dvdisoil wrote:
Saw it today and liked it very much - its not the greatest indian film to be ever made , but still a fairly important one.
The director has obvious influences from the Iranian new wave - minimum use of dialogs, long takes , use of non-professional actors among other things. The whole movie appears to be allegory shrouded as black comedy and presented to the audience as staunch drama. while the use of mythological name ( Kalki - for the girl) reminds me of Ritwik Ghatak ( every women in his movie is named after "some" mythical goddess) the style is definitely a homage to Satyajit Ray ( albeit a strong/harsh one) .
I would recommend this movie to anyone interested in "alternate indian cinema", for the rest its atleast a rental.
What bothered me was the "intended" audience - is it the 'thinking class' who live in the city or the 'simple' village folks ??. Personally i think the answer seems to be the "educated" city folks. i just cant see how a person from a remote village in Bihar will see, let alone appreciate it. if that is the case then i thought it was a "wasted" effort – atleast that was my initial thinking . But looking back I realized that the director not only pegs the blame on the “simple†folks but also on the educated people. I can easily see ourselves (a.ka. the city folks) as the piss-drinking homosexual pandit (traditionally the most learned person) in the movie, we ( the educated mass) allow for such “situations†to take place thinking it will not affect “us†but eventually things catches-up with you making you pay at highest level ( as depicted in the end of the film) – that to me was the strong point of the film , the weak point was the “low caste†uprising – I just did not get it , seemed to simple and staged to my liking .
You are spot on about this film. Ali has also brought up some interesting points I initially didn't consider after watching it myself just now. Collectively, Matrubhoomi is a
masterpiece, plain and simple. It's an example of the purest form of cinema that relies on cinematic technique
s to tell its story. One cannot help but admire Manish Jha's candid attempt, and the interesting implications from such a vision. The contradiction here, of course, that it wouldn't be as vital a film as it is if it was not soo horrifying and repulsive, and yet those qualities inadvertently make it a singularly hard film to sit through.
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This is on DVD? And readily available?
Interesting film to say the least. Shows the cruelty of man towards woman and what the long term effects will be of female genocide. Although the idea of 5 brothers marrying one woman seems absurd today if the population continues to grow and only child is allowed in INDIA like CHINA than in 40 or 50 years I could see such a situation arising in parts of rural India.
Climax was strong and ending appropriate. Technically well made film, performances were adequate, dialogues apt. Tulip looked great in a non-glamorous role. Even though she claimed to never used make up for the film I swore you could see traces of lipstick, maybe the director tried to play that off by saying she drank sherbert or something. Overall 7.5 out of 10 but definitely not for the faint of heart and nonfamily film.
