Movie Endings: Die Another Day

At the tail end of  Feb 14 around 9pm-ish,  which also happened to be Valentine's day 2020,  I was having a craving for a movie as I had adequately met or maybe exceeded the male passing grades that the day demanded :) …so I flicked around on Amazon Prime and came upon a curiously titled 'Satyameva Jayate' with a release date in August 2018; I don't watch Bolly movies often, so many pass by without a second glance but this one looked OK and not dated too much - a year and a half.  After dancing my remote around a few more movies I decided that none of the other ones quite piqued my interest and so settled on the aforementioned movie, as I like the lead actor.  

My intention here is not to dwell much on the gist of the movie, except that it had only a slender and barely perceptible nexus to the significance of the day at hand.  To give context to those who might have also missed out on this motion picture,  it suffices to say that in between the usual Bolly melodramatic scenes it does a decent job of showing a vigilante who goes after corrupt and predatory cops and usually finishes them off in an incandescent fashion to save them on cremation costs.  That too only after bashing them to pulp to exact some retribution for the reprehensible acts they committed -- so I guess it saves the family both cremation costs and the abhorrent fees of a plastic surgeon to bring them back to normal from vaguely looking like the Phantom of the Opera or other scary Halloween characters, once the punitive measures had been taken. The lot he picks on are hardly worthy of empathy; the heartless jerk cops who use their uniform to skim money by preying on the weak and the poor;  and some even abusing and assaulting women.  The lead character has an extra bonus thrown in for the head detective in charge of outing him: he is also trying to play a Sunday newspaper back-page word game by picking the scumbags whose first initial match those of the letters of the incantation 'Satyameva Jayate' that was adopted by a fledgling nation in 1947 as its imprimatur 'truth alone is victorious' or a close resemblance to that. The one little gem that only Bollywood could have dreamed about:  the older brother of the protagonist (played by John Abraham) is the IPS cop given the unenviable task to bring him to justice (Manoj Bajpayee). All this is moot if you have seen the movie, so let's get on with the point, although I will have to describe the final scene as briefly as I can as it has everything to do with why I wrote this piece in the first place. 

 In the final scene, the vigilante is shot in the back by his older brother cop in a tear jerking moment. The older bro does it with great trepidation and moral dilemma as the delectable villain who was being taken down in the final scene is a pastel faced scoundrel who years earlier had framed their dad (also a cop) as being corrupt by planting drugs and money in his house.  This led to the honest cop's utter humiliation and he took his own life which scarred both brothers but in different ways; the younger believed in his father and the older one felt tainted; usual Bolly script lego building blocks!!   This villain was also the older brother's reporting IPS officer but his dark and perfidious deeds were only exposed in the final scene, which predictably caused a on-the-spot change of heart towards his dad for the elder bro. In any case even after our hero is shot in the back, he manages to burn alive the IPS officer who had caused the devastation to their family; because the preparatory marinating of the villain had already been done by virtue of a gallon of kerosene being doused upon him and all that remained was flicking a lighted match towards him, which our hero managed even after taking a bullet. For both of us watching, the movie did do a good job of holding our interest.. and now comes the real crux. 

Once the lead got shot in the back by his bro, my wife and I felt a little rummy that such a folk hero who was part Robin Hood, part Incredible Hulk, and part Cupid and who had dispensed such gratifying frontier justice wouldn't survive in the end.  He would not get united with his love interest who also happened to be the kiddo of the dirty IPS officer. So instead of watching the bitter end I paused the TV set four minutes from the end while the mournful soliloquy of the older brother holding his sibling in his arms was still in midstream.  I didn't want to see the inevitable finale as I am a little bit of a softy when it comes to seeing the hero bite the dust. Just as we were lamenting the ending, my wife mentioned that I should take the help of Google to decide whether we should see the last four minutes. That was a brilliant idea. Maybe he survived!!  So I hurriedly fished out my phone and typed in the magic search words. I was crestfallen as the first search result said Veer Rathod  (John Abraham's character) dies in the climax. Not a happy ending to Valentine's day. But then… wait a minute. As my eyes glanced over the other search results, I spied a 'Satyameva Jayate 2'!!!!!  WHOA.. Wait a minute.  Does a box office hit and dollar signs breathe life into a sequel? … and inject some bonhomie into the two of us????

 My emotions perked up as a few more clicks proved that indeed a movie sequel has the wherewithal to revive a character who had taken a bullet in his back from his own brother!!!  . True to form, Satyameva Jayate 2 had a release date of Gandhi Jayanti Oct 2, 2020; apparently the director has divined that people can duly honor the Father of the Nation by watching a flick where the main character beats the brains out of a select few from the miasma of corrupt bureaucrats and then wraps up a job well done with a gratuitous cremation. This lead to a volte-face of our mood into one bordering elation and some keen speculation as to how the Director/Screenwriter would resurrect John Abraham's character literally on the verge of taking his last breath (at least when we suspended our viewing) at the beginning of SJ 2…various possibilities entered our suddenly rejuvenated and adrenaline filled brains, and we decided to skip the last portion because we know he convalesces from this little ordeal of the bullet in his back!! All's well that ends well.  Maybe we all have to wait till October 2020 to find out the Director has in store for us, but HAPPY ENDING thanks to Google!!  

South America - up close

Minakshi Krishnan

When my scheduled winter trip to India had to be put off due to a sharp rise in airfare, it did feel like a downer.

Always looking for warm-enough places to visit, I grabbed the opportunity for a summer vacation of sorts: in South America. The sun-drenched city of Buenos Aires with its chic restaurants, vibrant nightlife, emerald waterfronts with swaying wild grass (@ Tigre) and ultra-friendly Spanish-speaking folks also lived up to its reputation of being one of the safest of cosmopolitan cities. While it seemed to get exceedingly difficult to find a place that sold the “Sube” card  for the Subte, we did enjoy a bunch of free rides, allowed in through the turnstiles by friendly passengers and transit authorities.

Walking for hours on the neatly cobbled sidewalks was indeed very pleasant, even long past midnight, what with restaurants teeming with revelers and sports enthusiasts! Radha with his love for stories of family connections, did spike our intrigue enough to want to lookup Eva Peron’s crypt amidst hordes of others at the Recoleta. 

The mere sight of Puerto Iguazu from our Aerolineas flight appeared to be a great culmination to a fabulous trip to Argentina. Iguazu on the cusp of the 2 biggest of  countries in S America – Argentina and Brazil, replete with its dense undergrowth, singing birds and friendly coatis of the Amazon rainforest, gave an overwhelming sense of home, just like my Aima’s village. The resort had adequate resources, all fine-tuned to provide comfort in the midst of nature.  Our driver was fluent in English and Spanish and she did all that was necessary for us to cross the border onto Brazil to see the full expanse of the falls from that country. Each of these falls is indeed uniquely and breathtakingly beautiful and the country has taken ample measures to preserve the natural landscape while also providing relief to weary hikers in the form of benches at look-outs and fresh coconut water at the highest points. The glistening waters, the numerous rainbows left an indelible impression in my mind. 

Returning back to base, we ventured out at nightfall, walking a few kms to “Hito Tres Fronteras”, witnessing the glorious reflection of lights from 2 adjoining countries, Paraguay and Brazil on the intervening waterbody. The night was interesting too with sound of wildlife and then breakfast with its generous servings of tropical fruits (including mangoes) and fresh juices was indeed a traveler’s delight. The Iguazu Cataratas, hundreds of them on the Argentinian side as well, were each a sight to behold. 

Chile, a long and thin country nestled between the Western slopes of the Andes and the vastness of the Pacific, was the final destination for us. Just one visit to my office on the 19^th floor in the busy Santiago downtown of Providencia would have served well for me to tick off this bucket-list item - I had been longing to feel the atmosphere close-up, since 2011. Modern, hip spaces but with a touch of nostalgia and community! Evenings in this part I was told, would be teeming with professionals enjoying their happy hours with famed Chilean wines et al.

The sought-after Patagonia and the Atacama weren’t going to be part of our trip and the imprints of protestors’ graffiti and teargas incidents from news circles made sure that my expectations were rock-bottom. I had heard stories of “lard-laced” butter and hard to find vegetarian cuisines. To our pleasant surprise, that was hardly the case. I savored the taste of the fresh mint lemonade every morning. Every dish – from Quinoa burgers, loaded-yet-light veggie pizzas, lasagna, Pad Thai and  traditional Indian food, breads straight off the hearth, guava and cherimoya pastries, pancakes and arepas with “real” ingredients, a kg of cherries (at 50 cents!), all tasted way better in sheer terms of originality and freshness. After having been greeted with welcoming smiles and small-talk from affable localities everywhere around this country, I would love to have another opportunity to be there. 

Dynamic, cosmopolitan and safe, Santiago charmed with versatility. Sounds, flavors, colors of the Chilean culture from their music playing in hotels and taxis, infused a sense of familiarity in every aspect of life. The Sky Costanera (the tallest skyscraper in Latin America), provided a stunning 360 view of the city and the western slopes of the Andes against the descending sun; and boasted of gigantic shopping malls showcasing every possible brand name. Neatly preserved parks, friendly passersby, pets without leash, hawkers selling ice-creams, and local crafts stores selling Pashmina shawls and colorful handbags, everything had close resemblances with my hometown of Bhubaneswar.

Our day trip to the volcanic hot-springs in the arid valleys of the Andes surrounded by active volcanoes, was with our knowledgeable guide Nicole (who had a college degree in linguistics) and a very efficient local driver. We shared our tour vehicle with one happy-go-lucky couple from Los Angeles who taught us a thing or two about being carefree.  First stop was for an elaborate breakfast and coffee at the bed-n-breakfast lounge of an avid traveler and master-chef who also happily recounted stories of her travels through India to me. 

The spluttering mud pools were each naturally heated to their own unique temperature patterns depending on the time of the day. As I had taken my role of being the official photographer of the day seriously, I simply dipped my feet unto one and looked out to the magnificent mountains, all shining with a wide range of minerals. In the far horizon were desert animals (donkeys, mountain goats, Llamas) grazing or looking out for water to quench their thirst on a warm summer day which also reminded of Siddhu's  mention of Coelho and the Alchemist! This trip felt like another heavenly and unmissable experience.

In spite of repeated warnings from my office-folks regarding recent forest fires enroute to Valparaiso, a port town just north of Santiago, we debated back and forth, before finally embarking on a bus trip at noon, taking the upper deck seats in a pretty comfortable "AC-WIFI" Turbus at $5 a seat, so as to not miss the opportunity of a good view of the Andes yet again. Reached the crowded sea-side town and took a taxi to our hotel. Valparaiso was impressive and lived up to its reputation of being a UNESCO Heritage site for Art-preservation.

The evening hours were dedicated to watching big waves come ashore against the rocks, and to photography. I held my breath many a times as the setting sun splashed a kaleidoscope of colors on the waters of the Pacific ocean.  As I looked up to see the Moon and Venus appearing in proximity in my breezy dream-like stroll, the area devoid of any sounds but of the waves, I chanced upon a sea-side memorial with hundreds of teddy bears telling the story of a cute little girl whose family must be frequenting this spot. All I wanted to do now was grab a taxi and head to a more familiarly noisy place. As we retired for the night, the porous walls reminded until the wee hours that the night was still young for Latin Americans.

We decided to trek up and down for most parts of the quaint neighborhood in the early hours of the next morning, stopping to gaze at the many, many pieces of artwork on the walls of this hilly town. As is the norm, Radha took us to yet another cemetery at the end of our walk which provided a beautiful panoramic view of the town as well as our imagination into the lifestyles of the quintessential Spanish and English voyagers and settlers who made Valparaiso their final destination.

Returned to Santiago to spend another glorious afternoon and evening and decided to take it easy before boarding a flight back the following day to Miami. All along, I couldn’t but help think of the closeness of our cultures and our lifestyles, albeit the 2 countries at ~ 17,000 kms are far apart on the globe.  My sub-conscious mind intermittently raced to my friends from school, who may have brought away even more from visiting these countries on account of their geographical relevance with what we learned in our classroom.