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iView Author: Evelyn Tu (Princeton, U.S.)

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Unfolding “Amal,” a real gem of a movie

Since oz described “Amal” as a “gem of a movie” on my PFC event
announcement, I felt compelled to get there on my own, regardless of the
fact that I’d never been to Piscataway. This weekend’s screening at the N.J.
South Asian Independent Cine Fest ran late, so I snagged a good seat. Others
had to recline on the carpet.

From the beginning, the most striking thing about this sweet fable by young
Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta is the gradual way his characters’
identities unfold.
“Amal” opens with an extreme close-up of Naseeruddin Shah’s wizened face,
bouncing wildly as he rides in an auto-rickshaw. Shah plays G.K. Jayaram, a
gray-haired “vagabond” with faulty short-term memory.

G.K.’s narration begins: “I was once told that the poorest of men can be the
richest.” He tells us he has met someone who has proven this, and his own
last breath will be in 48 hours.

For a second, I have a Lester Burnham-American Beauty flashback. Then it
occurs to me we don’t know who Amal is. Several rickshaw passengers come and
go, including a boy who gives something to a poor girl on the way into his
posh New Delhi bungalow, and a pretty shopkeeper named Pooja (Koel Purie)
commuting to her store.

It’s only when Pooja runs after the driver that we hear her call his name,
“Amal!” Through him, we meet several of the movie¹s characters. From his
POV, the camera gazes lovingly at children living on the sidewalks, other
rickshaw drivers and Pooja.

Amal, played incredibly naturally by Rupinder Nagra, is kind to everyone
without a second thought. Amal even refuses a three-rupee tip from the
irascible vagabond, who mixes up destinations and then complains. At this
point, we are given a clue who G.K. really is.

—————————————-
Since “Amal” will be released soon in India, Canada and the U.K., I’ll try
not to give away more plot details.

Roshan Seth and Seema Biswas deliver effortlessly heartfelt performances. I
can’t see enough of Koel Purie, with her intelligent looks and impish smile.
The only let-down is an actor playing a close relative, whose John Rzeznik
hairdo and anxious posturing get really tedious.

Skip to the end. The audience applauds, and several people say, “Wow!” Then
Mehta steps up to answer questions.

He says he won the seed money for “Amal” at the Toronto International Film
Festival pitching contest a couple of years back. With that prize, he took
at two-month trip to Mumbai.

Naseeruddin Shah, Roshan Seth and Seema Biswas were Mehta’s first choices for
key roles, and their attachment would help assure “Amal’s” financing. His
plan was to wander about Mumbai and bump into them. Two days after he
landed, he indeed ran into Naseer on the street. He pitched the idea, and
Naseer was in.
Meanwhile, he said, Seth sits in his house in Delhi eight months of the year
and doesn’t work. He receives a new script every day but only works on
projects he believes in. Mehta gave him a draft of “Amal.” Seth wasn’t happy
with it, so he became a script adviser. Each time a new draft was delivered,
the director had to defend everything in it, as if it was a thesis. After
eight months, the director asked, “Roshan, are you going to do the film or
not?” He replied, “Of course I am. Didn’t I tell you?”

————————————
< << SPOILERS ahead >>>

Mehta’s screenplay was inspired by his brother Shaun’s short story on
scooter-wallahs in Delhi.

“When I read the end of his story — ‘Amal can’t read’ — I thought it was
shit,” Mehta told us. “I saw him (Amal) driving away with a smile. But then
I thought about, ‘Why am I unhappy in Mississauga, where we have
everything?’” That settled the ending. The rest of the plot was worked
backwards from that point.

Someone remarked Naseer’s presence was felt through the entire movie. Mehta
talked about the concept of “God, or fate, or destiny” having a plan for
Amal from the beginning to the end. Therefore, G.K. Jayaram needed to be
present throughout, trying to counteract that force.

A couple of people wanted to know whether Amal should have been aware of his
just rewards and walked away. Mehta replied that this would defeat the
purpose of the whole film. “Do you think he needs it?” he asked. “Each
person has a gas tank filled with a certain amount of joy. I have no right
to impose my notions of joy upon you. It’s a fable enough as it is. I don’t
think anyone on earth could realistically walk away from that (amount of
money).” He added that whether or not the movie has a happy ending “depends
on your experiences.”

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