Donald Trump, for all his deliberately jungli ways, invariably has a master plan working in his own interests
Last week’s over-dramatised, utterly theatrical, totally absurd maara-maari between two world leaders ought to have been a global embarrassment, condemned across the board by an aghast audience watching the President of the United States, Donald Trump, slugging it out in the Oval Office with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Instead, the response to the spat was so dheela, so pheeka, it made one wonder -- was this all a big scam/sham? A really poorly scripted, badly directed Tom & Jerry show designed to fool the world? It appeared staged and ludicrous, besides being unprecedented. Hard to believe that Zelenskyy had zero idea what he was putting his foot into, given counter-intelligence and much else. Did he not know that this crucial meeting with the biggest bully on earth was to be conducted in front of a live television audience? Did he imagine it would be a private tete-a-tete between him and Trump which would remain a closed-door affair, with a bland, blah post-meeting statement released to the press? Entirely impossible! So then, did the two guys collude and conspire to orchestrate the whole charade and, hopefully, mislead other world leaders? Was it designed to confound and confuse all those who were not expecting a public fireworks show? What sort of a “setting” was done to facilitate this totally unclassy, despicable tamasha where a mehmaan is insulted and publicly humiliated for all to mock and condemn? Donald Trump, for all his deliberately jungli ways, invariably has a master plan working in his own interests. This was not only about Russia or China or Europe. This cartoon was specifically and exclusively designed for Americans looking for low-brow entertainment. So many days later, who is talking about the outcome of that gauche, crude encounter? For all of Trump’s bluster and bombast, he behaved like an overgrown, spoilt, entitled, privileged brat. As for Zelenskyy… let’s just say, he came across as himself -- a man not ready to sell his people and throw them under the bus, for a few dollars more. Big question: Which one of them is Tom? And who’s Jerry?
“America is back!” thundered Donald Trump.
“America, go back…” Europe responded.
Talking of decorum, before dissing Zelenskyy for showing up in military fatigues at the Oval Office, how about advising Vivek Ramaswamy to keep his chappals on… before a few more are thrown at him!
In such a surreal political scenario, two powerful movies which hogged the most prestigious awards recently turned out to be deeply political, anti-America movies, even if on the surface, the narratives were oblique and not direct confrontational. The Brutalist, about Laszlo Toth, a Hungarian-born, Bauhaus-trained architect (supremely played by Oscar winner Adrien Brody), begins with a zany shot that establishes the message of the film very early -- the Statue of Liberty fills the screen upside down, then sideways, offering a menacing warning to the idealistic immigrant who has escaped a horrific post-war fate to arrive in the land of milk and honey. Through Lazlo’s harsh experiences in America, we witness blatant anti-Semitism, racism, exploitation and hate for the immigrant as he struggles to complete a dream project commissioned by an arrogant plutocrat, Harrison Van Bruen. America’s schizoid attitude towards immigrants is exposed in all its ugly ramifications. Guy Pearce, playing Mr Money Bags with scant respect for “outsiders”, acutely underlines the heartless machinations of “brutes in suits” (think J.D. Vance and Co). When an old favourite song of mine, You are my destiny, played during a scorchingly gorgeous sequence shot inside a marble quarry in Carrera, I found myself holding my breath to wonder how Brady Corbet, the award-winning director of The Brutalist, would end the scene -- well, no spoilers here. Watch the movie, and shiver! The Brutalist could so easily be another tag for Donald Trump.
The other, equally compelling film, which walked away with five Oscars, is the dark yet lush and sensual Anora, which has been stupidly bracketed with Pretty Woman and Devdas. Come on, everyone!
This is a subversive, pointedly political movie that conveys its powerful anti-America sentiments through the portrayal of a gritty immigrant lap dancer, who gets entangled with Vanya (the spoilt, drugged-out son of an oligarch), who lands in a huge mess when he marries the sex worker in Las Vegas. On the surface it is a crazy caper film that captures the seedy unreality of both protagonists -- the feisty Anora from Uzbekistan, who uses her body as a survival kit, being the only transactional asset she possesses, and Vanya, the delicately beautiful Russian man-boy, reckless and wealthy enough to take insane risks -- because he can! Under the grim surface of their “doomed” romance is the more volatile sub-text which on so many levels pitches Donald Trump’s aggressive America with all its obvious fault lines against the arrogance of Vladimir Putin’s equally corrupt Russia.
Once again, the contempt and heartlessness shown towards helpless, poor immigrants, is emphasised over and over again as Anora hurtles towards its unexpected climax. There are no winners here as the Yankee versus Russi war is ruthlessly fought. Conclusion: Both are equally evil. But what one remembers from the two outstanding films is America’s abusive relationship with the world it claims to help, its cruelty towards immigrants and its monumental ego that manifests itself through people like Donald Trump. The system here is the chief
villain. The Brutalist is not an individual. Not a film. It is a metaphor.
Closer to home… The Black Warrant, based on a book by the same name written by Sunil Gupta, a former jailer at Delhi’s notorious Tihar Jail, and journalist Sunetra Choudhury, makes viewers squirm as the superbly directed cast of competent actors, led by Zahaan Kapoor and Rahul Bhat, lay bare the tragedy of India’s pathetic prison system, which treats inmates worse than defenceless animals. So many years after Sunil Gupta retired, has anything changed? We continue to dehumanise and ill-treat undertrial prisoners (countless innocents amongst them) rotting in over-crowded jails across India, and nobody blinks or cares. We are not America, we say smugly to ourselves. No, we are definitely not America -- we are much worse! A film as disturbing as The Brutalist has still to be made here. We have the talent, budgets and actors to ace it… but what we sadly lack is the guts to take on the establishment and share our ugly truths with the world.
