18 NRI PULSE ...... Book Review ...... Movie Review ...... August 2010 Globalization & Textures Of India ‘Once Upon A Time...’ Throwback “The Weight of Heaven” by Thrity Umrigar Harper Perennial 365 Pages Paperback To Gangsterism In Mumbai REVIEWED BY MAHADEV trees now owned by the company exacerbates Frank’s Film: “Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai”; Starring: Ajay Devgn, Emraan DESAI problems. He still misses Benny, till a nine year old Hashmi,Randeep Hooda, Kangna Ranaut, Prachi Desai; Directed by: Milan Ramesh, son of his cook and maid, Prakash and his Luthria; Rating: *** ½ The acclaimed author of the bestselling nov- Christian wife Edna, enters into his life.Ramesh is funny, els The Space Between Us; If Today Be Sweet; and curious, smart and full of charm, Frank pays his school BY SUBHASH K. JHA and allegedly impregnated. the powerful and poignant memoir First Darling fees; helps him with his studies; plays basket ball with Often the characters are an amalgamation of of May; Thrity Umrigar has written yet another him; and takes him to the beach. It’s the way he looks at the camera. Almost furious folklore and long-forgotten newspaper powerful new novel, The Weight of Unlike Frank, Ellie adapts as if it doesn’t exist. Ajay Devgn as Sultan Mirza headlines of the 1970s. Kangna Ranaut plays an Heaven’. The novel has generated easily to India and its culture.A is NOT Haji Mastan, please note. He’s just this actress from the 1970s who gets the hots for the profuse praise from both literary therapist, she volunteers at her Robin Hood in the 1970s who happened to be a Robin Hood-styled smuggler-hero. Later she is critics and readers alike. friend Nandita’s Niral Health smuggler and who at some point in the taut plot, discovered to have a congenital heart disease (a la To quote some of the lauda- Clinic and school, and is well liked locks horns with a junior recruit who, please note, Madhubala who came two decades before the tory reviews:-”Umrigar is a percep- and respected by the village folk. is NOT Dawood Ibrahim. events of this film are supposed to unfold). But tive and often piercing writer” New While Frank tries to spend more So who, in the name of immoral crime and look at the irony! It’s her smuggler-hero lover who York Times Review. time with Ramesh, Prakash and haphazard policing, are dies of a wounded heart. “The landscape and Edna feel sidelined. Prakash feels these two men? So stylishly Maybe we shouldn’t culture…(are) evocatively helpless, as he is illiterate, poor and masculine, so sweaty in give away the plot. Because depicted…And such drama!...We’re alcoholic. Edna is a conflicted woman, their realism and so menac- the plot never gives itself pulled along by the intensity of this “caught between the desires of her ing in their demeanor and away. It never betrays a sweeping cinematic story.”-Elle.” own heart, and an overpowering ,al- complete denial of the exis- phoney intent of purpose. Powerful…. Twisty, brimming with most maternal need to mother her hus- tent morality they remind The narrative unfolds dark humor and keen moral insight, band and protect him from his own you of the anti-social heroes through the first-person the Weight of Heaven packs a wallop demons.” She also wants the best for from Sam Peckinpah’s West- narration of a troubled on both literary and emotional Ramesh. erns? wounded cop, played with level…Umrigar, a journalist for the Boston Globe, Frank and Ellie take Ramesh to Bombay. Ramesh “Once Upon A Time In remarkably restrained bra- is a descriptive master.” Christian Science Monitor. is awe- struck by the opulence of the Taj Hotel. Ramesh Mumbaai” takes us back to the vado by Randeep Hooda. An educated and liberal American couple also gets a taste of Christmas celebrations in Frank’s beginnings of gangsterism in Indeed this is the most ac- Frank and Ellie,living in Michigan lose their only home, where Frank gives him a new computer. Prakash Mumbai. Milan Luthria excels complished performance in son, seven year old Benny, to a sudden illness. Frank resents all this affection shown to his son and in a fit of in creating smouldering com- the film. He’s partly a gal- blames Ellie for Benny’s death. Both are devastated rage snips the wires of the computer and disables it. bustive stress between two lant law enforcer and partly by Benny’s death and find their marriage crumbling. Later, to pacify Ramesh, he decides to take him to Goa mean menacing men… Re- a victim of a system that Thinking that a move away from home would help to meet his grandparents. While they are away, Frank member Devgn (who back then breeds inequality, corrup- re-unite and heal them, Frank agrees to manage a who is obsessed with Ramesh, panics and fearing that was Devgan, just as Mumbai tion and finally, self-de- factory, Herbal Solutions in a seaside village Girbaug he might lose Ramesh for ever, hatches a plot to take was Bombay when the film under review unfolds) and struction. in India. The Company he works for has leased Ramesh to America. But events take unexpected turns Saif Ali Khan in Luthria’s “Kachche Dhaage” and Hooda is wry, cynical, bitter, anguished and thousands of acres of forest land with trees with at the end. yet able to see the humor of a situation that one medicinal properties. The factory processes the The novel has rich prose and a fast-paced plot “Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai” takes can ride only by sublimating its gravity. As for where the author delves deeply into the inner struggles leaves for diabetic medicine. The villagers resent us back to the beginnings of gangster- Ajay Devgn, he continues to evolve with every this intrusion because these trees are lifeblood to of her finely etched characters as well as the impact of performance. As a gangster from the 1970s Devgan them-they brew, chew and even smoke the leaves globalization on a small village community in India. In ism in Mumbai. Milan Luthria excels in brings on the table a clenched self-mocking immo- and chop the trees for firewood. this riveting novel, she illuminates the human heart in all creating smouldering combustive stress rality. He stands outside the character even while Frank feels like an outsider here. He has to its longing and imperfection and also brilliantly cap- between two mean menacing men... internalizing the performance. contend with class and cultural divide and feels tures the texture of India. Director Milan Luthria imparts a keen eye for confused and cynical. He finds his employees obse- India- born Thrity Umrigar is a prolific jour- details to the storytelling. Some bits in the second-half quious, fawning, lazy, incompetent and lacking in initia- nalist for over 17 years and associate professor of on a more satirical note, John Abraham and Nana get shaky, such as the predicable club songs and the tive. The death of a trade union activist in prison and English at Case Western Reserve University .She Patekar in “Taxi No 9211”. repeated use of overlapping editing patterns to convey suicide of a villager whose livelihood depended on the has a Ph.D. in English and lives in Cleveland. In “Once Upon A Time….” the conflict be- the rising tension between the mentor and the protégé tween Devgn (who is NOT Haji Mastan) and turned tormenter. But the director’s command over the Masala Chai: Exploring India’s Socio-political Issues Emraan Hashmi (who is NOT Dawood) is placed in language of outlawry is unquestionable. a far more complex and challenging scenario. The Emran Hashmi as Devgn’s uncontrollable BY VICTORIA WHITE friends all breathe life into the political and social screenplay (Rajat Arora) takes into view the entire protégée gets the look and body language right. matters that underpin the main storyline. And it’s Vijay and Bharti are in love. But this is not gamut of grime in the canvas of crime that cannot be His courtship of Prachi Desai to the accompani- in the dialogues of his characters just another love story. The author hidden by the surface glamour and glitter. ment of romantic hits from the 1970s (e.g Raj as they discuss the events and is- has so deftly woven the socio-po- The vintage cars, the costumes and that atti- Kapoor’s “Bobby”) is engaging. sues impacting their lives where litical issues of modern-day India tude of rebellious abandon comes through in the Understandably, the two ladies are reduced the author’s knowledge and pas- into his tale of young love that the inner and outer styling of the characters. The to pursing their lips and wringing their hands as sion really shine, making Masala themes of corruption in high office people in Luthria’s panoramic view of Mumbai in the story progresses. The film’s best, most charm- Chai an informative read for any- and social justice are not relegated the late 1960s and 70s are steeped in a cinematic ing and heartwarming moments come in the early one who wants to know what is to mere backdrop but intrinsically realism. Neither a part of that period nor a com- stages of the drama between Devgn and Ranaut. going on in India today. part of the lives of his two pro- pletely true representation of an era gone-bye- Their growing fondness for one another is recorded And, as with many of my tagonists. Creating Vijay and Bharti bye the characters hover in a no-man’s-land popu- in scenes and words written by a poet who can see wonderful authors and clients, as two highly educated, socially lated by fascinating details of past recreated with the humor behind mutual attractions. Vinod is altruistic and charitably aware and actively engaged insti- a tongue-in-cheek broadness of purpose. The real hero of this film is the writing. Rajat minded. He hopes to financially gators of social justice is cleverly There are bouts of suppressed satire in the Arora’s dialogues flow from the storytelling in a help the poor of India with the done, because events just don’t way the whole era of the genesis of the under- smooth flow of poetry and street wisdom. Aseem royalties from the sale of his book. happen to them; they are part of world is represented. For example Emraan Hashmi Mishra’s sharply -evocative cinematography gives Visit his Masala Chai book site to the overall theme and message. The befriends and sleeps with a woman who looks a to this rugged-and-razorsharp look at Mumbai’s learn more about the book and the many dialogues that take place be- lot like a Bollywood actress whom Raj Kapoor mythic mating with crime, an urgency that simply author site www.vinodluthra.com. tween the parents, family and had introduced in a film and Dawood had befriended can’t be ignored.