souvikmeetszeus

What a lovely little film this turned out to be! Seeped in the rustic goodness of a Malayali village and the charmed music from God's own country, this mythical tale was a breath of fresh air. Dotted with songs that will have you humming along, the film follows a gang of children and their fate when an old man turns up in their village, and is labeled as Kummatty, or the Bogeyman.

The film stays honest to its setting - somehow managing to weave the peace and simplicity of the village into its characters, into its dialogue, and into its fluid song sequences. The relationship between the young and the old is beautifully captured, and when the film comes a full circle, Chinda, our main protagonist, realizes a thing or two about freedom and captivity.

This film may very well be India's own Pied Piper of Hamlin, and is a slice of folklore that is very unique to the country. Kummattikali is a dance form still practiced in Kerala during the Onam festival - and the legend seems to have arisen from the Mahabharata, where the Kummattis, or the ghost-companions of Lord Shiva, were called upon to dance and celebrate the virtue of Arjuna. And yes, masks have a huge role to play in this film, as they do in the dance form. A deliberate start but a great story in the end.

This is a tragic, personal and political film – set in Angola (shot in Congo), and narrating the struggles and realities of the African Liberation Front. Dominguez, a soldier, a loving husband and a hard-working truck driver is arrested by the Portuguese secret police. What ensues is a story of inhuman cruelty and torture even as frail, oppressed and brave Africans try to resist and break free. The film could not have been shot in Angola, since the country was still fighting for its freedom – and thus the immense impact and significance of this film in 1973 can only be imagined. Both Domingos de Olivieira and Elisa Andrade are fantastic – but the entire cast does its job, be it the kids, the old or the Angolan fighters, also the Whites. Domingos, especially, is shot beautifully and he really comes to symbolize all of Angola's pain and injustice. The message and overall tone is deeply Marxist, with the 'rich' being marked as the enemy, and not the Whites. Angola's economy continues to suffer even today because of this huge divide between the rich and poor – and maybe there were/are reasons, but the vision of this film largely remains unrealized by the country. The quality of my print wasn't good, but the film was an absorbing one and somehow, the yellowish, haggard quality of the rip complemented the film. The film is fiction, yes, such stories are strewn across the history of African liberation, yes – but this cinematic account effectively drives home the helpless situation that many Africans dealt with. And like I said, its impact on Angolans in 1973 can only be imagined – and hence, it is immensely important. Not to take away a shred of credit from the filmmaking though – a great convergence of camera angles, acting and thematic treatment.

A WWII movie set in the Carpathians and named after the Ukrainian version of Pandora's Box, this is a sheer masterpiece! Well, in these last few months I have seen quite a few films set in similar regions, depicting similar (in cases, the same) lifestyle, but I have to say this has been the most affecting till date. We see a very delicate episode of the Carpathian history played out here – starting from the Soviet reclamation of Carpathians through the Nazi-Romanian occupation to Soviet rescue again – and no, I have spoilt nothing. All of it is captured through the life of a family of musicians, comprised of five brothers and a struggling-to-provide father. The eldest brother joins the Soviets while a younger one joins the nationalists - in due course of time, through the promiscuity of love, one ends up being responsible for the other's life. The wide-eyed, typically Carpathian mountain beauty is present here in Dana, for whom three people get entangled in a twist of fate. The film has a very solid story, superb, rustic and lively music, great costumes and detailing and also some very good frames. The landscapes are shot brilliantly – the slippery rocks, the difficulty of warfare in the terrain, the monstrous rafts, and harshness of life in conjunction with shortage of food – everything is sketched beautifully. There are a few sequences that are unforgettable – the family playing as their house burns, the strange percussion that produces brilliant sounds, Giorgiy's (the youngest son) reaction to a broken illusion, the rowing of the raft through a mad river, the bride distributing the bread, and definitely, the final chase. A film that is stylized like others from this region, but makes a difference in the impact that it achieves – it goes beyond an ethnographic movie and tells us a universal story, which when set against the daunting Carpathians, becomes a devastating and magnificent poetry. Time very very well spent.