Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi
It is not very often that I am so moved by a movie that I am compelled to write about and it is even less often for that compulsion to stay with me for even after almost a month since I have seen the movie. They say you can only appreciate a good thing if you seen the bad stuff and I couldn’t agree with it more. I still can’t stop thinking about the movie and I so want to go see it again. The movie is fresh in my mind as if I saw it yesterday and every time I think about it I discover something more that I liked in the movie. The movie is set in the 70s in mostly New Delhi although it starts off from the Meerut riots in the during the late 60s and then pans over to the Delhi University in the 70s. It is about conflicting political ideologies, about the license raj, about the Mr. Fixer (remember him?), about the rise of Naxal movement in India and about the Emergency. The movie is also about simple things like love, attraction, following your heart and honesty. The movie appeals to the heart as much it does to the head and that is what kept me totally riveted to the movie. The movie also has an excellent soundtrack set to Ghalib’s poetry and while it adds value to the movie I seriously wouldn’t have minded if this movie had no soundtrack at all. It’s a movie which made me think, made me ponder and also angry at the quality of movies that can be made and what actually gets made. I am keen follower of the politics in our country and I have always wondered why so less is known of post-independence politics in this country. Why have our history books stopped at 1947 and the only thing that we talk about after that is the Five Year Plans. I know more about the Mughal Empire than about the Emergency. There is nothing about the split in Congress after Indira Gandhi came to power, about the Emergency and its causes and effects, about the shorted lived Janta Party government. What about the JP movement, about its origins and how did it fizzle out? There was the liberation of Bangladesh, origins of militancy in Kashmir and the more recent sending of a “peacekeeping” force to Sri Lanka. What happened during these events, how did they shape the future of India, what were the powers thinking during those times and what went wrong. Surely we can talk about them 20-30 years down the line. There are media reports about the Naxal movement spreading across this country but I have no idea of its origins and its political ideology. Those were exciting times and nation building times. A lot of what we face today has its origins in events that happened in the decades after Independence, yet I don’t know off too many movies made on those events. One movie which stands out is New Delhi Times which I remember was banned for some time after its release. Movies have to be more than sleaze, song and dance and falling in love or trying to fall in love or whatever they call it these days. I have nothing against these movies, but where are the serious movies, the real stuff? Where are the movies about real people and their real passions and about them going about to fulfill their passions? When was the last time you heard about political ideas coming out of from our colleges and schools. A case in point is after the Vietnam War, countless movies were made on the war and the anti-war demonstrations inside the US.It is depressing that we know so little of our modern history because that to me is what equips us to face the future. Surely our single minded focus on building careers hasn’t clouded our sense of history and our duties as citizens of this country.
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I liked your blog enough to bookmark it! Found it looking for a review on Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi... and then noticed that you're one of the six people in the universe that read the Arrow of the Blue Skinned God.I endorse your belief about the lost generation (historically that is) between Independence and the dotcom age. We need to know more.Cheers!
Posted by: Anand 05/23/2005
hey! Anand: it is the lost generation in a lot of ways. Have you seen the movie. What do you think of it ? Arrow of the Blue Skinned God- now that was an awesome read or what. I wanted to write about, but it is beyond me to grasp that book and put it down in a few paras. I wouldn;t be doing justice to the book if I did thatDeepan
Posted by: Deepan 05/25/2005
I haven't seen it. The pirates (Indian Grocery Stores) of Boston haven't laid their hands on this gem yet. Hope to find it and watch it soon.About "Arrow...", I found it very fascinating. Jonah Blank gave me a view of India that I hadn't envisioned myself. You're right, it is hard to describe the book in a mere paragraph. However, I will say that the voyage of Rama fom Ayodhya to Chitrakoot to Kishkinda and finally to Lanka, never seemed so relevant to our own present as it did in the book. I felt like he reached deep into India's soul and put together an account that connects our society to our mythology. I found it very amusing too.. especially his interview with the one and only Arun Govil. One of the best books on India that I have ever read, if not the best!
Posted by: Anand 05/25/2005
DeepanI liked your comments in context to the awesome film.I feel lost when it comes to knowing about the naxalite movement in India. And i totally agree to the fact that there is so little information on the condition of the country during Indira gandhi's regime.I was recently analysing the causes and effects of rise of militancy in Punjab... and trying to gather real life accounts on what happened to the naxalite movement in Bengal.The reason for the rise was very different in both the cases but the way the movements were supressed was the same. And the ruling government was the same. Young men disappering forever, bloodshed, political filth....Hazaron Khwahishen... is a brush with a period too less known and it keeps hitting you repeatedly through the thick 9 to 9 glass.Neel
Posted by: Neel 06/02/2005
Dee, I saw the movie and have been blatantly suggesting it to poor unsuspecting people in office. They are now converts and I have a huge fan following. Chitrangada Singh is being touted as the next Smitha Patil. Kay Kay menon is a guy who has a knack for "parallel cinema" and the ingredients to deliver. I have always been impressed by his performances, be it Bhopal Express, Paanch and now Haz..Khw..Aisi. I think i just might see this movie again
Posted by: Sandhya 06/02/2005
Came across this post..which perhaps takes up some of the questions u raised...or perhaps u read it already by now.....http://www.hindu.org/publications/fgautier/selfdenial.htmlHave a pdf...as well ..for the same....dobs..
Posted by: uncomonwizdom 06/02/2005
Neel: Couldn;t you agree with you more. There is this another problem in the N-E about which I know so little about. Time to time you hear these news snippets coming through and that's it. Wonder what's gonna happen there ?
Posted by: Deepan 06/02/2005
Sandhya: I thought you'll like this movie and I am so glad that you are suggesting this to people in your office. I am also planning to buy the DVD and circulate it around. The movie is still on and I am quite tempted too to go see it again. With so much happening in the movie I am sure I missed out on some parts.
Posted by: Deepan 06/02/2005
Dobs: This seems like a fascinating article. Thank you so much for pasting the link. I yearn for such stuff !
06:54 Permalink Email this
Comments
I liked your blog enough to bookmark it! Found it looking for a review on Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi... and then noticed that you're one of the six people in the universe that read the Arrow of the Blue Skinned God.I endorse your belief about the lost generation (historically that is) between Independence and the dotcom age. We need to know more.Cheers!
Posted by: Anand 05/23/2005
hey! Anand: it is the lost generation in a lot of ways. Have you seen the movie. What do you think of it ? Arrow of the Blue Skinned God- now that was an awesome read or what. I wanted to write about, but it is beyond me to grasp that book and put it down in a few paras. I wouldn;t be doing justice to the book if I did thatDeepan
Posted by: Deepan 05/25/2005
I haven't seen it. The pirates (Indian Grocery Stores) of Boston haven't laid their hands on this gem yet. Hope to find it and watch it soon.About "Arrow...", I found it very fascinating. Jonah Blank gave me a view of India that I hadn't envisioned myself. You're right, it is hard to describe the book in a mere paragraph. However, I will say that the voyage of Rama fom Ayodhya to Chitrakoot to Kishkinda and finally to Lanka, never seemed so relevant to our own present as it did in the book. I felt like he reached deep into India's soul and put together an account that connects our society to our mythology. I found it very amusing too.. especially his interview with the one and only Arun Govil. One of the best books on India that I have ever read, if not the best!
Posted by: Anand 05/25/2005
DeepanI liked your comments in context to the awesome film.I feel lost when it comes to knowing about the naxalite movement in India. And i totally agree to the fact that there is so little information on the condition of the country during Indira gandhi's regime.I was recently analysing the causes and effects of rise of militancy in Punjab... and trying to gather real life accounts on what happened to the naxalite movement in Bengal.The reason for the rise was very different in both the cases but the way the movements were supressed was the same. And the ruling government was the same. Young men disappering forever, bloodshed, political filth....Hazaron Khwahishen... is a brush with a period too less known and it keeps hitting you repeatedly through the thick 9 to 9 glass.Neel
Posted by: Neel 06/02/2005
Dee, I saw the movie and have been blatantly suggesting it to poor unsuspecting people in office. They are now converts and I have a huge fan following. Chitrangada Singh is being touted as the next Smitha Patil. Kay Kay menon is a guy who has a knack for "parallel cinema" and the ingredients to deliver. I have always been impressed by his performances, be it Bhopal Express, Paanch and now Haz..Khw..Aisi. I think i just might see this movie again
Posted by: Sandhya 06/02/2005
Came across this post..which perhaps takes up some of the questions u raised...or perhaps u read it already by now.....http://www.hindu.org/publications/fgautier/selfdenial.htmlHave a pdf...as well ..for the same....dobs..
Posted by: uncomonwizdom 06/02/2005
Neel: Couldn;t you agree with you more. There is this another problem in the N-E about which I know so little about. Time to time you hear these news snippets coming through and that's it. Wonder what's gonna happen there ?
Posted by: Deepan 06/02/2005
Sandhya: I thought you'll like this movie and I am so glad that you are suggesting this to people in your office. I am also planning to buy the DVD and circulate it around. The movie is still on and I am quite tempted too to go see it again. With so much happening in the movie I am sure I missed out on some parts.
Posted by: Deepan 06/02/2005
Dobs: This seems like a fascinating article. Thank you so much for pasting the link. I yearn for such stuff !
Comments