Shah Rukh Week: Swades

Like many of Shah Rukh Khan's earlier films, Swades (2004) casts him as an NRI, a Non-Resident Indian, who returns to India for love and winds up transformed, both by the country and the aforementioned love.  It's a common trope in Indian cinema, practically a cliche, but in the right hands a cliched plot can still turn into something magical.

NASA engineer Mohan Barghava (Shah Rukh Khan) has a great job, a big house, good friends, and one regret: he's lost touch with Kaveri Amma (Kishori Ballal), his former nanny whom he thinks of as a second mother.  Mohan was studying in America when his parents died, and he wasn't in a position to take care of her.  They sent letters, but eventually the letters slowed and then stopped, and the last thing Mohan heard was that she had gone to live in a retirement home.

The good news is that his current project, a satellite designed to monitor global precipitation levels, has finished Phase 1, and his friend Vinod (Rahul Vorha) suggests he takes a couple of weeks off to find Kaveri and convince her to come to America.  Mohan travels to Delhi, visits the retirement home, and discovers that Kaveri has gone to a village in Uttar Pradesh called Charanpur.  

Mohan borrows an RV and sets off for the village.  After a travel montage and the help of a wandering holy man (Makrand Deshpande) he arrives at the village and has a tearful reunion with Kaveri.  She is staying with Gita (Gayatri Joshi), local school teacher and Mohan's childhood friend, and Gita's young brother Chiku (Smith Seth.)  The three have formed a happy family unit, and that is a problem for Mohan, because he still plans to bring his surrogate mother home with him, but it's clear that Gita is never going to give her up.

Kaveri is definitely not going to leave until Gita is settled in life, and she has two problems: it's next to impossible to arrange a marriage for her when she's not willing to give up her job after getting married, and the school is in danger of losing its building if she can't increase the number of students enrolled.  Mohan leaves Kaveri to handle the marriage side of things, and he goes around the village trying to convince parents to send their children to school.  And suddenly things start to get complicated.  the parents all have different reasons; some think their children are better off just learning the family trade, some feel they can't afford it or worry that their children won't fit in because of caste differences, and some just don't feel it's worthwhile educating girls when they should be learning how to run a household.  Mohan listens, and pleads his case, and he has some success.

There's a thread running through a lot of older Shah Rukh movies where his character winds up staying with the extended family of his love interest, usually under false pretenses, and he winds up making everybody's lives better, almost by accident.  That's sort of what happens here, but with the village taking the place of Amrish Puri and the assorted aunts and uncles.  Mohan does increase enrollment, and he at least challenges caste barriers during a wonderful and surprisingly low key dance number, but at the same time he's putting down roots, making friends, and starting to see the struggles of the people around him.

After meeting a destitute farmer in a neighboring village, Mohan decides that he needs to do something tangible to help the people before he leaves.  The electricity supply in the village is unreliable, with frequent blackouts, and the government is always promising that the problem will be fixed in a month or so but it never is.  However, there's water flowing from the mountain nearby, so Mohan decides to build a small hydroelectric plant.

Meanwhile, he's been growing closer and closer to Gita, and she finally, quietly, admits that she loves him.  The early bickering is fun, but the relationship that develops is simple and sweet, based on mutual respect and support.  It's also pretty much doomed, because Gita will never leave India, and Mohan has to return to America.  Doesn't he?

The plot of Swades is not that far from typical masala fare; it's surprisingly close to Khan's 1996 film English Babu Desi Mem, for instance.  The tone is wildly different, though.  Swades is more grounded, rooted in simple village life.  The emotions are still huge, but the characters don't have an army of backup dancers to help express them.

Given the more grounded tone of the film you might think that Khan would deliver a more subdued and naturalistic performance, but he Shah Rukhs the heck out of this movie, with plenty of crying, standing with arms outstretched, all of his other tics.  And it works beautifully.  Without the glitz and glamor, Khan feels sincere, and this is a movie that thrives on sincerity.  Perhaps the most pivotal moment in Mohan's character development involves drinking a glass of water, and Khan sells it beautifully.

Swades is a polished jewel of a movie, with a simple story driven by strong performances and quiet moments, lifted up by A. R. Rahman's magnificent score.

And normally that is where I would end the review, but there is a coda, and it is bonkers.  In 2022's superhero epic Brahmastra: Part One, Khan appears as Mohan Bhargav, respected scientist and secret super hero who wields the power of the Vanastra.  Mohan used to work for NASA, and his Mumbai apartment is filled with space memorabilia.  He's clearly modeled on the Mohan from Swades, and writer-director Ayan Mukherji (who started his career as an assistant director for Swades) has confirmed that it's supposed to be the same character.

It makes a kind of sense, I guess?  Brahmastra is anything but low key, but both movies are ultimately about learning to love the people around you, and letting that love drive you to make the world a better place.  Still, I did not expect Swades to retroactively become a superhero origin story.

Saintly is as saintly does.

 Enthada Saji (2023) is a devotional film, which means that my usual rule for devotional films applies: treat the movie as a movie, rather than as a religious tract.  I'm looking at storytelling rather than theology, in other words.  I will say that there's a lot more whimsy than I'm used to seeing in this kind of movie, though.

Sajimol (Nivetha Thomas) could use a miracle.  She was engaged years ago, but the engagement was broken off.  This means that the people in her village look down on her as a spinster, but the local marriage market treats her as a divorced woman, meaning she's unlikely to find a suitable groom.  She's a bit sensitive about the topic, and will occasionally chase away busybodies who make snide comments.  

Sajimol doesn't really do much anymore; she sleeps in and hangs around the house, annoying her long suffering parents.  She does visit the local chapel often, though, telling the icon of Saint Rocky (known elsewhere as Saint Roch.)  And then one day the saint (Kunchacko Boban) starts talking back.  They chat about Sajimol's life and about St. Rocky's duties as a saint.  After a few meetings, Sajimol asks Rocky to appear as himself, and he promises to do so if she attends Mass.

Sajimol has her miracle, but it's a very low key miracle.  Rocky may be a saint, but mostly he's her friend.  yes, he encourages her to go to Mass and read the Bible, but he also encourages her to clean up after herself, to find a job, and to help people when she can.  And she does!  She starts a small business selling painted bottles, and she assists Rocky with answering prayers, directly helping people with her human resources rather than waiting for miracles.  Suddenly her parents are a lot happier, as well.  Time for a complication.

Roy (Jayasurya) is Sajimol's childhood friend and first crush, back in town on business.  He's quite active in the church choir, and after working together on the upcoming Easter pageant Sajomol and Roy become quite close.  With Rocky's help Sajimol manages to confess her feelings, and the two become engaged.  There's still a problem, as Roy's father (Prem Prakash) wants a bride who will bring a larger dowry, but Rocky promises that it will all work out, and that he will be there to help.

And then Rocky's statue is stolen from the chapel.  after a bit of fuss the church decides to just get a new one, but the new statue doesn't talk to Sajimol.  She's lost her miracle, but worse, she's lost her friend.  So the movie shifts from low key devotional to low key mystery, as Sajimol and some of the people she's helped search for the icon, along with the dog she quietly adopted at the beginning of the movie.  Will they succeed?  Well, obviously.  But valuable life lessons will be learned in the process.

Enthada Saji is surprisingly laid back for a devotional movie.  It's clearly informed by religion, with Sajimol finding clues to the missing saint in scraps of scripture she finds lying around her room and the chapel, but the whole thing plays out like a quirky bit of magic realism.  It's a gentle movie, the leads are charming, and the underlying message is to be nice to people, including yourself. 

Our mission statement.

 

Something to savor.

Daawat-e-Ishq (2014) has a title which translates roughly as "Feast of Love," and that's what it sets out to deliver, a scrumptious little cinematic morsel of romance, seasoned with just a pinch of social commentary.  Of course, it's really hard to get this kind of recipe just right, and you have to try it to see if it works.

Gulrez "Gullu" Qadir (Parineeti Chopra) is tired.  Her father Abdul (Anupam Kher) has been searching for a suitable groom for her, but all of the grooms' families have asked for dowry, and more dowry than they can afford.  Gullu works at a shoe store at the mall, and Abdul is an honest court clerk, so they literally can't afford a good match.  Gullu is not shy about speaking her mind, so the families never come around twice.

Then Gullu meets Amjad (Karan Wahl), and suddenly things are looking up.  He's handsome, charming, speaks excellent English, and has a good job lined up in Kalamazoo.  Better yet, he likes Gullu for Gullu.  After dating for a month, they decide to talk to their respective parents, and when the families get together Amjad's parents make it clear that they do not want dowry . . . . They just want Help."  Financial help, far more than the Qadirs could afford.  Gullu is furious and heartbroken and she makes her feelings very clear.

 And then Gullu has an idea, inspired by a recent high profile court case.  She will assume a false identity, go to another city, and place an ad on a matrimonial website.  Then she'll pick the family that asks for the biggest dowry, arrange a quick (and easily annulled) marriage, and threaten to charge them under Article 498-A, which prohibits asking for or accepting dowry, unless they agree to pay up.  It take s awhile, but she manages to convince Abdul to join in the scheme, and father and daughter are off to Lucknow.

And that's where they run into trouble.  In this case, trouble is named Taru (Aditya Roy Kapur.) Taru own a restaurant in town, and his very proud and traditional parents ask for a large dowry, which makes him the designated target.  Abdul insists that the wedding will be small and held in two days. Taru asks for three, because he wants to spend some time getting to know his future bride, and Gullu agrees against her better judgement.

The problem is that Taru is really great.  he's handsome with a sort of swaggering charm, yes, but he's also honest, he's kind to her father, he feeds orphans at the restaurant, and he just  wants an honest connection, a wife who will love him, even if it's only just a little.  At the end of the three days Taru takes Gullu aside and gives her a suitcase full of money, enough to cover the asked for dowry; he doesn't want to be bought, but he also doesn't want to hurt his father.  

Gullu is stuck. She does love him, more than a little, but she's been lying, and she doesn't think she can be forgiven, so she carries through with the plan, fake-marrying Taru, absconding on the wedding night, then blackmailing the family through a police intermediary the next day.  Then it's back to Hyderabad and a lifetime of regret.  She can't even enjoy food anymore because nobody cooks it as well as Taru.

Meanwhile, Taru is searching for the woman who betrayed him, and finds a clue which sends him to Hyderabad.  Will he find her?  Will he forgive her?  Obviously, because this is a romantic comedy first and foremost.  And it seems a bit easy, since Gullu did a genuinely terrible thing, no matter how sympathetic her motivation was.  On the other hand, Bollywood movies are filled with male con artists who are forgiven just as easily, so turnabout is fair play.  

The dowry system is an ongoing problem in parts of India, and while Daawat-e-Ishq takes a firm stance on the issue (dowry is bad) dowry is a plot point here, a means to bring Gullu and Taru together and then drive them apart.  This is a movie about love, and a movie about food, and while it's not remotely realistic it is delectable.  It's too sweet to be regular moviegoing fare, but it makes a lovely treat.

I *think* everybody learned a valuable lesson?

 Pandurangadu (2008) is a devotional film, a genre which I always find interesting but really hard to review, since in the end these movies are an expression of faith, and that's hard to critique.  Fortunately for me Pandurangadu is an expression of faith with a wild shift in tone and an ending which is theologically sound but narratively unsatisfying, so I've got something to talk about.

Pundarika Ranganadhudu ,known as Ranga (Balakrishna), is a devoted follower of Krishna . . . in a very limited sense.  Krishna is his role model, but not in a spiritual sense; he's much more interested in Krishna's youthful pranks and flirtatious relationships with the gopis.  Ranga is so devoted to chasing women that he runs away form home when his parents ask him to get married, and as the movie opens he's only just returned.  His father asks him to swear never to cause his family to weep again, and Ranga does so.  It's a vow that he will break almost immediately.

In a nearby village, Lakshmi (Sneha) is a genuine and sincere devotee of Krishna, so much so that when the Krishna idol in her village suddenly and miraculously turns red-hot, she is able to cure it by applying dust from her feet.  her faith is so inspiring that the wives of Krishna (Balakrishna in a double role) as their husband to find a good spouse for Lakshmi, and he assures them that he has chosen one: Ranga.

And at this point in the movie, the scenes in heaven are lighthearted and fun.  The wives of Krishna act as audience surrogates and a kind of Greek chorus, with the trickster sage Narada (L. B. Sriram) providing sarcastic commentary.  This is one of the few movies in which Narada isn't responsible for the ensuing complications.

Krishna appears to Lakshmi in a dream, telling her that she is destined to marry Ranga.  She sends her father over to make the arrangements, but they are reluctant because they've met Ranga, and they fully expect him to refuse and/or mess things up completely.  So Lakshmi goes herself, and immediately charms everybody.

Everybody except Ranga, that is.  He's currently besotted with the dancer Amrutha (Tabu),  and he has absolutely no intention of settling down.  Lakshmi sits in front of the house, vowing not to eat or drink until Ranga agrees to marry her, but it doesn't work.  Finally, Krishna takes action, inspiring Amrutha to ask Ranga to marry the girl.  Ranga agrees, but he keeps sneaking off to spend time with Amrutha rather than consummating his marriage.  It's all predictable devotional movie stuff - Will Lakshmi be able to win over her husband through her unwavering devotion?  Of course she will, especially after Krishna disguises himself as Amrutha to give Ranga a shove in the right direction.

So, the happy couple are properly united, the family is thrilled, and Amrutha is taking a long look at what her life has become.  And then things get a little weird.  Amrutha's mother lures Ranga  to her house, claiming that Amrutha is dying and wants to see him one last time.  When he arrives, she gives him an incredibly complicated poison which makes him hypersensitive to sound for three days, and trick him into signing over his own house.  Ranga returns home during a noisy religious ceremony, and rather than explain anything he yells at his family, threatens to hit is wife, and causes everyone to leave in disgust, then Amrutha's mother arrives to throw him out of the house as well.

So, the family's scattered.  Lakshmi returns to her home village, hoping to enter the shrine and look at Krishna's idol one last time before she dies; unfortunately, the shrine's priests are still mad about the "dust from her feet" thing, and refuse to let her enter, so she slowly starves just outside the shrine.  Ranga becomes more of a jerk than ever before, makes a pass at three river goddesses, threatens to kick a holy man, and winds up paralyzed, an affliction that will only be cured by properly making amends with his parents.  And Krishna's wives are still acting as audience surrogates, practically begging Krishna to get things back on track.

And he tries.  He absolutely tries his best, appearing personally on Earth in order to convince Ranga to ask for the right boon, which will fix everything.  Unfortunately Ranga has learned his lesson too well, so he ends the movie with spiritual salvation, leaving several unresolved plot points behind him.  Yes, eternity is more important than getting your house back, but your family needs a place to live, Ranga! 

The tone of Pandurangadu is all over the place.  Ranga's early misadventures are downright bawdy, then the film switches back and forth between love story and soap opera, finally diving headlong into homily, which is where this kind of movie usually starts.  It's an entertaining ride, but watch out for that sudden stop.

        

I refuse to call this one "Taming of the Shruti."

Ardab Mutiyaran (2019) is a movie that feels like it was created around a main character, with everything else hastily assembled afterwards.  And sometimes that's enough.  Sometimes one strong performance is enough to make a movie.  Sometimes, not so much.

Vicky Ahuja (Ninja) works in the collections department for a small finance company.  Really, he is the collections department, and he's pretty bad at it; he hasn't collected anything yet, much to the disgust of Shruti (Mehreen Pirzada), who is the head of the loan department, the perpetual employee of the month, and the boss's daughter.  

After failing to collect yet another debt, Vicky spots Babbu Bains (Sonam Bajwa) berating a group of catcallers on the street, using a baseball bat to emphasize her point.  That same day Babbu comes into the finance company to apply for a job.  Shruti isn't impressed and criticizes her lack of education.  Babbu gives as good as she gets, but as she's leaving Vicky offers her a job in collections.  

It turns out that Babbu is really good at collections.  She's clever, headstrong, fearless, and still charming, and soon the collections department is doing so well that suddenly Vicky and Babbu are the employees of the month.  Shruti is so0 annoyed that she sends Babbu to collect a car belonging to the Bansal family, excellent clients who always pay their bills promptly.  Babbu does her job, collects the car, and when she's forced to apologize for taking a car that was fully paid for, she meets the youngest (and handsomest) Bansal brother, Rinku (Ajay Sarkaria.)  

Babbu and Rinku quickly fall in love, and soon they're talking about marriage.  There's a problem, though; Rinku and his brothers live together in a joint family, and while his brothers are enthusiastic about a new member of the household, his shallow and fashion obsessed sisters in law will take some convincing, especially after they realize that Babbu is the woman who got into an argument with them earlier about parking.  The young couple make it through the wedding, but after that it's war between the ladies.

Meanwhile, Vicky's father (B. N. Sharma) is looking for a bride for his son, and he wants it to be an arranged marriage; Ahuja Senior married for love, and he has been waiting on his wife (Upasana Singh) hand and foot ever since. He explains the situation to his spiritual leader (Diliwar Sidhu), and the mother of an eligible girl suggests a match.  The match is fixed without consulting the young people at all,which is a problem because the bride in question is Shruti.  Shruti and Vicky can't stand one another, but both parents are so insistent that they agree, though they are secretly planning to annul the marriage after forty five days.

So, two couples, and two sets of problems.  Obviously Vicky and Shruti aren't going to get divorced, so they're going to have to fall in love and restore harmony in the Ahuja household, and Babbu needs to overcome her cruel sisters in law.

 And so she does.  That's the problem with the movie - Babbu is great, but she's such a strong personality that she can't be intimidated easily, and her sisters in law have absolutely no leverage.  There is the requisite separation, but it's resolved pretty quickly, and Babbu makes a speech to reunite the family.  There's some sadness in the middle of the conflict, but no real suspense.  Babbu's got this.

As for Vicky and Shruti?  Babbu's got that, too. Yeah, Vicky and Shruti warm up to one another pretty quickly when in close proximity, and he eventually wins her love by doing the dishes, but he is so conflict averse that he's never going to tell her how he feels, and so Shruti has no idea how he feels and is going to end the marriage because she thinks that's what Vicky wants.  Luckily Babbu is there to fix everything.

I do like Babbu as a character, and Sonam Bajwa gives a great performance, completely running away with the movie.  That's the problem. She needs to be surrounded by stronger characters, and she's just not.  There's no challenge. 

                                                                        

A circus with bite.

 Vampire Circus (1972) is a movie that delivers on its promises: there is a circus, and there are multiple vampires.  However, if the title makes you think that this will be a lighthearted campy romp, think again; these vampires are specifically targeting children, and this movie gets dark.

Children have been vanishing from the village of Stetl, and village schoolmaster Albert Muller (Laurence Payne) is horrified to discover why.  His own wife Anna (Domini Blythe) has been luring the children through the woods and into the nearby castle, where Count Mitterhouse (Robert Tayman) feeds on them.  There's no real explanation given for why Anna is doing this; she just seems to be really into Count Mitterhouse, so much so that she spends most of her screentime naked.

Muller is a poor teacher from a poor village, so he has limited options, but you don't have to be rich and powerful to lead an angry mob, so Muller leads an angry mob to the castle.  There's a fight, many men die, but in the end Muller manages to stake the vampire, though not before he has a chance to curse the villagers, swearing that their children will die to bring him back from the grave.  The other villagers want to punish Anna for being an enthusiastic accessory to child murder, but Muller asks them to let her go.  This is a mistake; she runs back into the castle, where the Count revives just long enough to send her to his cousin Emil (Anthony Higgins) at the Circus of Night.

Fifteen years later, Stetl is in the grips of a mysterious plague.  People are dying in droves, and the neighboring communities have placed armed men at roadblocks surrounding the village, threatening to shoot anyone who tries to pass.  The influential men of the village gather to debate the cause of the plague and what can be done about it.  Some think it's the work of Count Mitterhouse and his curse, while others, particularly recently arrived Doctor Kersh (Richard Owens) believe it's a disease, and what the town needs is medicine.  And surprisingly, given that this is a vampire movie, we eventually learn that Kersh is right.  It's just a disease which responds to conventional treatment.  Of course, at that point in the movie, Stetl has other things to worry about.

Kersh breaks through the barricade with the help of his teenage son Anton (John Moulder-Brown.)  Anton asks his father to find Muller's daughter Dora (Lynne Fredrick) in the capital and urge her to stay where she is and not try to return to Stetl, because Anton is the only person in the movie with any sense.

Meanwhile the village has visitors!  The Night Circus has arrived, lead by a mysterious and apparently Romani woman (Adrienne Coeri.)  The villagers call her by a different name, but I am just going to call her Anna, because she is in fact Anna.  (It's possible that no one recognizes her with clothes on, but perhaps the fact that she's played by a different actress now has more to do with it.)  It's a small circus, but it hits most of the bases, with animals, a clown (Skip Martin), a strongman (David Prowse), and twin acrobats Helga (Lalla Ward) and Heinrich (Robin Sachs).  They are creepy as hell, but it's not like the quarantined villagers have anything better to do, so every night the show is packed.

And then things start to happen.  Dora shows up in the village, much to Anton's dismay; he loves her, but he would really rather she was somewhere less doomed.  The mayor's daughter Rosa (Christina Paul) is captivated by the show's black panther, particularly when the panther turns into Emil.  The mayor himself (Thorley Walters) collapses after a terrifying vision in the hall of mirrors.  And children start to vanish, because this is in fact a vampire circus.

We are not dealing with the cream of the vampire crop here - Mitterhouse may be a Count with his own castle, but he's also a doofus with bad hair who hangs out in his basement waiting for his girlfriend to bring him children.  Emil has the cool "turn into a panther" power, but he spends half the time lounging in his cage and the other half looking like he's late for Godspell rehearsals.  And Helga and Heinrich . . . well, they're pretty great actually, but they are evil henchmen and spend their time henching evilly.

On the other hand, the villagers are just villagers, without a Dutch vampire hunting scholar or cowboy to be seen.  Anton is brave and sensible and the closest thing the movie has to a hero, but he's just a kid and there's only so much he can do. In the end it's vampires versus villagers, and while most of the village is wiped out by the end of the movie, all of the vampires are destroyed.  Angry mob wins on a technicality.