The url has english subtitles for thoses who like me, do not understand hindi/urdu.
the beauty of ray's movies, is that he can project a universe of values and truths, in the portrait of a village event.
the situation here is 1856 avadh (lucknow) state, a british protectorate. the eve of the sepoy mutiny or first indian war of independence, based on your view. no matter what, it is a fantastic movie.
the story is told in two levels, and both display the decadence of a ruling class, unfit to rule. on one hand, you have two nobles, muslim aristocracy, blind to their wife's needs for sex, blind to the world outside, and revelling, in their own small world, after discovering the pleasures of playing chess. an addiction, i can understand, and know of friends who felt the same, about the game (anyone from mylapore madras of 1950s thru 70s would know of ramani press).
on the other side, you have the nawab of avadh, basically an art loving womanizing devout muslim monarch, without a head for good administration or a heart to fight. (played well by late amjad khan).
reminded me of bo-adbil, the last ruler of granada, who loved his city so much, that he would rather abdicate, than fight street to street and see the destruction. except here, abdil's mother mocked him, words etched, hard and cold and cruel, for posterity, 'Thou dost weep like a woman for what thou couldst not defend as a man'...
bo-abdil's farewell to granada
the actor who steals the show, is richard attenborough, as the resident british agent. a man with a conscience, still under the power of his london masters, and an enforcer of the company directives, unreasonable it may appear to him. the first indian movie, where i have seen, colonial english officers being portrayed as humans (i have seen only lagaan, madarasa pattinam, veera pandia katta bomman) with a heart, conscience and doubts.
saeed jaffrey and (late) sanjiv kumar steal the show as the two decadent noblemen, addicted to chess, and having no heart to fight. nor support the nawab, should he decide to fight.
the fait accompli of inevitable white man rule for a couple of centuries over a united (the geographical extent) india, is evidenced, in the attitudes, and power structure, so subtly displayed by satyajit ray.
there is a beautiful dance scene played before the nawab - i have seen the bharatanataym equivalent - reminded me of dear raji here - of baby krishna stealing butter and eating it...the danceuse was dressed up in the modest islamic style, but the bhaavams were purely hindu.
the movie is slow moving. there is no action, but a lot of depth. like all other satyajit ray movies. you can find the full movie in youtube. the url given here, is in parts, but it has english subtitles, and the parts switch automatically.
hope atleast one other reader enjoys this as much as i did.
[video=youtube;6zCsn-he5Kk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zCsn-he5Kk&list=PLD89ACF8890DD0C64[/video]
as a post script i am wont to say this. i thought about it being misunderstood, but nevertheless decided to publish it.
i realized, that i viewed this movie as a tamilian. so to me, the protoganists here, the english and the avadh nawabi, were both alien. of the two, i consider the english better, only because, the english, never destroyed any of our temples or monuments. on the contrary, had it not been for the english enlightened administrators, the archeology of ancient india or tamils would not have come to light.
that tamil scholars like caldwell or beschi, incited caste differences, and eventually converted millions, is but another story but these were not the agents of the commercial minded east india company or the british crown.
throughout, my young years in india, during congress rule, tamilians used to remember fondly, about the fairness of british rule and british adminstrators. this was before the dravidian revolution. i think, the corruption of our adminstration began, the minute after midnight august 15, 1947...all initiated by the மேட்டுக்குடி folks, to which, almost all of us belong...
the beauty of ray's movies, is that he can project a universe of values and truths, in the portrait of a village event.
the situation here is 1856 avadh (lucknow) state, a british protectorate. the eve of the sepoy mutiny or first indian war of independence, based on your view. no matter what, it is a fantastic movie.
the story is told in two levels, and both display the decadence of a ruling class, unfit to rule. on one hand, you have two nobles, muslim aristocracy, blind to their wife's needs for sex, blind to the world outside, and revelling, in their own small world, after discovering the pleasures of playing chess. an addiction, i can understand, and know of friends who felt the same, about the game (anyone from mylapore madras of 1950s thru 70s would know of ramani press).
on the other side, you have the nawab of avadh, basically an art loving womanizing devout muslim monarch, without a head for good administration or a heart to fight. (played well by late amjad khan).
reminded me of bo-adbil, the last ruler of granada, who loved his city so much, that he would rather abdicate, than fight street to street and see the destruction. except here, abdil's mother mocked him, words etched, hard and cold and cruel, for posterity, 'Thou dost weep like a woman for what thou couldst not defend as a man'...
bo-abdil's farewell to granada
the actor who steals the show, is richard attenborough, as the resident british agent. a man with a conscience, still under the power of his london masters, and an enforcer of the company directives, unreasonable it may appear to him. the first indian movie, where i have seen, colonial english officers being portrayed as humans (i have seen only lagaan, madarasa pattinam, veera pandia katta bomman) with a heart, conscience and doubts.
saeed jaffrey and (late) sanjiv kumar steal the show as the two decadent noblemen, addicted to chess, and having no heart to fight. nor support the nawab, should he decide to fight.
the fait accompli of inevitable white man rule for a couple of centuries over a united (the geographical extent) india, is evidenced, in the attitudes, and power structure, so subtly displayed by satyajit ray.
there is a beautiful dance scene played before the nawab - i have seen the bharatanataym equivalent - reminded me of dear raji here - of baby krishna stealing butter and eating it...the danceuse was dressed up in the modest islamic style, but the bhaavams were purely hindu.
the movie is slow moving. there is no action, but a lot of depth. like all other satyajit ray movies. you can find the full movie in youtube. the url given here, is in parts, but it has english subtitles, and the parts switch automatically.
hope atleast one other reader enjoys this as much as i did.
[video=youtube;6zCsn-he5Kk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zCsn-he5Kk&list=PLD89ACF8890DD0C64[/video]
as a post script i am wont to say this. i thought about it being misunderstood, but nevertheless decided to publish it.
i realized, that i viewed this movie as a tamilian. so to me, the protoganists here, the english and the avadh nawabi, were both alien. of the two, i consider the english better, only because, the english, never destroyed any of our temples or monuments. on the contrary, had it not been for the english enlightened administrators, the archeology of ancient india or tamils would not have come to light.
that tamil scholars like caldwell or beschi, incited caste differences, and eventually converted millions, is but another story
but these were not the agents of the commercial minded east india company or the british crown.throughout, my young years in india, during congress rule, tamilians used to remember fondly, about the fairness of british rule and british adminstrators. this was before the dravidian revolution. i think, the corruption of our adminstration began, the minute after midnight august 15, 1947...all initiated by the மேட்டுக்குடி folks, to which, almost all of us belong...
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