SAAWARIYA MOVIE REACTION

We
could, of course, conclude that the story happened in an Indian
community because of the people, culture,and religious
beliefs portrayed and depicted by the characters in the movie.
First
and foremost, one thing that first caught my attention during were
the beautiful fancy housing and structure in the setting. It made me
think then and there that India is such a magnificent place to live
with all those dangling lights and intricately designed mud brick
houses, creatively carved street walls and roads with creeks where
you row a luxurious boat to venture another street. Everything seemed
perfect and magical. But according to fact, India is not that much of
a dreamland.
According
to the Times of India, "a majority of Indians have per
capita space equivalent to or less than a 10 feet x 10 feet room for
their living, sleeping, cooking, washing and toilet needs and one in
every three urban Indians lives in homes too cramped to exceed even
the minimum requirements of a prison cell in the US. The average is
103 sq ft per person in rural areas and 117 sq ft per person in urban
areas.
Only
44 percent of rural households have access to electricity. Although 
cities have better facilities than villages, no city in India
provides full-day water supply .Some 700 million Indians do not have
access to a proper toilet. Open defecation is widespread even in
urban areas of India.
The
set is purposely designed to romanticize the characters and the story
itself. Effectively, it made a romantic aura throughout the movie
creating an impression to viewers who haven't known of India yet as
something very spectacular and serene. But, India is indeed beautiful
too. It is just that the setting is somewhat exaggerated to perfectly
suit the mood required for the plot.

Sakina's
potrtayal displays how conservative and demure Indian women are.
Similar to our culture, most of them are not that liberated when it
comes to men and having relationships. They were also the type of
playing hard-to-get like most Filipinas too. Aside from that, they
also believed in waiting  and the fulfillment of a promise by a
beloved like what we usually see in southeast asian movies or koreanovelas. Romances are pure and simple yet very passionate
and heart warming.
However, prostitution and
prostitues also made their part in the entire plot. They depict that,
generally, not all Indian women are not as reserved.  
There
were, normally, women who could take the face of “renting their
wares” for, mainly, financial purposes. Prostitution in India is
legal that is why, though the community may discreminate these women,
it is “socially” and legally “correct” and “accepted”.
But like Lillipop, most people sights them negatively as they don't
normally conform with the “right' norms of the society and is
considered still immoral. Gulabji is one of these women who fell in
love with the innocence and kindness of Ranbir Raj.  
There
was a scene when Raj pleaded to live with Gulabji to eventually learn
to love her in order to forget Sakina. Gulabji was outraged. That
moment, I thought that Gulabji has been that angry because she don't
want to be a “second-choice-lover” or an instrument trying to
fill an empty heart because of another woman's failure to fill it
first and is summoned as a second option to do the job. Another
reason is that because she knew she is considered one of the black
shepherds in the society, considering that she is a prostitute. She
wouldn't want that her beloved may create a similar impression to the
people because of being with her, that is to say that she wanted Raj
to maintain the good image of their town's folks to him. Most
importantly, aside from these reasons, there are legal grounds in
which Gulabji had instilled in her mind that prevents her from
accepting Raj's proposal.

Babusor pimps or
live-in lovers who live off a prostitute's earnings are guilty of a
crime. Any adult male living with a prostitute is assumed to be
guilty unless he can prove otherwise. He could be imprisoned for up
to 2 years.  

Gulabji
had just made a sacrifice which she accepts as painful and sad. But
Love, they say, is not being selfish that you mind of your own
happiness without thinking what the other may feel or could become.  
Eid al-Adhais
known as the "Festival of Sacrifice" or "Greater Bairam" celebrated by Muslims (including the Druze)
worldwide to commemorate the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son Ishmael as an act of obedience to God.  
Everything in the story ended during the celebration of eid. Not only Gulabji
was experiencing the same agony,for, like her, Raj is passing through
a very sad chapter in his love story with Sakina. I saw how deep is
her love to the maiden that he even, at some part of the movie, 'turn
from an angel
to a stone”. I saw his willingness to make Sakina's every sunrise
happier each day but fate had been so cruel that the only girl she
loved doesn't love her back. The worst is that, Sakina is in love
with another man named Imaan.
The festival of sacrifice suits the situation of Ranbir Raj
unfortunately. During that very day, his most beloved Sakina should
be set free inorder to be with her real beloved, Imaan and see her
become happier in another man's arms eventhough it meant a handful of
heartache that would keep him awake during the nights, remembering
the evenings he shared with Sakina. Though hurt and frustrated, Raj's
optism and his willingness to set her free made Sakina light hearted
to leave him and be with Imaan.  

Most
of us had been through this kind of situation. We all fell in love
but unfortunately, we are ,not at all times, loved back by the one we
love. it is even more painful to know that he/she desires somebody
else and not us. But one thing that would make us happier would be
seeing our beloved happy too even if it would mean happiness from the
other's company. Freedom from a love that he/she didn't wish for is
the most selfless and sacrificing gift we could give to someone whom
we loved most that we can't afford to see him/her imprisoned by the
kind of love we keep on offering but still wouldn't suffice the kind
of love he/she longed—and the kind of love he/she could get from
the other.

KANDAHAR MOVIE REACTION

Hidden behind a burka, Nafas, the sister from Canada, makes her way across the border with a family of refugees. When they are robbed by brigands and the family turns back, she decides to continue on her way, accompanied first by a young boy who was just expelled from a Qur'anic school, and then by an African American convert to Islam, who has become disillusioned with the turn the country has taken under the Taliban.

As the film proceeds, Nafas learns more and more about the hardships women face under the Taliban, and even more so, how years of war have destroyed Afghan society. Her African A0merican guide, hidden behind a false beard, points out to her that the only technological progress allowed in the country is weaponry. As they wander the countryside, Nafas records her impressions into a portable tape recorder hidden beneath her veils. She sees children robbing corpses to survive, people fighting over artificial limbs that they might need in case they walk through a minefield, and doctors who examine female patients from behind a curtain with a hole in it.

Nafas never reaches her sister. When her African American guide turns back, because he is afraid to enter the city of Kandahar, she follows a guide who had just scammed a pair of artificial legs out of the Red Cross. Dressed in burkas, the pair join a wedding party which is stopped by the Taliban because they are playing musical instruments and singing--forbidden by Afghan law. Her guide is taken away and she is unveiled. Captured, she seems destined to fall into the same kind of life that she hoped to help her sister escape.

An uncannily timely mix of fiction and documentary, Kandahar is Iranian director Mohsen (Gabbeh) Makhmalbaf's look at the plight of the Afghanistan people -- particularly women -- under Taliban rule. The events after Sept. 11 may have resulted in great political change in that country, but the suffering caused by famine, poverty, disease and crime remain. The world's newfound familiarity with the region's troubles only make Kandahar more compelling.

In the tradition of contemporary Iranian cinema, the story line is classically simple: Nafas (Nelofer Pazira), an Afghan-born journalist living in Canada, learns her sister, who lives in Kandahar, is planning to commit suicide during the next solar eclipse, which will take place in three days.

Desperate to reach her before it's too late, Nafas dons the requisite burka and succumbs to local tradition, essentially eradicating her own identity, while making the perilous journey to her sister's home. Her encounters along the way -- a boy kicked out of school for improperly reciting the Koran, a doctor who turns out to be an American living incognito in Afghanistan, Red Cross workers overrun by patients -- coalesce into a portrait of a country that is heartbreaking, even depressing, yet filled with an eerie beauty.

Making painterly use of vast desert landscapes, rich fabrics and striking imagery (such as a caravan of women, shrouded in colorful burkas, journeying across the sand dunes), Makhmalbaf turns Afghanistan into a surreal, alien world where misery and hope coexist side byside. The cast is mostly nonactors (including Pazira, who is herself an Afghan exile living in Canada with her family), which renders some of the line readings a bit flat.

But if the dramatics of the movie fail to engage as fully as they should, Kandahar remains fascinating as a piece of lyrical journalism -- filled with indelible moments, like a group of children being taught never to pick up dolls on the street (there is usually a land mine underneath), or a shot of hundreds of maimed men on crutches racing across the desert, eager to be the first to reach a shipment of prosthetic limbs that has been parachuted down by relief workers. It's those sights, not the movie's wobbly drama, that you remember the most, and Makhmalbaf ends the film on a devastating, haunting note that refuses to provide any pat solutions.

Throughout the film, we see images of a backward, tormented land: the shuffling parties of women herded across the desert, blankets over them as if they were characters in some avant-garde play; beautifully ornamented three-wheel carts puttering across the sands, leaving from nowhere and going nowhere.

The film is easier to follow than most Iranian imports. Good as they are--and they're generally quite good--they still tend to drop the Western viewer right into the center of a plot without much preparation. Since this is a road picture, we get more of a chance to catch our bearings. And though it's simpler than the common Iranian film, Kandahar is complex enough--it's not a standard story of heroism. Our heroine is a little anti-heroic--arrogant, standoffish. She's a persistent foreigner as an Easterner might see one: a tourist unable to adapt herself to the situation. She distances herself from her experiences by recording them (she's making a tape for her sister).

This tape reflects the director's gleanings, his ideas and his poetry. Makhmalbaf captures the misrule and perversity of the Taliban: next to which the perversity and misrule of even the Iranian government looks almost reasoned.

Furthermore, it was a window for us to view the world behind our world as it showcased unique culture and practices which we  never imagined before.

WAR IN LEBANON

 

 

“Our tears often blur our sight and prevent us from seeing things clearly’

                                                                                         --K. De Haan

 

I love the phrase “comfort food”.

 

            It speaks of the things that are so good, so familiar, so right, that they can always encourage a happy mood. For me, comfort food usually includes some form of beef and potatoes. Hamburgers and French fries, fried chicken, grilled pork, and smoked beef. Also, chocolate in almost any form imaginable. These are the foods that speak to me and say that all is well with the world.

            Unfortunately, all is not well with the world, and no amount of hamburgers and French fries can make it right.

Real comfort is not the by product of specific foods anymore. It is a much deeper need that requires a much deeper solution.

The war in Lebanon brought fear and terror to its people. It’s hard to walk with the feeling that in any minute you could be stepping on a mine and the next thing you knew, you’re dead. It is therefore impossible for you to smile for there’s probably no room for a happy face during these times. In a world where wrong is glamorized and the lurid is presented as appealing, we seldom hear of the good things that happen.

Yet, the chaoses have not taken away the merry countenance and the cheerful spirit of Sana, the funny Sana.

One thing I appreciated in the story was the optima of a woman despite great adversity. Though a woman may mostly be depicted as fragile and weak, fear didn’t stumble Sana’s courage to wake up everyday and still manage to smile amidst the war.

I have seen our Filipino workers arrive from Lebanon after an unimaginable escape from their masters and employers just to be home again. Their happiness is indescribable that they seemed to loose themselves in over pouring gladness during their participation in one episode in Wowowee, a local noontime game show. The news reports, documentaries, and interviews on these women from Lebanon during the war pictures how dangerous were the kind of life they were facing each day.

 Then and there, I envy those people in Lebanon who survived each passing moments without the extinction of hope and optism in their hearts.

The narrator must have been grateful to have Sana as her friend. She could have gathered strength from her to fill her weakness and that a friend like Sana was more valuable than any other things the world could offer. Like myself, I sometimes crave not for food or for money when I am down. Most of us would always look for someone to be with us and would eventually feel better I we had. It’s often hard to cry alone. It’s more comforting to have a friend to cry on.

That is why the thought of losing Sana frightened her so much that she wouldn’t miss a single broadcast just to keep track of her friend—she could be near an exploded building , could be injured, or even worst. Important people, though not all of us may be aware, are so dear that we cannot afford to even think they’re in danger and might loose one of them.

Danger and Death were their most feared enemy—and losing someone special is as frightening as the latter.

Though how often you may think you are lucky to have survived each day, there’s still that one hundred percent probability that the next day, you’re dead. That kind of reality is not as easy to accept and that probability is hopelessly inevitable.

How do we accept death?

Or do we really accept it?

The phone call from a doctor which may possibly inform Sana’s sad fate to her friend was undoubtly, very painful to bear and that slamming the phone down at that instant and ignoring the announcement thinking of it as a false alarm is as comforting as any other thing to do at that moment.

I could understand her reaction of the phone call because I believe that, sometimes, we cannot accept painful truths and that running away from it would make us think that we’ll feel much better if we do.

Pain is more painful when we give too much attention to the wound.

Rainy days are often enjoyed when we bathe beneath the dark clouds.

Darkness may cover our days sometimes…what makes it darker is when we put on umbrellas to cover us from it. Face the pain eye to eye for you cannot run away from tragedy forever. Acceptance would make you feel better someday.

Food is not the only thing that could satisfy hunger and hunger doesn’t always need food to be satisfied. The assurance of happiness and the feeling of peace, the dash of optism and a heart full of hope is more than any other food in the world that we must take as our daily bread. 

 

 

“Our tears often blur our sight and prevent us from seeing things clearly’

                                                                                         --K. De Haan

 

I love the phrase “comfort food”.

 

            It speaks of the things that are so good, so familiar, so right, that they can always encourage a happy mood. For me, comfort food usually includes some form of beef and potatoes. Hamburgers and French fries, fried chicken, grilled pork, and smoked beef. Also, chocolate in almost any form imaginable. These are the foods that speak to me and say that all is well with the world.

            Unfortunately, all is not well with the world, and no amount of hamburgers and French fries can make it right.

Real comfort is not the by product of specific foods anymore. It is a much deeper need that requires a much deeper solution.

The war in Lebanon brought fear and terror to its people. It’s hard to walk with the feeling that in any minute you could be stepping on a mine and the next thing you knew, you’re dead. It is therefore impossible for you to smile for there’s probably no room for a happy face during these times. In a world where wrong is glamorized and the lurid is presented as appealing, we seldom hear of the good things that happen.

Yet, the chaoses have not taken away the merry countenance and the cheerful spirit of Sana, the funny Sana.

One thing I appreciated in the story was the optima of a woman despite great adversity. Though a woman may mostly be depicted as fragile and weak, fear didn’t stumble Sana’s courage to wake up everyday and still manage to smile amidst the war.

I have seen our Filipino workers arrive from Lebanon after an unimaginable escape from their masters and employers just to be home again. Their happiness is indescribable that they seemed to loose themselves in over pouring gladness during their participation in one episode in Wowowee, a local noontime game show. The news reports, documentaries, and interviews on these women from Lebanon during the war pictures how dangerous were the kind of life they were facing each day.

 Then and there, I envy those people in Lebanon who survived each passing moments without the extinction of hope and optism in their hearts.

The narrator must have been grateful to have Sana as her friend. She could have gathered strength from her to fill her weakness and that a friend like Sana was more valuable than any other things the world could offer. Like myself, I sometimes crave not for food or for money when I am down. Most of us would always look for someone to be with us and would eventually feel better I we had. It’s often hard to cry alone. It’s more comforting to have a friend to cry on.

That is why the thought of losing Sana frightened her so much that she wouldn’t miss a single broadcast just to keep track of her friend—she could be near an exploded building , could be injured, or even worst. Important people, though not all of us may be aware, are so dear that we cannot afford to even think they’re in danger and might loose one of them.

Danger and Death were their most feared enemy—and losing someone special is as frightening as the latter.

Though how often you may think you are lucky to have survived each day, there’s still that one hundred percent probability that the next day, you’re dead. That kind of reality is not as easy to accept and that probability is hopelessly inevitable.

How do we accept death?

Or do we really accept it?

The phone call from a doctor which may possibly inform Sana’s sad fate to her friend was undoubtly, very painful to bear and that slamming the phone down at that instant and ignoring the announcement thinking of it as a false alarm is as comforting as any other thing to do at that moment.

I could understand her reaction of the phone call because I believe that, sometimes, we cannot accept painful truths and that running away from it would make us think that we’ll feel much better if we do.

Pain is more painful when we give too much attention to the wound.

Rainy days are often enjoyed when we bathe beneath the dark clouds.

Darkness may cover our days sometimes…what makes it darker is when we put on umbrellas to cover us from it. Face the pain eye to eye for you cannot run away from tragedy forever. Acceptance would make you feel better someday.

Food is not the only thing that could satisfy hunger and hunger doesn’t always need food to be satisfied. The assurance of happiness and the feeling of peace, the dash of optism and a heart full of hope is more than any other food in the world that we must take as our daily bread.