Best Movies Ever #3: Children of Heaven (1997)

Written & Directed by Majid Majidi

Produced by Amir Esfandiari and Mohammad Esfandiari

Running time : 89 minutes

Country: Iran

Language: Persian

Sometimes it is astonishing to see something so simple yet so beautiful that we could not resist to love it. Similar feelings wobbled my heart when I saw 'Children of Heaven', a 1997 Iranian drama flick. Written and directed by Majid Majidi, Children of Heaven showcased the most classic paradox of losing even after winning the race in the most subtle way ever demonstrated in the history of world cinema. With no actions, special effects, guns and gooses, or any complicated relationships it evinced the beauty of simplicity through ‘direct dil-se' story. Though the movie is set up in Iran, the story can be easily comprehended and loved by universal audience, irrespective of generation gap. It was nominated for Acadamy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998 and won several awards at International level.

Story of the movie revolves around a family of four members living in old town of Iran and coping with financial disturbances. Though, the main plot revolves around Ali, a nine years old school going kid, who by mistake loses his little sister’s (Zahra) pink shoes while he took them for repairing. Fearing of a scold from his father, Ali does not tell his father about lost shoes but the problem is that how will Zahra go to school without shoes? So, both device a plan in which Zahra will wear Ali's sneakers in morning and Ali will wear it in afternoon classes. Meanwhile, Ali comes to know about a inter school race competition in which third prize is a pair of shoes. Ali immediately thinks as an opportunity and threrfore participated in the race but eventually he comes first. Though he wins the race but he is not happy as he missed the opportunity of getting a pair of shoes.

Amir Farrokh Hashemian as Ali steals the show with his brilliant performance. As an innocent but helpless kid who could not tell his father about lost shoes, he brilliantly played the big brother of his sister and also showed enough maturity to understand the financial condition of his father. His innocent face justifies his dilemma between responsibilities of being eldest son of house and fun of being school going kid. Bahare Seddiqi as Zahra and Ali's little sister justifies her role with utmost innocence and cute dialogue delivery. It is difficult to ignore the performance of Amir Naji as Ali's father who is sometimes rude but cares more than anything about his children.

‘Children of Heaven’ is a simple but well written story which not only touches your heart but stays in your heart for eternity. Majid Majidi deals closely with almost every relationship depicted in the movie especially brother - sister relationship. The scene where Ali and Zahra exchange notes for a solution is beautifully written and executed. The soul of the movie lies in its inherent sweetness of caring love between Ali and his sister, responsible love of Ali for his father and unconditional love of parents for their children. The scene where Ali went with his father to rich houses of big city for gardening work and how he helped his father in communicating through intercom is incredible.

‘Children of Heaven’ is not about rich or poor life but it tells the way to live life, it is not about struggle in life but it is about emotional bonding among family members which make them able to cope any struggle of life. ‘Children of Heaven’ is ninety beautiful minutes of engrossed emotional content.

Best Movies Ever #2: The Bicycle Thief (1948)

Directed by Vittorio De Sica

Produced by Giuseppe Amato

Language: Italian

Hard times can break you in pieces. Wisdom and morality will be lost in the woods of reality of life. The uncontrolled circumstances can force you to make mistakes. Mistakes, after you commit, cannot be regressed and at that time you even cannot face your dear ones especially those for whom you are an idol. Antonio face the same situation in 1948 Italian classic drama flick 'The Bicycle Thief'. Though the original name was 'Ladri di biciclette' in Italian which can be translated to 'Bicycle Thieves' in English but movie was released in US with the name 'The Bicycle Thief'. In 1952, the magazine Sight & Sound listed it as the greatest movie ever made. This movie also got the Academy Honorary Award in 1950. It always ranked among the top in almost all the polls conducted worldwide for e.g. it was placed sixth as the greatest movie ever made in Sight & Sound's directors' poll, conducted in 2002 and was ranked in the top 10 of the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

The movie is the classic example of the neo-realism movement started in Italian film industry which portrays the reality of Italian middle and lower middle class society. Movie is set up in the economy of Italy just after the world war II. Antonio Ricci is one of the many who are unemployed and are living in penury. Fortunately, Antonio gets the job of pasting posters but on a condition that he must posses a bicycle. 'No bicycle, no job'. His wife sells some old and some new bed sheets to buy a bicycle but hard luck prevails and Antonio's bicycle get stolen on the first day of his work. He cannot continue his job until he finds a bicycle therefore along with his son, Bruno, he starts searching for his bicycle. The whole day he searches for his bicycle but with no luck. At last, he try to steal one but unfortunately public catch hold off him. While he was stealing bicycle his son saw him. He was embarrassed to set a bad example in front of his own son, but at the end his son slips his hand into his father hand letting him know that he still believes in his father and still he is his idol.

Vittorio De Sica as the director of movie casted a steel worker Lamberto Maggiorani as Antonio Ricci who was unproffesional and novice to film industry but he beautifully portrayed a common man of Italy who was unemployed, helpless and dejected from his life. On the other hand, Bruno played by Enzo Staiolo was remarkable in displaying innocence of childhood and ability to understand agony of his father. In one of the scene where he was dining with his father in a restaurant, he looked towards kids of affluent class who were eating full pasta whereas he was just having bread and mozzarella but he starts pretending to be enjoying it too. There are many such scenes in the movie where your eyes turns wet while watching father-son relationship in the utmost mesmerizing way.

'The Bicycle Thief' shows the reality of Italy - real streets - real house and real people facing real situations. It wonderfully depicts the prevalent culture and society of Italy as the background keeping the realism of life of a common man at front. Movie is a landmark in the history of world cinema because of its significance of being inspiration for many directors of world wide. Indian legendary directors Stayajit Ray and Bimal Roy were inspired from this movie. Stayajit Ray's Pather Panchali and Bimal Roy's 'Do bhigha zameen' were the tribute to 'The Bicycle Thief'. I can see similar father-son relationship in 'Life is beautiful' and 'The pursuit of happyness' but not so subtle and charming as in 'The Bicycle Thief'. A scene where Bruno started crying after getting hit by his father and then showed his anger by saying 'I will tell mom that you hit me' and Antonio replied by saying "In a second you’ll have more to tell her". I could not resist a sweet smile comprehending the ongoing beautiful emotional link between father and son.

My heart is not as complicated as I perceive, it loves simplicity and therefore 'The Bicycle Thief' will always remain very close to my heart.

Best Movies Ever #1 - Pyaasa (1957)

Cast: Guru Dutt, Mala Sinha, Waheeda Rehman, Rehman, Johnny Walker.

Directed and Produced By: Guru Dutt
Written by: Abrar Alvi
Music by: S. D. Burman

A movie from the heart, a movie for the heart, Pyaasa is the gem of Indian cinema, a pinnacle which is difficult to overthrown. Pyaasa is a 1957 intense drama flick directed by legendary actor-director Guru Dutt, who fulfilled his dream of making a good movie without apprehensions of commercial success with this movie. Pyaasa has been rated as one of the 100 best films of all the time by Time Magazine in year 2005. Earlier, Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll of all-time greatest films ranked it at #160.

Pyaasa is a journey of a talented but unsuccessful poet Vijay (Guru Dutt) and his pursuit for recognition for his literary work. His failed because of his unprecedented style and un-contemporary genre of writing and his stubbornness of not to succumb to unrealistic though popular literature. His brutal and blunt poems involving sorrows of life and moral crisis of civil society were too arrogant to be published. His journey ends with revelation of hypocrisies exists in the society which is motivated by greedy and inhuman intentions.

Waheeda Rehman with the role of Gulaabo, a prostitute who falls in love with Vijay because of his poems, announced her entry to Indian cinema with an excellent performance. Though she is a prostitute and represents an abhorrent section of society but has a golden heart and played a pivotal role in publishing Vijay’s work. Rehmaan with his royal and charismatic look able to represents upper class of society. He marvelously represents greedy and materialistic society using cruel means for gaining more power and money. Meena (Mala Sinha) as an ex-girl friend of Vijay and wife of Rehmaan beautifully depicts her dilemma for choosing money over love. Other character like brothers of Vijay and friends of Vijay did a fantastic job in caricaturing a society of different dimensions. Even all characters gave their best performances, but this movie solely belongs to Guru Dutt. His performance is one of the best of Indian cinema. His sullen face with failed pursuit for better world represents the forlorn humankind.

Pyaasa is incomplete without its songs and poems. All poems were penned by Sahir Ludhianvi, one of the finest writers of Urdu poems. He rephrased most of his poems to suit common public. Music is composed by legendary S. D. Burman and it is worth mentioning that Mohd. Rafi did a wonderful job in representing the true feeling behind each word through his voice.

Though, this film belongs to an era of black and white cinema, it does not let you down with any technical flaws. From Impeccable cinematography to outstanding screenplay and direction, the whole saga consummate for a finest and incomparable endeavor.