Happiness - The Review, and The 8 Tag

Although I have written quite a number of reviews over the years (some of them on this blog, a few on see-hear-feel.blogspot.com) I don't claim to be a critic and a reviewer. I am not a cinema student either. I also don't like describing the plot, the characters their relationships etc. (unless absolutely necessary to drive home some other broader point about the movie). My reviews are mostly about what the movie makes one feel and think.

I have been looking for the right words to describe "Happiness" and have not been able to get too many. So I may end up using sentences that may get long and winding, very much unlike the movie itself though.
On the face of it, the movie looks sleazy and is weaved around tragic and scandalous subjects (like Paedophilia, Homosexuality, Masturbation etc). But when looked closely, its a very disturbing mirror shown to some of human realities. There is no point being driven home (or may be...?) but the extremely honest, understated, and darkly comical re-creation of what could otherwise only be described as human tragedies leaves one aghast and touched.
The humor has been weaved into the tragedy in such a way that you don't know whether to cry or to laugh. The movie is 'lightly dark', and almost mocks itself while portraying the hollowness of some of the human pursuits, and the helplessness of others.
Cinematically, its a very challenging script to pull off because of the highly sexual undertones (and overtones). But the movie deals with the situations extremely sensitively, without getting vulgar at any point. The intelligent black humor precariously balances itself between sleaze and depressing tragedy, never tending to become either!
The movie successfully manages to not pull the viewer into the depressing spiral that it creates. One may choose to look into the depth, the misery and the intensity, or just laugh through the film without getting involved with the intricate maze of ethical, moral and tragic realities that it is built upon. Thats why I like it so much, because it does solve the primary purpose of the medium - entertainment.
The movie has been so well made that its tough for me to get into any cinematic intricacies like evaluating performances or screenplay etc! Everything is just right. At least I didn't find any stark flaws. For me, the director was brilliant enough to make sure that each character was wonderfully crafted and judiciously utilised. The scenes are great because of the situations and their context. Of course, the actors have done a great job but its the director who has been able to make them do what they did by visualizing such unique yet real situations.
For eg. A desperate single guy who makes random phone calls for sex chat and shags on porn magazines all day, has the hots for his neighbor. He calls the neighbor one day, during one of those random phone-call routines, and tells her what he "imagines" doing to her. Such is her state of mind at the time of the phone call that she wants him to come over and do her. The scene when he actually lands up at her door, and both of them just end up sitting at the two ends of a sofa, is the most amazing dialogue-less scenes ever! The intricate situation and the multiple thoughts that may be going through the character's mind can only be imagined. He finally leaves and ends up sleeping (on the same bed but facing the other way) with the other larger sized lady neighbor, who has the hots for him.
Or the scene where a peadophile father answers all the questions, howsoever tough, when confronted by his prepubescent son!

I feel that people will have extreme reactions to the movie (Loved it vs Hated it). Those who hate it might say, among other things, that it reeks if looser mentality and inferiority complex. But I sense that even they would only be lying to themselves if they said they didn't relate to it. The biographies of the greatest of people are full of instances showing how they have been through both the sides of life and success. And then this movie has a chain of characters linking one looser who runs after another looser who runs after another looser and so on. (Quite similar in concept to the "Tauba tauba ve teri surat" video of Kailash Kher). Everybody, at the end of the day, is at the same level!

There is something very uncanny about the movie that I have still not been able to put my finger on. It doesn't say anything to anyone. It doesn't claim any pedestal or POV. Its just there, as a statement or a question, and yet it can't be ignored. Its too real a statement. Its not about 'What is happiness?', but its 'Is there happiness?'.

And one thing I can't forget ever is the "climax" of the film. I think the most apt final words ever spoken were said at the end of Happiness, - "I came".

~~~~~~~~~~~~end of review~~~~~~~~~~~~

Goonj tagged me. I'll keep it short.

8 things I am passionate about - Exploring Physics/Probability/Working of the mind/Will, Sensible Cinema/My movie collection, Cricket, My woman (Whoever she may be), Performing satisfactorily in my work (Whatever I do), Writing (lately), Understanding and Arguing.
8 things I want to do before I die - There is nothing that needs 'completion' or some kind of a time-frame. I am already doing all that I am passionate about and more, so even if I die today, I'd die a happy man.
8 things I say often - Right. Ok. Hmm. Fair enough. Cool hai. Relax. Bitch. Sorry.
8 books I have read recently - Shadows Of the Mind - Roger Penrose, Chaos - James Gleick, Fooled By Randomness - Nassim Nicholas Taleb, The God Experiments, My Experiments with Truth - Gandhi, Love Story - Erich Segal (3rd time), Remember Me (A chick-lit. Don't ask why. But loved it.), Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling). "Recently" is quite a deceptive term here! These books have been read over 8 months.
8 songs I could listen to over and over - Drops Of Jupiter (Train), Afterglow (INXS), Hey You (Floyd), Trouble & Fix You (Coldplay), Turn The Page (Bob Segar version), One (U2), Top Gun Theme (Joe Satriani)
(I had done a similar post on Avanoo about, if my life were a movie then what would the soundtrack be? Check the link.)
8 things that attract me to my best friends - I have just 1 best friend and it would take me an eternity to come up with even 1 things that 'attracts' me to him. I am honestly completely truly repelled by the idea! There are a few more close friends, who are my friends inspite of what they are! :) Thats about it.

Most of the people have already done the tag and others will do it soon. So, I tag no one.