Incomprehensible!

Never in my wildest dreams did I dream that there would be a day when I would watch a foreign language movie with Spanish subtitles and still be moved to tears many times during those 90 minutes. Not a single word could be understood, except for the names of the brother and sister, Ali and Zahra. But how wonderfully did the director convey to me what he wanted to.

A foreign-language-movie-phobia started to me way back in the innocent days when only one Television channel, Doordarshan, was available. Trapped at home on Sunday afternoons, I would become super bored because, apart from other reasons, there would be a regional language movie coming on Television. They may have been good movies but I never attempted to watch them since they were slow and were in an unknown-to-me language.

‘Children of Heaven’ is the first foreign language movie I have seen from the beginning till the end. Although I heard about it some years back and also saw the last 10 minutes of the movie but I never cared to watch it from beginning , until recently when while having a discussion with a friend, the name of a movie ‘bum bum bole’ popped up and so I decided to download the original version. I was expecting to download atleast a one that had English subtitles but to my utter disappointment it had Spanish. I somehow resisted the urge to download a better version and decided to watch it as it was.

After those 90 mins, an old belief that words are a poor medium of communication just got reinforced. Instead its love and emotions which are always a better choice since they always mean what they express and also they always seem to have the right tone, pitch, volume and modulation.

An old couple who silently walk down the lane holding hands communicate quite a lot and quite clearly than a young couple who slug each other with well rehearsed lines which they feel can have the maximum impact.

I wonder if one had known then what one has known now.

Anyways, in the times when movie makers are falling on top of each other to show the realities of life and provoke invaluable thoughts and provide priceless peek into a real world by brazenly uncladding the darker side of life, be it violence or fashion or corruption or politics or child abuse or terrorism or flesh trade, you name it and they have it on their menu, but ending up foolishly or wickedly glorifying them thereby propagating and popularizing them… and here is a man who chose a simple incident of Ali innocently losing his sister’s school shoes to build it into a series of events which were far more real and close to the world in which we live or a world which we are rapidly losing.

I wonder the utility of a scene of a glorified gangster ruthlessly butchering another gangster in broad daylight or an upcoming model compromising her modesty for the sake of a role in a movie or a group of married couples exchanging their partners in the name of socializing and sexual freedom; in contrast to a scene where the brother and sister walking angrily towards the home of the girl who, they thought, had stolen their shoes, but finding that she is even more destitute with a blind beggar for a father, look at each other with heart felt remorse and walk back to their own shack with drooped heads and shoulders or that last scene where Ali mistakenly wins the race and comes back home to his sister whom he promised a pair of shoes which he would get for a prize by coming 3^rd. The whole community regards him as a champ but in his own eyes he failed since he could not keep the promise which he made to his little sister.

What are we being served on various mediums of mass communication with the justification that this is what the audience wants to see? Is the justification justified?

I am sure most of you must have watched this movie since it’s not something ‘missable’, but if you haven’t, please don’t waste anymore time.

Lastly, there is one more thing which got reinforced in me. When a disciple asked Jesus, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ Jesus gave a fascinating answer.

‘He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” ‘– (Matthew 18: 2-4, NIV)

It’s just appropriate that the movie ends with all the goldfishes in the tank huddling around the little boy’s blistered feet to kiss and comfort him. After all he was a child from heaven.