Karthick, Harish and Shekar get to discuss on a movie after a 10 month break. That is a really long break. Things have been busy for every one.
Directed by Kurosawa
Harish: Hey Man, Long time
Shekar: True. Too long a time for not talking about movies
Karthick: I completely agree. Work has truly kept me tied and I have hardly watched less than 10 movies in this entire year. Can you believe?
Shekar: That is a shock. So which one’s your best? Lets discuss that
Karthick: I know Harish recommended this movie to me a real long time back but I got a chance to see it only now. Dersu Uzala is the film.
The Beginning of Autumn that marks their Friendship – Dersu and Captain
Harish: Haven’t watched it yet but I know that it is a very simple story about a man from the wild and a captain who is surveying the mountains, their friendship and encounters. Set in Wild East of Russia, this movie paints a beautiful bloom of friendship between two men of completely contrasting backgrounds with nature as witness.
Shekar: Indeed a beautiful set up. The trivia goes this way. Kurosawa after failure of Dodeskaden and a suicide attempt, after a long gap of 4 years made this master piece which came in as request from Russian Embassy to promote television and main stream movies in USSR as it was very low. 100% Creative control was given to Kurosawa.
Dersu Hunting
Karthick: Yes. The interesting aspect is Kurosawa wanted to make this way back in 1950s in Japanese but he could not find the set up, landscape and production demanded by book of the same name, Dersu Uzala.
Harish: And it is the only 70 mm and Russian film of Kurosawa.
Dersu and Captain with their Victim
Shekar: I guess this is a movie that though with out a plot or a story makes us internalize the difficulties of a native man of the jungle, grappling with the problems of survival as he becomes old and how civilization is taking man slowly abstracted from nature.
Dersu Saves Captain’s life
Karthick: True. I enjoyed every frame of the movie. If you guys haven’t watched it, it is a must watch ASAP. I thoroughly enjoyed the innocuousness of Dersu, his intention to serve, his love for his men and land, his intelligence and connection with the life of the forest, his ramblings and what not. At the end, we so empathize with that character that you don’t want the film to end or Dersu to leave the screen…
Dersu – A Close Up
Harish and Shekar: A poignant one indeed. This film is certainly if not one of the best, we can assuredly say, the best of what Kurosawa had to say about Friendship, nature and life.
How can man live in a box? Dersu asks Captain after moving to the city
Karthick: If only, we all knew how to live that simple life one with nature… At least we document about such movies. Our $0.02. Good then. will catch more frequently as much as possible to document more such good movies.
Trademark of Dersu – The blemishless smile
Harish and Shekar: Bye then.
Cubicle talkies 