"Everything Will Come Out All Right In The End . . . ."

Just saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (For The Elderly and Beautiful), a movie about changes in old folks and old societies. The old folks are English character actors like Maggie Smith, Dame Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson and others equally good. The old society, of course, is India, or at least parts of that bewildering, chaotic, amazingly rich and incredibly poor country, which owes at least some of its variety to several hundred years under British colonial rule. My guess is that there were allusions to many parts of British society that are changing as well. One of the ideas made fun of was the idea of out-sourcing from rich Western countries to poor third world countries, even such stuff as medical care and taking care of the elderly.

There are many ironies in the fire in this surprisingly cheap movie.There are a lot of good Indian actors too. Including Dev Patel and others too numerous to mention. Much of this movie must have been filmed on location in India as the sensory input could only be found in the major cities.

Lots of old jokes, visual and auditory: "if she dies, she dies" referring to geriatric sex; many caricatures of course because after all they are British and Indian aren't they. So the uncomfortable trains of India, and the inevitable head wobbles, saying whatever is necessary, and the Brits putting down their Indian caretakers, and yet deciding to stick it out with stiff upper lip in the end. The story lines are fairly predictable but even so, it was an enjoyable afternoon for us old folks.

 ". . . And if it's not all right, then it is obviously not the end." Repeated several times so we wouldn't miss the significance.

I couldn't resist digging out a few old photographs of the splendid five days I spent in Chennai and on the train to Kerala and back a few years ago. If you are going, watch out for the little cabs and the scams they will inevitably try.

[Added later to the title "in the end" Sorry]

Friends Alex & Brigitte and Grandson Steam Into Chennai

After leaving Cape Town our friends headed into the Indian Ocean and stopped at Mauritius and now are headed for Chennai, which was its old name before the British arrived, and is now again after several hundred years as Madras.

You can follow their trip on this website. Pictures available too. For some local interest you can refer to the trip we took together in 2004. The picture above is from that earlier trip. It was taken in Kochin, on the west coast of India where the monsoon rains start. Kerala is famous for cows, Christians, and Communists. Curious, huh?

Slumdog Millionaire

I don't think I've ever seen a movie only a couple of months after it has been released. I usually only start to think about a movie after I've seen it mentioned at the Academy Awards or some other show. But wife Carol said let's go to lunch and a movie. That sounded enough like a date to get me hooked.

Slumdog Millionaire is worth seeing. It might be worth checking out the Wikipedia entry before you see it because things move fast and furious, so it might be worthwhile having a look at the scorecard before you get into it. In fact it might be helpful to see the movie before you visit the country as well. It is an Indian (not the Native American type) Odyssey meets West Side Story, or maybe contemporary Mumbai meets old-fashioned Hollywood.

It takes place in Mumbai, actually starting when it was still called Bombay. They rescued some surprisingly cunning kids from the slums, together with some others a few years older and then finally some young attractive (but not too much so, especially the male lead) players who get their life stories told by flashbacks from questions asked on a modern Indian version of "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire."

Thank Heavens there were no deep or unexpected insights into the human condition, only a familiar bad guys v. good guys story well-told in unfamiliar circumstances. I liked the musical score as well. And for once the early Hindi dialogue, I suppose, with sub-titles in different positions on the screen wasn't all that irritating. The switch to English half-way through was smooth and made sense too.

Although the movie is not a traditional Indian movie, it certainly captures the feel of India during the last generation. Confusing, and meant to be so, sensory overload with the now required odd angle photography and quick cuts. Much is mythological and I suppose filled with stereotypes, but it's the kind of story that gets told well that way.

Just to make sure the viewer knows it is an Indian love story plus everything else, the credits at the end roll with a big West Side Story dance sequence at a train station between the tracks, and there is not much touching, and even the kiss at the end is interrupted at the very beginning. Go see it.

To South India, Chennai and Kerala

On the road again, by ship across the Indian Ocean to Chennai, formerly known as Madras, on the east coast of southern India, then by train to Kerala, where the monsoon rains begin, on the west coast of India, and back to Chennai, where the remains of St Thomas are found.