Tell simple stories
The story line of "Mysterious Superstar" is not complicated, and it is not impossible to summarize it simply and rudely in a 140-character Weibo body:
A girl from a middle-class Muslim family in a developed coastal area has a musical dream and uploaded a video of her performance on a laptop given by her mother. But in order not to let his father find out, he had to wear a black robe and mask to perform. The video made the "mysterious superstar" famous overnight, but his father's patriarchal and domestic violence remained the same. The girl then accepted a cooperation invitation from a well-known musician, and in the process of realizing her dream, she and her mother escaped the misfortune of the family.
However, simplicity is by no means the same as indifference, nor is it a passport to insult the audience's IQ. Instead, the music, acting, and details fully prop up the two-and-a-half-hour movie. Audiences like me cry and laugh for a while. After crying and laughing, I have to admit that Aamir Khan still proved with full sincerity that even if his works are mediocre, his works are still a proper conscience of the industry.
One of the interesting things about music-themed movies is that they can arouse the audience's emotions through nice songs. "Once", "Go Again" and "La La Land", which swept the Oscars at the beginning of the year, have fully proved this. Although the little girl's self-singing and singing on the train at the beginning of the film is not very recognizable, the first video Main Kaun Hoon ("Who Am I") still successfully hit me, and before I realized it, the corners of my eyes were wet. The picturesque words and rhythmic songs seem to outline a space as vast and profound as the Milky Way. The soul burst forth freely in this space-time stage. The struggle and confusion are clearly discernible, but there is more strength that a black robe cannot wrap or restrain. Aglaila's Reflection and Su Yunying's "Wild Son" also came alive from the depths of my memory, like a meteor flashing across my mind, excitedly complementing this new song with a language barrier.
Excellent music is not necessarily capable of bad films, but with the excellent acting skills of the actors, it becomes the icing on the cake. As far as Uncle Mi is concerned, without the "self-abuse" of gaining weight first and then losing weight in the previous "Wrestling, Dad", this greasy and exaggerated image of a musician can be performed with ease. It may seem like a lack of breakthrough, but in this movie that almost cried from beginning to end, his character can be said to have contracted more than half of the laughs. The most surprising thing is naturally the little girl who plays the protagonist: nervous, shy, angry, frightened, aggrieved, moved, distressed... Almost every emotion is portrayed by her vividly and clearly. The mother, brother, male classmate, and even the father who was abusive, also performed equally well.
The film's capture, control and restoration of details are also commendable. For example, a cram school teacher who looks a little funny while doing housework and tutoring. According to the Indian girls who watched the movie together, this scene was very common in their childhood memories. Another example is the ignorant feelings between children: the ballpoint pen words written on their hands, the lunch boxes they shared, the bubbles they blew together... In the director's shot, they were green and fresh; the one who impressed the most and cried the most was the The part of the younger brother repairing the computer for the elder sister: The elder sister's depression and despair could not find an outlet, and she could only wave useless fists angrily on the rooftop, only to find that the innocent younger brother thought that he could fix it with tape and go straight from the third floor. Fallen laptop. In the complex adult world, how many children can't understand and can't solve it. But the innocence and loveliness that shines like gold, even if it is just quietly there, is the best comfort for adults - and the precocious little adults like sisters.
A true "mystery superstar"
"Aamir Khan's Works", a surviving Bollywood gold sign, is the most iconic of its participation and leadership in social issues. The mother's forbearance of family bondage is unreservedly revealed from the beginning of the film, which is in stark contrast to the girl's wild and splendid dreams. The process of a girl chasing her music dream coincides with the process of her mother gradually making up her mind to get out of the "cage".
It must be that the inhumane, cruel and tyrannical image of the father in the film is too full. The ending of my mother's unrestrained departure from my father, who was not worthy of nostalgia at all, but who repeatedly persuaded himself to excuse himself, was very pleasant, but it was also doubtful. Far from being the punishment my father deserved for his brutality. (Similarly, at the end of the "Indian English" a few years ago, in the face of the slightest sign of repentance from her husband, the heroine also resolutely refused the handsome French uncle to return to the family.)
In the process of aftertaste, I remembered a sentence I read in the Jewish Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem: It is more important to save Jews than to kill Germans.
The context that this sentence refers to is extremely extreme and much heavier (and it is not irrefutable - do you remember Fang Siqi's distressing but irreversible sentence not long ago: "The largest massacre in human history? , is Fang Siqi’s type of rape”?) But if similar logic is applied here, it can be said that the treatment of the film is still very suitable for the needs of India today.
Judging from the hashtag "#MeToo" that has recently "popularized" the Internet (because Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was reported on a large scale for allegedly sexually assaulting many female stars), the mother's experience is undoubtedly the most powerful example. The idealization of certain aspects of the film certainly means that this is far from the worst that can be experienced/encountered by a married woman in India. But on the other hand, sexual assault, domestic violence, and all other violence against women is not something that can be taken for granted because the men who perpetrate them can make more money, buy a bigger and more spacious house, or let their children go to private schools. be forgiven.
However, if society is to be mature enough to discuss the punishment of persecuted men in general, it must first have enough victimized women to awaken, escape and resist. This is the relationship between first and last, cause and effect. Moreover, punishment can only be a means, not an end. At best, men and women can speak out and act with agreement: Discrimination and violence of any kind against anyone is wrong, regardless of gender. Grandpa Bachang's Pink , Uncle Mi's "Wrestling Dad" and this "Mysterious Superstar" are the best interpretations of He for She .
Even if it is more important to accept awakening than punishment, the film's portrayal of the mother's timing of the outbreak is still a little sloppy: if there is no such thing as overweight luggage, and the broken guitar goes to Saudi Arabia together (the father may not even care what luggage the daughter brings), then Is there no ultimatum that my mother could not bear the moment before leaving the customs? Is this milder (but also more common in reality) possibility a straitjacket, or a deeper misfortune?
It seems that the movie that everyone is happy can't give an answer. Let's take a look at the real story that is said to have inspired the director's creation. The director met a mother during the interview for the first season of Uncle Mi's documentary "Truth Interview". This mother suffers from domestic violence just like the mother in the movie, but the difference is that her husband died early. So my mother signed up for a driving school in order to support her family as a driver in the future. This decision was fully supported by her daughter, who even took over her mother's work as a helper to ensure that her mother could concentrate on her driving school studies.
This truer story is nowhere near as rich and glamorous as the movie. But even under worse conditions, with the company and support of family members, I hope that the cruelty of life will not be slaughtered. It is like a beam of light, even if it can't help us smooth all the roughness of the road ahead, even if it is weak and swaying, it is enough to illuminate the road ahead.
In this sense, the film does not trumpet the victimized women's "turn over and call the shots", but gently reminds them, while helping them recognize that "no one can leave no one," gently reminds them, look, you never It will be one person fighting.
In other words, the theme of the film is not so much a dream, but rather a dream, care and support. The love that comes from the clumsy but never-ending love around her is the real "mysterious superstar" behind her dream. And this is exactly the little girl's affectionate interpretation of her stage name/screen name on the podium.
The sublimation of this gentle and deep concept is so touching that all the weakness and childishness in the previous plot can be forgiven.
high wall and stone
How much social impact a film and television work can have is really a question that requires careful consideration and is difficult to answer. On the one hand, a series of social reflections aroused by "The Furnace" even promoted the progress of national legislation; on the other hand, Uncle Mi's other recent work "Alien PK" is already in the most profound and simple way in my opinion. Uncover religion. The almost unrecognizable dressing-up of leaders of different religions, this kind of hilarious drama that takes the humor to seriousness, is still fresh in my memory. (Earlier, Akshay Kumar starred in "Er Drop God", which also playfully took on the Hindu gods from another angle.) In March of this year, the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh was still a surprising welcome. After a while, the abbot of Yogi became the chief minister, and the various farces after he came to power are comparable to Trump on the other side of the ocean; at the same time, there are other countries where the living soil of similar works is too thin to support this. General "luxury" discussion.
Patriarchy, domestic violence, religious superstition... These traditions naturally cannot be strengthened in a day or two, or even a century or two. Borrowing from Haruki Murakami's "egg high wall theory", such stubborn diseases of Indian society are undoubtedly a high wall that is tight and airtight. It's just that I don't think that films that have the courage to challenge them are eggs. These successive works are more like solid stones. Every throw hits a crack, not necessarily clearly visible, but definitely loose. until the cracks continue to grow. Until one day, the high wall finally collapsed.
From "Wrestling Dad" to "Mysterious Superstar", this is the second "stone" that Uncle Mi has continuously cast on feminist issues. If you can really put together a "daughter trilogy" as netizens say, it must be a favorite of the masses.
Let’s take an irresponsible guess: sports and music topics have been touched, and before they have involved painting (“The Stars on Earth”), history (“The Colors of Bassati” and earlier “Earth”), science and engineering (“The Earth”). "Three Silly") ... Is the next film about a girl who becomes a director or chef?
Wait and see.
(Abridged version published in "Wenhui Pen Club")
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