I feel that the quality of the movie is higher than the rating. Fortunately, I didn't give up watching the movie because of the too popular movie title. Some people say that the plot of the movie is old-fashioned, and this should not be a movie to win with the plot. It wins in details and intentions. I especially like the subtle and unassuming details in the movie (for example, the male protagonist’s parents look very young, it should be a traditional early marriage). The director will not deliberately enlarge this segment to attract the audience's attention because of a wonderful plot. The beautiful fragments flashed by, but on the contrary, people feel that they are still unfinished. Talk about a few points that I particularly like.
At the beginning of the movie, when the male protagonist's father with a Muslim background married his second wife, it was a traditional and lively Indian wedding in the narrow streets of the slums. The male protagonist stayed out of the matter slightly with contempt, put on headphones, and suddenly avant-garde hip-hop replaced traditional music and became the background music of this Indian wedding. Then his father took off his headphones, traditional music became the background music again, and he put on the headphones again. In this way, hip-hop and traditional music alternated in this wedding. The director used a plain and unique lens to describe the resistance of young Indians to tradition, with contempt and helplessness.
The man drove for a wealthy family. After a party, he went to pick up the daughter of the rich family. The young girl cried and got into the car. Along the way, he looked at the crying girl in the rearview mirror, trying to comfort, but was timid. Because he knew that the girl could cry so unscrupulously in front of him, it was probably because she simply ignored the existence of a lower class like him. And his comfort will break their extremely distant distance. This is not allowed by the upper class. But in two separate individuals in a confined space, he instinctively wanted to help her. In the end, he said nothing or nothing.
The host quarreled with his girlfriend and did not answer her phone. When the girlfriend met her boyfriend's friend on a blind date, she threatened her boyfriend's friend if the boyfriend never came to her, she would marry her boyfriend's friend. As a result, the male protagonist's friend went to the male protagonist with a look of fear. I thought it was my friend who was afraid that the male lead would know about his friend and his girlfriend’s blind date, but my friend said: "Hurry up and find her, otherwise this mad woman will really become my wife, and I will be over for the rest of my life (probably that)." Hahaha.
In addition, while truly showing the bottom life in India, the director's hope of breaking through the status quo is placed on the character setting. The personality of the male protagonist and his girlfriend has overturned the traditional power relationship between Muslim men and women. The male protagonist is a bit shy and lacks self-confidence. And his Muslim girlfriend is powerful, aggressive, brutal and direct, picking up a beer bottle and smashing someone at a disagreement, and she's super enterprising (even putting her career ahead of the male lead when she is ranked). When the two reconciled after the quarrel, the girlfriend finally said, (You like hip-hop) Whatever you want, I will be a surgeon (raise you). Hahaha. As Muslims, they are also extremely open to sex. The male protagonist had a one-night stand with other people, and was easily forgiven by his girlfriend. And the male protagonist seems to be open to the remarks that his girlfriend wants to have sex with other people. Sky, who was killed halfway, is an active social activist. The billboards she drove in the middle of the night and graffiti were all the inequalities she wanted to overthrow.
However, they still cannot escape the shackles of society and family (parents). Male and female owners can only date cautiously on the bus. His girlfriend is still forced by his parents to go on a blind date. Including the mother of the male protagonist and his girlfriend, who is an overbearing woman at home, who said to her daughter on a blind date, "You should feel lucky that you can go on a blind date. I didn't even have a chance to have a blind date (I entered into marriage)." The generation gap in Indian society is deeper than that in China. The hip-hop friend of the male protagonist usually seems to be free and easy. Once the male protagonist came to his house, he saw that he had to face his father’s ridicule and insults from time to time. He was restricted in the family and couldn’t get rid of it. Dilemma. Young people are deeply caught in the contradiction between ideals and their parents/social status quo. What I see is a sense of powerlessness.
Finally, there is one more question I don’t have an answer to. Under the pervasive poverty, for example, the male protagonist’s mother suffered from her husband taking a second wife, ostracism, domestic violence, etc. Eventually the male protagonist and mother (seems to have a younger brother) were forced to leave their homes. They are almost penniless and have no help from outsiders. In order to support his mother and younger brother, the male protagonist had to earn enough income by stealing a car under the "instigation" of his friends. You and me in a stable life will not do such illegal and criminal things. Is it because we are afraid of the cost of breaking the law? I know that if I break the law, I may have to pay a fine, lose my job, or even social status. And if when you have nothing and helpless, for the sake of your family and survival, would you steal the car?
PS I watched Indian movies in the early years, and I remembered the upper class life in India who always lived in luxury houses, drove famous cars, and flew to London from time to time on the screen (and everyone was extremely white). That may be the way for Indians to escape from reality. In recent years, many movie shots have been turned, focusing on those dirty streets, narrow and simple houses, and women and children sleeping on the streets. Indian movies have really surprised me a lot.
PPS This is the first time I have seen kissing in an Indian movie! I don’t know if I’m too much fussing. Ha ha.
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