Monday, June 20, 2011

Baran - Irani Movie

'Baran' is a 2001 movie that Sagar, my guide to some wonderful cinema, gave me a DVD of, telling me that it is Majid Majidi's film. Majid Majidi is of course the acclaimed director of 'Children of Heaven' which has been copied many times frame to frame in several Indian movies but without its soul. Yesterday it was time for me to meet 'Baran', or rain as it means in Persian, and see what Majid Majidi has created.

'Baran' is mostly set in a building site that is under construction just outside Teheran. The foreman of the construction site is a kind hearted Irani, Memar, who runs his business by employing refugee Afghans who come as cheap labour. The Afghans have been displaced from their country thanks to the constant war-like conditions and most Afghans have no status and no identity cards that allow them ration or any normal transactions in Iran. Memar hires these refugee Afghans for cheap labour and good work and takes care of them well. Only, when the inspectors arrive, all Afghans must hide because it is illegal.

Lateef is a young Irani boy who works on the site. His job is to prepare tea, get the rations from the store, serve food and tea for the workers. He is a spirited young lad with a witty and sharp tongue that gets him into trouble, and a ready pair of fists and legs to back his tongue. One day an Afghan worker Najaf falls off the second floor and is injured. The inspectors land up the next day to check on Memar as they have heard of the accident. They find no Afghans and leave with a warning. At the same time Najaf's friend Soltan brings Najaf's weak, delicate looking kid for work and says that Najaf needs some money because he has to feed his large family. The kid is not used to hard work and after a few disasters is transferred to Lateef's job.

Lateef gets the hardwork which he despises. He does not like Najaf's weak son, Rahmath, and troubles him and Soltan a lot, until one day he discovers that Rahmath is actually a girl. Lateef had thrown some stuff on Rahmath and Soltan as they are walking to the construction site to wash it off, Rahmath removes her headgear in the room where she prepares tea and food. Lateef falls in love. No one but Lateef knows the reality of Rahmath and he keeps the secret. He becomes very protective about Rahmath. He wears better looking clothes, wants to be around her all the time etc.

One day Rahmath is caught by the inspectors at the site as they are looking for Afghans. She starts running away with the inspectors in hot chase. Lateef joins the chase, tackles the inspectors, and helps Rehmath escape. The angry inspectors make Memar get rid of all Afghani labour. Lateef is sad that he will not see Rahmath again. He takes leave and finds the Afghani refugee camps outside Teheran, locates Soltan, sees Rahmath from a hidden place and is troubled by the sight. The beautiful Rahmath, now in a girl's garb, is working at hard labour of picking up heavy stone for a river, to sustain her family. He feels helpless as he cannot do anything, and he returns. The same day Lateef withdraws his year's savings from Memar and gives them to Soltan to pass on to Najaf. He feels that with this money Najaf will stop Rahmath from the hardwork until Najaf's leg gets better and he can work. When he goes to meet Soltan the next day he finds Najaf instead. Soltan had offered him the money but Najaf had refused and told Soltan to use the money to visit and get his ailing wife in Afghanistan treated. The honest Soltan gives an IOU for Lateef promising to repay the money which Lateef throws in the river.

The next day Lateef sees Najaf come to Memar to borrow some money as an emergency has arisen. Memar has no money. Lateef trades away the only thing of value on him, his identity card, gets money and passes it on to Najaf telling him that Memar sent it to him. Next day he is dismayed to find that Najaf has packed up and is using the money to go back to Afghanistan to visit his recently deceased brother's family. Lateef helps the family pack the truck and as they are leaving to board the truck, Baran's (which is Rahmath's real name) shoe comes off in the rain. Lateef picks it up and puts it on Baran's foot. Baran looks into his eyes for a few moments, smiles in understanding, puts on her veil, as she leaves him to join the others in the truck.

Nowhere in the movie does Lateef express his love for Baran, either directly or to anyone else, except perhaps in the last scene when he puts on her shoe, his eyes give away his love and his sacrifices for her. But the young teenaged Irani construction worker gives his love everything he has, selflessly, without a moment of hesitation, without expecting anything in return. His love as pure as the rain that falls down in the last scene, Lateef merely looks on, surely with a full heart, as the truck goes away while he surely has to return to rebuild his life from scratch. Majid Majidi gently and most powerfully underscores the fact that love is a language that goes beyond borders, beyond intellectual incompatibility, beyond veils of sophistication. If a youngster can find so much love in his heart to help unknown Afghans with all he has, surely a country, a world led by erudite leaders with all the resources of the world at their command, can find a way to end this madness of war. But for that, they must first find the love in their hearts which they have lost. Only love can heal, only love can bind, only love can take humanity forward, and the young lad shows the way.

Mostly without music, 'Baran' is gripping and tells the story with an endearing simplicity that touches your heart.

No comments: