The Magna Carta Joke

From about the age of 10, I could remember that the historic signing of the Magna Carta happened in the year 1215. How? Thanks to this joke which I read in Reader's Digest:

A tourist guide is with a group of visitors at Runnymede, where the Magna Carta was signed. He tells them: "this is where the Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, was signed in 1215.

One visitor looks at his watch and remarks: "Damn, we just missed it by about an hour, then".

Glengarry Glen Ross & Frost/Nixon

By coincidence, the last two movies that I saw were both adapted from plays. Both films were highly spoken of, but both didn't satisfy me entirely.

Glengarry Glen Ross is (roughly) 24 hours in the lives of four real estate salesmen whose already tough professional existences become threatened by a sales contest that will result in half of them being fired. How this drives them in different ways is the plot. It takes very little time for desperation, capitulation, changes in fortune, and even crime to show up.

This is a story told using a firehose of dialogues and reaction. The opening acting credits spill over with a massive overdose of acting prowess which help translate this to screen. Jack Lemmon in particular is put through the blender. Sometimes, I wonder if its worth seeing even fictional characters stripped down to their basic forms, bereft of any respect.

However, the film never shrugs off its dramatic origins, and is infuriatingly static in location. The atmospheric stuffiness caused by the rain is both useful and distracting. The high profanity rate may put some off (Wikipedia notes that the film was jokingly titled "Death of a F***in' Salesman" :-)).

Recently, a memo written by David Mamet (the playwright and screenwriter for this movie) has been doing the rounds (and reached me thanks to Sud). An interesting viewpoint on the construction of a dramatic piece of writing, it finally made me get hold of Glengarry Glen Ross, probably his most famous work.

Frost/Nixon is a peeling away of a different kind - of one of the most controversial politicians of the last 40 years. Richard Nixon, a tricky customer of the highest order, disappeared into Air Force One after a defiant wave that left many Americans annoyed. Through a conjunction of commerce and contrivance, British TV presenter David Frost (perhaps only seen on Indian TV as the host of The Guinness Book of World Records once upon a time, and now suitably snow-haired and knighted) interviewed the man who never showed any regret for the Watergate Affair.

The movie prefers to focus on the personalities of the two 'adversaries' rather than treat it as the cross-examination it supposedly was. Frost comes across as a pop-presenter desperately wanting to be taken seriously, while Nixon is a lumbering old man whose self-inflicted guilt weighs down his shoulders. Therein lie the problems with an otherwise engaging movie about just a bunch of interviews.

My own perception of Nixon, even post-Watergate, was of a man who never grew out of being a canny politician who knew that people were out to get him. Towards the end, Frank Langella (playing Nixon), with his excessively deep rendition of the Nixon baritone, reminded me of Martin Landau's portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood - a once-great performer who had finally accepted it was all over. Michael Sheen's Frost is that of a lightweight who has to be taught how to control his intellectually superior interviewee, which is at odds with whatever little I have seen of the real David Frost. Perhaps years of television imaging has permanently and irreparably imprinted their respective brands inside my head!

Wikipedia and some clips of the actual interviews online remind us to view the movie as a piece of creative content that may not entirely coincide with reality. But there is much in the movie to watch. A favourite moment was when Nixon tells Frost that given the need of politicians to be liked by people, it would have made more sense for Frost to have been the politican. Of course, Michael Sheen - the man who seems to glide with ridiculous ease into parts calling for a charming Englishman in crisis - played slick Tony Blair in The Queen. Tony Blair, who was everything Nixon wasn't, and ironically, found himself in a similar sort of pickle at the end of his career at the top.

Howzzat? - modes of dismissal in Mughalese

The film "Jodhaa Akbar" clears up a mystery you didn't even know existed, which goes as follows: if the Urdu phrase for dismissing your inferiors from your presence is "takhliyaa", what is the Hindi equivalent?

The answer, as practised by the likes of Suhasini Mulay in the film, is "ekaant" - a fact confirmed by my trusted Urdu dictionary which similarly defines the Urdu "takhliyaa" in English as "solitude". Perhaps it was the stentorian effect of Prithviraj Kapoor that had led me to believe "takhliyaa" was an active verb - literally, a royal "get out!". "ekaant" sounds extremely PC in comparison, and not what you want in your quiver as "ma badaulat".

Now that a sporting allusion was introduced in the title of this post, one also wonders whether the top-ranking Mughals, users of elegant languages like Persian and Urdu that they were, ever asked people to eff off. "takhliyaa, battamiiz!" should do nicely, methinks.

Marhabaa to the music of Jodha

Marhaba to the music of Jodha

Well, almost. They are taking their time, but the end is nigh. After bouts of helplessness, news is that the music of Jodhaa Akbar is likely to be at hand within the next seven days.

Three songs are playing on TV and radio spots, of which the radio versions, being almost full-length, have found their way online. "Marhaba" a.k.a "Azeem-o-shaan" is a regal and martial track blended with a melodic strain with interesting rhythm changes; Jashn-e-Bahaara is extremely dulcet as well as being simple; the most recent being Khwaja, which sounds like a trademark qawwali. All in all, has the makings of classic ARR. We'll know soon.

Coming back to the film itself, not completely sure about how the film's story is going to pan out (it looks to be sumptuously shot). I fear a "Rising" effect here: Akbar being made out to be this pan-Indian hero who battles for the sake of "Hindostaan". Akbar is one of my favourite historical characters, but from what I've read about him, I don't think he had an India-centric outlook, especially while consolidating power. The idea of "India" must surely have been a nebulous concept then (it seemed to have been so until the late 1800s, didn't it?) more akin to the idea of "Europe". Add to that the immense insecurity caused by Humayun's loss, Akbar's early ascension, the intrigues of the Lodhis, Hemu, and later the Rajputs. You really expect a young Akbar to say: "hum hindostaan ko galat haato.n me.n nahii.n jaane de.nge?" For that matter, some accounts I've read make Akbar out to be a squat, slightly ugly man with a mole on his face - a far cry from the outlines of a Hrithik.

Anyway, this is what is perhaps called artistic licence. At any rate, I'll treat Haidar Ali's (some of us may remember him from serials such as Circus and most recently from "Khoya Khoya Chand") story as a work of art rather than as historical document. However, I'm sure there'll be a few rumbles as the film's release approaches. Anyway, am mainly interested in the music, and the film itself is secondary!

Music Update: 11 Jan
Track listing is available here (flash content to be navigated, sadly). In addition to the three vocal tracks mentioned above (voices: a large-sized chorus, Javed Ali, A.R.Rahman respectively), there's a duet called "in lamho.n ke daaman me.n" (Sonu Nigam and Madhushree) and "mana mohanaa" (Bela Shende). Two instrumentals complete the lineup, a flute version of the qawwali and more interestingly, an oboe version of "jashn-e-baharaa". Do not know of any instrumental tracks in Indian albums to feature a solo oboe, so looking out for that one.

Of affairs past

As I never tire of saying, I belong to the TV generation. The TV was my centre of gravity, its centripetal force always sucking me back and suckling my focus. As I heard someone say, if there was a fire, I would first go looking for the TV. If you've seen Raghu "Romeo" protect his set from the rains, you'll know what I mean.

However, some TV serials are best left locked in the nostalgia chest. Releasing them into the open can lead to immense dismay. Especially, when old DD favourites are making their way back. We get teary-eyed at the thought of them, but sometimes when we watch them, the nose crinkles automatically.

Happily, this fate escapes Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi: playing on Star Plus these days, the sitcom that probably was the first to introduce canned laughter to our screens still retains its charm. This Kundan Shah and co. series had some excellent actors like Shafi Inamdar, Swaroop Sampat, Rakesh Bedi, and Vijay Kashyap, not to forget the clever hook of Satish Shah playing a new role in every episode. I don't know how the old Karamchand would have stood up to post-modern scrutiny, but the new visitations of the carrot-chomping sleuth are quite ghastly.

The early days of Star Plus showed us a lot of classic sitcom fare from the US and Britain. The Yes Minister series is airing on The History channel these days, while The Wonder Years and Doogie Howser M.D. appear on Zee Cafe.

While on the subject, read George's evocative post on catching reruns of The Wonder Years on telly.

A list of DD serials from the 80s (link via Salil)

Go.ndyaa parat aalaa

The Indian Express reports that the riveting 22 June, 1897 is marking "25 years" (see note 2), and the occasion is being marked in many a small way. I remember watching the film as a child, and was completely fascinated by the story, the acting and the narration. Infrequent repeat viewings have confirmed its status as a classic, and as the makers Nachiket and Jayoo Patwardhan mention in the news article, it was a uniquely dispassionate look at what is supposed to be the 1st assassination of a British officer in India.

The story is probably not well known outside Maharashtra, so a small summary is in order. In 1897, Poona is in the midst of an outbreak of plague, and the resulting insensitive actions by the British government causes extreme anger among the local residents. The Chapekar brothers, incensed by their actions, decide to assassinate Commissioner Rand. Their spiritual mentor is Bal Gangadhar Tilak (interestingly, the situation uncannily echoes the question of whether and to what extent Savarkar was involved in the Gandhi assassination exactly 50 years before). The deed done, the rest of the story deals with their attempts to evade arrest which is unsuccessful because of the Dravid brothers and subsequent hanging. This happened on University/Ganeshkhind Road, now an arterial road in the city and the spot (10 minutes from my home) is marked by a small memorial.

The film boasts of some wonderful acting by Sadashiv Amrapurkar as Tilak, and recognisably, Ravindra Mankani (whom I later came to know was an alumnus of COEP) as a younger Chapekar. Only today did I realise the contributions of Vijay Tendulkar and Shankar Nag as well. The only online notice of the VCD I could find is in this eBay extract and you would do well to take a look at the movie.

Notes:
1. The title of this post means "Go.ndyaa is back", a reference to the codephrase employed during the murder.
2. The timing of this news article is a little suspect for if the movie was made in 1979, it would be either 26 or 27 years old and not 25. Perhaps this has more to do with the producers of the VCD finding publicity obliquely.