yvesmillou

This minor Shammi Kapoor movie is a collection of charming love scenes and silly humoristic scenes where Nutan shines, Shammi scowls and Johnny Walker almost steals their show. It's probably difficult for today's audiences to watch until the end, but if you value all the efforts in terms of sets, dances and songs, and let yourself carried away by former Bollywood extravaganza, it's worth the time! One might say that everything is false in this fun flick; for example, Shammi's on a horse at one stage, and I think I've never seen anyone so unnaturally performing the horse-rider: but he's doing it so badly that I told myself, no, he must be clowning it! To say the truth, I'm not he was, but I like to believe in the possibility, at least! That's it, if Johnny Walker is the happy clown, he's the sad clown!

Absolutely excellent. The hubris of petty officers, the crisis and tension coming from lust and gratuitous violence, the horrifying banality of colonialism, the abuse and victimization of women: all these elements combine to create a tragedy which the Greeks would not have disavowed. We are the transfixed witnesses of a horrendous, and at the same time, magnificent process: the price of a woman's virtue depends on how much it costs for the community. Even feminine solidarity crumbles when submitted to enough masculine pressure… And yet, does it? The fantastic last scene of the film, when everything seemed lost, shows that women have stupendous resources that make one realize the strength of a resistance in which women take part, and I am reminded of the British resistance to Germany during World War 2, when the wives and mothers of soldiers took part in the war effort, and replaced them in the factories and mills of the besieged island. Hurray for women's valor!

Admirable and moving, "I am Alive" by Sudhir Mishra is excellently served by inspired actors (Deepti Naval leading the crew), filmed with tact and reserve, and filled with emotion and realism. It tells the story of Beena, a young woman married to an unwilling husband who deserts the house and leaves her to her own resources, thus forcing her to bear the responsibilities that he could not shoulder. It is a sober comment on men's weakness and womanly strength. But this strength is simply not recognized, rather is is exploited to sustain a profoundly unjust social system. All in all the film is a very subtle depiction of the hardships of women in contemporary India. And highly entertaining in spite of the serious subject. One can perhaps regret the softening of the story provided by the constant interventions of Beena's dead father (as a sort of spiritual guide), but it's true that what happens to her is so hard that perhaps this technique is justified.