aan. andaz . ponyo on the cliff . where the wild things are. nine

in both films mehboob seems to have an ambivalent relationship with modernity. modernity in both cases inolvbes a woman in trousers. in ‘aan’ it is the feisty rajkumari played by nadira; and in ‘andaz’ it is nargis who believes in the possibility of a platonic relationship between the two sexes. as much as he loves both these women he cant help but tame the tigress in the first film and make the innocent seductress suffer for blurring the lines between the romantic and the platonic. it is the nargis character who actually voices the question- when at the end before she is taken away to be hanged for her brazen disregard for the rules of a society caught between the traditional and the modern. while mehboob does let her hang, you cant help but feel sorry for the free spirited woman done in by the suspicion of a regressive society.

‘aan’ was over the top glorious madness. the sets oozed over with colours and patterns that justified the technicolour madness. the reptile jaws over the dungeon in the palace and the swimming pool with the lotuses and statues were only two such examples in a film packed to the brim with ideas. but even within this excess the dream sequence where nadira plays the village girl to nimmi’s princess is really the icing on the cake.

no one can call ‘where the wild things are’ a children’s film really. spectacularly produced and absolutely original in the way that it is conceived the film is still a complete downer. a lonely child finds friends and gets lonely again in a group of wild animals on an island in the middle of the ocean. these animals themselves are suffering as much as the lonely boy himself. unfortunately in spite of all the visual genius at heart the film remains a precocious mind’s fantasy about escape from suburban ennui into a childrens fantasy. and it has been done before.

the childrens fantasy of ponyo on the cliff is far more satisfying. ponyo being the lost fish-girl who develops an intense affection for a little boy and follows him home turning the whle world upside down and flooding the island on which he lives. the animation like so many miyazaki films is gentle and gorgeous.

not that i am a fellini puritan in any way- but if you really want to remake a film that makes so many films buff’s hearts beat faster you need to have a little more reason to do it that having ten hot women who can sing and dance (well- most can) in your cast. besides penelope cruz who sizzles thorugh every frame that she is in none of the other women get to do more than shake their derrieres in different versions of the same big show stopper. the songs are uniformly awful- even the supposed hit ‘cinema italiano’. and poor judy dench. so incredibly unimaginative it makes you weep.