The White Balloon (1995)

The sibling is away in Chennai for a long break and I find myself in the midst of an unmemorable sporting weekend – there is no F1 race, India lost in pathetic fashion to England in the third test, and Roger Federer lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the second time this year.

Last night, I was channel surfing while having dinner and landed on “The White Balloon”.

This is a story about a 7-year old girl and her brother. It takes you through her day on the eve of the Iranian New Year, and tells you what she does when she loses money that her mother has given her to buy a goldfish. What stands out is how the movie looks at everything from the child’s point of view, and the sensitivity. This could have been the story of any child who struggles to get what he/she wants. Other characters include snake charmers, shop owners, shoppers and a balloon boy from Afghanistan.

The scene I enjoyed the most is when she interacts with the soldier. When he tells her that she reminds him of his younger sister who is 5 years old, she jumps up and says that she is 7 and not 5, goes to school, gets straight A-grades and stands first in her class. The precise articulation by the child makes him smile, and I mirrored his reaction with a difference – I had a wider smile.

Watch it for the expressive girl – she is a delight.

The weather does it

Mirages and susceptibility to dehydration ensure that I stay put when summer strikes in full glory. Time and cynicism miraculously materialize from nowhere, and I am left longing for temperate climates when I can be my optimistic self.

Yes, I am unable to see the virtues of dry heat.

The confines of home result in my sitting in front of the idiot box for longer than usual; movie-watching touches a crescendo, and I now want to record it all.

Children of Heaven

An Iranian film, whose original title is Bacheha-Ye Aseman, is about a set of siblings (Ali and Zahra), and is a simple tale of a pair of lost shoes. The kids go to different schools, and arrive at a pact of sharing Ali’s shoes when he loses Zahra’s pair even as he goes to get them repaired. They carry on with their routine without their parents noticing their predicament.

Watch out for the scenes when Zahra notices her lost pair of shoes on the feet on a girl in her school, when Ali speaks for his gardener father and gets him a job, the painstaking detailing of the living conditions of the family, the ladies in colourful, non-black headgear, the earnestness on Ali’s face even as he convinces his teacher to allow him to take part in the selection round for the long-distance race after he misses the deadline, and the race itself.

No, I will not be a spoilsport and say how the movie ends.

Chocolat

Chocolates and Depp (even in small dosages) make for a heady concoction. But the real winner here is the story (set in a village in France), and the best performer is Dench.

Sample this.

“I think we can't go around...
measuring our goodness by what we don't do.
By what we deny ourselves...
what we resist and who we exclude.
I think we've got to measure goodness...
by what we embrace...
what we create...
and who we include.”

Acceptance doesn’t come easy, eh? Well, neither does drifting.

The interesting thing about “World Movies” is that subtitles kept swear words away, perhaps to ensure that gentle members of the audience are not alienated. Dench’s irritation read different as a result.

Yes, I will be a spoilsport here. Vianne and Roux kiss each other. All ends well.