Resham Ki Dori (1974)

Once upon a time, Bollywood thrived on a staple theme of hero brothers taking revenge for rapes and other atrocities committed on their sisters. Brotherly-sisterly love has been celebrated onscreen so many times and with so much mush that it explains why this particular sibling relationship is more tiresome than others.

I like the way Suman has sung this song, and given that Raksha Bandhan has just gone past, perhaps you could listen to it as well.

 

Last Vegas (2013)

I wouldn’t call this a fantastic watch, but it distracted me sufficiently when I watched it 5 years ago. The starcast is powerful, even if rumours around Morgan Freeman in the recent past have left me mostly sad and a little angry. Remember the scene in this movie when he is trying to escape from his house? That’s a work of art.

There is also another scene I recollect. Kevin Kline’s Sam character is being driven to the airport by his wife Miriam - a moment of astonishment for me – and she encourages him to have fun at his friend’s bachelor party. She basically encourages him to cheat, and when I now think about it, I wonder how her character is as confident about their marriage not unraveling or if it is fiction that makes misplaced confidence work. It struck me that if there had been a role reversal – the husband driving the wife and encouraging her to have fun/ cheat – I would have been uncomfortable then too. Why be as self-sacrificing? If they had been serial monogamists, this is perhaps the right time to leave!

Sam mouths a lovely line, “The thing is... It's crazy, but whenever something spectacular happens to me, the first thing I want to do is tell my wife about it. And, after 40 years of marriage, if I can't tell her about something wonderful that happened to me, it sort of stops being wonderful.”

This must be true for so many married couples, and it is a beautiful moment.

The movie scores because it targets a different age group – senior citizens – and shows their perspective. Wish more movies did this. I also thought about who the writer is – there are moments that strike as outright dysfunctional – and then got to know that he is the same writer who wrote the script for Crazy, Stupid, Love. Something about cheating seems to appeal as far as he goes, and he doesn’t like marriages breaking down because of it.

Sangam (1964)

Along with ‘Mera Naam Joker’, ‘Sangam’ is one of the longest movies ever made – the run time is almost 4 hours. In the days of DD, I have watched the former for the most part and I can tell you that watching a movie that long is very difficult on one’s concentration and patience. I can’t imagine what it took to make these movies!

Last year, right before the start of my sickness, of all things Arjun~ and I ended up discussing a reference from ‘Sangam’ and I kept bringing it up later as well. Much like this movie, ‘Sangam’ is about friendship and is far more grown-up in treatment. In some respects, it reminds me of 'Pearl Harbor'. What also strikes me is that movies that address class divide might not address sexism well.

I heard the song after a really long time today and was pleasantly surprised not to find it evoke the sadness that I remember from childhood. Listen to it. Vyjayanthimala’s bindi looks so good on her! She’s truly a superstar.

The Italian Job (2003)

Despite multiple attempts to watching this movie, I haven't managed to watch more than 15 minutes at a stretch. The movie has a stellar cast, and I was glad to have caught this dialogue this time.

"I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them I don't trust."

Watchers, what do you think of this movie?

If I go by my experience, the first step in not trusting the devil equivalent is to acknowledge the presence of the devil. The trust process would be an entirely different ballgame then. As for the devil inside of us, do we wait for someone else to spot and acknowledge it? Or are we self-aware enough to spot its presence and then do something about it?