shit…, endnote, silent as a fish

the first day of the vikalp festival festival at national college and sonal, namrtat and me got there after college. i was not really looking forward to watching the first film after having suffered through the music video made parallel with it, where shots of mountains of shit was overlaid with a.r. rehmans patriotic bluster for irony’s sake.

but the long version of the movie was surprisingly good. the film told the story of the daily ritual of a dalit woman employed to clean a street being used as a toilet in madurai, without sensationalizing the humiliating nature of the work or working on cheap guilt inducing techniques of the audience. it appealed to the rationality of the audience as much as the emotive side- thankfully.

‘endnote’ was a ‘experimental’ film that left me flabbergasted. based on a play by samuel beckett, it seemed to be about the friendship between three women and a common secret. esoteric and pretentious, i was completely left cold by the over treated, pointless meanderings. it seemed indulgent and unnecessarily intellectualized. i understand the urge for a poetic explorations, but in such a case shouldn’t the image be poetic itself and not treated like a badly made indian music video?

'silent as a fish' was the belgian film that i did manage to catch before leaving for home. in it the simple act of the making of a rational stuffed fish dish and its place in the rituals of jewish life was made into a meditation on violence, the arab and jewish issue, and family. very nice.