WIXLIB

4THE PEACOCKTUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 2021THE TASTE OF PHO:CULINARY CINEMABY KAVITA MASTHOFFWarsaw doesn’t evokefeelings of multiethnicity.Nonetheless, it has a vibrantVietnamese community,which is one of the largest minorityethnic groups in the city. Today, Warsawis transforming into a melting pot ofcultures and that is what Mariko Bobrik,a Japanese director settled in Poland,dissects so beautifully and charmingly inThe Taste of Pho (2019).The focus of this Polish-Vietnamesefilm is on the large Vietnamesecommunity residing in Warsaw. Thename of the film could mislead a fewThere’s no social distancingin the queues;there are people tugging atmy shirt. Thereis no staff tokeep peoplein check. Whyis there noprotectionAdrianD’Cunha,RetiredConsultantGoato believe that they will embark on agastronomic journey, but The Taste ofPho is not about food. Rather, the iconicVietnamese dish represents a connectionto the past, and embracing the future,and family love. The movie hopes tostimulate emotions and Mariko Bobrikwholeheartedly succeeds with thischarming and thought-provoking drama.Long (Thang Long Do) works in anunassuming Vietnamese eatery and isa master creator of Pho. He has loyalcustomers, who throng the eatery tosavor this delicacy of beef and noodles.Long adheres to a strict daily routineand the repetitive actions of ironing hisdaughter’s pleated skirt and preparingher lunchbox, filled with Vietnamesefood, give him solace.Maya (Lena Nguyen), the 10-year-olddaughter, is battling the void left bythe demise of her Polish mother. Shewould rather eat Polish food than theVietnamese fare her father gives hereach day for school. While Maya lovesher father, she has issues revealing herfeelings and letting go of the past. Sheworries that her father will forget hermother and shift his attention to thesultry neighbor played by AleksandraDomanska. This prompts her to spy onthe neighbor and adds a fun elementto the movie. Long, on the other hand,is too steeped in his problems anddoesn’t notice the turmoil brewing inhis daughter. The owner of the eaterydecides to relocate to Vietnam andsells his business to a Polish man, whoconverts it to a sushi restaurant.Long is pulled between his Vietnameseroots and his adopted country’s culture.Bobrik uses unobstrusive hints to showthat Long was better able to cope withthis mishmash of identity while his wifewas alive and now, he is clinging to thepast that is long gone but it is his escape,Because ofCOVID, thisIFFI has lessresponse. Eventhe governmenthas restrictedthe registerednumber ofdelegates. It isgood but it islimited.We feel safe,privileged andhonored tobe here. Wejust saw onefilm on autismwhich nDacunha,DelegateGoaa safe haven. Long still believes thatgirls wear pleated skirts to school (likein Vietnam) and has no idea that Mayachanges into a pair of jeans the momentshe turns the corner. He prefers to getthings repaired instead of wasting moneyon buying new stuff unless spare partsare not available, like what happens tohis decrepit washing machine.As Long struggles to learn how tomake sushi and yearns for the old daysof Pho, he embarks on a journey of selfdiscovery and acceptance. The moviegradually reveals how Long adapts andresolves the issues plaguing his family.The Taste of Pho is Bobrik’s firstdirectorial venture. She ensures that thestory is not overdramatized. Instead, ithas a discerning storytelling touch toit. Viewers see rather than being told.Bobrik exquisitely uses objects to portrayprotagonists and their feelings andemotions. The warmly-lit interiors of thehouse convey the warmth of feelings andcloseness even though the father anddaughter relationship is troubled.Instead of making it region-specific,Bobrik ensures that the film has auniversal perspective so that viewers canidentify with family ties and alienation,and routine of everyday life. The Tasteof Pho takes viewers on a heartwarmingjourney of a family in its quest to findinner bliss and contentment.In the end, The Taste of Pho beautifullyshowcases the ramifications of migrationand how the older generation struggleswith changing culture while the youngergeneration effortlessly embraces andslips into the culture of the country theyare born in. The film score by Aki Takasedoes justice to the film with its enjoyablerhythm.The Taste of Pho is being screenedat Kala Academy (C53) at 18:00 on 19January 2021.IFFI is toogood. InOur World,about autisticchildren,showed theirwhole journeyas well as thatof their parentsand othersconnected tothem. It wasgreat.Jothi Shetty,Hotel ProprietorMumbai

THE PEACOCKTUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 20215THE APSARA OPPORTUNITYBY SUYASH KAMATOver the last 30 years or so,Madhu Apsara, a sounddesigner and professor,has silently played a crucialpart in many landmark Indian filmsand documentaries. Frequentlycollaborating with filmmakers likeSudhir Mishra and Sriram Raghavan,Apsara’s work always maintained therare ability to keep the narrative ofthe film at the fore while still retainingthe distinct quality of his design. ThePeacock virtually attended his class onSound Design & Cinema.‘How did sound come to cinemaand what did it do to it?’ ProfessorMadhu Apsara began by taking us backto the silent era of cinema. ‘Peoplewere happy with silent picture. Soundwasn’t a requirement.’ But over 20-30years, in the early 1900s, sound andmusic slowly started becoming a partof cinema. ‘While the images and titlecards conveyed the narrative, therewas a looming question of holdingthe attention of audiences.’ At thisstage, practitioners bought in the useof music played by orchestras thattravelled with the films. At times, thescore travelled and different orchestrasplayed them, primarily to cue theemotion on screen.But much like the introductionof any new element to an alreadyexisting method, sound wasn’tinvited wholeheartedly by a lot ofestablished silent era film directors,including Charlie Chaplin & AlfredHitchcock. ‘Hitchcock believed thatsound had taken purity out of thecinema.’ However, it’s not Hitchcock’sapprehension but his insight about thefunction of sound in the larger contextof storytelling that Madhu Apsarahighlighted upon. “At some level, weare still facing the same problemsthey faced despite the advances inIFFI is anopportunity towatch movieswith noncommercialconcepts. Wesaw movieswithoutdialogues,and had tounderstandmore bywatching thanlistening!Mark FernandesStudent, Goatechnology and the evolution of ourrelationship of working with sound”.Ironically, at this point, we can alsohear a few other sounds in thebackground of this class,which is an attempt atvirtually holding thesession withoutglitches.But sound hasevolved from that eraand Madhu Apsarabegan exploringthe history of soundthrough the approachessought by directors whochanged the form of cinema.“When Hitchcock beganworking with sound, at times, hewasn’t even bothered about whatdialogue was spoken, but insteadFor seniors it isnot comfortableas we find itdifficult toconstantlylook at phonescreens fordetails. Theremust besomething inprinted formatas well.Rispal SinghVikal,DirectorBombayabout how it sounded.” This idea ofworking with inflection instead of justinformation is what Apsara believesremains an extremely crucial aspectof how films sound. “Soundbeing parallel to the imagehas taken away theimportance of what itdoes to the cinema.”Federico Fellini,another master ofthe craft, similarlywrote dialoguesthat had a rhythmto them. “Fellinicomposed musicbefore he wrote a scene tounderstand the tonality of thescene and ultimately, never even usedthat music in the film. He even usedpitch variations to define differentI want towatch perioddramas anddocumentariesas I lovelarger-than-liferealistic films,which createan empatheticconnectionwith theaudience.Tharani Gosa,FilmmakerHyderabadcharacters.” Building upon the contextof rhythm, Apsara highlighted thework of Robert Bresson, who soughttemporality in his form through theuse of sound. “Bresson’s idea of theimage was about presenting, notrepresenting. To him, the emotionaltogetherness of the sound and thepicture is what created the image.”Back home, in India, Madhu Apsaraspoke about the work of Ritwik Ghatakand Mani Kaul. While Ritwik Ghatak’swork was sentimental, for Mani Kaulrestrain was the key. These definedpersonal approaches to cinema arereflected in their use of sound beyondthe conventional ideas of conveyinginformation. “In Meghe Dhaka Tara(1960), the use of sound in certainscenes doesn’t have any relation to thelocation. These sounds are aestheticinstruments. Sound then becomes ametaphor and conveys an emotionthat is beyond the image.” Mani Kaul,whose practice is associated withBresson’s approach to cinema, wasequally interested in the temporalityand rhythm that sound bought tothe medium. “Mani would designthe movement of a shot and explainits rhythm to the cinematographerby singing a phrase in the form of analaap. This sensation and emotion ofthe movement were communicatedonly through sound. And this reflectedin his cinema.”Ultimately, through the journeyof the associations held by directorswith sound, Madhu Apsara urgedeach attendee to find their personalconnection with sound. “Each of usgoes through sound experiences. Weare always experiencing the vibrationsof sound. It’s the last sensation thatshuts down when we go to sleep.That’s when live sound and dreamsound mix together. When we observethese, we realize how deeply theseaffect our subconscious.”I watchedPather Panchali (1955) for thetwentieth time,but on the bigscreen. I missthe crowdsand having apersonal hardcopy of the filmschedule.SobitaKudtarkar,ActorGoa

6TUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 2021PEANUT GALLERY: NADIA DE SOUZA‘Tim’s just masking his territory ‘

THE PEACOCKTUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 20217“YOU NEED TO HAVE CONVICTION ANDBELIEVE IN YOUR STORY TO MAKE IT”Every year, the selectioncommittee faces the difficulttask of shortlisting films forcinema lovers. This year we seesome budding young talent presentingtheir debut work at IFFI. Oru PaathiraSwapnam Pole (Like A Midnight Dream) isabout a mother who is diagnosed withcancer, and simultaneously discoversa nude video of her daughter onher laptop. It focuses on concurrentconflicts in the life of a mother, who hasto deal with her medical condition andquestion the way to control and protecther daughter.The film is shot in Kochi and portraysthe private lives of the characters.Informing The Peacock about theconcept, director, Sharan Venugopal,said that he doesn’t like to share spaceoften with people and is a man of fewwords. He connected with a short storytitled Vaibhavam written by his friendSusmesh Chandroth about exploringkinship ties in a private space. Hechanced upon this and made the filmas his diploma project as a student atSatyajit Ray Film and TelevisionInstitute, Kolkata. He is gratefulto his mentor, Putul Mehmood,from Satyajit Ray Film andTelevision Institute for herguidance during the film. Hetook a group of his closeconfidants onboard. Hewas skeptical about therelease of the film dueto the pandemic but isdelighted to be a part ofIFFI. He is also happy thatSouth Indian actor NadiyaMoidu played the role ofthe mother in the film.A significant aspect of the makingof the film was that it brought youngfilmmakers from different statestogether to produce a regionalMalayalam film. Sharan is from Kerala,Koustabh Mukherjee from Bengal isthe cinematographer, Jyoti SwaroopPanda from Odisha did the editing,Prathik Sonkar from Madhya Pradeshworked on sound, and Prateek Bagifrom Punjab is the producer. “Languagedoesn’t play a role in making a film. Weneed to understand the concept and bethorough with executing the project,”said Prateek.Speaking about portraying twowomen characters as a male filmmaker,Sharan said, “A filmmaker has to learnto be sensitive to understand charactersirrespective of gender. Mainstreamcinema, unfortunately, conforms tothe stereotype of using the male gazerather than depict the sensitive side. Iwanted to make a film in a sympatheticway. I have been inspired by the workof Polish director, Krzysztof Kieslowski,who has made films on women despitebeing a male filmmaker. We need morerepresentation from women in cinemaand I hope young women are inspiredto make more films,” Sharan said.The film also deals with theconflicting relationships betweenparents and children. Speaking aboutthis, Sharan reflected that in our culture,it is common for parents to want tocontrol the lives of their children whenthe latter seeks independence. Yet inthe film, the mother is a liberal womanwho encourages open conversationsdespite wanting to be conservative andassertive. The film encourages suchopen conversations.A great part of the film is based ina closed setting, a house with fewshots outdoors. “While working in aprivate setting, you need to understandthe mood of the scene and the wayyou have to communicate the same.I planned the movment accordingly”,Kaustabh said.Sharan plans to work more on filmsthat explore interpersonal relationships.“You need to have conviction andbelieve in your story to make it”, hesaid.Photo by Assavri KulkarniBY CHRISTAL FERRAO

TUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 2021THE SCOREIllustration: Pakhi Sen8“FREELY INSPIRED”BY DR. LUIS DIASThose are the words used byfamed Spanish filmmaker,director, screenwriter, producer,and former actor PedroAlmodóvar to qualify his film, The HumanVoice (2020), an adaptation of the Frenchpoet, playwright, novelist, designer,filmmaker, visual artist and critic JeanCocteau’s 1930 play Une Voix Humaine.The challenge Almodóvar faced wasturning a play lasting around 20 minutesor so into a feature-length film, andmaking it relevant to a contemporaryaudience. Cocteau’s play is set aroundjust one woman on stage speakingon the telephone to a lover (invisible,inaudible) at the other end of the linewho has decided to leave her to marryanother woman. In his introduction tothe script, Cocteau admitted that theplay was written in response to criticismfrom his actresses that his works weretoo “writer/director-dominated”, leavingthem little opportunity to give vent totheir histrionic range more fully.The play has already been adaptedby Roberto Rossellini (L’Amore, 1948,the second segment of which, Una VoceUmana is based on Cocteau’s work), andeven an opera (1958) by the great Frenchpianist-composer François Poulenc thatCocteau loved very much. Other filmadaptations include a television versionstarring Ingrid Bergman.Almodóvar wrote a new script, “freelyinspired” by Cocteau of course. And, hechose Scottish narrator and actress TildaSwinton for the singular role. He felt an“exceptional chemistry” with Swinton,translating from Spanish that theywere “condemned to be friends.” ToSwinton, despite their different originsand backgrounds, they share a commonlanguage and “culture of cinema.” Sowhen Almodóvar wished to draw out acertain emotion from her at a particularpoint, he would use cinematic referencesand metaphors, and she would get it atonce.In retrospect, even though it wasconceptualized before the Coronaviruspandemic struck, Almodóvar feels TheHuman Voice (which is also his Englishlanguage debut; all his other formidablework is in Spanish) has even morerelevance as it depicts the seclusion,isolation, and loneliness of someoneliving alone, shut off from the rest of theworld. “She’s almost imprisoned, isn’tshe?” he said through a translator viaZoom interview to Eugene Hernandez,Director of the New York Film Festival.“It turned out, just by coincidence, tobe a metaphor for the lockdown in thepandemic. Reality often slips in throughthe cracks of what you’re doing.”Almodóvar calls this film “a mixbetween the essence of theatre with theessence of cinema”, far from realism ornaturalism. The film title is apt, as theonly real element in it which guides theviewer, the continuity element of thefilm is “solely and exclusively” Swinton’svoice. The setting is “ghostly”, asSwinton’s character is “almost a ghostherself.”To Swinton, the tension in the originalCocteau play, between the protagonistwanting to tell her once-lover everythingabout her feelings to show him herpain on the one hand, and wanting tocreate a complete fabrication, on theother, and doing that on the telephone,which allows one to hear but not see theother was intriguing to her; the fine linebetween “inarticulacy and articulacy.”Almodóvar’s text is also about that same“dance”, that same “performance”; afterall, the character is an actress. It (beingjilted) is a predicament a lot of us 21 andabove have lived through, says Swinton.“Everyone who has been abandoned isalready in a soap opera.” The “twist andturn of sincerity and deception” makes ita rich text in Swinton’s view.Almodóvar compares the sentimentalepic nature of the abandoned woman’sfeelings, the heightened emotions thather character has to the musical stylepopular in his culture, the ‘bolero’;“the exaggerated way of living youremotions, the ups and downs, fromone extreme to the other, from feelingblissfully happy to feeling dreadful.”It calls for an actress with a wholevariety of registers, and he found this inSwinton.Spanish composer Alberto Iglesias hascollaborated with Almodóvar in all hisfilms after their first partnership in Laflor de mi secreto (The Flower of My Secret,1995), the last nine of Almodóvar’s 22feature-length films. That’s saying a lot,as before that Almodóvar has workedwith the legendary Ennio Morricone(Átame!, 1989) and Ryûichi Sakamoto(High Heels, 1991).Film fans will also have heardthe music of Iglesias in other, nonAlmodóvarian films, classics such asThe Constant Gardener (2005), The KiteRunner (2007), and Tinker Tailor SoldierSpy (2011). The Human Voice has a100% approval rating on the reviewaggregator website Rotten Tomatoes,with a weighted average of 9/10. Whenasked some years ago for the secret ofthe success of his films, Almodóvar hadreplied, “It’s important not to forget thatfilms are made to entertain. That’s thekey.”With such a stellar combination ofcollaborators, The Human Voice promisesto do exactly that.Dr. Luis Dias is a physician, musician,writer and founder of music educationcharity Child’s Play India Foundation www.childsplayindia.org. He blogs atwww.luisdias.wordpress.com.

THE THIRD EYETUESDAY, 19 JANUARY 20219THE MATURITY OFMIXED EMOTIONSBY DR RACHANA PATNIEIllustration: Raimotional intelligence is an areaof research and applicationpoised to grow even further inimportance in influencing oursocial world. An essential building blockof emotional intelligence is emotionalliteracy, which is linked to and helps withanother important aspect of emotionalintelligence, self-awareness.I work with (willing) others on theiremotional literacy because it turns outthat we are often not exactly on pointin feeling what it is we are feeling andwe often turn to knowing what it is thatwe are feeling, and make several moremistakes of omission and commission ingauging. If we go by how we are behavingto get a sense of what we are feeling,the mistakes may become even moreprominent as there are many diversionsbetween feeling and action. To share acommon example, children may behaveas if they are angry when the feeling theyare struggling with is that of sadness.As a parent, I often get the chance toexperience this, and I am aware that Ihave used anger to save myself fromfeeling the other emotions that makeme feel a lot more vulnerable. Anger,therefore, becomes a good diversiontactic and fear is often the motivationbehind those diversions.Our engagement with our emotionsis a creative undertaking and while itcan be pretty accurate, it is also beingconstructed narratively, and therefore itis reasonably open to re-storying. The restorying is best done with the intentionof clearing out any emotional debris fromour unprocessed emotional backlog,which may corrupt our experience of ourfeelings in the present moment.What are the ways in which we maycorrupt what we are feeling? Most of thetime, we bring unprocessed sedimentsof our past experiences into the present.In doing so, we let our past experiencesimpact our perception, physiologi

films. Mario Puzo's The Godfather (1969) was made into a film by the same title. Soon after the novel was published, Paramount Pictures, who saw the potential, jumped on it to get the rights from the author, even before the novel became popular. The screenplay was written by Francis Ford Coppola, with Puzo as co-writer. The novel