She's No Lady: Wicked Women in film/ fiction

(Glen Close as Cruella de Vil in 101 Dalmations, The Witch in Rapunzel, Judi Dench as Lady Macbeth)

She’s ruthless, cruel and, more often than not, beautiful. She wields great power over the people around her, a destructive kind of power that brings havoc in their lives. She’s the antagonist to whom we’re strangely drawn. Let me introduce you to some wicked women in films and fiction.

Many moons ago two German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, better known as The Brothers Grimm, set about collecting folklore and gave the world some of the most memorable fairy tales. Cinderella, Snow White, Hansel and Gretel, Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel, all come from the Brothers Grimm stable (19^th Century). What’s common among them all is the presence of evil female characters: stepmothers, queens, witches, who pretty much shade the good ones! (Wonder what their Mom was like). Take the Queen in Snow White, for instance. Isn’t she far more interesting than wimpy Snow?

Hansel and Gretel has not one but two powerful female antagonists: the children’s step mother, who persuades their cowardly father to abandon Hansel and Gretel in the forest, and the cannibalistic witch in the gingerbread house. Food for thought: the step mother dies when Gretel kills the witch. So were they the same person, metaphorically?

Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth is far more decisive and strong-willed than her better half. Even though he’s just vanquished enemies in a bloody battle and hailed as a hero, he comes home to meekly endure her taunts. She feels he’s too full of ‘the milk of human kindness’. When he asks nervously, ‘If we should fail?’ (to murder King Duncan), she admonishes him with: ‘We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking place/ and we’ll not fail.’ (Act I, scene vii). She’s the one that plans the murder. Later, when she’s driven insane with guilt and ends her life, we know Macbeth can’t last long without her.

In C.S. Lewis’s The Chronicles of Narnia, it’s the White Witch Jadis who grabs eyeballs (in the movie adaptations thanks to the awesome Tilda Swinton) more than the rest of the cast. She’s frozen Narnia in a Hundred Years’ Winter and she has a wand that turns living creatures to stone. She kills, seduces and leads children astray. Gasp!

Cruella de Vil appeared first in Dodie Smith’s novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956). Who can forget Glen Close’s brilliant turn as Cruella in the movie version? Her appearance on screen makes one shudder as she lusts after the innocent puppies for their soft fur. She wears claws on her gloves, teeth in her necklace, and nails in her heels. Wouldn’t like to meet her anytime soon.

(Tilda Swinton as the White Witch Jadis in The Chronicles of Narnia)

Quentin Tarantino’s blood fests Kill Bill (Vol. I & II) are stocked with strong female characters. Apart from the Bride (Uma Thurman), the gal that impresses most is Daryl Hannah’s portrayal of Elle Driver (or California Mountain Snake). Tall, lithe and blonde, Elle is an assassin on Bill’s payroll. She despises the Bride but also acknowledges her as a great warrior. With a black patch over her blinded right eye, she makes a sinister figure as she arrives at a hospital dressed as a nurse to inject comatose Bride with deadly poison, only to be told by Bill to abort the mission. I guarantee you’ll heave a sigh of relief.

Volumnia in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus is the epitome of a Tiger Mom. Like a good (?) Italian Mom she exercises a huge influence over her son, raising him to be a deadly warrior and to conquer the world. While other mothers beg their sons to stay home, she pushes him off to war. Check out her proud boast:

‘When yet he was but tender-bodied and the only son of/ my womb...(I) let him seek danger where he/ was like to find fame. To a cruel war, I sent him.’ (Act I, scene iii).

She also takes credit for her son’s achievements: ‘Thy valiantness was mine; thou suck’st it from me’. (Act III, scene ii). With a mom like that did the dude stand a chance of having a normal life?

                                           (Diane Kruger as Helen of Troy in the movie Troy)

A host of other women come to mind in the classical tradition, not least sisters Clytemenestra and Helen, both of whom bring their spouses (brothers Agamemnon and Menelaus, respectively) to grief. Helen ran off with Paris and caused poor, peaceful Troy to suffer a ten years’ war and final destruction. In the end she emerges unscathed. Not only does she marry Paris’s younger brother Deiphobus, after Paris’s death, she also reconciles with Menelaus when he slaughters Deiphobus during the sack of Troy and sails back to Sparta with him! Agamemnon returns to his kingdom Mycene after the war with Trojan Princess Cassandra as his concubine, only to be hacked to death in the bath with a double- headed axe by Clytemenestra. She doesn’t spare Cassandra, either.

These characters stand out because traditionally women are considered to be nurturers and life-givers. But why can’t a woman be as evil as a man? Every scheming, murdering, hateful man that ever lived was born of woman.

Mamas, teach your children well. The future of the world depends on you.

Management principles: Sun Tzu's The Art of War

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War (written between 505-496 B.C.- probably) is the oldest known military treatise in the world. He was the Army General of King Ho Lu of the Kingdom of Wu in China. The western world was introduced to The Art of War in 1782 by Jesuit Priest Joseph Amiot, who translated it into French but the first English translation was done only in 1905 by Captain E.F. Calthrop. The work has seen scores of commentators since then. The best translation is by Lionel Giles (1910 edition) and he incorporates a number of commentaries in his work. So what’s so special about this treatise and why should the layman be interested?

The Art of War is, firstly, a fascinating read into the military techniques of its day. China, like most countries at the time, was not a unified nation but a conglomeration of clans and tribes, constantly warring with one another. Sun Tzu’s work gives us an insight into the war games of that era and also reveals an astute military mind at work. His principles are astoundingly effective and relevant even today. I’ve derived ten rules from the work, which left an impact on me personally.

1)    The army that has greater constancy is one where ‘there is absolute certainty that merit will be properly rewarded and misdeeds summarily punished’. Isn’t this one of the cardinal principles of management? To encourage efficiency by rewarding good workers and punishing the slack ones? As head of a Central Government office, I rue the fact that I don’t have powers to give my staff adequate incentives when they perform well. I have punitive powers aplenty but how to reward exceptional workers besides a good grade in the annual performance reports?

2) ‘In the practical art of war, the best thing is to take the enemy’s country whole and intact; to shatter and destroy it is not so good.’ Why? Because it alienates the conqueror from the local populace and leaves his army bereft of supplies. A lovely, sentimental story comes to mind about the refusal of a Nazi officer to destroy Paris during the German occupation in WWII. The officer Dietrich von Choltitz was military Governor of Paris when Hitler gave him orders in August 1944 to destroy religious and historical monuments in the French capital. He demanded famously: “Brennt Paris?” (Is Paris burning?). But Choltitz refused to obey because he’d developed love for the city and because (as he’d reveal later) he realized that Hitler had gone insane by then!

3)    ‘Though we have heard of stupid haste in war, cleverness has never been associated with long delays.’ Delaying anything is bad, particularly settlement of retirees’ pension benefits, or provident fund cases, or any delay in dealing with legal cases.

4)  ‘The worst policy of all is to besiege walled cities’. We’ve several examples in history to prove this. Sun Tzu explains further that the preparation of ‘mantlets’ (shields and other protective gear), movable shelters and various implements of war will take up to three months. By that time, he says, the soldiers will grow restless and lazy and their nerves will be on edge from having to keep constant vigil against their enemy. Sound reasoning, I think. There have been examples of successful sieges of forts and cities in history but these have always come at a terrible human cost on both sides.

 5)The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men: it is merely a question of dividing up the numbers.’ Love this one: works well in big offices with large staff strengths. Delegation to the supervisory level is critical in such cases.

6)‘In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack- the direct and indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of manoeuvres’.

7)   ‘The highest form of generalship is to balk the enemy’s plans’. This is explained by a commentator Ho Shih (quotes by Lionel Giles): ‘When the enemy has made a plan of attack against us, we must anticipate him by delivering our own attack first’. It all depends on an efficient intelligence network. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of keeping one’s ears open to listen to the staff and be aware of what’s going on in one’s office.

8)  An army on the march must ‘camp in high places, facing the sun. After crossing a river, you should get far away from it (to tempt the enemy to cross after you)’. Location, location, location. Need I say more about appropriate office space?

9)  ‘Bring war materials from home but forage on the enemy. Thus the army will have enough food for its needs’. No need to carry unnecessary supplies and equipment: use local facilities.

10)  ‘All warfare is based on deception’. Sun Tzu’s eloquent about this: ‘If your opponent is of choleric temper, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he’s taking his ease, give him no rest.’ ‘Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.’                                                                                                                                                                                     Here are clips from two famous movies that deal with war: Troy, starring Brad Pitt as Achilles, Orlando Bloom as Paris and Eric Bana as Hector. One of my all time favourite movies. It's the scene of the Trojan Horse, exhibiting Sun Tzu's principle of 'All warfare is based on deception'. Unfortunately Achilles and Hector aren't in this scene. The next contains excerpts from Gladiator with Russell Crowe at his soulful, dishy best!

      

Ah, Autumn!

Photo by Kareena Byrd

"Every leaf speaks bliss to me fluttering from the autumn tree"- Emily Bronte

It’s the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, to borrow Keats’ words. Autumn. An underrated season, in my view. In North India it’s lovely and cool, the nights are slowly getting colder and winter’s heralded in gently. I checked out references to this season in literature and found a profusion of rhapsodies in verse. Keats’ Ode to Autumn (1820) is famous. He focuses on the imagery of ripeness and fruit-laden bowers: ‘Fill all the fruit with ripeness to the core’, ‘to swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells’. In a letter to his friend Reynolds dated 22^nd September 1819, he gushes: “How beautiful the season is now. How fine the air- a temperate sharpness about it...Somehow, a stubble plain looks warm, in the same way that some pictures look warm. This struck me so much in my Sunday’s walk that I composed upon it.” So that’s the background behind the lovely Ode to Autumn.

Shakespeare, writing over two hundred years before Keats, took a grim view of the season. His Sonnet 73 (1609) is rather morbid in its Autumn references. There’s a sense of things passing away. He talks of ‘bare ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang’ and ‘death bed’ and ‘sunset fadeth in the west’. The concluding lines make things clearer:

‘This thou perceiv’st, which makes thy love more strong,

To love that well which thou must leave ere long.’

William Blake’s To Autumn (1783) surprised me with its romantic (to put it politely in case kids are reading) imagery. He sings about mature girls, ‘daughters of the year’ that shall dance and ‘sing now the lusty song of fruits and flowers’. There’s a line about the ‘blood of the grape’ and how ‘the narrow bud opens her beauties to/ The sun, and love runs in her thrilling veins...’ Phew.

Shelley used the season to kick start his hugely popular Ode to the West Wind (1820).

‘O Wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn’s being,

Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead are driven,

Like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing...’

Throughout the poem there’s a sense of energy, power, a desire for freedom. No surprise that it appeared in his Prometheus Unbound volume of 1820. He added a note to this ode, revealing that the poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirt the Arno, near Florence, and on a day when ‘that tempestuous wind...was collecting the vapours which pour down the autumnal rains’.

Here's Eric Clapton's version of the Nat King Cole classic, Autumn Leaves

From the Land of High Passes

Journey to Leh and beyond: June 2014

From top: 1) Captured Pak army bunker at the Kargil War Memorial (rather small, isn't it?) 2) Entrance to the Kargil War Memorial, 3) First view of River Indus at Upshi enroute to Leh, 4)The gorgeous, famous Lake Pangong, 5) Namik La, just one of the many high mountain passes we crossed, 6) Roadside dhabas at Rohtang Pass between Manali and Leh, 7)Snow by the wayside, 8) More snow, 9) Lovely view of the Indus

Our road trip to Leh was a dream fulfilled. A journey planned for many years and finally done in June last year. The route we took was Chandigarh- Srinagar- Kargil- Leh- passes beyond and then back to Leh- Manali- Chandigarh. What can I say about Ladakh? It's the Land of High Passes, a remote, unspoilt place where people are still decent and kind and honest. Leh itself is crowded and full of the inevitable tourist jamboree but go beyond to Khardung La (for the uninitiated, 'La' means 'Pass'), to Nubra Valley to Pangong Lake and other amazing places that'll leave you breathless and wanting more.

A trip to the Kargil War Memorial in Drass (the second coldest inhabited place on earth! The first is in Siberia, Russia) is a sobering event. You realize just how close the enemy had come! They had a clear view of the National Highway. Tiger Hill looms in the horizon, a testimony to the Indian Army's triumph and there's certainly an air of tension and caution now. A second Kargil War won't happen. This time we won't be caught napping. Here are photos of two stones with details of the battle. Take a moment to read them.

Every moment of that trip is special but a word of caution: high altitude sickness. It was a huge lesson for me. No more Superwoman! I suffer from asthma off and on and while it's mostly under control, yours truly had a bad scare during the trip. I experienced breathing problems from Drass onwards and once we reached Leh, I found it hard to even walk up to the hotel room. `Thought the road trip would've acclamatized me but it didn't. My husband and son had no problems, though. Thank God. We didn't heed our friend's warnings (our dear Sonam Yangdol, who's a Ladakhi) and we took off for Khardung La the next day. It's over 15000 feet! I was okay until we got out of our Skoda Yeti at Khardung La. Then it hit me. I just couldn't breathe! Panic-stations! Fortunately, a taxi driver intervened with an oxygen canister and also directed us to an army post nearby. There in a dramatic fashion, I was put on oxygen by the most solicitous army personnel. We laughed about it later but I had to breathe in from oxygen canisters for the rest of the trip until we reached Manali, which is at a lower altitude. It was the kind of excitement we could've done without but- hey- doesn't this make the trip more adventurous?

Go visit Leh whenever you can. Remember, India has the highest mountains in the world. Why leave them unexplored?

Guess who came to dinner: Meetings with Mithun

From top: In 1984 -Mithun and I at our home in Guntur, Mithun with Stephen on his lap and Kareena sitting beside, Mithun talking to Dad at a hotel hosted by Rakesh Roshan, all of us at home (Monty is not in the picture), Mithun talking to Stephen while the maid and I look on, Mithun- Dad- Rakesh Roshan. And the last one from 1987, a surprise meeting with Mithun in Kudremukh, Karnataka. Kareena and I in the photo. The T-shirt he's wearing had little Mimoh's face on it!

And this is how it all began...

Imagine you're a 14 year-old girl and you're told your idol is coming home for dinner. How would you react?

1984, Guntur District in Andhra Pradesh. Dad was Superintendent of Police. One day (in Feb, I think it was) school was abuzz with the news that Mithun Chakraborty was in town. He'd arrived with Rakesh Roshan and a large star cast for shooting Jaag Utha Insaan. In those days it was a rarity for Hindi movies to be shot in the South so everyone was super excited. Mithun was at the peak of his popularity. Disco Dancer had released a few years back, cementing him as one of the biggest Hindi movie stars ever. My siblings and I were huge fans and we had his posters on our bedroom walls...along with Stallone's! Imagine my delight when I rushed home from school and cried:
"Mom! Mom! Guess what? Mithun is in town! We've got to meet him. Please!"
"Really?" Mom said with a mysterious smile. "I wonder who's coming home for dinner tonight?"
And it actually happened; The man himself (and other lead actors of the movie) landed up at our bungalow that night. Mithun alighted from his car with a flourish and said:
"Hi, I'm Mithun Chakraborty."
Need I add he had us and our staff completely floored?

This was so long ago and I'm a little hazy about every word spoken but I do recall that Mithun was the coolest and most down-to-earth guy one could imagine. We kids took him up to our rooms and showed him his posters and he seemed to be touched and honoured (was probably humouring us; he's an awesome actor, after all). He answered all our silly questions:
'Who's your favourite heroine?' (I remember that answer but won't tell!)
'Do you perform your own stunts?'
'Which is your favourite role?'
'What are your dogs' names?' ( I recall two: Selukas and Henna)
'Why don't you do more films opposite...?'
He was patient and good-humoured amidst all that grilling! He also charmed our cook by walking into the kitchen to see what was for dinner.

We kids and Mom visited the sets a couple of times, the cast invited us for a return meal at their hotel, and we met Mithun on and off over the next few years. `Visited his flat in Bandra in 1985 when his oldest son Mimoh was a toddler. In 1987 we had another chance encounter when Dad was on deputation to the CISF and we accompanied him to Kudremukh in Karnataka. We were thrilled to find a movie crew checking into the same guest house and- wonder of wonders- whom should be the hero of the film but Mr. Chakraborty himself? We all spent another memorable evening in his company.

One can go on and on about Mithun...as I knew him then. About his generosity when he visited the Police boys' hostel and other little kindnesses he displayed. I remember all the stories he told us about his experiences of working in movies. But that would take ages and memories are best left private. My sister, brothers and I talk about our meetings with Mithun sometimes and we remember him fondly. We've been incredibly fortunate to see the 'normal' side of an iconic movie star who's still going strong.

Wanna be a writer?

Agatha Christie

Do you wanna be a writer? Are you sometimes beseiged by the desire to put pen to paper and create some new reality that true to you, truer than 'real' life? Isaac Azimov said that if his doctor told him he had only six minutes to live, he wouldn't brood. Instead, he would "type a little faster." That's pretty much my point of view. And not because it's 'glamorous'; it's not. It's a lonely, insular enterprise that often leaves your loved ones accusing you (quite rightly) of being self-centred and disconnected with the world in general.

A YouGov poll just released finds that becoming a writer is considered as the most desirable job in Britain. 60% of people said they’d like to do it for a living. Fewer people listed being a TV presenter or a movie star! This has thrown up interesting debates on the net about writers and the writer’s life.

Maya Angelou

George Orwell described writing a book as “a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” If this isn’t graphic enough, consider Hemingway’s quote: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” And bleed, we do. It can strain one’s personal life, too, since the writer is frequently absorbed with her own imagination and kind of oblivious to her surroundings.  I know that even while sitting and watching TV with my family, for instance, I’m often lost in my character’s fate or a particular plot point in the work in progress.

And then there’s rejection to cope with. Not only rejection by publishers, but by readers. There will always be some people who hate what you write, others who think it’s fair to criticize because you write. Strangely enough, everyone feels there’s a hidden writer inside him! It seems so doable until you actually get down to it. So, why write?

It’s because we have to. Those of us who are writers, don’t really have a choice. There’s this thing inside of us- call it a demon or muse or merely some mysterious urging- that won’t go away until it gets out on paper. As Maya Angelou said: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” (Quote from I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings). 

Despicably Yours: a study in villainy

It's harder to create a 'good' villain than a hero.He’s got to be enigmatic, complicated, riveting and, above all, really horrible. I’ve compiled a list of ten evil characters from the movies and fiction that provide an interesting insight into the power of good writing. I’ve left out some of the more famous ones: the Joker in Batman, Count Dracula, Jack the Ripper, Hannibal Lecter and so on because they’re so done. Here’s my list, not in any particular order:

Aaron Stampler from Primal Fear, 
Professor James Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories,
 Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love, 
Colonel Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds, 
Claudius from Hamlet,
 'Big Ger' Cafferty from Ian Rankin's Rebus novels,
 Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley, 
Hans Gruber from Die Hard, 
Al Capone in The Untouchables, 
and Keyser Soze from The Usual Suspects.

All these photos are downloaded from Google images.

Aaron Stampler in Primal Fear:

Remember that innocent looking boy with a multiple personality disorder? Hard to believe it was Edward Norton’s debut role. This 1996 adaptation of William Diehl’s novel would not have been so engrossing without Norton playing the young altar boy accused of violently murdering an Archbishop. He even shaded Richard Gere’s character Martin Vail. I’ll never forget the end when Gere realizes he’s been played for a fool. So there never was a Roy? He asks Stampler, referring to Aaron’s vicious alter ego. To this, Stampler replies: “There never was an Aaron, Counsellor!”

Jim Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes Series:

Although he appears in only two Sherlock Holmes stories, The Final Problem and The Valleyof Fear, Holmes’s arch enemy casts a long shadow through the entire series. Holmes himself describes the mathematical genius professor as ‘The Napoleon of Crime’. He’s maniacal, egotistic and his brain is said to rival Holmes’s. Many actors have played him over the years in the host of Sherlock adaptations. I like the way Andrew Scott (featured in the photo above) does Moriarty in the BBC version Sherlock, which is currently running on TV. He’s smartly turned out and utterly frightening.

Rosa Klebb in From Russia With Love:

Lotte Lenya is so effective as the evil Colonel Rosa Klebb in the second Bond movie, we remember her as the main villain. Her poison-tipped shoe spike is an iconic weapon and it’s hard to forget the fear on Sean Connery’s face as he fights her off in the climax. The way she flinches at the slightest human touch underlines her brutality; it seems the only way she can make human contact is by stabbing people with her shoe.

Hans Landa from Inglorious Basterds:

…and with this character the world was introduced to a genius called Christoph Waltz. A German-Austrian actor who speaks English, French and Italian apart from his native tongue, Waltz was eerily charming in this Quentin Tarantino flick. Who else could’ve played a Nazi Colonel and made us want to see more? He’s not only a brilliant detective Jew-hunter, he loves drinking milk, too! We’re almost sorry when the American Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) disfigures him by carving a swastika into his forehead at the end of the film.

Claudius in Hamlet:

Played by Derek Jacobi in this version. Kenneth Branagh (also in the picture) is the tortured Prince of Denmark. Claudius is an interesting Shakespeare villain. He’s a capable monarch, possesses competent diplomatic skills and he’s a patient uncle/ stepfather to crazy Hamlet. It’s only after the ghost appears to Hamlet that we realize he’s behind the murder of his brother, Hamlet’s father. His confession to God in his private chapel reveals a heart bordering on repentance but since it’s a tragedy, he falls to Hamlet’s sword in the end.

'Big Ger' Cafferty in Ian Rankin's Rebus novels:

Morris Gerald Cafferty, played by James Cosmo (the photo above) in one of the Rebus series, is the perfect foil to John Rebus, Ian Rankin’s enigmatic Scottish detective. There’s plenty of dramatic tension between the two since Rebus often cuts corners in order to seek a conviction and sometimes finds himself on the wrong side of the law. Cafferty knows this and spares no opportunity to confront Rebus. Cafferty is portrayed as ruthless, physically strong and a man to be feared.

Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley:

Matt Damon is brilliant as Tom Ripley, the man who steals a rich guy’s identity, kills him and gets away with it all. An adaptation of the 1955 novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, it’s set in the 1950s in Italy and the US. Tom Ripley is the young man with dubious talents- lying, forging, stealing- struggling to make a living. He succeeds in murdering a rich man Dickie Greenleaf (played by Jude Law) and then convincing a host of people that he’s Dickie. His motives? ‘It’s better to be a fake nobody than a real somebody.’ Hmm…food for thought, what?

Hans Gruber in Die Hard:

Suave, menacing and evil, Alan Rickman made Hans Gruber an unforgettable villain in the first Die Hard movie. None of the baddies in the next four sequels came close. Gruber is basically a thief but he seems so much more. He kills without batting an eye but he can also be extremely well-mannered. Loved his German accent, too.

Al Capone in The Untouchables:

With Kevin Costner, Sean Connery and Andy Garcia in the cast of this 1987 crime drama, a scary villain was required to heighten the drama. It was no other than Robert De Niro who stepped into the role of Al Capone, the Chicago mafia man of the 1920s and 30s. Capone is mercurial, loves the opera, kills without mercy and he’s slightly comical, too. Never accept his dinner invite, though, he might just bash your brains in with a baseball bat!

Keyser Soze in The Usual Suspects:

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Awesome movie, awesome Kevin Spacey (extreme right in the photo). He’s Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint, a small time con artist with cerebral palsy who turns approver when a group of ‘the usual suspects’ blow up a freighter ship and kill nearly everyone on board. As he narrates the story to the cops, the name Keyser Soze turns up. Soze is a mythical figure of Turkish descent who’s rumoured to be nearly invisible. He kills not only his enemies but their families and associates, too. Only at the end do we realize, in one of the greatest movie twists of all time, that Kint is Keyser Soze. He has several great lines. One of the most famous, a paraphrase of Baudelaire: ‘The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he doesn’t exist.’

                                                        ***

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The Grand Budapest Hotel: Movie Tribute

Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel is pure joy. It’s a comedy movie released last year and has an awesome star cast. Ralph Fiennes leads the group. Then there’s F. Murray Abraham, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Jeff Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Jude Law, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody…to name a few! The plot is complicated but presented so effortlessly that you don’t have any trouble shifting between present day, the 1960s and 1930s. How many movies or novels can boast of that?

A brief synopsis:

Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) is concierge at The Grand Budapest Hotel, a popular ski resort in the 1930s at the fictional European Alpine Republic of Zubrowka. A junior lobby boy called Zero Mustafa (Tony Revolori as the boy and F. Murray Abraham as the older Zero) becomes his friend and protégé. Gustave prides himself on providing his guests top class service and that includes sexual favours to rich elderly women visiting there. One of his lovers is Madame D (Tilda Swinton) who dies under mysterious circumstances and bequeaths him a priceless painting Boy with Apple. This enrages her family, particularly her son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and Gustave finds himself framed for her murder and arrested. How he escapes from prison and proves his innocence forms the rest of the action.

Wes Anderson’s masterful treatment of the large array of actors and his amazing screenplay blew my mind. It’s a lesson for all writers, the way he gives bit parts such brilliant characteristics that they remain with us long after the movie ends. The locales are gorgeous and the manner in which Anderson combines wit, humour, farce and suspense is worth all the hype surrounding the movie (11 Oscar nominations!).

To give you a small example of one of the many, many wonderful scenes in the movie: Gustave has just escaped from prison and Zero is waiting outside the walls for him. Instead of scooting from there, Gustave proceeds to harangue the lobby boy for not bringing along his favourite cologne, L’air du panache. Moments later he regrets his words and apologizes to Zero for failing to meet the high standards of The Grand Budapest Hotel!

Don’t miss this movie.