‘Greek word cheimonas means winter. So what you wear in wintertime to stay warm? A robe. Kimono’

‘There are two kinds of people. Greeks, and everybody else who wish they were Greek’

‘The Greeks invented pottery’

‘It's your lucky day to be baptized in the Greek Orthodox church. Nikki is going to be your Godmother. You know baptism comes from the Greek word baftisia. That's where we dip the baby in a beautiful little silver basin’

‘Greek women. We may be lambs in the kitchen but we are tigers in the bedroom’

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Loved the opening score

The movie doesn't explain why a good looking young man who could have any woman he wanted, fell in love with a shoddy rather old looking waitress? Irksome. 

Woman greets a boy, hugs, and mock spits on him thrice. Loudly. Thu thu thu. Its for good luck. Keeps the devil away. 

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Lines noted…

‘Nice Greek girls are supposed to do 3 things in life. Marry Greek boy, make Greek babies and feed everyone until the day we die’

‘The Greeks and the Turks are friends now... We told my grandmother the war was over. But she still slept with a knife under her pillow’

‘My brother has two jobs. To cook and to marry a Greek virgin’

‘The priest is coming to bless the new house’

‘My cousins have two volumes. Loud and louder’

(Man is the head of the house says Toula crying. Toula's mother consoling her that she will convince her dad to let her go to college)

‘Let me tell you one thing. Man is the head, but the woman is the neck. And she can turn the head anywhere she wants’

‘Waitress?’

‘Seating hostess, actually’

‘I was frump girl’

Frump - an unattractive woman who wears dowdy old-fashioned clothes

‘So for Happy Easter, we say Khristos Anestri. Then the other person says back, Alithos Anestri’

‘Don't let your past dictate who you are, but let it be part of who you will become’

‘It's a bundt’

‘Greeks marry Greeks.... No one in my family has gone out with a non Greek before’

‘Didn't I say it's a mistake to educate women? But nobody listened to me. Now we have a boyfriend in the house. Is he a nice Greek boy? No, he's a xeno with long hair on his head’

#westerncinema

John Carter (2012)

Watched ‘John Carter’ (2012) on Netflix.

Based on ‘A Princess of Mars’, the first book in the Barsoom series of novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs. 

Mercifully it flopped at the American box office, and the filmmakers cancelled plans for a sequel, and for a trilogy they had planned!

Not just about ‘Life on mars’, this film shows Kingdoms on Mars! 

Human like people and then your usual green coloured weird ugly creatures belonging to some other species. 

Two kingdoms helium and Zodanga have been warring for years.

Our hero John Carter (Taylor Kitsch) is transported there.

Apart from the red planet’s low gravity and hence our earth-man’s ability to take giant leaps, everything else is, you know, bullshit, that too of the incredible variety.

So earth man falls in love with a princess there (Lynn Collins). Bad guy (Dominic West) from the rival kingdom comes to possess a deadly weapon that can destroy Helium, but agrees to make peace only if the princess of Helium will marry him.

There are super bad guys, third parties basically, who do not want truce, but want kingdoms to destroy each other so they may take charge of all the resources on all the planets.

John Carter, initially looks for a way to return to earth, but has a change of heart and fights off all who come in his way to marry the princess. He kills two giant white monkeys with four arms.

On his first night, he abandons his plan to return to Earth and decides to stay on mars, and hence, throws away the magical medallion that is his only means to return to earth…

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Garuda and Nataraja idols are seen in the collection of John Carter.

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‘Your presence is requested up at the fort. I suggest you come peaceably’

‘You don't have a dog in this fight’ (none of your business)

#westerncinema

The Fugitive’ (1993)

Watched ‘The Fugitive’ (1993) on Primevideo.

An action thrill film starring Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble. Acclaimed for many reasons.

Dr. Richard Kimble is falsely implicated in his wife’s murder and given the death sentence. Execution by lethal injection. While being transported to prison, his bus falls down the ravine, as the driver is shot when some of the prisoners are planning to escape. Down in the ravine, a speeding train arrives, there is a spectacular collision and the train is derailed. It’s supposed to be one of the best of it’s kind ever filmed. 

The scene of the train wreck was filmed along the Great Smoky Mountains Railroad just outside Dillsboro, North Carolina. Riders on the excursion railroad can still see the wreckage on the way out of the Dillsboro depot. The train crash cost $1 million to film. A real train used for the filming, which was done in a single take.

Richard survives and then on, until the end of the movie, he is on the run, chased by a Deputy US Marshal Smauel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones) most relentlessly.

At one point, Gerard corners him at the edge of a storm drain over a dam. Kimble leaps into the raging water. This jaw-dropping dive into the waterfall is another thing about the movie. 

‘Only one in a million can survive that fall. That guy is fish food’ says the search squad.

‘OK, get a cane pole, go catch the fish that ate him’, says Gerard!

That jump was going overboard. No one could have survived that. And that too, he comes out without breaking a bone. Without bruises.

Its a great chase, Richard chasing the guy who murdered his wife and Gerard chasing Richard, Richard just one step ahead of the cop.

I will not spoil the rest for you. However, I will say, that Big Pharma was behind the murder. It wasn’t the wife but the doctor who was heir target. A pharmaceutical company was scheduled to release a new drug called Provasic. Richard had assessed the drug to cause liver damage and this would have come in the way of FDA approval and hence he had to go…

The movie ends without showing how exactly the crime was committed, why the wife HAD to be killed. It would have taken 5 more minutes and they were in a hurry to close after spending 2 hours on the never ending chase. Hate it.

Those who want to watch the most important scenes,…

The train wreck scene starts 17:00 onwards 

The jumping down the dam at 38:00. don’t miss these.

Julianne Moore is young and looks good. Unfortunately, she a very small role to play. I was hoping to see more of her.

Notes to myself…

‘Have them glass this river’ 

What does that mean?

‘If they can dye this river green today (St Patrick day) why can't they dye it blue the other 365 days?’

The Chicago River has been dyed green on St. Patrick's Day, March 17 every year since 1962. This is undertaken by the Chicago Plumbers Union, and it has been since Chicago Plumbers Union business manager Stephen Bailey came up with the idea over 50 years ago. 

How does Chicago dye the river green?

The Plumbers Union pours a bunch of what's effectively food coloring into the river. It's a powder with a secret recipe that was originally developed to trace leaks in buildings. The crew sets out in at least two motorboats -- an 18-foot boat that dyes the river and a 12-foot boat that churns up the water by chasing the longer boat. It takes around 45 minutes for the dye to take effect.

#westerncinema

If Not for Brahmins...

That's why anti-brahminism.

It's not a movement of the scheduled tribes or backward classes. It's an agenda of the church. 

If you vehemently hate the caste system, condemn it and become castleless yourself, remember, you are playing into the hands of the church

Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962)

Watched ‘Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam’ (1962) on Primevideo.

The only Indian movie I have given a rating of ten on ten on IMDB. Because it is flawless.

Actually, I enjoyed watching Hrishikesh Mukherjee films a lot more, but I gave them 9 or 8, a point or two shy of ten, because of a flaw or two in them. Every one of them in fact. 

In this movie, I couldn’t find a single flaw. Hence, although the story belonged to a remote past, which I appreciated but couldn’t identify with, I had to give it ten on ten.

Based on a Bengali novel, 'Saheb Bibi Golam' by Bimal Mitra, it has been critically acclaimed, and has the best ever performance in Hindi cinema, by Meena Kumari as Chhoti Bahu, though a flop at the box office.

It was nominated for the Golden Bear at the 13th Berlin International Film Festival, and was chosen as India's official entry to the Oscars. However it was not accepted as a nominee. The academy wrote a letter to Guru Dutt saying that a woman who drinks was not permissible in their culture. Go figure!

The story...

Calcutta of the late 19th century. Where Zamindar Chaudhrys live in sprawling palatial havelis/mansions. It is still British Raj, though there is only one scene in the movie to remind you of it.

The Chaudhrys rest all day, and soon as it is dark, they leave in their carriages for the city’s red light area, or have dance girls perform lewd dances for them in their havelis.

Staying at home by the wife is only for the henpecked, while consorting with dance girls and prostitutes, the mark of a true zamindar.

One of the Chaudhry brothers spends 10000 rupees on his cat's wedding! He brought the son in law from Persia whereas his rival zamindar married his cat to an Indian cat!

The futility, the depravity of it all…

Bhoothnath (Guru Dutt) arrives in Calcutta from his village to take up employment at Mohini Sindhoor, a vermilion making cottage industry. He takes up residence at a Haveli with his brother in law who happens to work there.

Subinay Babu (Nazir Hussain) is the owner of the Sindhoor factory. 

His father was a devout Hindu but he is a Brahmo Samaji now.

He has a daughter Jaba (Waheeda Rehman), a perky young girl who chides Bhoothnath. About his name, among other things. (His proper name is Atulya Chakravarthy, his bua gave him the name Bhoothnath because he was born on Shivrathri)

They employ a Maharaj, a Brahmin cook, to prepare meals for their workers who cannot eat food cooked by the ‘maleech’ Brahmo Samajis.

‘Bas, itna sa bhaat?’ asks Guru Dutt of the Maharaj, looking at the rice on his plate

(Bhaat – is the term used for a rice preparation. It was only in Karnataka that I had known this word to be in active use, I had no clue it was used in other parts of India too!)

Mohini Sindhoor is reputed to help marital problems of all sorts. Applying it will ensure a woman’s marriage is a happy one, she has the loyalty of her husband and bring intimacy to an estranged couple.

‘Mere pitah kattar sanatani the, meri tarah Brahmo samaji nahi the. Mere pitaji ko Bhavani ne swapna mein mohini sindhoor ka vardaan diya tha’ says Subinay Babu.

Back in the haveli after work, Bhoothnath is intrigued by the decadent lifestyle of the Chaudhry brothers. The middle brother feasts his eyes on dancing girls all night, in his private courtyard.

The younger brother leaves the haveli night after night to visit a brothel and returns home drunk very late in the night.

Chhoti Bahu, his wife devises little schemes to keep him home, and begs and pleads with him to spend the night with her, but he spurns her, saying Chaudhrys don’t need their wives’ permission to leave the house and to do as they please.

The other wives are used to this lifestyle and even take pride in the manhood of their husbands, and call Chhoti bahu shameless for pining for her husband thus.

‘Haye Haye kyun karti ho? Mard aadmi hai mera devar. Raheez gharane ka mard jab tak raat bhar nach rang na dekhe woh mard kaisa?’

‘Main gareeb gharane ki beti hoon, itna janti hoon, ke swami ke liye hi aurat ka jeevan hai. Swami ghar pe na ho, toh ye zevar, singaar, ye jeena kis liye’

Bansi (Dhumal) is shown sprinting though the alleys of the red light area, and reaching Choti’s bahu’s husband, lying drunk in a house.

Yesterday Bahurani observed the Ashthami vrat. And you did not come home, he says. 

‘Tanikh apne pair ka angootha is paani mein chuaiye. Jab tak bahurani aap ke pair Chua pani na pee layi hai, upwas nahi tod sakti. Kal se bhookhi baithi hai bechari’ 

The Chaudhry grunts, but Bansi somehow manages to dip the toe of his foot into a small cup of water, which Chhoti bahu will drink and break her fast.

One night, Bhoothnath is summoned by Chhoti Bahu in her quarters. It is a scandalous thing, and Bhoothnath enters her presence in trepidation wondering what is in store for him. As he sees her, he is stunned by her  beauty. 

Chhoti Bahu asks him to bring her the mohini sindhoor hoping it will bring her husband to her.

When he does, she dresses up for her husband, adorns herself with jewels, ornaments, wears kohl and applies a generous amount of the sindhoor both on her forehead and on the parting of her hear.

But in vain…the husband walks away, her beauty lost on her…

You cannot offer what she does, says he to the wife. Be my companion in drinking, dance for me can you, asks he. She cringes and writhes at the thought of it!

When she summons Bhoothnath to her chamber again, it is for a bottle of alcohol.

He refuses vehemently but gives in when she says it is the only way he could see her happy and united with her husband.

Intoxicated with liquor, she succeeds in keeping her husband home for days on, laughing in mirth and wallowing in bed.

But the day comes, when the husband leaves, having had enough of her company.

‘Main kya karoon?’

‘Wohi jo doosri bahuein karti hai. Gehene tudwao, Gehene banwao, kaudian khelon, soo aaramse’

Jaba is attracted to Bhoothnath and he begins to reciprocate too.

But Subinoy Babu, her father, arranges to have her engaged to Supavitra, a fellow Brahmo Samaji and while on his death bed, entrusts Bhoothnath with the wedding preparations.

Heartbroken, Bhoothnath leaves, but sometime later, a secret from Jaba’s childhood is uncovered. 

Jaba's grandfather who was a Sanatani had sneaked out his grandchild when she was one year old and got her married to a boy from a Sanatani family, because her father had deserted Hinduism and embraced Bramho Samaj 

As the zamindars waste away on dance girls and brothels, and fly pegions in competitive rounds with their rivals, the munshis, the bookkeepers and other managers of the estate swindle their wealth, getting their signatures on important papers, selling their property for coal mines in bad condition, in return for bribes from owners of those mines 

And thus, all is lost. 

The haveli is a ghost of its splendid self.

Chhoti Bahu becomes a hopeless alcohol addict.

I will stop here, letting you watch the ending for yourself…

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While the movie tells you that the Brahmo Samajis were treated as maleech (untouchable) and they had to employ a maharaj, a Brahmin cook to feed their labourers, it does not tell you how the Brahmo Samajis regarded the Brahmins. 

It was in Tagore’s Gora that I read about this. The Brahmo Samajis who had walked out of Hinduism disgusted with caste and other such exclusive social norms, had become conceited and exclusive themselves, to the extent that a Brahmin was not allowed to enter the house of a Brahmo Samaji through the main door, but a side or back entrance was reserved for these Brahmins who the Samajis looked down upon. The samajis did not marry their children with Brahmin boys and girls! 

I wonder why the movie omitted this.

The Chaudhry’s comment about the wife not having much to offer her husband, when compared to the prostitute, is worth pondering.

Though India is the land of Kamasutra and men and women were trained in the art of love, at some point, perhaps when the society was going through a phase of decay, a sense of shame became associated with sex. Women were expected to be shy, demure, even reluctant in the nuptial chamber, merely cooperating with their husband when they persisted and persuased, out of a sense of duty and obedience. 

Procreation was the only purpose of the union between man and wife, and indulgence or pleasure were seen as a mark of decadence. Base and lowly.

Given how ashamed our women folk feel of their own bodies in the green rooms even today and change from one outfit to another while being careful they are never fully unclothed at any stage of changing, one can be sure that these women were partially clothed even while intimate with their husbands. 

Even laughing aloud was frowned upon.

When the bold and brazen prostitute flirted and made merry with her male companion, offering him fun and excitement, thrill and pleasure, could you blame the man for leaving the wife’s side?

You would think, things are changing today, and women are aware of sexuality, they are bold and all, but no, there is something else to plague us today. The influence of the west, the west’s idea of seduction. The richness of Indian love and erotica is lost and we have other substitutes for it, it seems…romance is nowhere to be seen, quick seduction is al we are left with.

The movie also shows other evils that had befallen the Bengal society. Ceremonial purity, untouchability, superstitions, practiced more rigorously by widows.

‘Itna purdah karti hai woh? 

Sirf purdah kare toh theek, unhe toh choot chaat ka bhi rog hai, vidhwa jo thahari’

‘Unka haath ashudh hua hai’ (She was airing clothes on the balcony and a crow came and sat on it)

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Produced by Guru Dutt, Directed by Abrar Alvi.

Lyrics by Shakeel Badayuni, Music by Hemanth Kumar. 

Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt and Hemanth Kumar at playback.

Popular ones are these.

Bhawara bada nadaan hai

Piya aiso jiya mein samaye gayo re, ki main tanman ki sudhbudh gava baithi 

Meri baat rahi mere man mein 

Na jao saiyan chudake baiyan 

Songs of the dancing girls.

Meri jaan o Meri jaan achcha nahi itna sitam

Saqiya aaj mujhe neend nahi aayegi 

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Noted these lines that give a glimpse of the past, recent yet remote…

‘Barson pehle jab main dehaat se Calcutte aaya tha...’

‘Ek paise ka postcard daal dete toh (tumko lene station aa jate)’

‘Tumhare Fatehpur mein jo doodh rupaye ka bees ser milta hai, yahan 11 ser milega (in Calcutta)’

‘Ya toh gardan ainth jati hai ya marodi jati hai’ (the struggles of living in a big city)

‘Tankhwa moti hai. Maheene ke rupaye saat aur dupahar ka khana alag’

‘Us daftar ke maalik suvinay babu hai toh brahmo samaji, par aadmi heera hai’

‘Par Brahmo samaji toh maleech hote hai, phir hum unke yahan khana kaise khaye’

‘Chinta na Karo, unke yahan ek maharaj naukar hai’

‘Ghadi babu. Haveli ki saari ghadiyon mein chabi dete hai’

‘Kya adchan hai tum dono ke byah mein. Tum dono brahmo samaji ho?’

‘Ye bemauka hasi kaisi?’ asks angry husband of Chhoti bahu as she laughs aloud in frustration when her husband leaves home at night after many months of spending his nights with her. 

‘Jabse zamindari gayi hai, koi kaam nahi hai. Auzaron mein zang lag gaya hai’

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Shashi Kapoor was the first choice for the role of Bhootnath, losing it when he showed up two-and-a-half hours late for a meeting with Guru Dutt and Abrar Alvi. The next choice was Bengali actor Biswajeet, whose Hindi film debut it would have been. Biswajeet backed out because he didn't want to be tied into an exclusive contract with Guru Dutt. Finally, Guru Dutt cast himself as Bhootnath, the Ghulam.

The song "Sahil Ki Taraf Kashti Le Chal" sung by Hemant Kumar was edited out of the film. Hemant Kumar reused the tune for the song "Ya Dil ki Suno" from Anupama (1966). One of my favourite songs!

The song was edited out because it had a shot which showed Chhoti Bahu resting her head on Bhoothnath's lap in the carriage. Audiences reacted sharply to this, so Guru Dutt removed the song and the "offending shot", changing the carriage scene to a dialogue exchange between Chhoti Bahu and Bhoothnath. He also shot an additional scene with the paralysed husband repenting for his sinful and debauched lifestyle. 

The conservative society at that time demanded a moral ending to all matters.

From one of the reviews...

‘The common factors between the actress's life and Chhoti Bahu are too dramatic to be merely coincidental – The estranged marital relationship, the taking of alcohol, turning towards younger male company, the craving to be understood and loved – all elements evident in Meena Kumari's own life’

Something's Gotta Give (2003)

Watched ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ (2003) on Netflix.

Americans refusing to grow old, dating and fucking in between hospital visits and heart attacks, sending doctors groping for alternate drugs because the standard medicines will not react well with Viagra that had been popped inside just before the heart attack…

If it were Sean Connery, I wouldn’t complain because he could never be too old for love or seduction. But Jack Nicholson? Gross. The short fat creasy fellow. Thank God for the tender looking Diane Keaton…

Harry (Jack Nicholson) is a sixty something business tycoon who serial dates women no older than 30. His latest is Marin (Amanda Peet), but they haven’t ‘done it’ yet. The two drive to Marin’s mother’s beach house, expecting to be alone, but as they change to kinky clothes for a swim, Marin’s mother Erica(Diane Keaton), a successful playwright and her sister Zoe (Frances McDormand) arrive, taking them by awkward surprise. 

The two women, all set to attack this stranger without pants, upon finding out who he is, put down the knife and the phone receiver that they had been holding after dialing 911, and decide to let the two stay in the house, do their thing and leave as planned. 

As the two start making out in their bedroom however, Harry has a heart attack and is rushed to the hospital.

The doctor Julian (Keanu Reeves) advises Harry to avoid travel so Harry must stay back at the beach house.

Meanwhile, Julian, a big fan of Erica’s plays, has become attracted to her and asks her out.

Erica and Harry, though initially distant and sarcastic in their talk, eventually sleep together. Any surprise?

Harry and Marin, Erica’s daughter, break up. Good thing they haven’t done it yet. Not that it would change anything if they had.

Harry must leave, now that he has recovered, and so he leaves, not before reminding her, though reluctantly - ‘No Strings Attached’

Erica’s ex-husband is all set to remarry, and the woman is only 2 years older than his daughter Marin.

They all have dinner together, during which time, Erica sees Harry in the same restaurant with a young girl, obviously, his next under-30 date.

She is crestfallen, despite the ‘no-strings-attached’ understanding between them.

Erica and Julian start going out to dinner and stuff. Despite her initial hesitation, the two end up kissing – Julian is very sure he likes her.

. 

.

.

.

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Eventually, Harry meets Erica in a restaurant in Paris, and confesses to her that he loves her and she says ‘I do’

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It’s entertaining, you remain hooked to it,…

Diane Keaton and Keanu Reeves look good together. But Jack Nicholson and Amanda Peet look gross.

Christie's @ Rockefeller center – I must visit this store the next time in NYC.

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Lines…

‘She's not your type’

‘You're overlooking one of the great things about me. I don't have a type’

‘She(a famous journalist) has great legs...Too bad she doesn’t expose them’

‘She's Diane Sawyer. She goes into caves in Afghanistan with a shmatte on her head. Who cares about her legs?’

‘Should I shut these? (windows) the sun comes in pretty strong in the morning’

‘You know what Freud said?’

‘There are no accidents’

‘After heart attack, the rule of thumb is, if you can climb a flight of stairs, you can have sex’

‘You look good (healthy)’

‘Well, I haven't been on a gurney in 6 months, so...’ says Harry.

#westerncinema