To Love or to Like?

I –Minority Report

Cross gender and cross generation friendship is an under explored subject in literature and in movies. Yes, we have Sugar Daddies and Mammas

and Trophy Wives and Girl Friends. But that is exploitative and not the norm.

What is it about us that we are suspicious if not skeptical over such cg/cg relationships? Well forget that I asked this. We view most platonic relationships the same way too!

I saw a movie recently (Jogger’s Park) where the main protagonist is the Justice character who has just retired after 40 years on the bench. When the young lead, sitting beside him on a park bench learns this, she asks him incredulously “So you have been living in a shell all these years?” and he nods affirmatively.

Oh, to be liberated and to be befriended. He is on cloud nine. He confesses to her about a new outlook and awareness that his new found friendship with her opened up for him. Without realizing that in the past he was cocooned by the twin forces of work and family. This disengaged him from real life. (He chose to be away from the social scene lest any pressure be applied to him indirectly) In an unguarded moment he conveys his love for Jenny the young woman. She promptly and diplomatically corrects him ever so subtly. “ I like you…I like you loving me…”…he mulls over the hints…the gentle tussle between conflicting emotions stir.

On the surface this is a story of an older married man who falls in love with a single young woman and is unable to make a final commitment.

Scratch the surface and we find a man freed from societal incarceration after forty plus years. Inebriated with this new found freedom and newly acquired zeal, freshness and inquisitiveness he finds a willing mentor in young Jenny who is about his daughter’s age.

Jenny senses the new age Rip Van Winkle in the Justice. She gladly grasps his hand to lead him into the new world.

For him, she is a youthful, energetic guide. For her, he is an interesting father figure with a zest for living.

I saw Jogger’s’ Park as a cross-generation cross-gender friendship movie. You may see it as a light romantic cross-generation cross-gender movie. You will not be alone in thinking so. Consider mine a minority report.


II –Jogger’s Park

It is a relatively low budget slice of life comedy by Subash Ghai. He produced this under his banner Mukta Productions (Taal, Pardes, Yaadein). He also gets credits for concept, dialogues and for one song. I do not know Mr. Ghai personally and have learned that he is hospitalized and under treatment. Wish him health. While doing some research I came across a few hints that Jogger’s Park is an autobiographical venture for Mr. Ghai.

The first main character in the film is a retired judge Justice Jyotin Prasad Chatterjee and a twenty something Jenny Suratwala who is single, unattached, modern and traditional. They meet, one of them falls in love and the other starts liking the other for falling in love with her.
Justice Chatterjee, (Victor Banerjee) made his debut with Satyajit Ray’s first Hindi film Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977). He played Dr. Aziz in David Lean’s Passage to India (1984) and played Ram Das a doctor again in a hilarious farce Foreign Body (1986). A must see if you are a film connoisseur.

JC to Jenny and to us from now on is one of the upright moral public servants. The one we read about in fictional books and obituary columns. He suffers no fools, is moral, upright, uncorrupt and a loving family man. His children are married and visit him often. He lives in a government house on the sea somewhere in Mumbai.

Jenny(Perizaad Zorabian) made her debut in Nagesh Kukunoor’s (Hyderabad Blues) Bollywood Calling, a largely forgettable film. Then she did Mumbai Matinee with Anant Balani in 2003. I saw Mumbai Matinee just prior to watching Jogger’s Park. More on it perhaps another time.

Jenny is a free spirit. Lives alone and pays for her expenses by working at several jobs: she is an executive at a five star hotel (Hyatt) and is a part time model and promoter. She has had three relationships in the past lasting from two years to a month, is popular and has many friends of both sexes.

Jenny is upbeat and charming with a ready and infectious smile, helped with a nice set of teeth and a shorter upper lip. Sometimes that ever present infectious smile seems out of place. This genetic flaw is a handicap for her acting skills and sometimes for the viewer.

JC portrayed a lost soul in the beginning with under stated elegance---like the surviving spouse separated from their long time companion due to death. Or like those suffering from separation anxiety caused by war or uprooting. He is bored and conveys the blank look of those who see little in looking forward to the morrow. Sanjay Nair handled the cinematography. Deftly avoided the Bollywood clichés of hand held camera work and the almost mandatory overhead trolley shots. His camera work is steady and blends easy on the eyes.
Sanjay Nair and Srinavas Patro who is the editor flawlessly filmed and edited Jogger’s Park. Srinavas Patro skillfully cut the family dinner scene to convey JC’s melancholy. His family members sense this and ease him out of the house by suggesting he go to jogger’s park daily. Divya Dutta also delivers a restrained but powerful performance.

A series of events, from the retirement bash for Justice Chatterjee to encounters on the track at Jogger’s park where the two protagonists meet once again lead to a strengthening of the bond between them. They become JC and Jenny for each other. The subtle change from mild amusement to eagerness is conveyed by Victor Banerjee without the exaggeration normally associated with Bollywood movies.

Victor Bannerjee depicted the emotions of an old retired person who falls in love with a new-age young girl on the go with a veteran minimalist’s ease. No excessive raising of eyebrows, twitching of facial muscles, or exaggerated hand gestures from this veteran actor. A slight nod, a barely noticeable grunt or frown conveys volumes.

Will give credit to director Anant Balani. He is the director/writer who tragically succumbed to a massive heart attack in august of this year. He made his debut with Gawahi in (1989), Pathar Ke Phool (1991) and in 2003 he has had three releases, Jogger’s Park, Mumbai Matinee and Ek Din 24 Hour Anant Bulani for this
Jenny portrays an urban yuppie switching flawlessly between Hinglish and a somewhat faltering and rusty Hindustani with the zest of a novice and the sparkle of a veteran, though this is only her third picture. Have noticed that lately a lot of these off beat movies are made in Hinglish-Hindustani and the actors move flawlessly from one to another.

It has been reportedly shot in one stretch of 38 days, shot on location in Bombay suburb Bandra’s Jogger’s Park and in real houses. Costing merely 2 Crore rupees, where as Taal burned upwards of 15 Crores.

Surajeet Das Gupta says, “The economics of the new game isn’t tough to understand. To take one example: it cost Rs 2.5 crore (Rs 25 million) to make Mr and Mrs Iyer. By contrast it took around Rs 2 crore (Rs 20 million) according to industry sources to shoot one Kareena Kapoor song-and-dance sequence in Khushi.” (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum)
For me the tightrope walk between sugar daddy and trophy girlfriend without going overboard is Anant Bulani’s legacy and swan song. If he was not deliberate and careful he would have easily succumbed to one or the other. Yet he maintained a trapeze artist’s balance between the two pitfalls. The result is delightfully charming screen presence of the two main characters without melodrama.

There is no groping, unnecessary kissing, hugging or hand holding. Through his eyes and body language JC conveys his infatuation with Jenny’s youthful zest and exuberance. He loves her. She likes him: her power over men knows no limit.

A word here about the music delivered by Tubum Satradhar The theme song At jogger’s park, let the feet roll on/At jogger’s park, let your life move onwas handled along with ye bhi ek jahaan hai (chorus: jogger’s park)---jaan hai to jahaaN hai (chorus: jogger’s park) better than the other one Story of love has no beginning. But the Adnan Sami number Ish’q hota nahin was well blended. Subash Ghai penned the hindi song when the songwriter failed to show up at the appointed time in the studios.

While searching for information came across this news that the Director Annant Bulani succumbed to a massive heart attack in August of this year. This could well be the young director’s swan song.

Speaking of songs, it is hinted that this is closest that Indian Cinema has come to an autobiographical film for him. There have been other ‘autobiographical’ films but one gets the sense that Ghai has suffered through these pangs. I do not know him well enough so consider this just a hunch. This could well be a swan song for both Anant Bulani and Subash Ghai, who is reportedly suffering from health related problems.

My one big dislike is the unnecessary bare midriff dance number and that too on an Arabic theme and song(Habibi habibi). For a big budget movie with a eye for the mid east and African markets that would have been understandable, but here it proved jarring. And if Anant were alive I would have asked him to shed it down to about 65 minutes and enter it in the festival circuit.

The other thing I found slightly jarring was the two seemingly comical characters: one a Sardarji and the other a Parsi Bawa. Seems tokenism and caricature have become mandatory in Bollywood films.

Jogger’s Park is a film within a film. This movie works because everyone involved in its making have given their best. It depicts a slice of life rarely brought to screen with such passion and subtlety. Am almost at the end of this. No this is movie is no cliffhanger. You watch and decide for yourself. To Love or to Like: to be friends or to be wary: to live or to whimper: to glow or to brood: travails and dilemmas of life, no?


III-Eavesdropping

a: you have watched the movie Jogger’s Park?
b: yes
a: …and you have read Parts I and II…what do you make of this?
b: you live in a fool’s paradise!
a: w...what?...what do you mean?
b: this movie is clearly about an impotent man…not impotent impotent…a typical man who is unable to make a commitment…who cannot plunge when he faces the diving board…he is your typical weak quisling…indecisive, meek and mama’s boy …
a: wow…and all that you gathered from this same movie?.. yaara I told you am writing a minority report…am peeling off some layers…and reporting on what I find…and you are painting with broad strokes…
b: you see what you want to see…it is not there!… I did not see it there…I just saw that man...a typical indecisive man ...when push comes to shove he vacillates...decision time he return to mama’s cocoon…the only redemption is that he does not pontificate on khandaan and parampara crap…he chooses by default…
a: yes on that level I tend to agree with you…but read between the lines…he never tries to hold her hands, hugs her or makes any attempt to kiss her, he does not send flowers to her…he is interested in her in a platonic way...that is also what the director and storywriter want to convey…
b: he wanted to have his cake and eat it too…why did he claim that cellular phone…why did he pass sms messages, why was he troubled when she went away to Goa, why did he display ‘jealousness’?
a: …that was not jealousy yaar, that was concern…like mother hen’s …for his young friend…like a father figure for his ward…
b:…bull!…he knew he loved her, but did not have the guts to leave his wife
a: ..that is not the point am making…he could have done those things…that he did not do it tells me of the direction the director was hinting at...
b: nahin yaar he made that decision only after that editor came to his house with the pictures…prior to that he had agreed to attend Jenny’s birthday…the vacillating budhdha had to make a decision…he could not risk exposure…
a: ..the pictures?…what was there? ...nothing! …in one he she was in the passenger seat of the car and he was driving, in the other he was talking in the lobby and in the next one he was outside the hotel….big deal!… that is not the stuff of exposes …my point…he considered himself only as her friend…not as her boyfriend…and when offered the opportunity he was a no show at her birthday party…
b:…no, he showed his true colors…the week, indecisive, married desi man!