The VOF: the film that raised too many questions in a day.
Oh! … I remember the saga that is called the Valley of Flowers. I won’t talk of the story because it will be damn unfair to do so. I don’t know the story. Yeah!
But I did sit for the two n a half hour or may be longer (at least it seemed to be) of VOF.
Ok. First things first. Why? Why was the movie made?
Possibility no. 1: It was a very personal film (shouldn’t have been for Pan Nalin’s home video collection?).
Possibility no. 2: Milind tied Pan and forced him to make it (oh! I am certain about this one).
Or possibility no. 3 and more could come from the ones who have been through it…
I saw the Hindi version. It looked beautiful. It looked even better, but I wanted it mute. I wanted to see the cinematographic (Michal Englert) beauty to be put to better use. I wanted to create my own story with it. I cried and stretched further in my chair and went out for countless pee breaks. I couldn’t handle the film.
Sadly enough behind me was seated one of the ADs on the film. I knew how indecent my eye brows were when I learnt about the dialogue writer. It was him… yes it was again him after Water. Anurag. I wondered why? Why? And again why? My heart broke. The dialogues were even painful after the revelation.
Then I wondered about the film festivals where it won accolades. Sometimes these festivals don’t make sense to me just like our desi numerous Filmfare types (intentionally barring the Oscars; lunacy of a higher order on a higher level). So when I watched Water, a year and a half back on a pirated CD, I learnt why. The subtitling saves a lot of it. It’s like a massive veil on a dark bride. I wondered if I saw VOF with the subtitles, would my reactions be any different. Dunno. Could be. But NO… no chances on this one. It tortured the daylight out of me and I could not concentrate on the keyboard for the rest of the day. Good for the jury at the IFFLA. And, bad for the ones those lost to it… though I haven’t seen the others but I am sure there was no reason for them to.
I doubt if Anurag actually saw the whole film or read the script? He relied on the subtitles. “Did you? I am just too curious to know, how does it work?” (I am sorry I keep coming back to him all the time)
But, one good thing did happen. It brought me back the memory of the beautiful valley of flowers (phool chatti gaon) in Uttranchal. I basked into that reminiscence of the starry night that I savored from the inside of an orange tent where I lounged, slapping the shit out of the mosquitoes once in while.
I like the valley of flowers. I had almost forgotten it like many other beautiful hours of moonlit darkness. Thank you (if I must) VOF.
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Dude you do realize that the movie hasn’t yet been released, right? Couldn’t you have waited till it got a proper release before you trashed it?
Opps. sorry dude. couldnt contain the excitement.
but trust me the release wont change anything. i havnt given out the story anywhere, for the obvious reason.
I do not agree with the above, so called review of VALLEY OF FLOWERS, the comments sounds more like frustrated film person trying to say “I would have made better film…” VOF certainly has flaws, My Hindi and Japanese is not good so I may accept the criticism. But going by the English subtitles and the narration: the film is bold and unique.
I’m being a huge MANGA and ANIME fan the movie was very easy to digest. VOF dwells into realm of Asian Myths and modern day translation of superstition, mainly in Japan. As much as I loved Himalayan part of the film, I adored the insightful Japanese climax. A complex plot punctuated with meanings could have been made lighter and more accessible -but then hey! that would have been too easy, isn’t it!!
What is also fascinating to me that how over the last two years VALLEY OF FLOWERS has become a kind of underground cult film (check out some iMDB comments). In Russia it became a massive hit, Pan Nalin’s home town Paris saw rave reviews but poor release didnt meet the box-office success in France. Meanwhile in Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Germany, Brazil, Hungary and many other countries saw tremendous critical and commercial success.
I do believe when you please global audience, you might disappoint some domestic viewer but then Pan Nalin is an International filmmaker which today means an Orphan -he does not belong neither to Bollywood nor to Hollywood, neither to Art cinema nor to commercial cinema, neither to India nor to France -a true orphan, a collateral damage of demographic division of creativity prevailing on earth.
Fo my upcoming book on “new world cinema: or cinema of new world”, I had opportunity to meet and talk at length with many Indian and Asian Filmmakers including Pan Nalin. No Indian or Asian filmmaker has impressed me as much as Pan Nalin, His vision, confidence, perception of the world, open mind, passion for cinema and above all humility -a fine human being that touched me deeply. I was also amazed at his profound understanding of cinema; while talking he would jump from Teshighara to Tarkovsky to Kathryn Bygelow to Brian De Palma. At length he can talk about Blaxploitation films, Japanese Pink movies or US Avant-Garde.
I instantly connected with Pan Nalin when I asked who was the filmmaker far ahead of its time? “Maya Deren” he replied instantly. That was WOW! moment for me. Over the tea we switched over to talk about Mahayana Buddhism, then jumped to Gibran and Ibn Batuta. When the food arrived Pan Nalin displayed his amazing knowledge of Ayurveda.
Well, I guess I said enough. the reason I was also compell to write this comment is because someone like Pan Nalin never hogs undeserved limelight (like many other filmakers). He might be working with Rastafarians in Jamaica or re-inventing Horror genre in Hollywood while we all chat and party!!
I would say the best of Pan Nalin is yet to come, the show has just started!!