Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

More indian movies

Posted by Sari

Kaminey

Vishal Bhardwaj is famous at least in the west mainly for his Shakespeare adaptations Maqbool and Omkara. In Kaminey he takes the ever popular Bollywood trope of identical twins, adds a surprisingly modern take to the love story, some bad ass ganstas and a lot of influences from Guy Ritchie films. In the film, the good twin Shahid Kapoor, who works for AIDS prevention non-profit, finds out that girlfriend Priyanka Chopra is pregnant. After his sadly very true to life caddish first reaction (abortion is murder, I am not going to be responsible, is it even mine) he decides to marry Priyanka. Unfortunately Pryanka’s brother is bhai in both meanings of the word – brother and gangster - and as ultra national maharastrian is less than happy to see his sister marrying a man from Uttar Pradesh. The Bad twin Shahid Kapoor is a bookie and small time criminal who accidentally ends up with a guitar case full of cocaine, and gets chased by police and the drug dealers both. The plot twists and turns bringing the brothers together in a great climactic shoot-out at Bhope bhais compound. I loved Kaminey. It was carelessly violent in the way Indian movies often are, but the plot was satisfyingly twisty, the dialogue was great, the love story was true, and Dhan Te Nan is a great song, nevermind the Misirlou influences. Definitely on my top ten Indian movies list, this.

 Love Aaj Kal

In Love Aaj Kal we meet Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone, young desis living the modern life in London. When work separates them, they decide to break up instead of having a long distance relationship, but during the film they find out they really can’t get the other out of their mind. Parallel to the modern story Rishi Kapoor tells Saif Ali how he romanced a beautiful Indian girl in the 1950s India. I wonder if this would be a good portal movie, at least for romance-reading westerners. The movie has very much a feel of a straight up romance with some misunderstandings, angst and also some typically Indian concerns about tradition versus modern life thrown in. I found it nice but forgettable. The most memorable thing was the Brazilian model Giselli Monteiro as Rishi Kapoors love interest, she was adorable as the quiet demure Harleen.

 Eklavya

Eklavya was again one of the non-masala movies. It is still very indian in the sense that it goes for big drama, but there is only one song and its length is comparable to western films. The genre is nearer Shakespeare than anything else, though there is a Mahabharata story in the background. Eklavya is a story of an rajasthani princely family, living their lives pretty much untouched by the modern world. When the queen dies, the son of the family (Shaif Ali Khan) returns from the west and ends up in the middle of both a family tragedy and the tension between modern and historical way of life. In the course of the film both he and the faithful captain of the guard Eklavya (Amitabh Bachchan) have to make difficult choices that will force them to choose between love and duty. Eklavya is a film that is wholly carried on the formidable shoulders of Amitabh Bachchan, and he delivers a powerful and restrained performance which must rank among his best. Shaif Ali - whose career’s stand out performance was as the Indian version of Shakespeare’s greatest villain, Iago – also delivers, and the scenes he shares with Bachchan are pure gold. My only quibble was that if you cast Sharmila Tagore and Shaif Ali Khan as mother and son (as they are in real life), it would have been nice to see them together.

 Dil Bole Hadippa

Dil Bole Hadippa had two things going for it. Firstly the male lead was the adorable Shahid Kapoor, and secondly Rani was going to dress up as a man. See, Rani is a small-town girl working in his uncle’s dance theatre near Amritsar. She is also a hell of a cricket player, “left and right batsman”. When the town’s team looses for the umpteenth time to a team from Lahore in a friendly, team’s sponsor Anupam Kher sends for his son Shahid who is a pro in England. Shahid begins to put together a team, but as a girl Rani does not get past the gates of the cricket ground on the try out day. So she dresses up as a boy and gets in. Shahid, of course falls for his new player’s “sister”, and understands the ruse only when the crucial game is already being played. Again, we are in the full masala territory: “Dil Bole Hadippa… is set, in a mythical Punjab where fields are always swaying in the wind, colourfully dressed men and women are always waiting to break out into a vigorous dance, and everyone cheerfully chomps on sugar cane and drinks lassi.” This is big, colourful, a bit patriotic and fun sporty romance with a message about women’s equality. Shahid was great, Anupam Kher wonderful and Rani actually managed to pull off the drag most of the time. Also she and Shahid were a much better jodi than I would have ever imagined. Also, unlike in Lagaan I actually managed to understand something of the cricket. Me liked.

 

 

Kuch khatti kuch meethi, Tashan, Luck by Chance and Sarkar

Posted by Sari

This batch had both movies which tried to break away from the masala pattern, and a few that really followed the traditions. The most most formulaic was Kuch khatti kuch meethi, which is from 2001 but looks like it is from early 1990s. Kajol plays a double role as a good twin and a wild twin, separated at birth by the machinations of their nasty aunt. When the twins find each other they switch places to get to know the other parent and begin to plot to bring their parents back together. Yes. It is “The Parent Trap” except Kajol is an adult. Well, two adults. Or something. The most interesting thing in the film was Rishi Kapoor as the weak alcoholic dad manipulated by his  sister. He gives a credible performance, maybe aided by his own alcoholic past. Other than that and the fact that Kajol is always adorable, not one of the most memorable hindi movies I have seen.

Tashan was also a film firmly in the masala mode. This 2008 film starring Saif Ali Khan, excellent Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor was a road/gangster/caper comedy with romantic interludes. Saif Ali and Kareena steal evil gangster Anil Kapoors money, Kareena double crosses Saif Ali who ends up chased by Akshay – a comical but competent thug for hire. There are chases, betrayals and bonding, really big scale action sequences and a very sweet love story for Kareena and Akshay. Violence is again very over the top as is the custom in Bollywood, and the humour is pretty broad I liked the buddy chemistry between Akshay and Saif, and though Kareena’s character was the least developed of the three, she did a good job. (In India Tashan got a lot of press before the opening because there is a scene where Kareena goes all Ursula Andress in a bikini). Even if Tashan is not a great film on any standards, I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, mainly because I think all the actors but especially Akshay did a good job.

Luck by Chance is a whole different kettle of fish. It is a story of two young struggling wannabee movie stars and the realities of dream factories. Young actor Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) comes to Mumbai to be a star, friends Sona (Konkona Shen Sharma), an actress doing bit parts and waiting for her big break. For Sona that never comes, her lover/director coolly informs her he wants a fresh face. Vikram gets cast as a hero against a daughter of a legend who is not especially interested in being an actress. Vikram is seduced by the glitz of Bollywood, and only starts to regret abandoning his old companions after Shah Rukh Khan (as himself) reminds him of the importance of friends. When he tries to make up with Sona, she correctly sees hat he is just feeling guilty, and she moves on happily doing TV instead of dreaming of breaking the bank. Luck by Chance has a very low-key approach for a Mumbai movie, the camera work and dialogue are both geared nearer realism than is usual. It is an interesting movie with lots of interesting cameos from famous stars, but the main characters - with the exception of Dimple Kapadia as aging former star making a career for her daughter - fall pretty flat.

Sarkar - the other not so masala movie - is, as its director Ram Gopal Varma admits, an indian take on Godfather. Big B plays Sarkar, a rich and powerful man who dispenses his own brand of justice in the corrupt indian political system. Of his two sons the elder is a movie producer making eyes to his starlets, and the younger – played by Abhishek - is just back from America with his girlfriend. When Sarkar refuses to make a deal with Dubai based don for drug trafficking, he is betrayed and set up for a murder he did not commit. Abhi believes his father and starts to find out who is responsible. In the course of events he has to kill his brother who had gone over to the enemy, and by the end he has taken over Sarkar’s organisation. So, pretty much godfather. It is nowhere as good as the original, but it has been well localised to Indian political culture – Sarkar’s character apparently owes much to maharastrian nationalist strong man politician Bal Thackeray. The Bachchans were obvious choices for these roles and both deliver. Kay Kay who plays the elder brother, even looks a bit like indian James Caan, and Katrina Kaif was pretty good with what she was given.  There is a sequel “Sarkar Raj”, which I am looking forward to seeing.

Billu, Dus and Dostana

Posted by Sari

Books, dogs, figure skating… what is missing? Bollywood, of course. There have been few movies I have not written about, mainly because I saw them so long a go I don’t really remember much. Chak de India, for example, which as far as I recall was a decent enough sports movie with themes of national unity, women’s self-empowerment and of course King Khan strutting his stuff.

Love and Anarchy festival showed Jodha Akbar, which I had already seen and found pretty but boring, so I skipped that and went to see their other Bollywood import, Billu Barber, which was actually pretty interesting movie. It was a credible effort to fit together a more quiet movie about village life with a huge blockbuster, using a classical Hindu story about Krishna and his friend Sudama as its inspiration. Billu is a poor barber in a small indian village where a famous Bollywood star, Sahir Khan, is coming to shoot his next film. Billu and Sahir are childhood friends and when this news gets out everybody wants suddenly to be friends with Billu. Billu does not first want to impose on Sahir and later can’t get to him, and thus all the village, including his family, turn against him thinking he had been lying about his friendship.

I thought Irfan Khan was excellent as Billu, Om Puri deliciously hilarious as the village big man Daamchand and Lara Dutta was surprisingly soulful as Billu’s wife. Shahrukh is obviously playing himself and the huge totally over the top production numbers with Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor work surprisingly well as a contrast to the much more realistic rest of the action. The only place where the film really falters is in my opinion at the end where Shahruk/Sahir gets to give his big sentimental speech about his childhood friend Billu. As much as I think he is the cat’s pyjamas, he really hams the scene to the max.

Less of a success was Dus, a indian take on an international terrorist thriller. Abhishek and Zayed Khan are sent to to catch a terrorist collaborator from Canada without the knowledge of canadian officials, while back in India the anti-terrorist organisation tries to find a mole. The movie is full of twists and turns and chases, but the plot is a mess and I just can’t get used to the theatrical way modern indian movies choreograph chases and fights. I have rarely seen Sunil Shetty in a good movie, and only movie Esha Deol has not managed to bring down to her level was Dhoom. So despite a catchy signature tune, this was not a keeper.

Last movie in this set, Dostana is more of a dilemma. On one hand, compared to other hindi movies it depicts homosexuality in a positive light and has some genuinely touching scenes, but on the other it is very slapsticky and full of stereotypes. Dostana – friendship – tells of two expat desis (Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham) in Miami who pretend to be gay so they can sublet a condo with Priyanka Chopra. This of course leads to all kinds of silly misunderstandings, especially when both men fall for Priyanka and try to sabotage each other and Priyanka’s love interest Bobby Deol. The movie constantly underlines the fact that neither of the guys is really gay, the really gay characters are as stereotypical as they come, and the comedy is as usual incredibly broad. The best thing in the movie is Kirron Kher milking her punjabi mommy role for all it is worth. All in all, despite its good intentions, Dostana is still pretty cringeworthy.

Paisa Vasool

Posted by Sari

Okay, I am an unashamed SRK fan-girl and I don’t think I’ll ever grow out of it, so it is not a great surprise that Om Shanti Om was the most fun I have had in a movie theatre since forever. Farah Khan’s chart-busting hit has really everything and the kitchen sink in it. I don’t think any modern indian film I have seen has captured the filmi concept of paisa vasool (money’s worth) as well as this, Farah Khan’s homage to Bollywood, SRK and Manmohan Desai. Om Shanti Om is a reincarnation movie. In the first part filmi bit player Om Prakash Makhija falls for superstar Shantipriya, and dies trying to save her from a fire. After the intermission Om reinkarnates as Om Kapoor, scion of Bollywood royalty and bratty superstar. He starts to remember his previous life and begins to hatch a plan to exact revenge for Shanti’s murder.

SRK is fit, Arjun Rampal is surprisingly effective villain, newcomer Deepika Padukone is gorgeous heroine, everything looks wonderful, the songs are great - even the übermelodramatic Phantom of the Opera homage Dastaan at the end of the film - but what makes the film work are the absolutely non-stop inside jokes on Bollywood film industry and on Sharukh himself. Some of the jokes are extended scenes like the hilarious Dard-e-Disco (pain of disco) item number Om Kapoor performs in a movie where he plays a blind, deaf, mute amputee about to see his love to marry another, Some are just throw away lines, like the moment in the red carpet scene (one of the many Singing in the Rain homages in the film), where Asawari Joshi as superstar Rajesh Kapoor’s wife delivers perfectly her self-satisfied “Ya myself lovely” –line.

It is not a movie for Bollywood newbie as most of its humour depends on knowing something about Bollywood. It is not a movie for a cinephile as it is not really that great a movie – Main Hoon Na was much better as a film. But especially on the big screen with an audience wolf whistling to Sharukh’s sixpack it is just what the doctor ordered: Paisa vasool.

Night of the Kapoors

Posted by Sari

It is no accident that Om in Om Shanti Om is reborn as Om Kapoor. Not only are the Kapoors royalty of Indian cinema, there are a number of actors and actresses with the same name not related to The Clan. This was brought home to us on Sunday when we were watching two movies with rising stars starring Ranbir, Sonam, Shahid and Kareena Kapoor.  Now, Ranbir is son of Rishi Kapoor, 1970s hearthrob, Kareena is Ranbir's first cousin, daughter of Rishi’s big brother Randhir. Sonam Kapoor on the other hand is not related to Ranbir or Kareena, but is the daughter of another famous actor, Anil Kapoor. And Shahid (whose name is sometimes translitterated as Kapur) is again wholly unrelated to all the other Kapoors. It is almost as bad as all the Khans!

First film we watched was Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest which lost the Diwali box office battle to Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om. Bhansali’s movies are always sumptious affairs, but Saawariya really goes above and beyond his previous films in its color-coded, artificialness. Its like moghuls meet Disney’s idea of Venice in Switzerland. Everything happens at night so the palette is blues and greens with some dark red. The story seems somehow like an afterthought. Ranbir is a poor musician playing in a night-club. Sonam is a girl waiting on a bridge for his lover. They meet, Ranbir falls in love but will Sonam love him back? It is awful pretty but that is about it. Neither of the Kapoors can really carry the movie,  and though there was a general feeling of a fairy tale about the movie, the relentless visual artificiality does make one yearn for a glimpse of bright natural colours. So despite the equal opportunity objecifying and Rani’s excellent performance as the hooker with the heart of gold, I still have to say it was not a keeper.

The Second movie of the evening Jab We Met starred Shahid and Kareena Kapoor which, again had not that much plot. Shahid’s dad died and his ex married someone else, so just walks out of his life and on to a train where he meets a madcap Sikh girl Kareena who is on her way home to Punjab and is plannig to elope with his boyfriend. It is basically a modern indian take on1930s screwball comedies. And I think it works beautifully despite the mountain of cliches. I have always liked Kareena and Shahid was truly excellent in his Gary Grantish role. The music has been a hit for a good reason, and I just have a soft spot for filmi punjabis always having a party. 

Amar Akbar Anthony

Posted by Sari

Today is time for another Bollywood evening with Tarja, so I thought I better empty some of my back-log in this respect also. Last time we watched ummm… something? Obviously something that the total awesomeness of Amar Akbar Anthony has totally wiped from my memory. Maybe Tarja remembers.

But Amar Akbar Anthony, maybe the best movie evah! See, the poor chauffeur of a rich slime ball takes a blame for a traffic accident when he is promised that the slime ball will look after his family when he is in gaol. After release, he finds his wife ill with tuberculosis and his three small sons starving. Full of rage he goes after the slime ball tries to shoot him (unfortunately, like all smart rich people, the slime ball is wearing chain mail under his shirt.) The father takes his children along in the getaway car, but they all become separated in the hassle.

At the same time his tuberculous wife does not want to be a burden and wanders of to kill herself, is hit over the head with a tree branch in a thunderstorm, becomes blind, and takes the accident and a timely arrival of saviour as a sign against suicide. With great tragic Irony, that saviour is a Muslim tailor with a tiny crying tyke on tow: one of her now missing sons and she does not realize it. The tailor adopts the boy, raises him as Muslim and calls him Akbar. The oldest, Amar, is found by a Hindu policeman who adopts him, and the Middle son was left at the gardens of Catholic Church, so the priests there raises him up as a Christian: Anthony. All others think that our poor chauffeurs progeny perished when his getaway car went off a cliff. In reality, the chauffeur survives the crash with a box full of gold, and when he is unable to find his kids, he retires to plan a revenge.

Amar follows his stepfathers footsteps in the police, Akbar becomes a popular qawwali singer and Anthony ends up as bit of a crook, making deals not that legit. But he does it with twinkle in his eye and a song in his heart, so he is not bad, really more like mischievous. They all meet accidentally at a hospital and end up giving blood to a blind woman who has been in accident. And then the movies starts. All this was in the teaser before opening titles!

Amar Akbar Anthony has everything: twists and turns, missing persons and mistaken identities, chases, fights, romance x 3, miracles, revenge, tragedy, friendship, humour, prevention of a marriage at the nick of time, great music, and an absolutely surreal easter celebration with Anthony bursting out of a giant easter egg and singing something about “hemoglobin in the atmosphere”. I think that this and Main Hoon Na are now my favourite gateway drugs to Bollywood

Bollyposting

Tarja who is almost worringly head-over-heels with East-Asian TV has not wholly abandoned the subcontinent, so during the year we have managed to fit in few Bollywood evenings. So here is some of my backlog: 

First is Bunty aur Babli, a buddy-movie with Abhishek and Rani, where the former is dreaming of get-rich-quick schemes at home and latter wants to be Miss India. Instead they end up as grifters dreaming up stings to fool undeserving rich. All goes well until a police inspector played by Amitabh starts closing in. B&B was fun. The music was catchy, the plot could have been tighter and the ending less blah. Amitabh was campier than a row of tents with his shades and leather jacket, and Kajira Re, the number father and son performed with Aish (doing an item number) is one of my favourites ever. Both Abhishek and Amitabh are hilariously goofy and adorable. 

Fanaa of which I have been waiting mainly because Kajol, was a bit of a disapointment. The story is that of a blind girl falling in love with a tourist guide in New Delhi. The guide, Aamir, is really a terrorist preparing to do a job. Kajol melts Aamir’s heart, they marry and he pays for an operation to restore her sight. Before Kajol gets to see him, Aamir goes off to blow Rashtrapati Bhavan and is assumed dead. Years later on another job he stumbles wounded to a log cabin in Kashmir (Poland...) where Kajol and his son are now living. It takes awhile for Kajol to realize this is her husband, the army is closing in, and the movie ends with Kajol calling the cops and Aamir getting shot. Blood on snow. Kajol was as beautiful as ever, here is the tongue-twister song to prove it, but otherwise the film could have been better. Now it is not a “serious” take on conflicting loyalties, but neiter is it a true masala entertaiment, it falls somewhere in between and does not really work. 

Omkara, a remake of Othello with Ajay Devgan and Kareena Kapoor was better than I expected. I liked Kareena, thought Shaif Ali Khan was excellent as Langda (Iago) and even with his Bollywood moustache, Ajay was menacingly sexy Omkara (Othello). The problem of the production for me is the transfer. In this version, Omkara is enforcer for a political party in notoriously corrupt Uttar Pradesh, basically a goonda. Thus, at least in these western eyes, he is a bad guy from the beginning. The tension between a noble general and a madly jealous husband is missing. Omkara is just a sad tale of a violent man acting violently towards his love, not the grand drama of Shakespeare’s play. Also, only in Bollywood you would make a musical scene out of this.

Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, the long a waited new film from Karan was very karan-like, as Tumhi Dekho Naa sort of proves. Expensive melodrama with lots of violins and the exotic New York. The plot is a story of two couples, Sharhrukh and Preity, and Abishek and Rani, and what happens when Rani and Shahrukh fall in love and have an affair. This is heavy stuff for a blockbuster film in India, and Rani and Sharukh have to suffer a lot to get to the inevitable happy ending. I was sort of meh about it all.

Next up: Don, Jaaneman and Krrish

Andaaz (2003)

Posted by Sari

Andaaz on ihan puhdasta melodraamaa alusta loppuun – tietysti laululla, tanssilla ja aina ah niin hauskan Johnny Leverin komiikalla höystettynä. Sukslaasilmäinen Akshay Kumar on rakastunut lapsuudenystäväänsä Lara Duttaan (Miss Universumi 2000). Akshaylla on aikataulu: hän kosii kun on valmistunut ilmavoimien lentokoulusta. Valitettavasti vaan kukaan ei kertonut tätä Laralle ja tämä suostuu helikopteria lentävän liikemies Aman Verman kosintaan. Kyyneleet silmissään Akshay laulaa ja tanssii häissä, ja lähtee ahdistumaan Etelä-Afrikkaan. Siellä hän tapaa länsimaistuneen Priyanka Chopran (Miss Maailma 2000), joka alkaa jahdata komeaa pilottia.

Priyanka seuraa Akshayta kotiin, puhuu Akshayn ympäri kihlaukseen ja osoittautuu Laran miehen sisareksi. Mikä sattuma! Ja mikä tragedia! Sillä Laran helikopteripilottipisnesmies on tällä välin kuollut kauheassa onnettomuudessa ja leski on surusta sekaisin koettanut itsemurhaa useampaan otteeseen. Akshay saa Laran houkuteltua takaisin elävien ja henkisesti vähän tasapainoisempien kirjoihin ja Priyanka hääpäivänään jalosti luovuttaa paikkansa Laralle jotta alun rakastavaiset saisivat lopulta toisensa.

Mitä tästä nyt sitten sanoisi, kovin keskinkertainen ison budjetin masalamelodraamaksi. Musiikki ei kolahtanut lainkaan, lesken ylenmääräinen ahdistus oli melodraamagenreen ja intialaiseen kulttuurin yhdistetynä ymmärrettävää mutta länsimaiselle katsojalle kovin luotaantyöntävää. Lisäksi minusta nyt triangeli meni ihan väärin, Priyanka olisi ollut paljon parempi vaimo Akshaylle.

Salaam-e-Ishq

Posted by Sari

Tarja oli saanut käsiinsä  "Love Actually" elokuvasta inspiraationsa saaneen, yli 200 minuuttisen bollyelokuvan Salaam-e-Ishq ja kiikutti sen ystävällisesti tänne Casa Taliin katsottavaksi. Elokuvan särpimenä nautimme kukkakaali/parsakaali bhajia, kahdenlaisia jugurttikastikkeessa kypsytettyjä perunoita ja intialaisittain maustettuja porkkanoita ja vihreitä papuja. Eteläaasialainen ruoka on kuulkaa aivan sairaan hyvää vaikka itse näin kokkina sen sanonkin.

Elokuvakin oli aivan mainio. Sitä on kai pidetty liian pitkänä ja sirpaleisena, mutta minusta se oli aivan mahtava masalasekoitus intertekstuaalista komediaa ja draamaa. Tähdillä kansoitetussa elokuvassa viisi rakkaustarinaa kietoutuu eri tavalla toisiinsa: Priyanka ja Salman lavastavat romanssin edistääkseen Priyankan uraa. Hindu/Muslimi parissa Vidya saa muistinmenetyksen eikä muista miestään John Abrahamia lainkaan. Anil Kapoor saa keski-iän kriisin ja on jättää vaimonsa Juhi Chawlan nuoremman takia. Akshaye Khannalle tulee pupu housuun juuri ennen häitä ja taksikuski Govinda ajaa intialaista poikaystäväänsä etsivää kanadalaista Shannon Esrechovitzia ympäri Intiaa.

Salman tuntuu nykyään joka toisessa elokuvassa kommentoivan ironisesti omaa imagoaan, tässäkin elokuvassa riittää merkitseviä katseita, kovin matalalta kähistyjä vuorosanoja, paidattomuuta ja farkut tuskin voisivat olla enää alempana lanteilla. Anil Kapoorin kriisin olisi kyllä voinut käsikirjoittaa rehellisesti viidenkympin kriisiksi neljänkympin kriisin sijaan, mutta muuten häntäkin oli hauska nähdä. Naisispääosan esittäjistä parhaiten onnistuvat ihan hauska Priyanka ja aina mainio Juhi Chawla. Elokuvan varastaa kuitenkin yllättäen Govinda jonka kielipuoli romanssi kanadalaistytön kanssa on niin söpö että sokerimyrkytys uhkaa. Awwww.

Espoo Cine: Sancharram - The Journey

R&A –festareille olin kyllä Parineetaa menossa katsomaan, mutta mörrimöykkypäivä ja kipeä jalka saivat jäämään kotiin. Eli tämän vuoden festari-intialaiselokuvaksi jäi Espoo Cinen ohjelmistossa ollut malayalaminkielinen Sancharram, kertomus kahden nuoren tytön rakkaudeksi kasvavasta ystävyydestä. Lesboutta ei intialaisessa elokuvassa ole vakavasti pahemmin käsitelty. Silloin kuin teemaa käsitellään tai siihen viitataan, lesbot joko koodataan voyaristisesti roistoiksi tai kyseessä on Intiassakin hyvin voivan naisvankilagenren edustaja. Ainut aikaisempi teemaa vakavasti käsittelevä leffa jonka olen nähnyt on The Fire vuodelta 1996.

Siinä missä Fire –elokuvan päähenkilöt löytävät toisensa petyttyään heteroseksuaalisiin suhteisiin, Sancharram on herkkä Romeo/Julia tyyppinen kasvutarina ja heräämisen kuvaus. Sen juoni on äärimmäisen ennalta-arvattava ja tempo vähän liian hidas. Kiran ja Delilah kasvavat rakastamaan toisiaan, mutta kun Delilahin äiti saa selville tyttöjen suhteen todellisen luonteen, pyrkii hän naittamaan tyttärensä nopeasti Amerikkaan. Vaikka Kiran järjestää tytöille mahdollisuuden karata kaupunkiin ja yrittää elää omilla ehdoillaan, ei Delilah uskalla astua yhteiskunnan sääntöjen ulkopuolelle ja suostuu avioliittoon. Elokuvan tuntuu kiertyvän kohti väistämätöntä tragediaa, mutta loppu onkin yllättäen avoin ja toivoa antava.

Teknisesti pienellä budjetilla tehty Sancharram on välillä horjuva, mutta onnistuu muutamissa hiljaisissa kohtauksissa vangitsemaan lähes hypnoottisesti hetken valkokankaalle. Pääosin sen kiinnostavuus on kuitenkin sen eksotiikassa: Keralan vehreät maisemat ja etelä-intialainen kulttuuri viehättävät vieraudessaan ja värikylläisyydessään. Intialaisen elokuvankaan kliseitä ei ole vältetty: rakastavaiset eivät tällä kertaa laula jyrkänteen reunalla, mutta seisovat siellä salwar-kameez hulmuten, ja ukkosmyrsky saa jälleen kerran symboloida seksuaalisuutta. Kivaa.