Gulabi Talkies – pure, reassuring cinema
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Gulabi Talkies, a film in Kannada with English subtitles is an important film recommended for anyone who appreciates cinema in its pure form. Another masterstroke from Girish Kasaravalli, the film is a telling depiction of Gulabi, an independent mid-wife who lives by her choices and it is in her context that the director paints a larger and powerfully poignant portrayal of coastal life in an early nineties India.
Some Background Bakwaas
Wednesday
1130 AM
CALL FROM THE OFFICE
“Shit, meeting at 1 PM!”
“See if you can make well before time, as it might rain soon”
“Ya sure, I was anyways half ready”
OK, let’s work it this way. Somehow finish everything up and try and catch the Gulabi Talkies film for the evening show at 7:30. Hmmm. Anyways who is gonna turn up for it. Will get the tickets even if I land up 5-10 mins aage peechhe.
5:30 PM Office
REGULAR OFFICE SHIT
Hmmm. Let’s see. It’s still possible. But do you actually want to watch it. Kannada film. In a theater. Ya. But it has English subtitles. ..Let’s see. We got one more hour to leave. Looks possible.
6:30 PM
REGULAR OFFICE SHIT, ONLY WORSE, HIT THE ROOF TYPES
Wtf man! Looks like I am not destined for good cinema. Or vice versa. Whatever man. I am losing it. First I make up my mind and take the divine decision to do something good for the love of mankind. Then this shit.
6:55 PM
OUTSIDE, STREET. A LONG LANE OF AUTOS.
“Boss, Forum”
‘AAGE CHAL BEY’ REACTIONS
“Boss, please. Urgent hai. “
(Say you wanna watch a Kannada film, bitch!)
“Boss…”
(No man, nahi hota, marwaayega kya)
ONE AUTO PULLS OUT
To-be auto companion chick to me: I am in a hurry. Do you mind sharing a ride to FORUM?
(Whatever man, life is pulling an Aamir on me)
TICKET WINDOW
GULABI TALKIES: SOLD OUT
“wtf!”
“wtf!”
“wtf!”
“you gotta be kidding me!”
“Boss, one GULABI TALKIES”
“No tickets(upar SOLD OUT kya photo kichaane ke liye likha hai, chutiye!, Neeraj Vohra style)
“Try karo na boss”
“Koi cricket match hai jo try karoon!”
“Hmmm”
(WTF man, I told you, never underestimate good cinema. Now see what happened. Actually you deserve this! Ya right. Last week you turned up for Phoonk and the same shit happened. Good cinema anyone?)
DIVINE INTERVENTION DAWNS UPON COUNTER GUY
“How many tickets you want?”
“One only(isko kya mere saath baaraat khadi dikhayi de rahi hai!)”
“OK, we have one ticket left”
“Good”
The Film
GULABI TALKIES
Cast: Umashri, MD Pallavi
Direction: Girish Kasaravalli
Production: Basanth kumar Patil
Music: Isac Thomas Kottukapall
Based on the book by Vaidehi
Gulabi Talkies and Other Stories
Noted Kannada writer Vaidehi is hailed by critics and readers alike for her evocative portrayal of the inner world of women. She writes with deep compassion and understanding about women who live amidst sorrow and poverty but somehow find the strength to go on living. She focuses on the ordinariness of their lives, writing about the midwife turned gatekeeper at the town’s new cinema, the half-crazed woman who thinks she’s pregnant, the compulsions of an honest but poor man’s wife, or the upheaval caused when a girl confesses to her neighbour that she wants to be a prostitute. The stories, which are full of wry humour and acute social description, celebrate the joyous fact that ‘A wave once created only grows bigger and bigger; it can never recede’.
In this collection of twenty stories, the translators capture the subtle nuances of Vaidehi’s stories and their multiple ambiguities, bringing her to a wider readership.
When I heard of this film, two words sprung in my mind: GIRISH KASARAVALLI. The guy who makes films mirror life. A supercool poster, so unappealing in its appeal(pity I can’t find it anywhere) added to the reasons to catch it. I had seen Dweepa in the Water Festival last year and was bowled over by its visual style.
Dweepa was my first foray into Kannada cinema, and considering it was my 3rd year in Bangalore when I saw it, I was glad about it. I probably would talk about the film some other time, but can’t help mentioning its truly well-deserved acclaim. If you love the cinema of Tarkovsky, if you dig literary-adaptations on screen, if philosophical works of art enamor you, you will revere Dweepa. Though it could be snipped easily by a good 30 minutes, the film bowls you over when it concludes in an imagery flooded with clouds over a lonely island, now lonely no more.
So I had expected the same polished approach, detailing to the core, lyrical quality of the narrative, a numbing depiction of life-as-is, and more from Gulabi Talkies.
And I am not disappointed. As the film still takes its time to settle in with all its rich themes, as the elements still linger in my mind.
The story takes place in a coastal village(Kundapura and Kasaravalli). A muslim midwife(Gulabi) loves living life in the pleasures of fried fish, bargaining in the local fish market and munch on the sweet simple pleasures of the costal life. She has but one other passion – watching films in the run down theater in the adjoining village. She takes a boat for this evening sojourn and watches the same film may be numerous times for “the film is different every time she watches it”. So true. So bloody true. And to find these thoughts echoing in a film you never thought would speak to you so starkly is elevating to say the least.
So like in any Kasaravalli film, Gulabi has a backstory. Moosa, the husband who estranged her(in an otherwise not-so-bad life in a supercool ‘jhopdi’ on the beach, ghoomo phiro machhi khaao types) is a local ‘shaana’(cunning fox) who deals in machhi-pakdo business and does all you would expect a sundry Bhandarkar oddball to do – two-timing, money-making by wrong ways and the likes. But what the film maker does rather characteristically well(with an auteur consistency) is paint his characters in the nuances of everyday life. He doesn’t really give them a reason to be grey or white. You react to them like you would react to a neighbor, aajRam kalRavan. Same for Gulabi Talkies.
You know Moosa does not come across as a nice guy when he thrashes Gulabi out of his home whatwith her love for his chunna-munna son. But you tend to dilly-dally the judgment is he is the ‘villan’. Same goes for Gulabi. OK so she is the ‘daaima’ the village needs, she doesn’t care for her ‘delivery’ duties or the larger welfare of the village fraternity or the crying mothers in heat if she is in midst of a masala potboiler film(a brilliant sequence which underlines Gulabi’s passion with such subtlety one almost feels bowing down to the maker in his masterstrokes of poignance, also seen in the subtle framing of Gulabi’s house whatwith the window’s frame juxtaposed against the more apparent ‘frame’ of the TV screen), but she is, at the end of it all, Gulabi, in all her existential glory and supple character.
It also brings another prominent quality of his films to the fore – great acting. You would first wonder everyone is acting, then you would feel at times they are too serious at their jobs, at their lives, then soon the thought would disappear miraculously as you prod deeper in their lives through Kasaravalli’s cinematic eyes.
Music – I could only draw a parallel to European cinema. Single influential themes played through the film highlighting the stark realism.
Camera- simple yet makes the best possible use of the available options. Check out the evening somber played against the backwaters, or the vast coastal landscape giving way to the constricted view from the (artificial) satellite antenna, a subtle dig at the inherent but unavoidable ‘conflict’ of the times. Or the impending danger of the unidentified ‘sound’ at the shore only pronounced with panoramic frames of the falling night against the turbulent sea. I had loved the framing of water in Dweepa and Gulabi Talkies only adds to the pleasure of absorbing his cinema through all these levels. He seems to be particularly inclined towards capturing the glitter on a human face as it goes through the everyday ups and downs, the old ladies with hope without a reason, the silent fishermen quietly going about their daily jobs, the fish-seller women in the market, the indifferent viewers in the cinema theater, the many mesmerized first-time viewers of television in the no-man’s village, or the ever-brilliant protagonist. These are just some of the things I took back from the film.
When there is so many devices at play along with a seamless narrative, well respecting the silences of a nothing-happens life, its hard to react to one aspect at a time. You would sometimes marvel at the almost unpersuasive storytelling, or think about the characters(the eloping Hindu girl for one) and their choices and aftermaths, or try and predict what could go wrong with their lives, or connect the many open threads thrown at you(like the one involving Musa and his first wife and kid, or the Hindu family, or the Muslim family-head who has lost all hopes of survival in a threat-to-minorities-in-troubled-times village and wants to run away for good or even the nobody-gundas who take the task of throwing Gulabi’s house in tatters) or simply relate the film and its significance and connection with the times we live in.
And it is this very context that takes the film way ahead of its possibilities. We see the backdrop of Kargill war(expert handling of a political overtone, macro, micro etc.), and the beginning of communal tensions in a traditionally peaceful countryside, we see trade sabotages taking place, we see technology slowly making its presence felt in the never thought-of-before contexts(pages can be written on how the film takes a keyhole view at television drama), we see a women leaving all by herself at peace with her choices yet oscillating between the thoughts of gaining her not-anymore-husband through good food and sexual returns and her fascination for his son who always ignores her except for Bangdi fish persuasions. So many themes, so many stories, and all so real, seems too much for cinema. The light banter of the fisherwomen that points at the larger picture that establishes and stand on its feet at a brilliant final zoom out – two old ladies gaping mad-eyed at a blank TV screen in a post-apocalyptic mood, a cat sitting on the TV screen in a house uprooted of its past and human belongings, and we slowly zoom-out into the mind-numbing final lines(to a similar effect)…
“In early nineties, government gave license to foreign companies for deep sea fishing. At the same time, many coastal inhabitants bought millions of TV sets.”
A timeless film.
Awards : 10th OSEAN’s Cinefan
Tags: World Cinema
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Brilliant write-up Tushy..have heard so much about it..the rediff has given it a 5-star…wow…
Wish i would be able to see it soon, somewhere, somehow
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Here is one film maker who unwaveringly makes one gem after another – no compromise on quality and no certainty of reception – his films always work – for they are focussed at people. I wish I could see it in theatre soon!!
Exciting Write up Tushaar!!!
Glad to know that kannada film world’s creativity is still alive and kicking..
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Thanks, Tushar for a wonderful write-up on Gulabi Talkies. Girish Kasaravalli is one Kannada director, who’s been giving such good movies so consistently. His last movie “Nayi Neralu” (Shadow of the dog) also won many awards. I’m glad to know that Reliance’s Big Films is venturing into Kannada with Girish K’s movies. Unfortunately, I’ve watched only two of his movies “Tabarana Kathe”[Chaaru Hassan won National Award for playing Tabara] and “Dweepa” which was produced by the late actress Soundarya. Hope to catch Gulabi Talkies soon.
~Vivek H
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This write-up doesnt talk about the film per se but
about Girish’s style of film-making and trying to understand his medium of expression through this film.
I liked it. It kind of makes me want to see GK’s films and understand them myself. Tushar, your write-up just opened the doors into this world. Thanks.
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“…take the divine decision to do something good for the love of mankind. ..”? Funniest sentence of all. Made me laugh.
You did that for urself. Mankind ka funda kahaan se aa gaya….
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@ Om, thanks man. where there is a will…
@Jaiganesh, I would certainly like to assume that I have done my job if you liked it! More power to Kannada cinema and more power to such films.
@Vick, Thanks a lot. I am looking forward to catch more of his films.
@Arthi V, Thanks. I thought I had written about the film but never mind if you think otherwise. As for the mankind thing, there is a reason why I have tagged it ‘background bakwaas’.
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Dweepa is preety old nahin?
its still running the circuit? or was a kinda retrospective of sorts tushi?
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This is Girish’s best in recent times. Very earthy and rooted. Got some great lines. Umashree’s performance is feisty. The coastal Karntaka landscape is very well captured. This one is a genuinely entertaining film, not arty or anything like that.
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@DPac, haan re. 2001 ka film tha. but hum to late risers hain :-) it was showcased last year in the Water fest along with Bara(MS Sathyu).
@Utkal, very true about it not compromising on the entertainment value. It was truly engrossing like you said.
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caught the movie on monday..an experience..umashree was brilliant..an actress wasted all these years mouthing cheap dialogues for some B grade movies
@DPac: Dweepa is out on cd..you should get it easily in b’lore..its top drawer with some amazing acting by soundarya..you can almost feel the rain and the water as you walk out after the movie
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It bagged Best Indian movie award @ the 10th Osian’s Cinefan festival (one more addition to GK’s long list of awards) and Umashri got Best Actress award for her portrayal of Gulabi.
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Nice film, watched it on recommendation of a colleague.
Trust me, I thanked him a million times for making me watch it.
Fantastic stuff!
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Good news for the film guys, the film is playing for another week in PVR Bangalore as per the updated schedule.
And yes, I forgot to cover few aspects – The Mystery of Sulaiman, The symbolism of the TV screen as opposed to the theater Gulabi frequented, Fish(!), The game of cards, the songs and films on TV(I wish someone who is versed with the Kannada cinema shares his/her views on that and if it is correct as per the early 90’s setting) etc.
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and this is not the first film of GK where the woman is left on her own by her husband.. that is something common between haseena (a film that got tara her first national award) and this one. both muslim woman characters. He has shot more than a trilogy when it comes to covering women!!
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I watched this film yesterday. and it was simply a masterpiece. I enjoyed the langauge also, becasue it is similar to what i speak at home. Amazing way of story telling Both by the author and director. Umashree simply is the best.
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