Quizas Quizas Quizas

I wanted to write something on the films for some times. I am downloading and watching films left-right-and-center, taking full advantage of a real broadband connection. But the eternal question looms, write on what and what to write...

And then I came across Baradwaj Rangan's latest in-between-review piece. I just saw the accompanying picture and the name of the director given at the end, I knew I had to see this. Afraid it might spoil the fun, i skipped the article altogether (which is BTW, great as always, I read it later). One necessary announcement here: Baradwaj Rangan is the bestest film-critic in our country right now. Period.

Now, where was I... Yes, the film. It is "In the Mood for Love" by Wong Kar Wai. I have heard a lot about Wong Kar Wai and saw his very famous "Chungking Express" a month before. Misfit, quirky characters, old music, love and loneliness and of course Wai's signature frames with stylistic light and color. Me likes. One look at the scene and you know it has to be Wai. You'll know what I mean when you see his films.

Music plays a very significant part in Wai's films. I can not imagine Chungking Express without "California Dreamin" playing in loud volume in the background and whenever I hear the song I can see Faye playing with aeroplane inside the aquarium.

Anyway, I was going in a tangent about something else, whereas I wanted to talk about "In the Mood for Love". Now what to say about that? Will it suffice to say that this is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen?

Frankly speaking it is very difficult to describe this film. It is a story set in sixties Hong Kong, where Mrs. Chan and Mr. Chow, along with their respective spouses, rent rooms in opposite flats (Wai likes tiny apartments and narrow staircases... maybe in confined spaces, we feel closer to his characters). Their paths cross time and again as they deal with their lonely lives, suspicious of their partner's infidelity. But they can't fall in love with each other. As Chow tells, "We are not like them", and in short that's what the film is. Of not falling in love. Or is it the opposite...

What makes more difficult to describe this film, is its beauty... almost like poetry on camera, which is, as the cliche goes 'seen to be believed'. How can a simple walk down the steps can become magical with use of slow motion and music? How do you describe the sadness captured in the slow patterns of white cigarette smoke? How on earth background score can elevate a simple sequence into masterpiece?

"In the Mood for Love" is nothing if you remove the music. Be it the melancholic theme music (youtube link) or earnest but sad Quizas Quizas Quizas (which means "Perhaps Perhaps Perhaps"), it seems the script is written for the music, not the other way around.

The film never hurries around. Small small incidents, snippets of conversation and the languid pace. As if the time is stopped and the viewer is not much aware of the real time line, unless we are shown explicitly like "Hong Kong 1963". It's a film which never rushes even in its 90 min of length. It takes it time, makes you feel what they are feeling, the desperation, the sadness, the loneliness. It reminded me of Murakami's novels, the feeling of longing and slowing down the flow of time (although Murakami is totally surreal, almost in a parallel universe).

"In the Mood for Love" leaves you sad and silent for a long time after it ends, with the songs remaining inside your head. And believe me, it will go on for a long time.

A small film, with a small story, perfect for keeping inside your heart, maybe to revisit some time later.

Quizas quizas quizas...

Whose Song is This?

A few months back, one Sunday morning, I was channel-surfing, and caught this documentary showing in NDTV (they have this Documentary@24X7 program aired every Sunday around 11 or so). The original name of the film was "Cia e tazi pesen ?" which means "Whose is this song ?" made by one Bulgarian lady named Adela Peeva. The documentary was in Bulgarian, subtitle was on.

Adela once heard one song being sung in some restaurant in Sophia, and her friends, who were all from different but neighboring countries, claimed the original song is from their country. Original song here means the original tune, because, in different versions the song has completely different lyrics, ranging from romantic to patriotic, of course in the language of that country. So our director became very interested and started her journey across the region to find out what is the actual origin of this song.

Now the region we are talking about is known as the Balkans, comprising countries like Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, parts of Turkey, some not-so-known names like Macedonia, Albania and some known-for-wrong-reasons names like Bosnia and Kosovo. All these countries have shared histories, ethnic groups like Serbs, Slavs and Turks spread around the region, dominated by religions like Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholic Christianity and Islam. At some point of time or other all were ruled by Greeks and some other point they were part of the Turkish empire.

Unfortunately, people do not see this as some kind of beautiful cultural harmony among themselves. The recent history is full of wars, ethnic violence, genocide and border tensions. All of us heard about Bosnia and Kosovo.

All this made the documentary rather interesting. Which was just a song, became some kind of national pride especially when confronted with the claim that the neighbors say it is their song.

How can they!! We have heard this song in our childhood.

My great-great-grandmother knew this song.

Don't listen to those people. They are nothing but thieves. After looting our country, now they want to steal our culture too!!!

These were some of the reactions which Adela heard when she went to people with her tape-recorder. At times, the situation became really heated as you can imagine.

I found this trailer in youtube which gives you an idea what I am talking about. Have a look (or click here to view in youtube).



You can also see the full movie in Google Video (here).

In the end, the search remained inconclusive. There is no definite answer. But as you can guess, that was not the point. The point is people are much more closer to each other than they would like to believe.

As much as we hate some people or denounce their contribution, the fact remains, our culture, tradition, art, all are product of a collective effort and that makes it so rich. We fight endlessly on who created this and that, overlooking the beauty of the creation in the first place and how can we share it better among ourselves.

Now, the most interesting part (at least from my point of view). What really got me hooked to film, is that I have heard this tune before. In a Bengali song!! A very well-known at that. So now... it is my chance to claim this song...

If you are a bong and seen the trailer above, you must have guessed which song I'm talking about. It is "Shukno Patar Nupur Paye" by Kazi Nazrul Islam. Check out the song at youtube in this link. I had an mp3 from nazrul.org but the site is not opening anymore.

Although for bengalis, the name Nazrul does not need any introduction, others will do well to click the link. Nazrul can be termed as the most popular Bengali poet/song-writer after Tagore. Having a very large body of work (poetry, song, essay, novels), it is mainly his songs (known as Nazrul-Geeti) which have endured the test of time. Nazrul is known for introducing Arabic and Persian influence in his poetry and music. He is considered the pioneer in this regard.

We can guess, he picked up the tune for this particular song, during his posting in Karachi for the British-Indian Army, where he studied Persian (Farsi), met people from various countries, especially middle-east. Maybe some Turkish soldier sang this song one night at the camp-fire and Nazrul was hooked to the beautiful rhythm. We can only imagine.

So, along with Adela Peeva, I had my tiny part in this journey, which started in the mountains of Balkans and via Karachi, ended up in my doorstep. Who would've thought!! "Yeh duniya badi gol hai", that's what I can say at the end... :)

As usual, comments are welcome. And there is a new five-star-rating system below. So, if you are lazy to type a few words at least click some stars!