Darshan, embracing the baggage?

This morning i saw a trailer of the movie Darshan, The Embrace (L'etreinte) - there, its on my nerves again, have to talk about it.

Well, last month I got a chance to see this movie at a theater in Santa Monica. I have met Amma (courtesy one of my close friends) once while she was visiting Los Angeles this year. I found her to be very simple, child-like and innocent and her darshan means a warm embrace. She sits there the whole day, hugging people-all sorts of people. Amazing energy she has, she smiles all through, chit-chats with people around and doesn’t look a bit tired. She’s Amma (Mother in many Indian languages), lovingly so called because she hugs like a mother. And this was a movie about her, so I thought why not-must go and have a look.

Flashback: Its mid-September. A lil’ chilly in down-town Santa Monica. Hmm, its already 7:00 PM. I am a bit excited- a movie about an Indian saint here in US-lets see what its gotta say. Its a movie made by a Dutch guy, Jan Kounen. I am with a friend. We walk into the theater and take a seat. There aren’t too many people around, mostly her followers who’ve come to see the movie, hoping to see their beloved Amma. The movie begins with some vintage clips of Amma’s interaction with people who come to see her and then goes on to describe about “the hugging saint” a bit. The focus shifts to a young French woman, who’s come to see Amma. For next few minutes we are made to explore her spiritual journey, or so seems the aim of this footage. But, the camera just seems more interested in documenting empty corridors and even when it captures humans, its without much emotion and dialogue. In the latter few reels, we get to see the lush and beautiful Ashram in Kollam and few snippets of Amma. The movie then takes us to different cities (Calcutta, Benares and Jaipur) in India, where Amma goes to meet people. This is interspersed with Amma’s interaction with her devotees in Ashram. Its nice to see her dancing and singing, interacting with lil’ children, talking and even giving a part shy and part cute, but very sweet interview to the film-maker. The movie just sort of brushes on her charity work and her teachings, the former mainly in the form of footage from TV newscasts. There is also some beautiful old footage of Amma as a young girl on the swing and Amma doing Poojas-something sort of personal about the once lil’ girl, now a revered mother to millions. The movie concludes with a replay of the footage showing the young Amma on a swing. The movie is over and I am a bit disappointed, actually a bit off.....and I am just starting to tell this to my friend, who shares the feelings about the movie.

I hear someone say now, “whats your problem girl, with this movie?” Problem? I want to shout, No-I have PROBLEMS with the movie (and with some reviews too).....

As the movie progresses and takes us to different cities in India through Kounen’s camera, we are made to sit through footage that doesn’t necessarily focus on Amma or her energetic gatherings. There is a shot of a bus going to another city, and there multiple shots of hungry childrem in the slums in Calcutta, dust and grime-the cliche’ we are so used to seeing about India. And this goes on and on. Yes, there are slums in India-but how relevant is that to a movie about a saint. You know you are completely done when you see a carcass of a calf being consumed by maggots.....and that becomes the focus for a couple of minutes!! Pray, whats the relevance. and to top it all, as some touchy souls informed, its a calf.....In the whole of the conutry, all the film-maker finds is a dead livestock to focus on and disgust the audience. Or is he trying to convey something like “look, look-they worship cows and then leave them for maggots’ edification”. Worst, how does this become relevant to a documentary on the life and work of a motherly saint! Thankfully, the footage in Jaipur and Benares gets slightly better. The movie just has us taking a few glimpses of Amma and how she interacts with her devotees. Thankfully, it highlights her energetic presence and her wonderful gift of a hug to one and all. But, the movie doesn’t even explain the meaning and essence of Amma, the word and the persona. Instead of a film on a person and who she is, it merely follows her around and then mixes it up with irrelevant stuff and serves it to the audience. It doesn’t matter to a gora in the audience-hey have seen “India is poor, India is dirty” crap before. But it matters to me, an Indian-and where I come from-things just don’t look this way-its this and much more. Things could have been better.....If only Mr. Kounen had refrained from selling India’s poverty and instead focused on telling us more about Amma.

This agony is made worse when you see such irreverant stuff written in National Newpapers:

Quoting from http://movies2.nytimes.com/2006/07/26/movies/26dars.html

“Mr. Kounen, who is Dutch, wants everyone to share his captivation: watching the white-garbed faithful line up by the thousands for a smile and a cuddle, his camera is guilty of lingering on the faces of the beautiful. Abundant shots of lush foliage, pastel-toned rooftops and sizzling sunsets are also a far cry from the images of Indian deprivation we’re accustomed to seeing on the news.”

Another strange thing is the use of this song "Jab hum jawaan honge" from movie Betaab in the background whenever a young Amma is shown on the swing. I know it sort wants to tell us that this lil' girl will one day blossom into Amma. But given the context of the song, as we have seen in betaab, it sounds out of place. Besides, the movie doesn’t choose to tell us much about the charity work Amma does and even her hugs are presented as mere statistics. There is more to a hug than just numbers in my opinion, you'll know if you ever hugged anyone.....or may be I am being too harsh on Kounen.

Do I even need to say more-its Friday night-am just back from work and completely tired, so I guess i’ll take leave for now. May be I am over-reacting, may be not. Afterall, the guy has made this movie on a shoe-string budget and made a movie about an Indian mother, a woman who’s hugging millions and doing charity tirelessly-is that what I am expected to day (one more cliche’ and this takes the cake).

Happy Diwali and have fun.....