Return to Innocence
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Xi from The Gods must be crazy
Raindrops, raindrops fall upon my window
Sparkle of the leaves of the thirsty apple tree
Raindrops, raindrops down the hill and through the meadow
No time to stop on the journey to the sea
A leisurely and loving look at life can bring a smile that can last a long, long time, and that affects us more deeply than the loudest guffaw. Raindrops at the end of a cooling rain that paints the landscape green can create a deeper impact than storms and tornados. Simplicity is a rare gem that we trade easily and willingly for street-smart. Is it time- are we all ready for the return to innocence?
Some movies can take your heart and run with it- leaving you utterly helpless. All you can do is chase after. Words are not of the essence- the connection is deeper and instinctive.
As a child, I remember watching the Gods must be crazy. I had found the movie hilarious and I remember rolling on the floor laughing. Of late, the humour of the movie has become secondary. It is the simple life of the bushmen, their community, their way of life, their ingenuity in gathering scarce and precious water from roots and bulbs, their harmony with nature and even with ferocious wild beasts and their absolute baffling experience with the civilized man that strikes me. Xi is a bushman who lives in a community that shares everything- there is no sense of ownsership in this world where there is little one can own. The movie is set in the Kalahari desert with nothing but dust and rocks as far as the eye can see. The community is self-sufficient, with few needs and quite content in their habitat. They share their home with the creatures of the desert. They are adept at handling situations which would bring a civilized man to his knees. Encounters with wild beasts are not uncommon, and the bushmen know what to do when chased by a lion- it is not an extraordinary experience to them. They find water by digging for bulbs under the ground which they share- each bushman drinks a few drops from the bulb to satisfy his thirst. They live in complete harmony and peace- a life that makes you wonder if it was worth the while to deal with traffic, insecurities, economic swings, jealousy, changing fashions, a 9 to 5 job, house maintenance, pollution, and infinitely more issues for the comfort of modern day living- and another question is whether we have actually achieved any comfort greater than that the bushmen enjoy.
There is trouble in this paradise when the pilot of a passing helicopter drops a coca-cola bottle that lands in their midst. The bushmen discover several uses for the bottle in no time. It is used for curing leather, hunting, playing music, etc. Suddenly there was an object that everyone wanted to possess and there was only one of it. Feelings of jealousy and not wanting to share, etc began to emerge and the bushmen were soon quarrelling over the bottle. Xi, wanting to return things to the way they were, decides to take the bottle to the end of the earth and throw it away and he sets forth on this journey wondering why the Gods had sent them such an evil thing in the first place. On his way he meets the civilized man who is infinitely baffling. The scenes are not only comic but when viewed from the bushman’s perspective questions many of our own practices. Xi speaks a language that we do not understand and comes from a people very different our own, and yet when we see our own world through his eyes, his world seems to be civilized while our own civilized world just seems chaotic and full of inconsistencies. The movie is said to be an exaggerated version of the actual lives of bushmen, but the point that comes across is still very relevant and thought-provoking.
"Civilization"
The tribes have since been mandatorily placed in farming villages in an attempt to civilize the population. This of course would lead us to an argument of whether the variety must be preserved for the sake of its beauty and for what we can learn from it, or is it unfair to deprive certain segments of the society from the benefits of civilization for our own selfish need for variety and maybe another exotic vacation spot. I do think that some efforts must be made to reverse the effects of development within the civilized world that has been a mixed blessing. We must bond more with nature and less with material. A natural method of making life with nature possible must be created without having to resort to vacations and trips to ever make a real connection with nature. Of course this is wishful thinking- the attempts being made are more for the use of natural products rather than using less of anything at all. Consumerism has set in in such a big way that the simple life of the past has become a faraway dream that is about as real as unicorns and dragons. When a real evaluation is made, each of us may come to different conclusions about the journey of the human race. But few of us will fail to appreciate the value of what we have lost, for it is human nature to pine for what we do not have, which is what set the wheels of civilization in motion in the first place. Look up at the night sky and wonder where all the stars that shone like gems have vanished- the very stars that inspired the imagination of poets and scientists alike. Wonder about all the many stories evoking awe, fear and fantasy, set in deep dark jungles- which have now been cut down to make way for mad traffic. No longer can you go down to the stream when you are blue and be cheered up by the gurgling sound of the stream that puts a song in your heart- for the sweet sound of the stream, if you still manage find it, is drowned by the noise all around. You no longer wake up to the sound of birds chirping- you need an alarm clock to wake you up rudely in the morning. You can buy the same fresh fruit and vegetables that grew in your backyard for a premium if you want them without a fair share of chemicals. There are some movies that take us back into the fantasy land of simplicity like Children of Heaven, The Blue Umbrella, Taare Zameen Par and Kabuliwaala, and for the duration of the movie fill you with a different kind of happiness. When I think of civilization and all that we’ve gained and lost, I often think of this rhyme:
The serenity of nature
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Rahul Dholakia
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Sachin Kundalkar
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Thanks for reminding me of one of my old favorites…I had the exact same reaction to it when I first saw it…total fun…and then, after it was over, I realised the movie wouldn’t simply go away from my head…what a stunning way to show simplicity being corrupted by civilization..
By the way, as far as I know, there was a sequel to this movie…have you seen it ? Is it as good as this one ?
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There were 2 actually. The second was good also- again in the desert and follows two little kids- the younger of the two inadvertently climbs onto a water tanker and falls in while the truck rumbles away. The older kid tries to “chase the beast who has swallowed his brother”. And then it’s about how the two find each other following the tracks left by the truck… in the final scene Xi, who plays their father and is also out looking for them reunites with the children- very sweet and funny also- comparable with the first. But the third was quite a disappointment- I couldn’t watch for more than ten minutes- it was based in Hong Kong (??!!) and it just seemed slapstick- lots of fast paced comic action or something- I turned it off within the first ten minutes.
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Interesting perspective and writing, quite fresh, reflective and thoughtful. These so-called ‘resorts’ are one of the few artificial easy way outs for the nature-hungry corporate I would say. It doesn’t take a genius to say that they suck. Innocence will come with a price of giving up the weekday pleasures, and a willingness to risk time.
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That’s right- a lot of times we end up buying more than we need and that just makes the many things we own cumbersome rather than precious.
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I don’t remember the first one. Have seen II, III & IV. The IIIrd one had a Chinese vampire. I do remember finding it very funny. The fourth one was sporadically amusing. It had very little or none of the bushmen.
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I loved the first and second- did the third even have the bushmen?
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Hey!Jyoti this made for some nostalgic reading.I still remember the kind of fun that I had while watching the 1st part in the theatre.even I do wonder many a times as to how nice life could have been if it the trappings of the consumerist society were absent to a large extent.Tahaan and Himalaya are some other movies which remind of the simplicity that probably exists somewhere tucked away somewhere far from us.
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yes, tahaan is a valuable edition.
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True- Tahaan was very nice also- there’s something that’s still unspoilt about the hills- be it Kashmir, the North-East or even some places in Himachal… Haven’t seen Himalaya though- when was that made?
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Jyoti- Himalaya was made in 1999 and its probably the most well known Nepali film.It was directed by Eric Valli with French funding.It was nominated for the Oscars under the Best Foreign Film Cateogory.Do check it out when you get a chance.Yes there’s something endearing and charming about the hills.
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Thanks for information on the movie- I will definitely try and watch it soon
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i have the collectors’ edition DVD of the 3 parts of GMBC, but havent yet watched part IV, if there is any. amazing films, I&II, yes III is big disappointment, showing some stupid slapstick in China/HK at the expense of the innocence of bushman. tiresome.
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On one of my trips to Libya recently, i was fortunate enough to go to the Libyan – Sudanian border part of Kalahari, and although i cudnt see/meet any of the bushmen, i was told by my local friend / guide that they did exist, but in the remotest part of the Kalahari, and not many ppl hv seen them yet!
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that was Sahara desert, not Kalahari. my bad!
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I remember seeing a special on Discovery/Nat Geo about the efforts made to civilize the bushmen. They said that during the initial period, when they tried to integrate them into our society, they would just die. I wonder if there are any left in their original environment now.
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Jyotiiiiiii, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this reflective article
Keep ‘em coming….
PS: I haven’t watched the movie, but your post has inspired me to!
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Thanks Shriya- that’s very sweet again… it is definitely worth watching- I can vouch for the first two parts
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Good writing. For its simplicity, this is one genius of a movie! The whole concept and the story around it was so original. Wikipedia gives good information about the movie, sequels etc. As per Wiki, at the time of filming, bushmen had largely been integrated into the society and what is depicted in the movie was reflective of their state a few decades before the film was released.
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Thanks Siva for the additional information- what a loss to remove more people from paradise and shove them into the rat race!
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Very nice. I watched Gods must be crazy – parts 1 and 2 again recently. You are right – behind all the comedy lies a beautiful thread about what we have lost, thanks to civilization.
If you like books, try ‘Roots’ by Alex Hailey. It is not funny, but is the true story (largely) of the author, who manages to trace his family tree up to 7 generations. The initial parts of the story are about the author’s ancestor who lives a carefree and ‘civilized’ life in a tribe in Africa and is then kidnapped by the white slave hunters and shipped to USA. The difference between the ‘uncivilized’ African and the ‘civilized’ master is stark and touching.
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Thanks- I do love to read- will definitely read this one- already seems quite interesting.
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When the Britishers came to America in search of land and fleeing from religious persecution in the 1600s…they often came to conflict with the Indians and fought them and tooke their land away from them …leaving their leaders to wonder why the White man must take forcefully what he can get simply by asking….
Then a couple of centuries later the same Americans fight their British cousins for their own rights ….having come full circle…
Today colonialism has been replaced with trade bullies…Empire based on rampant consumerism and moral degradation , raping ang pillaging the planet at will …..
paying lip service to conservation , preservations and achieving balance and tolerence in our lives.. and we call ourselves educated, enlightened, aware…
Id rather remain a tribal closer to my earth.
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jyoti,brilliant article on a classic film. infact you have just written what even i feel and i am really disgusted by the way the world is hurtling towards destruction.automobiles should be banned immediately.it is so ridiculous that all of us start from our homes in our own vehicles and travel 90% of the way together,then why do we need to have separate vehicles i wonder.time has come to enjoy simple living.
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