Paraque V'a : Man can live like a machine but what to do with mind?
Since long, loneliness of a character has been alluring many filmmakers around the world. Mexican director Enrique Rivero also has based his debut film on the subject of effect of lonely and monotonous way of living of a person on his over all personality and outlook in general.
Human mind hardly remains in static condition. Left in solitude for long to live a repetitive life, chances are high that an ordinary person’s dark side of mind will become active and only spiritually oriented people have guts, desire and wisdom to defeat the attack of dark shades else most of the time a lonely man starts developing many strange habits.
It happens so many times that he starts treating his confined world as the only comfortable and possible world and outside of his limited world he feels very uncomfortable.
For sure solitude changes a man. This change can lead in a positive direction or a negative one but it brings a big change in a person that much is sure. A man can develop any kind of theory while living a lonely life inside a confined boundary.
Paraque Via has been gaining the popularity as new face of Mexican cinema and it has already won some awards at film festivals.
Camera can be used to create the same impact of the feelings on audience also with which the main character is passing through and 28 years old Enrique Rivero proves this through his first film.
If his central character Beto is doing his daily works in a mechanized manner then this boredom reaches to audience also. Camera is used in such a way and content is given such a treatment that mood of the central character starts affecting the audience also in similar manner.
Cinema can be this also!!!!!
Paraque Via shows that fear of survival can over shadow all other emotions like respect, love, admiration and obligation etc.
Love and hate resides just opposite to each other but fear is one such emotion that can change love into the hate.
The feeling that a person “X” is living at the mercy of some other person “Y” and when some of the actions of “Y” can incraese the intensity of fear inside “X” where he is suffering day in and day out how would he survive if present circumstances are chnaged then “X” can develop feelings of hatred also towards “Y” and these feelings though may not be visible on surface but they can blast like a bomb inside the mind of “X” and this explosion may vanish his control over his positive thinking ability and he can go for extremely negative doing.
Less than 90 minutes long Paraque Via is able to show case complex emotions or emotionless behaviour of a lonely man, who though meets oocasionally with few people, who could be counted on fingertips, who has no room for other living humanbeings in his heart and personal world and who has no real connection with any living human being.
He has become so addicted to his monotonous life style that his biggest fear has become not to lose this mechanized way of living. He is addicted to a house. its emptiness and absence of human being within that space.
Beto, the central character, is working as a caretaker of a luxurious house and he has been doing this job for many years.
Beto has been turned into the machine. He gets up daily at same time after hearing the alarm. He follows his daily chores in a routine manner. Every day he finishes the jobs like cleaning the house and cutting the grass of the lawn, in a similar manner. Though he is working like a machine but still he is a human being and he has a mind which is bound to be affected by this seclusion and repetitive life.
Morning, day time, evening and night nothing creates any different feeling inside him and he is living with same expression on his face all the time. Nothing excites him. Nothing allures him. Nothing binds him except his desire to maintain a status quo in his present life.
Once in a while he meets with hawkers on the street just outside the house but only when its entirely necessary for him and he can not avoid it.
The owner of the house and his employer also visits him sometime and as she wants to sell the house, some customers also come to see the house.
Beto has been living in this house for so long that he has started fearing what would he do if this house is sold? This fear affects his psychology and inside he wishes that this house is never sold.
Though he is working as a servant there in the house but he lives with full freedom there and he has made a deeper connection with his life style and secluded life inside that confined space.
He is not the owner of the house but he is the sole owner of that secluded world where he lives alone in that big house in his own small room.
He watches TV also and we find him watching violent films. What one sees continuously during his solitude, does that change his thinking ability also? Can a man accept or imbibe anything shown on TV because he has made a connection with TV as TV remains the only source through which he sees things about world and this is the only art form with which he is connected as an audience.
His employer thinks about him and tries to find out a different job for him. She once takes him out in market and we find that Beto is unable to bear the pressure of seeing people in the outside world. He is highly uncomfortable in a world existing outside the boundaries of that luxurious house.
Once when his employer suggests Beto to look for someone with whom he can live, he says that its not possible because he is a bit weird person and he can not live with anyone. And he enjoys living alone.
Though a lady often visits him and when she greets him at main entrance he always says, “Hi beautiful”. Even his meetings and conversation with this woman have become part of routine.
She comes, he makes love to her and she goes away. In between he has minimum possible conversation with her. Hardly one or two sentences he says to her, everytime she comes to meet him.
He has no extra interest in sex also. Once he denies to have any physical contact with the woman, who is lying naked in his bed, saying that he had eaten a lot and he could not do this.
His known woman is caught by police and strange Beto spends his savings to make her free from the prison and brings her to the house. She is under obligation and thinks he has done it because he has some feelings towards her but he manages everything in a cold manner and does not show any interest in her while she is standing naked and inviting him.
He has no feelings of attachment with any living human being. But at same time he is attached to the security factor of living in this spacious house. This fear that soon this house will be sold and he will have to face the real world outside keeps him worried.
He makes a visit outside and he watches the concrete jungle of countless houses of the city from a height.
Each passing moment his fear grows on him and he comes completely under the grip of this fear.
Is it his solitude behind his strange decision to counter this fear in a particularly shocking manner?
or he has really become an emotionless person?
or he really has become a weird person?
or all the factors are responsible behind his unpredictable but hugely shocking behaviour?
Climax and pre-climax scenes simply shake the audience and leave in a thinking mode.
After watching it, one may be little more alert towards the people living entirely secluded life. They can have bit more sympathy towards the people doing monotonous jobs for earning livelihood.
Film travels in the territory where study of human mind can be given more emphasis. Man can live like a machine but mind has its existence and at certain time of life it will affect the over all outlook of the man and this thought process will always push him to do something. This doing is right or wrong is a different matter.
In the case of normal humanbeing with no orientation towards spirituality and where there is no wisdom to judge the action before performing it, often doing brings wrong results for him and his surroundings.
Some actions of people which they do in their solitude are not witnessed by others so they can come out of their houses as Mr Clean but if a camera is fixed in the place then what happens can be shocking for others.
If minds of others are read then shocking facts will come out. Hardly any relationship will remain intact if people dont show any power to forgive others.
To write about anything on the performance of Nolberto Coria will come under judgement because he is the Beto.
Its an interesting debut film of Enrique Rivero and audience will receive his next film with great curiosity.
Tags: Enrique Rivero, Mexican cinema, World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
RK sir,I would like to ask wether you are Rajkumar Gupta of Amir Fame.I must say that you seem to me quite a spiritual person coz you always bring that element into your writings.
I would really like top know that how come you and Anurag Sir worked together as u both seem to have completely different outlook on life.
@Umesh,
Its a proven fact that solitude brings extremely different kind of effects on different human beings.
Some people’s criminal side of desires are aggravted because of living alone for long and some people, inside whom seeds of spiritual growth have some potential for germination, get more sanity and thus personal and spiritual growth come their way. Though mostly second lot of people select this solitude on their own but even if its impoised they dot allow negativity to surpound over positive sensitivity.
While first kind of people whose seeds of spiritual growth can not have power of germination, become criminal. In some cases we know their doings and in some its always hidden.
This can be a different outlook in east and west because if same theme was handled by an eastern director then film could have been bit different and content and treatment would have been different.
Its another variety in cinema.
Hope you get to watch this film soon.
——
No I am not Raj Kumar Gupta of Aamir Fame. He has his own profile on PFC and you may visit his posts via following link.
http://passionforcinema.com/author/rajkumar/
I dont understand this scenario where you say that how he (RKG) could work with Anurag as both seemed to have different outlook in life.
I dont know Raj Kumar Gupta but whatever little I know about Anurag, he is a simple and down to earth person and he is a highly talented filmmaker who has great potential and this is very well proved by his last two films and he is among few of the talented young directors (who have yet to cross the boundary of 40 years age) who are going to earn name in cinema on international level.
All his assistents might have felt fortunate to work with him as it should have been a great learning and working experience.
As I see , To work on a project in any medium you need enthusiastic, energetic and knowledgeable persons who still have humbleness and desire to learn more and more and when you have such people then nothing matters. different people always may have different outlooks in life but these different outlooks have been existening since the time when languages came into the existence and people started saying their own opinions in words but that has not stopped mankind to create great work by working in/as a team.
When goal is common and that is to make a good film then nothing matters. Interaction of different outlooks bring interesting scenario also and union brings something worthy.
Moreover everwhere and in any condition, not differences but ability to hold hands inspite of having 99 differences, matters and acts as the basis to make bond/relationships strong.
—
If I may ask, are you into the filmmaking or you are associated with film journalism?
Ah I could have said yes.
I am just like one of those passionate people on this forum who are in some other profession but their heart is there in films.
I also believe that AK is extremely genuine person on the basis of his writings.But what I feel his art’s originating point is anger and this is like he is driven by his ego.This doesn’t takes you on the level where any piece of art becomes timeless.he really loves his work and is passionate about it.But when you leave it on that higher being and let him drive you then its simply great.
That is one element I found in your writings and this curiosity got on to me in asking about the common agreement point between you (supposedly RKG for me) and AK.
Thanks
umesh
@Umesh (3),
In a generalized way, ego or arrogance of an artist is a very interesting subject.
You will find Mr Benegal saying “A director is like a God walking on earth”. There is a post where his saying has been used.
You will find similar saying in one of the post of Mr Mishra also.
But this ego or arrogance is resulting into an art form via a desire to create something. It can be same ego or arrogance or enthusiasm which a 11th or 12th standard student cherishes when he prepares for JEE or medical entrance examination or a graduate prepares for IAS. They have desire to do something.
A scientist also has this desire. all people living in society have this though intensity level may differ.
This is another fact that very few people manage to keep burning this fire for long and their intensity is diminished after few acheivements (in their eyes and in others eyes).
World’s avoidance can bring a creator at that stage also where he is forced to pass through the feeling “Ye Duniya agar mil bhee jaye to kya hai”.
If this dejection is not turning towards spirituality then it leads towards depression. So monks can manage the absence of this personalized ego or absence of desire in day to day life and if they have to function in a regular world then they have to allow ego to function just for the sake of keep them active in regular manner. Dalai Lama’s case is before us. He has to function in regular world where he has to deal with a corrupt power so he needs to allow so many things in daily life which his kind of man would not have allowed if he was living in a monastery. He has a wordly goal also to gain freedom for his country. He is free on personal basis but not all of his people and country. Many of his acts will be taken as products of ego but they are not.
If you watch minutely life and filmography of Vinod Khanna then you will get a difference in his performances (Before 1981 and after 1986).
same was visible in case of Vijay Anand.
In a film like medium if a writer, director and actor has observation power and he can grasp from the surroundings and from the people he meets then no personal lacking affects the performance before the camera, behind the camera and while writing something on paper or on computer screen. An extremely shy person in real life can be an amazing actor on stage or in films. same is true with writer and director also.
Blogging for some is like writing diaries and diaries contain temporary emotions only. A person may be angry on something and under that heat he may write so many things against a person, system or medium but these are not permanent thoughts. So many times they are cathartic exercises.
Personally I feel that its too early to bind people like Vishal Bharwdwaj and Anurag Kashyap in the limitations. Because they are evolving with each passing films and their potential is evolving. They have not come in film industry after taking a proper training from FTII and they have learnt on their own. A person having a formal training from FTII like institution and who is not making films belonging to different genre can be assessed on the basis of first 2-3 films because whatever he knows he has already used in these initial films and his pattern is quite visible through these films but same definition can not be applied on first kind of people who bring unpredictable thrill everytime they release a film. Their pattern is not fixed.They were learning yesterday also which they used today and they are learning today also which they will use tomorrow.
There is a danger though not to follow a set pattern but this danger is temporal in nature and mostly related with BO only but in long term evolving pattern works better.
A Shyam Benegal is interesting because he has yet the desire to deliver a WTS, Gulzar keeps changing his subjects while many directors who are financially so capable and who are technically so competent start bringing boredom because their works are predictable and they should be taken as producers producing same products all the time. They can not be equated or kept at same place where research based filmmakers can be kept.
Like any other industry film industry also need R&D department and few directors take risk on their own not to follow the rat race. In long term they are seen as people responsible for the growth of the medium.
In Hindi films perhaps directors will not select a subject like Enrique Rivero has selected in his debut film, Paraque Via.
this has been one of the best reviews i have read of late.
Thanks RK sir
R u related to films?