India has been represented on screen by many auteurs. From Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir (The River) to John Glen (Octopussy) and the latest being Mira Nair (The Namesake) and Paul Greengrass in The Bourne Identity. Apart from this there have been over a zillion movies made in India.
Yet, it took the quirky but brilliant Wes Anderson to define India like never before. When Adrian Brody’s character tells his brothers “I love the way this country smells. It’s kind of spicy” its a moment of sheer joy and achievement of being an Indian. I felt as if this is what I have been waiting to listen about my country in the movies made here, there and everywhere.
I was massively impressed with Renoir’s, Ray’s and Ghatak’s depiction of India. Laughed at the snake charmers, Tuk-Tuks and sadhus in Octopussy. Enjoyed every bit of RGV’s Mumbai in Satya, Mani Ratnam’s Kashmir in Roja and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Rajasthan in Eklavya. But the joy I felt after watching The Darjeeling Limited is unmatched. The movie effortlessly captures the essence of India. The colours are incredibly vivid and intense (Anderson trademark). It looks like a giant collage of picture postcards. Starting from the blue Palace on Wheels amidst the yellow desert to the market place and to Jodhpur the colors are as earthy as they can get. You feel as if you have been transported to the India which you always want to travel across. Alas Yash Chopra and his brethren have resorted to Switzerland and Langkawi Islands for their movies.
The Darjeeling Limited is the story of the three ‘Whitman’ brothers who come to India in a spiritual quest to discover themselves (“We haven’t located us yet”) and to get back together. What we come to know later is that Francis (Owen Wilson), the eldest brother, has planned without the knowledge of the other brothers to meet their mother (Anjelica Huston) who has become a nun in the Himalayas. Their journey initially is marked with numerous uncomfortable moments where they are not ready to trust each other and especially Jack (Jason Schwartzman) and Peter (Adrian Brody) don’t trust their elder brother. They drink non-prescribed medicine, buy a snake from a snake-charmer, get their $ 3000 loafers stolen by a shoeshine boy and get kicked out of the train because of various “miss-adventures”.
The movie is essentially a road trip and a journey of self-exploration of the three main protagonists. Wes Anderson clearly pays homage to Renoir and Ray through this movie and IMHO trumps a lot of directors in depicting India with his imagery and always-on-the-money use of songs in the soundtrack which I have been listening everyday at least once since a month or so.
The soundtrack is an eclectic mix of world music. The music is sourced from Ray’s Apur Sansar, Teen Kanya, Jalsaghar to Merchant-Ivory’s The Householder. Add The Kinks and Stones and Joe Dassin (Les Champs-Élysées) and you have one hell of an album.
There are inconsequential cameos by Bill Murray and Irfaan Khan. Brody, Wilson and Schwartzman (The latter two being the Anderson favourites) share some crackling chemistry among them.
A brilliant road movie which is even better because of the brilliant depiction of a spicy,colorful and incredible India.
After I saw this movie I had this incredible urge to go for a trip to Rajasthan but alas the heat will kill me now. A trip has to be planned in August/September.
N.B: A must recommendation is Hotel Chevalier a short movie by Wes Anderson which is a companion piece (essentially a prologue) to The Darjeeling Limited. Its a 13 minute short telling us the adventure of Jack in Paris. Starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman as Jack’s ex-girlfriend it is shot in one single room and reflects the brilliance of Wes Anderson through his choice of colours, dialogues and music. Not to mention the lovely Natalie Portman in the buff. 
Filed under: Entertainment, Hollywood, Movies | 3 Comments
Tags: Adrian Brody, Album, Cinema, Coppola, Entertainment, Hollywood, Incredible India, India, Jean Renoir, Joe Dassin, Life, Movies, Music, Natalie Portman, nude, nudity, OST, Owen Wilson, Ritwik Ghatak, Road trip, Rolling Stones, Satyajit Ray, The Darjeeling Limited, The Kinks, Wes Anderson
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Can we watch it again, over the coming weekend?
While I agree that this is a wonderful film, I think it distorts ‘India’. Agreed, it isn’t at misinformed and stereotyped as “Octopussy”, but it isn’t that far away either. If I had to nitpick, I’d point out that Anderson’s got his geography all wrong – he accepts it, of course – he apparently said in some interview somewhere that ‘Darjeeling’ was a name he liked, and that the movie had nothing to do with the place.
Why, then, is it a wonderful film?
1. Because it is shot beautifully, in a fantasy-India – a world that he’s created himself – or maybe the India that foreigners see – with the fake medicine, fake peacock feather mantras, snakes, and exotic women. It is an interpretation of India, not a definition! But, it executes the interpretation wonderfully well.
2. Because each frame, much like Barry Lyndon, is desktop wallpaper material!
3. Because stunning one-liners come at the rate of three a minute.
4. Because he tells a story only as he can!
5. Because the Whitman brothers have acted so well that I find it hard to think of the actors as anything but the Brothers!
Oh, I’ve been contemplating the move to WordPress – tell me, can I cut-paste stuff from MS Word without losing formatting?
@aandthirtyeights
Though I agree the movie has nothing to do with Darjeeling I still believe it in no way reduces the achievement of Anderson as a director. He is entitled to this creative liberty.
Regarding portrayal of Indians- For a change, Indians speak decent English (instead of the Hurundi D Bakshi accent hilariously used by Peter Sellers in The Party)which was a relief.
And whole heartedly agree with ur points 1 to 5.
Yes u should move to wordpress. Its ultra powerful. You can import directly from blogger.
Peace.