You dare call me a Servant?!
Saturday, February 21, 2009 at 10:46PM A cop abuses a witness trying to help identify a perpetrator.
An American of Indian descent who is new to India tells the cop "You are a public servant. How can you do this?"
The cop replies, "You called me a servant? Do I look like a servant to you?" and slaps the guy.
Guy slaps the cop back and ends up in jail.
When his uncle bails him out the cop tells the uncle "inform this kid that this is how things work in India"
This is just one of the scenes that caught my attention early on in "Delhi -6", a really well made movie that shows India for what it is, a place that is defined by a really large mass of people, a tangled web of interactions from every perspective, a potpourri of emotions, something so complex yet simple, something so simple yet complex, an everlasting absurdity of sorts that can be explained one way or another, a place where at times everything goes and at times nothing moves!
The greatness of this movie is the attention to detail. Every little piece of the jigsaw puzzle comes together so smoothly and you come out shaking your head, not because you saw something fantastic, but you saw something that happens for real, something that you know is true, because you have experienced most of these bits and pieces firsthand!
The only surprise is that a kid born and raised in America is even accepted as India's own in the earlier parts of the movie while his religious identity is questioned later because his dad is Hindu and mom is a Muslim. If there is one thing consistant about Bigotry, it is that bigotry is absolute. A real crowd would have equally questioned his "Indian-ness" or "his right to ask questions about things Indian or about India" because he is an American Citizen, but somehow they miss that part and it seemed weird.
But for that small deviation from reality, the movie does a fantastic job of painting the masses in everything from gory red, dove white, purple hues, monkey black, holy green to religious saffron!
The human mind is an amazing thing. The ability to live and let live is a quality of the mind that is not universal. Considering ,my recent frame of mind Delhi-6 offers a rare glimpse into the collective human psyche that makes or breaks a society. It also tells you in the nicest of ways to look for answers within!
Nicely done. Strongly recommended!
ps. Hope this movie wins international recognition for Cinematography. Simply fantastic. The music was great, but the visuals were simply breathtaking!
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Hindi, cinema, delhi 6, indian movies 