The Lighter Side

All work and no play just doesn’t augur well in life. You have to have the lighter side of it too. Precisely what I conveyed to my youngest grandson, Rohan(9), when he called from US to interview me for his class project, “The Family Tree”. I confess, I felt flattered when someone wanted to interview me. All along I have only interviewed others, including a Nobel Laureate, and published the gist for the benefit of readers.

I answered Rohan with details of my ancestry starting from my great-grandfather. He jotted them down with great interest, not without difficulty on spellings occasionally. The final questions was: “What is grandpa’s advice to you?” That was a tall order at such a short notice, given that my presence of mind disowns me at critical moments.

I knew he was very good at soccer and football. So unwittingly I uttered, “Devote equal time to your studies as to your games.” On hindsight I thought I should not have specified the time, but just said, Work while you work, Play while you play, so that my advice didn’t clash with  my son or d-i-l’s, just in case they had a different game plan for him. So I modified it: “That said, Rohan, do what your parents say.” “But Thatha,” he quipped, “my teacher asked for my grandpa’s advice, not parents’.”  Probably mine suited him better, and he wanted it to go on record to legitimize his spending more time on play. 

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Festive season is in full swing, so is a series of Bollywood movies. “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha” featuring Akshay Kumar and the lady who acted with aplomb in Dum Laga Ke Haisa, Bhumi Pednekar, is showing to packed houses. The movie has joined the 100-crore club in record time. Hats off to the director for sustaining the interest of the audience on a thin story-line. The heroine has a toilet in her home, but none in her husband’s house when she moves over there upon marriage. She is compelled to join the rest of the village ladies in the early hours for a joint venture, with a lantern in one and a lotta in the other hand. How the debutant director handles such a ticklish subject, and what follows is absorbing, entertaining and educative. When Chetan Sharma and Nidhi (Maple 3206) called us over intercom, “Sundaram ji, we have booked tickets for you two too for Toilet, we were shocked until the air was cleared. Well worth a visit - the movie, I mean.

If you ever think this happens only in movies and never in real life, you are mistaken. In the1950s, beaming with happiness my uncle returned to Palghat with his bride from Eranakulam, only to find her disillusioned. There was no toilet. Ladies had to make-do at the open backyard, while the menfolk walked up to the open area near the village pond. She just was not cut out for that. A via media was worked out. He requested his friend to walk to the nearby post office and send him a telegram: “Leave cancelled, join immediately”. And the couple left by the next available train for Delhi. But someone re-looked at the telegram minutely and announced, “But the telegram has originated from Palghat, not Delhi,” - well, not before the newlyweds were half way to Delhi.

Yet another movie that is doing well is Bareilly ki Burfi, inspired by a Western, adapted to Indian settings. This is directed by Ashwini Iyer Tiwari (w/o Nitesh Tiwari, director of the famous movie, Dangal, and, the earlier Chillar Party). Ashwini Iyer’s earlier film, Nil Batey Sannatta (Zero divided by zero, that is Good for Nothing) also attracted a good response as was her Tamil version, Amma Kanakku. She walked away with Filmfare’s Best debutant director award for Nil Batey…  

In sharp contrast, Salman’s Tubelight  directed by Kabir Khan, who had two back-to-back 100-crore earners including Bhajrangi Bhaijaan, bombed at the box office. Similarly Imitiaz Ali’s earlier film, Rockstar, had joined the 100-crore club, but his recent one, a Shah Rukh film, When Harry met… with Anushka Sharma, failed to take off.

Speaking of ‘take off’, that was also the name of a Malayalam movie that was premiered in television last week. It is based on an actual incident when a few Malayalee nursing staff got stranded during the Iraq civil war. Thanks to the untiring efforts of Indian Embassy officials and others, they were all brought home in one piece in 2014. At the end of the movie, the persons involved in real life were interviewed to get a feel of their ordeal. Excellent take off for the debutant director.

V V Sundaram

Maple 3195

27 Aug 2017