Culture

uch a Long Journey

he warmth of a
ife lived outside

Joyce Robinson

 

he surprise of sunlight as you
bpen your eyes, quickly blos-
oms into a warmth of life, of
excess of humanity which
perpetually crawls dry streets
bnd exists with every colour in
every tone in every shade. With
ko many people, it is inevitable
at there is just as much
death. With so many people,
ow is it possible to justify
iving a full life? Each person is
a part of the next, each person
shares their existence with
hose surrounding them. Such a
Long Journey takes place in
Bombay, a city of streets
hoked with people, people
hose lives will never mean
anything, where individual ©
hopes and dreams mean noth-
ing. Sturla Gunnason directs
is film, and shows a crushing
weight of life.

Such a Long Journey is not
about movement from one place
to another, but the progression
of life. This journey is shown
being undertaken by Gustad

oble (Roshan Seth). At the
entre of Such a Long Journey,
Ihe is a patriarch who has taken
his family for granted. Initial
annoyance with Gustad’s flip
responses to other people's
oncerns turns into awe. How
an a man so utterly ignore the
hesitation and anxiety the
others around him exhibit in
heir everyday interactions?
However, Gustad is portrayed
sympathetically. He is a man
ho lives, happily, beneath his
station. He tries to elevate the

pirit of each person he interacts

with, except for his son. It is
this relationship that indicates
the level of ignorance within
which Gustad has enveloped his
life.

Gustad’s son is the vessel

of all his hopes. Only, it appears ,
that Gustad’s son has become an |
individual. He has become a man|

who wants to make his own
decisions about life. So he runs
away, and for a time lives in the
street, outside a mosquito-
infested, frequently pissed-on
dirt wall which keeps a busy
street from trespassing into the
courtyard in front of Gustad’s
apartment.

Gustad has proffered this
wall as his redemption, except
after his daughter gets malaria
from one of the mosquitoes the
damp wall breeds. An artist who
draws holy images on the
sidewalk is offered this rotten
wall, it is a better location.
Gustad’s purpose is selfish—holy
images on the wall may keep
drunks from peeing on it. And
to this end he succeeds. The wall
miraculously becomes a holy
place, covered in the bright and
varied gods of India. The wall
welcomes all those who seek the
gods blessings, and the artist
benefits from the generosity of
those who have found peace in
addressing their gods, albeit
indirectly.

Mrs. Noble is a woman of
valour who sticks by her hus-
band, Gustad. Except when he is
obviously wrong. Mystery and
magic live upstairs in the form
of an old woman, Miss Kutpitia.
Mrs. Noble finds comfort in the
simple household spells this
magician suggests. Miss Kutpitia
gives Mrs. Noble the opportunity
to blame outside forces for what

;
ails her family. Mrs. Noble can
look outside her own house for
fault, rather than repair the
problems within. The right
suggestion about the family’s
discontent is never spoken. With
the exception of one, there is no
discussion about what the —
family wants. The son does not
want to be an engineer, he
wants to be an Arts student. He
runs away from the unbearable
weight of his father’s expecta-
tions. Through the inevitable
flashback we see Gustad’s past,
through a golden haze, brighter
than the everyday cacophony of
the streets of Bombay, through
the blackout paper on Gustad’s
windows left from the previous
war—which he cannot take
down for the horrible light of
reality. Gustad has chosen his
ignorance, he doesn’t see that it

     

# Hl |
is the joy of everyday that keeps Opportunity for real happiness
his friends from sinking into in this crowded world, but the |
corrupt, fetid decay. It is the value of that happiness is for it

present, not fear of what may to be fully realized, not simply

be, or the colour of the past, motions gone through from
that is living. expectations created by a

The accumulation of previous generation. The value
events which brings Gustad into of Gustad’s life is that he is a
conflict with what he believes, friend, and a father. All Gustad’s
where he does begin to recog- _—_—~Pain is from a self-imposed
nize his own assumptions as blindness. He cannot see the
differing from those of his larger World unless through his own
community, coming to some Memories, but he does come to
greater understanding about his tealize that his own happiness
life, is a minor, personal victory. am only come from helping
But the realization of this film is Other people.
the immensity of India. One
‘man’s epiphany seems insignifi-
cant amongst all those other
lives, each reaching for under-
standing, each reaching for
faith, something greater than
themselves. We are allowed the
suggestion that there is an

X-Spot: ‘Monday’ on Sunday

Jen Swanston

‘Monday’ (Mobius)
ritten by Vince
Gilligan &
ohn Shiban
Directed by Kim
anners

hris Carter swore that he would

ever do another episode

volving time again. Big
surprise, Chris Carter lied; well

aybe not lied, changed his

ind. Last Sunday, Mulder and
Scully found themselves stuck in
a time loop, repeating their day
pver and over, and over again.
Though both seem to experience

a mild bit of déja vu, only one
woman, Pam (Carrie Hamilton),
knows what's going on. Pam is
trapped in her own personal hell
with every day ending the same
way; her boyfriend Bernard
(Darren Burrows) dies as he
blows up a bank, with Mulder
and Scully inside.

‘Monday, the episode, is
strikingly similar to Groundhog
Day, and starts the same way
after every commercial break.
Mulder wakes up in his new
waterbed to discover it has
sprung a leak, and his day just
goes downhill from there,
ending in his death. Every time.

Though there were small
changes in each new timeline,
the story got old very quickly.
The concept is interesting,

  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  

although it has been done by
just about every type of sci-fi
show in the past. If ‘Monday’
had been the first television
show to use this concept it

_ Next week's

, X-Files Episode:

® ‘Fast Forward...Arcadia’
Written by Daniel Arkin

Directed by Michael

| Watkins

Mulder and Scully pose as a

| married couple to investigate a ~
series of bizarre happenings in
an exclusive, gated community.

would have been fascinating. It
was interesting, but not inter-
esting enough to hold the
audience between the first
timeline and the last timeline.

the Other Press March 3 1999 13