Waiting
Director: Anu Menon * Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin, Rajat Kapoor, SuhasiniManiratnam, Arjun Mathur. 2016. 98 minutes.
The story takes place in and around an ICU unit of a luxury hospital in Kochi. Tara Deshpande-Kapoor had married Rajat against the wishes of her family. But, even as their marriage is going strong, she is rudely snapped out of her busy normalcy when Rajat lands in the hospital emergency ICU unconscious following a car crash. His life and their future are uncertain. Unable to seek help from her or Rajat’s family, and never informing them either, Tara desperately wants to find out what to do next. The doctors have nothing consoling to say. In her confusion and shock, Tara crosses paths with retired Professor Shiv Natraj, married to Pankaja, his Malayalee wife for forty years, now in the ICU for eight months. They are childless. Natraj has now become settled to the routine of staying alone in his house and being at her bedside daily, talking and reading to the unresponsive wife. Tara asks Natraj what is to be done. He replies, “We have to wait.” The impetuous and often foul-mouthed Tara learns some precious lessons from the elderly and financially stressed professor, whose dedication to his wife and his hope of her recovery despite the doctor’s opinions are heroic. Tara takes inspiration from Natraj, who does not know social media (“What is Twitter?”), signifying the generation gap. A declared atheist, she even joins Natraj to pray at a temple and makes a reconciliatory gesture with her in-laws by calling Rajat’s mother. Besides presenting the grim realities of life and death in hospitals, the movie is heartwarming in many ways about trauma both physical and mental, decision-making in life-and-death situations and, above all, hope and true love between spouses and across generations. There is humour too about the confusion faced by urban North Indians dealing with semi-urbanized Malayalees and, of course, the language difference!
Nobody Knows I’m Here
Director: Gaspar Antillo * Cast: Jorge Garcia, Millaray Lobos, Juan Falcón Julio Fuentes Nelson Brodt. 2020. 100 minutes,
Memo Garrido, a young man brought up in USA, is now in hiding in a faraway island in Chile. He hides a dark secret. He had been a talented child singer, and was sold by his greedy father to a music company that would use his voice but would not allow him to appear onstage because of his being fat and ugly. They substitute him onstage with Angelo, a good-looking child, to capture the audience and make money. Memo was forced into being a ghost singer on account of his appearance. He felt deeply humiliated and hated Angelo. His song, Nobody Knows I’m Here made Angelo famous. He attacks Angelo and cripples him, and then runs away to live with his uncle as a social recluse. He also develops bizarre behaviours. A young woman called Marta tried to connect with him. She accidentally discovers his singing talent, and learns of his past. She visits him and brings him food. She makes his story known to a TV journalist. Memo hates publicity and does not want to go back to the normal world. When his father comes to visit him, Memo confronts him about his betrayal and greed. Marta convinces Memo to appear at a TV reality show and be reconciled with Angelo, who has become famous through his autobiography. Angelo is ready to be reconciled, but would not admit the deception he had been involved in. Memo wants him to tell the truth. When this does not happen, he leaves—but not before singing the song that had made Angelo famous. The only one who stands by him through all this is Marta, who truly cares about him, and wants a future with him.
Prof Gigy Joseph
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