I love the movie “Makkhi” in Hindi and “eeee” in Tamil (both dubbed from Telugu) and
have seen it perhaps a dozen times. Isn’t that movie for pre-teen and teens? What
is in it for a 67 year old who has seen that, been there, done that etc.?
It
is just that in the movie I find a number of teachable moments. Though I am
vehemently against the concept of rebirth (because no one has ever given a reasonably
cogent response to the question what is being reborn), and taking the fruit fly
coming out of its pupa case (cocoon) through a series of hazards. This is the section
of the film that arrests me.
It
may take at least a second viewing before one (who is as dumb as I am) to
realize that every frame of the series of hazards the fruit fly meets in the
process of its development foretells the events that would unfold. Getting free
of the fuzz of the tennis ball – getting free of the cobweb underneath a chair,
for example. And so on …
What
is so great about that?
Only
that if you look at how a human baby learns to navigate the world around it,
you would relate the congruity between the development of the fruit fly into
its adult form and capabilities and that of the human baby. Developmental
process is vividly described in those, say, ten minutes. A baby would reach a
wall because the wall is of some use to the baby. It can lean on the wall and
get support from it and sidle along it.
Am I
reading too much into this? I say, no. In one of the so-called art movies, I
saw a naked woman flit through the screen repeatedly and all those connoisseurs
of such movies with whom I was watching could not make any sense at all.
Compare
the above with what I read into Makkhi. I am OK.
There
are certain frames, like the fruit fly rolling a lit cigarette by itself that
might raise some questions on the mechanics part. Just ask yourself how you can
be standing/still on a swing one moment and without any help from an external
agency start swinging by contorting your body. The teachable moment!
I am
not saying that there are no technical miscues. There could be. But, that is
losing the forest for the trees.
It
is, after all is said and done, a masala movie, for the masses with a tenuous
story line, with subtle and not slap stick humour, but tries to rise above these
in spots. It succeeds. It is for those
spots I appreciate the movie.
And,
you should too.
Raghuram
Ekambaram
2 comments:
The director of this movie is Mr. Raja mouli who also directed the mega hit movie Bahubali. The concept that a fly can take revenge was very new and hence it was a successful movie in all languages (not sure whether it was a copy of any English movie).
Thank you Mr. Subramanian for adding to the post. For me the movie struck a chord as a teaching moment of evolutionary biology.
Thank you.
Raghuram
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