SUCH A LONG JOURNEY
Reviewed by Harvey Karten The Shooting Gallery TSG Director: Sturla Gunnarsson Writer: Sooni Taraporevala, novel by Rohinton Mistry Cast: Om Puri, Soni Razdan, Roshan Seth, Naseeruddin Shah, Sam Dastor, Kurush Deboo, Vrajesh Hirjee, Shazneed Damania
Starting with the Greeks ("Agamemnon," "Medea," "Antigone") and continuing with the Elizabethans ("Hamlet," "Othello") on up, portrayals of family dysfunction have been just about the most popular subject for stage and later movie productions. Recent American movies on the subject tend to be broadly satiric and nasty ("Happiness," "American Beauty,") or slick comic-then-tragic takes ("The Next Best Thing"). If you're used to Hollywood versions of domestic dilemmas and difficulties, you're like to be less than absorbed by some of the denser, more subtle selections on the subject. Look at "Such a Long Journey," for example, directed by the Iceland-born Sturla Gunnarsson who has lived much of his life in Canada. Gunnarsson, an unknown name in the U.S. except among cinephiles, is no stranger to awards, having garnered the Prix Ville de Cannes in 1991 for "Diplomatic Immunity" and for the current film he earned favorable reviews after its showing at the Toronto Film Festival, where the director now lives.
Gunnarsson has guts to undertake a project of these dimensions. Rohinton Mistry's book is freighted with plots and subplots and descriptive material whose essence had to be extracted by scripter Sooni Taraporevala--who is, like the characters he describes, a Parsi. What comes across in the relatively brief 110 minutes of screen time is certainly not the full textual content of the luxuriant novel but enough of each major aspects to make an imprint on the audience. Those considerations include a survey, however light, of the Parsi community of Bombay (these are the people who have descended from Persians who, when conquered by Arabs centuries ago, fled to India where they became favored by the British government and prospered in business). For more personal meditations we hone in on one Parsi family rolling in rupees during the British administration which somehow lost its fortune after independence, sending the head of family into a middle-class bank job in Bombay.
The film is blessed with the acting of perhaps India's number one performer, Roshan Seth ("Gandhi," "Passage to India," "My Beautiful Landrette," "Mississippi") in the role of Gustad Noble, a perfectly decent, quiet family man whose world suddenly begins to go to pieces in 1971. During that year, rebellions were taking place in East Pakistan, struggles which were to lead to the formation of the independent state of Bangladesh on India's northeast, a separation from Pakistan which was financed in part by the Indian government and private sources in India.
Using a few discreet flashbacks, Gunnarsson shows Gustad Noble during his happy childhood days in lavish quarters, and later, as an adult, as a man who is asked by his estranged friend Jimmy Bilimoria (Naseeruddin Shah) to be a courier of money to be used to help finance the Bengal uprising. While Noble appears apolitical, he is bound by loyalty to embark on a dangerous mission, employing the help of his friend and co-worker Dinshawji (Sam Dastor) and the guidance of Ghulam (Om Puri), who acts a liaison between Jimmy and Gustad. When it rains it pours: that very year, poor Mr. Noble is faced by a rebellion in his own household, as his son, Sohrab (Vrajesh Hirjee), refuses to go to a prestigious technical school despite his father's admonitions and his small daughter, Roshan (Shazneed Damania) comes down with malaria.
During frequent breaks from the domestic tumult, Gunnarsson cuts to the teeming streets of Bombay where his audience witnesses the shabby condition of the shops, the severely overcrowded local trains, and a minor revolution within his own neighborhood as municipal authorities are determined to tear down a wall filled with religious paintings to widen the road. As though these quandaries were not enough, Gustad's surrogate son, the retarded Tehmul (Kurush Deboo), has observed Gustad handling large sums of illegally-gained money and cannot be trusted to keep his observations a secret.
India and China hold 40% of the entire world's population with India in second place. From the limited sights of the streets of Bombay, we can feel the pressures of such overwhelming growth and sense how just about any annoyance from the arrogance of municipal authorities to the machinations of central government can lead to widespread unrest. By zeroing in on just one group of characters of India's huge multitudes, Gunnarsson afford us a look writ small of the turbulence of the Asian subcontinent, with its street people, its boulevard artists, the burdens felt even by those lucky enough to hold middle-class jobs, and layer upon layer of troubles almost without end. Given the superb acting talents of Mr. Seth and the subtle, patient direction of Mr. Gunnarsson, "Such a Long Journey" turns out a trip worth taking, its audience safely lolling in comfortable theater seats observing the pollution, the corruption, the degradations, the humiliations, and even the momentary joys of family life in Bombay.
Not Rated. Running Time: 110 minutes. (C) 2000 Harvey Karten, film_critic@compuserve.com
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