Chola Maati Ke Raam...

Since it is being acclaimed as an honest take on “real India” let me start with a bit of honesty myself. The only reason I watched the movie was because someone close made an appearance and didn’t disappoint the least, but more on that later.

I didn’t hate the movie.

I thought I will, as I hate everything in that genre. I hated Arvind Adiga’s White Tiger, I hated the part in Swades where the poor farmer couldn’t pay back the rent, I can’t stand Om Puri, Naseer, Shabana and their ilk. How dare they? How dare they show me what I conveniently choose not to see? How dare they take me out of my comfort zone? I love my blinkers; big, dark, shiny and designer.

I walked into the Multiplex armed with salted popcorn, diet coke and chips. Comfort food you know, as this was going to be a journey outside the comfort zone. Plush 200 rupee seats, nice airconditioning, digital cinema at its best. Around 25 of us in the hall. It was an adventure.

I remember Punita and I were discussing that cinemas in India should stock low salt, low fat popcorns when Natha threw up. And we thought it’ll be all down-hill from there. But thank God Anusha (or was it Amir) decided that it will be disconcerting for people like me to see “reality” and she kept it to a bare minimum. So not a lot of footage wasted on the hungry and the deprived. There were enough punches and enough use of Maa, Bahen and Tatti to make the audience laugh and cringe. Enough stereotypes to keep them engaged; the corrupt politicians, the morally bankrupt media, the useless bureaucrats and an in-effective system. Many an evening has been spent debating and agonizing over the hopelessness of the situation India is in today, and it was nice to see the movie portray this without being patronizing.

As we walked out after the end credits had finally displayed the name we were looking for (the surname was a nice touch), we nodded knowingly at other patrons. There were a few comments on ‘how real’ as people made their way to the multi cuisine food court after the mid-day show.

I don’t want to sound like a pseudo intellectual by trying to critique the movie either way. Any effort towards that will be an affront to the collective wisdom of Anusha, Mahmood and their team. For me the movie works. That one expression of disillusioned disgust on Bhanu’s face summed the movie up for me. I might be biased as I was the only one trying to whistle when he made his first entry but then so be it.

On a macro level, it’s heartening to see UTV come this far from their first release (something with some Khan that I can’t remember for the life of me). This is good news for Indian cinema.

Just one parting thought. The amount of money we spent on this adventure might have been enough to pay off the debts of atleast one Natha…..