TriNetre - Archive for July 18, 2003
(no longer updated)
July 18, 2003
English, August - A poignant, funny movie
[Movies]
@ 11:02 AM
Watched "English, August" yesterday. This was the last film to be screened as a part of Indigo Film Festival. It is the story of a young guy who passes IAS (Indian Administrative Service) exam and is posted to Madna village in Andra Pradesh. As the review at the Indigo website states " English, August is sprightly, profane, irreverent, erotic and wicked."
A funny yet poignant look at the village life in India (about 10 years ago), filled with confusion, chaos, despair and poverty. There are a couple of gems of a dialog in the movie. August, whose actual name is Agastya, is initially bombarded by almost everyone he meets with questions about his "unusual" name. The only time he actually tries to explain the meaning is the first time during his train journey. Next time on wards comes his "weird" interpretation - the guy who flushes the toilet and then starts peeing, with the aim of finishing the pee before the water runs out etc.. etc..One of the funniest dialog in the movie comes when discussing the subject of Bhagawat Gita. August finds a book on Gita in the house of Sathe, a cartoonist. Sathe the cartoonist expresses shock when he learns that August had not read the Gita and the reasons that most Bengalis have not read the Gita because they have not been able to establish that it was written by one of them! :)
In short, a fitting end to a good film festival. However, I am bit concerned about one thing. For all the 4 films I went to, there was a respectable number of non-Indian crowd (Caucasians, Chinese and Malay) to watch the movie. Would they have been able to understand the context and the subtle look at some of the issues highlighted in the movies?
