IFFK Day-3 Morning

Makhmalbaf’s experiments with India

Once again IFFK audience has been enlightened by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. This time with Scream Of The Ants, which can be labeled as a docu-comedy on India, its religions and Mahatma Gandhi. This is a sort of film that can launch a thousand protest rallies and hartals in India, if RSS or BJP leaders happen to see this movie. Bal Thackeray may well issue a death threat. The film is about an Iranian couple who are poles apart when it comes to their ideologies. The husband is a communist. But unlike the communists in Kerala, he is an atheist too. But the wife is like traditional Kerala woman: religious and good-looking. They have come to India for their honeymoon and in search of a ‘Complete man” who, they were told, could solve their differences. On the way they encounter a South Indian journalist in a train. Through him they meet a saint who can stop the train with his eyes. After some scenes with the saint which are laced with extreme black comedy, the couples move on in pursuit of the “Complete man”. They meet several other people on the way and finally end up at the river Ganga. There they seek the meaning of life further, amidst burning dead bodies. Did they get their answer? Well, they do, but in ambiguous prose from the 'Complete man' himself: “... in the dew drop on a leaf in my garden, lies the entire universe”. The 'Complete Man" does not wear Reymonds. In fact he is a half naked old man who claims himself to be a "cow man".

The film is a dispassionate analysis of the relation between ideologies and the lives of human beings. Some scenes will surely linger in the mind for sometime. In one of the final scenes, the Arab woman is shown taking a holy dip in the river Ganga in front of some stark naked Sadhus. Another scene is when a European man whom they meet in Banaras tells them life is full of shit and different faiths interpret this faith in different ways. And he goes on to mimic how each faith would define this shitty life.

Now I am going to race to Kripa Theatre for watching Cache, directed by Michael Haneke. Judging by yesterday’s trend, it will be pretty hard to get a seat if I go there just in time.