Oye Lucky Oye Oye and a beginner’s guide to Post modernism

V.P. Jaiganesh   | Review | July 10, 2009 at 3:21 am

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I am the type who simply skips pages in the weblog or skip channels if someone starts discussing modernism and post modernism. I have always held a strong notion that keeping such thoughts in mind were like Rahul Dravid playing an aggressive swipe in the non strikers end while sachin is smashing sixers and boundaries on the other side. They are just concepts that a mind would indulge when it subdues its instinct and intellectualizes everything associated with art in the absence of connection and inspiration (not ‘that’ kinda inspiration). However when I find myself tied to a seat and have no option to listen to stuff about modernism and post modernism, it is hard not to be curious and understand a little bit of it. So with a baby’s knowledge of Post modernism and modernism , derived totally from that ’session’, it is not very surprising to know that I applied that miniscule knowledge in thinking about a recently watched movie. The guinea pig in this case happened to be Dibakar Banerjee’s ‘Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’. The rest of the post is a complete offense to bifocal spectacle wearing professors who have made their life out of teaching such lofty terms as ‘modernism’ and ‘post modernism’. So if you are one such person , please ignore this post for the sake of your blood pressure. Rest of the folks enjoy reading on and share my bliss on the new found ‘knowledge’!!

Forgetting what the wiki and other big boldtext books say, my friend from Chicago who taught me postmodernism in 20 minutes says thus:
Modernism : If an art form rejects what has been going on since ages and comes up with something hitherto unseen and unrelated in any way to the past, it is modern. There is a distinct element of hate towards anything that is tied with the ‘golden past’ and its first focus is on the utilitarian value than elegance. The art films of 70s and 80s popped into my mind immediately – message over other decorative elements like song, dance, comedy etc.,

Post modernism: If an art form proposes a selective union of the past and the modernist present and tries to be reflective and relevant to the period it is set in, then it is regarded as post modern. There is an ‘affectionate’ gaze on the past styles, but the foundation and expression is still modern and retains the ‘modernist’ utilitarian basis. The new wave hindi and Thamizh films are what I recollected when this concept was thrown at me. Songs and Dance of the old is there – but it is less impromptu – more Balu Mahendraesque – they are relegated to montages rather than the forced choreographed sequences interrupting the flow. However many other little points popped in my mind – more of that  for the rest of the post.

Before I pour my ‘intellectualisms’ all over – it is almost customary to have one image in a post these days (I personally have never been a fan of it – loads the page late you see..) So please find below a poster of the movie.

Sans the modernism related crap, the plot of the movie is a touching tale of a boy who is denied the affection of a ‘father’ in his life and this denial prompts him to do things to ‘take’ other people’s things just to answer the ‘Why can’t I’s  that pop up in him. This rebel grows up to be a ’super chor’ (chor in hindi = thief in english) who is habitually blessed of being a ’shadow’ instead of a real person. The movie tells the tragic end of his efforts to become a ‘real’ person and the cost he pays, the betrayals  he faces and the disappointments he endures. The quest of Lucky to create an ‘identity’ for himself is laid out in parallel with his search of a ‘father figure’ and the director has neatly asked the same actor(Paresh Rawal) to play the ‘father figures’ Lucky seeks out in the movie – this is in reinforcement of a nuanced concept so that idiots like me can understand it ‘clearly’ . A classic case of a director laying out something subtle and reinforcing it without spoiling the taste of it by being too obvious.

The casting is a coup (cliche – cant you think of something new? – nah – I am trying to be post modern too!!) – Paresh Rawal delights by donning three roles and delights us by being different in the three and thankfuly prosthetics are minimal and therefore the resultant acting is more enjoyable. Neetu chandra as the love interest of Lucky – plays a significant role in a restrained and dignified manner. Her expressions are neat and she has couple of interesting moments – one in the restaurant scene and the other in the Kulu manali trip scene and she excels in both. Richa chaddha plays dolly – Neetu’s sister as a person initially falling for Lucky and plays out another parallel to Lucky’s troubled childhood (mirrors Lucky’s stepmom) and later on marries a canadian expat for citizenship and her portrayal is one of the more arresting and ‘realistic’ female characters in the recent times. Her character is enigmatic and her performance is enhancing the appeal to say the least. And then comes (not in the order of importance or performance) Manu Rishi who plays bangali, Lucky’s friend and partner in crime. He plays the helpless collaborator of Gogi, Lucky’s second father figure and boss in his early crime life. He brings to the screen the helplessness of his character torn between loyalty to Gogi and friendship of Lucky remarkably well. He is the shadow of lucky and somehow his portrayal reminds me of Thaizh actor janagaraj’s portrayal of Selvam(Velu bhai’s sidekick or second in command) in Maniratnam’s Nayagan. Ofcourse it would be criminal if I leave out the portrayal of Lucky by two actors – Manjot singh as Lucky the sikh boy, tormented by the dysfunctionness of his family and Abhay Deol as Lucky the man – still to grow out of the shell of Lucky the boy, whose pains taunting him throughout. The taking to life of thievery by Lucky is not shown in any sensational manner in the movie and the transition is largely facilitated by the actors themselves largely. It is really hard to bring in this continuity and Abhay accomplishes this with skill of a master actor and invitations of comparison between his portrayal as a suave thief with that of his father in the memorable ‘Yaadon ki baarath’ is inevitable and I can rest by saying that he is the one son who has done ‘Baap ka naam roshan’ (doing daddy’s name justice in english)among the younger star kids in bollywod. The biggest star is the director Dibakar whose direction captures everything from the packed interior of a punjabi home to the posh interiors of a mumbai bar and police station and literally every aspect of our society to provide a vision of our degradation soothed only by the satirical jabs that delight first and ache later on.

Coming back to the topic at hand ‘ Post modernism’ in OLLO (By now I am thinking if I have bitten off more than I can literally chew!! ), let me bring out the modernist elements that OLLO has imbibed first and then underscore the classical themes and cliches(word of the day  if this were sesame street) that it has embraced warmly.

Depiction of a  family: Typical Hindi film tradition has been always in portraying fathers and mothers in a saintly light and the strictly held notion that mother shall be a sati savitri ready to die in the feet of her husband – accepting the fate of having to co habit in the same house along side her husband’s mistress. This film starkly deviates from such cliches and in an amazing departure – hardly shows a frame where the viewer can register Lucky’s mother’s face or that of his siblings. They remain in out of focus while the points of dissonance – Lucky’s father and his mistress are in the foreground of attention. This is in total contrast to the classical indian cinema where the depiction of family is the most affectionate and filled with emotional hooks that will be used for pulls in the latter portion. Much later into the movie, two other families are shown – that of Sonal, Dolly sisters and that of Dr.Handa. The Sonal – Dolly sisters’ family is as dysfunctional as it gets, with the dominant sister being a bar dancer, who has no set idea of relationship, except to secure money and through that respect. Their mother is also shown to be a woman with no ideals of how to bring up her daughters and father is a non existent in the family. The other family is that of Dr.Handa (again played by Paresh) who appear to be a dignified Delhi upper middle class family on the exterior (Archana Puran Singh scores heavily with her all too familiar TV roles here) while deep down below they are as clever as Lucky when it comes to conning other people’s money. Modernism’s bleak view on relationships, devoid of sentimentalism, affection and cheer is shown in the way families are treated in the movie. However fear not – for the depiction is loaded with sarcasm and dark humour (am I overstating it?) that compensate for the underlying tragedy.

Remorse : Traditional Indian movies are highly moralistic in the fact that negative characters are always made to repent atleast in one point in the movie/story. The ones that do are saved, while the others are eliminated to reinstate the triumph of Good over Evil. Even the most modernist Satya had the lead character hunted down and shot to death by police. This is a trend in even hollywood movies (Neil McCauley has to return from the route to airport to face his comeuppance!). This movie goes against such a rule and shows us a bunch of characters who remain unapologetic right till the last frame. Lucky’s father never shows remorse for bringing another lady into the house and similarly all the characters sin and show no remorse. Seemingly only person who apologises is Bangali, however his apologies carry no face value as his intentions are always shown to be deceptive. The film ends with a smiling Lucky slipping into the dark of the night, escaping retribution in the hands of law and chance to redeem.

Technique : The narrative is totally non-linear and it never provides any patterns for easy deciphering. The user is never given any hints of reading the story – much of it is presented as is in the order of choice of the director and the viewer is left to form his/her opinions and notions or what is going to come next or what exactly just happened. The scene transitions are totally modern, connected intriguingly by similar objects of continuity – but no relation whatsoever. If the narrative has not already spun you into a tizzy, wait for a scene that ends with Paresh Rawal # 3 (Dr.Handa) picking up a phone and calling followed by Paresh Rawal # 2(Gogi Bhai) answering a call (from Crime Branch inspector). This is one of the most bizarre and delightful scene transitions in recent films that I have seen. The aim is constantly to use all tools (camera, editing, music) to unsettle the viewer ensuring my alertnessfor the next scene. It really cinema nouveau(Thanks thesarus) in many ways for me and the experience has been accessible even to a moron like me  (or so I think).

My verbal diarrhoea (thanks Kay Kay Menon) on modernism over, please grab your coffee and get ready for what  I felt were truly post modern aspects of OLLO..

Separation and Reunion : This movie too reinforces the long lost tradition of separation and reunion of brothers much like the classic fifties and sixties movies like Waqt. The phase where Lucky meets his brother and his family in Kulu Manali and their return trip are brief phases where minute glimpses of Lucky’s pain are brought to the surface and shown to us. Lucky for a moment ceases to be the cool thief/con man -and bares out his soul to his lover and friend – not verbally, but figuratively. In those brief moments, the long standing emotional hook of brothers finding themselves in a distant place is used effectively anchor the rest of the proceedings. This clever sleight of hand is used not to totally veer the movie towards classical style of Indian movies where the hero would be a reformed soul thereon, thankfully, it is used for showing more glimpses on the character than for any other purposes. However the presence of this concept alone is  sufficient for getting the movie certified as an example of post modern art.

Romance/Love and Lust : Lucky is a romantic to the core, but does not still tend towards fluid morals when it comes to physical relationship with other women. He might be a low life con man, lifting TVs and DVD players from people’s houses, yet would not budge in to a seductive woman’s advances. This is a reinforcement of the ‘mariyada purushottam’ Ram character strictly enforced in almost every hindi film of the classic era, where the hero is a rock when it comes to physical temptations. It is easy to be more modernistic when it comes to portrayals like Lucky, but Dibakar stops going that way in this aspect to bring more intrigue about Lucky’s character into the viewer’s mind.

Music: Though the film has no lip sync songs and hence truly modern in its treatment of music as an element of story telling, its choice of sounds are a curious amalgamation of punjabi folk and 70s style ‘Mujhe chaahiye thoda pyaar’ (I want a little love) and some rap bits. The effect of the 70s style song at crucial junctures, though sounds funny, also underscores the irony of Lucky’s life devoid of love from his family. The fusion of music of old times of bollywood in a modern context is truly a post modern trick!!

Time Reference: A work of post modern art must imbibe and reflect the current ethos and ambience in it in some way. OLLO does this in an impeccable style by including sudden narrative of the TV anchor of a crime program . This is done not as a shot of a TV screen with the sensational anchor’s performance, but as an inline insert into the frame of reference. This helps in two ways, one as a reference to reality TV dominated lives of our present era and as a cool tool to undeline the sensationalism and uber cool mojo of the super thief Lucky.

If you are reading this paragraph skipping the big thesis written to kill boredom, thinking you will find my final word on OLLO, you are very smart. My overall opinion in very concise english  is OLLO is a very significant movie in the New Hindi cinema and it is a very essential crest in the new wave that we are experiencing right now. Hats off to Dibakar and Abhay and team for providing a very rich movie breaking stereotypes wherever possible while keeping the whole movie a decent one. As far as my tryst with post modernism is concerned, I shall strive hard to forget this new knowledge by watching some classics that I have picked up from the library. Till then waiting eagerly to join the Sankat morcha…

Tags: Abhay Deol, Dibakar Banerjee, Neetu Chandra, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Paresh Rawal

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