Madhu, in Bangalore and her brother Uday, in America get laid off simultaneously and ponder their next career move. Their careers collide in a dizzying maelstrom of political corruption, business fraud and failed familial expectations. This film glimpses the complex ramifications of the rise and `stumble' of the IT industry in Bangalore. It reveals the insidious nexus of state politics with global capital and traces the seemingly disparate relationship that the software industry has upon mutual fund schemes. Stumble teases out the inter-dependence of the co-operative bank sector and the liberalized economy. Consequently, the film explores the clandestine ways in which the most vulnerable sections of society - in this case, rural farmers - nourish the richest and most powerful people in the world. A failing software concern reinvents itself as a call center - where again third world labor, in borrowed accents, services the first world consumer. Prakash Belawadi, the director, weaves these details into his narrative through an ironic critique. Belawadi clearly reveals the saturation of transnational capital, commodities, images, ideas, information and people in his (and my) beloved Bangalore. This unique moment in the city's life captures the exuberance of a newly emergent middle class. But while many things have changed, many others stay the same. Madhu does not travel to the U.S. with the same ease as her brother. The color of her skin darkens her marriage prospects. The mere presence of a white man bolsters the confidence and diminishing morale of local bank officials. Stumble finishes the story that Bugaboo (1999) started a few years ago. Set in Silicon Valley, Bugaboo chronicles the boom of the dotcom era, seen through the eyes of a skeptical Indian software engineer. What happens when that software engineer gets laid off and scrambles B2B (back to Bangalore) after his American dream failed to deliver? While Belawadi responds to that question, he also poses several others. The film is eminently watchable, especially for the performances of Ashok Mandanna, Anant Nag and Suhasini. While it falters in technique and script, the spirit of the film does not stumble.
Reviews
3 Reviews
L.I.E.
(2001)
L.I.E tells the truth
22 September 2001
L.I.E. is an audacious film that dares to complicate simplistic stereotypes about parenting, nurturance and desire. This first person retrospective narrative is told by a fifteen year old boy coming to terms with the death of his mother. L.I.E. is both Long Island Expressway (where traffic also consists of gay sex trafficking) as well as the lies that we are all fed by society about what constitutes normality.' The film then progresses as Howard, the teenage protagonist grapples with his grief, his adolescence and his loneliness sometimes through poetry and at others through petty crimes. The chief triumph of this film lies in its courage to probe the fundamental decency and humanity in characters like Big John who, in popular media, are often represented and dismissed as disgusting lechers. The relationship between Howie and Big John is complex as it alternates between playboy and parent; as erotic desire animates and creates a space of refuge and safety. In many ways the film resembles the wry cynicism and dark humor of American Beauty but where Kevin Spacey's character was endearing even as he leered at young teenage girls Brian Cox is less likely to find sympathy from his audiences. But this owes more to the fact that we live in a heterosexist, homophobic society, fed on LIES than to the failings of the actor.
Eyes Wide Shut
(1999)
Spectacular letdown
19 July 1999
Amazing visual richness, but unforgivably shallow for the man who made Dr. Strangelove and Clockwork Orange. Tom's tolerable, Nicole's naked a lot - and tries too hard (with little success) to be more than a pretty piece of ass. The pot-smoking scene is pretentious enough to possibly win her an Oscar.
A snooze for anyone who is expecting the kind of intellectual depth and unforgiving, un-sentimental outlook to life evidenced in Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon or Full Metal Jacket. See it in the theater if you get off on Cinematography. Watch the director's cut on video if you get off on nudity. Skip it altogether if you want to remember Kubrick as a superb film-maker.
A snooze for anyone who is expecting the kind of intellectual depth and unforgiving, un-sentimental outlook to life evidenced in Strangelove, Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon or Full Metal Jacket. See it in the theater if you get off on Cinematography. Watch the director's cut on video if you get off on nudity. Skip it altogether if you want to remember Kubrick as a superb film-maker.
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