Gently Falls the Bakula

Title: Gently Falls the Bakula

Author: Sudha Murthy

Genre: Fiction, Light Drama

Written originally in Kannada some thirty years back, this small fiction by Sudha Murthy is the tale of a lower middle class couple from North Karnataka and their struggle to find their own individuality. Srikanth and Srimati are neighbors in Hubli, their houses separated by a not-so-beautiful-but-still-so ‘bakula’ tree. Both of them are the treat of the school each standing first or second in the class. Childhood competition slowly culminates into romance inspite of rivalries between the two families. While Srikanth goes to ‘Bombay’ to study in IIT; Srimati, who was incidentally academically better than him stayed back to study her passion for history. They get married and while Srikanth rises meteorically in his career, Srimati has a hard time discovering her true purpose of existence. And hence begin a struggle of a brilliant house wife to find her own happiness.

The book is written in a very simple language and though the subject matter deals with emotions of every day life of a couple, it fails to keep the reader interested in the subject. We see these kind of stories everyday now. In daily soaps and in the neighborhood. The story is definitely short and precise but in the end you will feel that it’s incomplete. I won’t say more tragedy would have done any justice to the novel. But somehow, one is unable to feel the emotions that Srimati goes through. The choice of words and the simple writing style may well be the bane of this novel.

What one can understand from this novel though is that there is a perspective to everything. Men who have to earn a family’s bread have to be ambitious and hard-working and motivated but do they have the right to neglect their family in the process? Women have to manage a home and take care of the kids but do they really lose their own integrity in the process? The book raises societal questions. And though no one turns out to be wrong, the question of who is right and whose sacrifice is greater than the other looms. This book is hence a debate between men and women. Perspective, as it is, always ends in a question mark.

Rajneeti

Title: Rajneeti

Director: Prakash Jha
Actors: Ranbir Kapoor, Ajay Devgan, Manoj Bajpai, Nana Patekar, Katrina Kaif

My comments: Story or Reality? What’s worth?

You can watch this movie with two angles. Story and reality. As far as story is considered there is no doubt it is a very good story. But wasn’t Mahabharata a very good story as well. Inspired mildly by the epic Mahabharata this is the story of a political family torn between war for the power of a state. After an attack to the elder brother, the son of younger brother (Prithvi, Arjun Rampal) is left with the reigns of the family politics leaving the son (Veerendra Pratap Singh, Manoj Bajpai) of the elder brother seething with rage who, with the help of a dalit leader (Suraj, Ajay Devgan) wants to lead the state into a political turmoil. But in comes the Arjun or Ranbir Kapoor helped by mamaji – Nana Patekar, who saves the day for his family with sheer Michael Corleone style Godfather tactics, eliminating each and every piece of the chess quite systematically and ruthlessly. Now this is the story we have read and appreciated in both the Mahabharata (there is a scene between Suraj and his birth mother resembling the scene between Karna and Kunti in the epic) and the Godfather. The interest really builds up when Katrina comes in a simple plain saree to take the command but doesn’t last long enough.


What can be appreciated with this angle in movie is the acting of the star cast. Every single actor in the movie has given an absolutely brilliant performance. Whether it be Manoj Bajpai as the jealous cousin or Nana Patekar as the politico giant. Arjun Rampal has done a fab job with his angry yet loving image of a country politician. Ajay Devgan has again proved why he is the master of silent roles. Ranbir Kapoor, too, tries and break away from the ‘lover boy’ tag pasted upon him and brings in refreshing performance.

But now we must consider the other angle. Reality. There are many questions we should ask ourselves after watching this movie. Do people really break each other’s rallies? Do people really go for a killing spree as a solution for a political motive? Is the solution to every problem killing your opponent? If you see these questions, then Rajneeti won’t seem as impressive as it is made to be. Good story but probably not in the current context of things. Good acting but probably not the real world scenarios.

The movie is good or made out to be good? Only you can watch and tell. But its definitely worth watching once. If for nothing else, go and watch it to see Mahabharata brought onto the screen for the first time in a stylized vision.