April 12th, 2008
Godard’s ‘Le Petit Soldat’ + Evening With My New Friend From Bollywood
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Undeterred by my earlier escapade with ‘The French Touch’ festival, I returned to the Alliance Francaise auditorium on Thursday evening to watch Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 film ‘Le Petit Soldat’ (’The Little Soldier’).
Set against the backdrop of the Algerian War, the film narrates the tragic love story of Michel Subord and Anna Karina who fall in love in spite of belonging to warring terrorist groups. The film pulsates with the same restless energy as ‘Breathless’, my favorite Godard movie, which was screened at the festival earlier on Tuesday. So, in spite of the little anti-climax at the end, when the DVD stuck and wouldn’t play, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, or at least the part of the movie I did watch.
After the movie I ran into G.K. Desai, a Bollywood actor and producer, who has worked in several of Madhur Bhandarkar’s movies.
GK and I first met each other at a 24 hour film festival a few months ago when we watched six movies back to back on a weekend. We again spent half a day together at the Tri Continental Film Festival in January. In fact, at every film festival I now attend, I almost except to see him in his really cute attire of denim shorts, ‘I love California’ t-shirts and baseball cap.
GK has great knowledge of both Bollywood and world cinema and we have much to talk about every time we meet. When we met last time, I had offered my living room as a possible venue for the next 24 hour film festival. GK brought it up, as we walked out of the auditorium, and we spent the rest of the evening at my place talking about life and movies over drinks.
I think GK is greatly amused at my total lack of interest in Bollywood news and gossip. I hardly watch any Hindi movies and I’m totally clueless about who’s making which movie or who’s dating whom. I think that’s part of the reason why we get along so well.
So, we talked for hours about my off consumption experiment, his Hollywood movie ‘The Ode’, and why ‘Chinatown’ deserves to be in every list of hundred best movies ever made.
A little after midnight, after we had run through my stock of Fosters beer and Jack Daniels whiskey, we were listening to John Mayer’s ‘Something’s Missing’ on repeat, when he asked me –
GK: I don’t understand why you like this song so much. What’s so special about this song?
Gaurav: I love how he talks about having it all and hunger in the same sentence. See. (rewinds and plays the relevant part)
I’m dizzy from the shopping mall
I searched for joy but I bought it all
It doesn’t help the hunger pains
And a thirst I’d have to drown first to ever satiate
GK: (thinking) That’s almost like hawas, isn’t it? No, not hawas, maybe lalsa.
Gaurav: No, both hawas and lalsa are very specific forms of longing; what I feel is even more vague than lalsa.
GK: (laughing) Even more vague than lalsa! Gaurav, tum yaa to bilkul pagal ho yaa bahut profound ho!
It’s true, isn’t it? Only a madman would embark on an experiment like mine, searching for something that’s missing, something that’s even more vague than longing.
