scandojazzbuff

How long does one have to sit through a film to feel that something interesting is going to happen? After 30 minutes or so, I began hoping something would change in this film to keep me from falling asleep. Do I really want to look at depressive people's faces for more than 30 seconds at a time without a single word being uttered and feeling like the characters in this film are really messed up people with not much intelligence. Is this life in Turkey? If it is, there is something seriously wrong there. I think maybe it's the depressive nature of the director who crafts his film thinking about art more than telling a story to draw in the viewer. Why else make a film if it is not for the audience? Is it just some type of exercise, discipline? Life flows. It is not stuck in stills with altered colors giving it meaning. Not worth anyone's time, IMO.

How can anyone sit through this movie and not be moved by the plight of poor people the world over who have been controlled by tradition, superstition, power, and, greed. Every country in the world is reflected in this eloquently told story of poor Gujerati dairy farmers whose sole means of existence is based on their buffalo's milk and the control they are placed under by the higher castes of society. Shyam Benegal has told a very straightforward and real tale of the desire to reform the past and how difficult a task it is to bring change to a simple village under the spell of centuries of belief systems that rob the individual's chance of ever rising out of poverty and the control of a few. A gem and a very sobering film for all to consider.

that would have been much better, IMO, without Jack Black who seems to play the same part in every movie he makes. To pair him with actors like Danny Glover and Mos Def doesn't make sense to me but the movie still works in spite of it. There is so much creative energy flowing in this movie due to the great imagination of the director and the clever building of the various sets and how the movie is constructed. I don't want to give too much away but it's worth anyone's time that is into cinema to sit through this very clever, heart-felt, crafted movie. I can't help but feel it would have been a much better offering without the Black character giving it an over the top, gonzo performance. The story didn't need this kind of character to make it work. In fact it dumbed it down and made it a more commercial, box office attraction for teenagers. Maybe the next movie this director makes will finally take the leap out of mainstream American corniness and treat the viewer to something on a different emotional level.