And then it rained...

On an unusually hot and dry Sunday evening for Bangalore’s standards, I decided not to venture out further and confine myself to the cozy comforts of the new house I had moved into.

I decided to watch a movie and picked up “Guide”, from my ever expanding movie collection.
I had got the movie ling time back and saw it once, but was half asleep that day and did not give it its due attention. I was in a better frame of mind for this profound movie, this time around.
For those who haven’t seen it or don’t know about it, Guide is based on the novel of the same name by R.K Narayan, and was made into a commercial film in Hindi and English by Dev Anand.
I remember a very funnayfunny narrative by Narayan in one of his books, about how the book and the films are so different from each other, and he never accepted the film! In his own imitable style, he talks about how the book was set in the sleepy southern town of Mysore, which was integral to the story, but the film was set and shot in the North. And when you add aspects like S.D Burman’s haunting music, you get a fairly romanticized version of the book.

But what else do you expect in a bollywood movie? I am not complaining though, as the film manages to entertain and engage, especially the lead stars. In spite of all the criticism – right or wrong, what stands out about Dev Anand the movie maker is the excellent themes he chooses. Some of my favorites are Des Pardes and Hare Rame Hare Krishna.
In Guide, what turns out to be a story of a happy go luck charmer, changes in the later part to a deep philosophical message, conveyed in the form the Indian audience is likely to understand.
That they did not and the movie bombed, in spite of a series of awards, is more a reflection of our inability to understand complex movies and prefer the masala movies. This trend, though is changing with some excellent recent movies that are non conformist doing well commercial as well. (My favorites in the recent past are Page 3, Rang de Basanti, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer)


In the meanwhile it is getting hotter outside and I am sweating in spite of having the fan blowing at full speed and with all my windows open. I wish it rained today…

This is turning out to be a movie review, and that was not what I intended.

While I would like the readers to go and try this movie , I want to focus on the aspect of faith that is played out in the climax of the movie. Raju, on ordinary guy, runs away from the harsh realities of life, and by a strange twist of fate, becomes a Swami in a remote village. The village is hit by sever drought, and the villagers start believing that their Swami would undertake a fast until it rains. Raju is unable to escape this situation and slowly starts accepting the reality.
The villagers are rock solid in their faith that it would rain, and although Raju is an educated man, he slowly starts believing that it may be his chance to redeem himself and ensure their faith is not shattered.
Raju undergoes a tremendous spiritual transformation and leaves you with many questions that are the basis for Indian philosophy:
“Is the entire world, the people and the events, one large illusion or Maya”.
“If you have thousands of people collectively believing and praying it something would happen, would it indeed happen?”.
There is an unmistakable similarity to Paulo Coelho’s assertion that if you strongly believe something would happen and want it to happen, the entire universe would conspire to ensure that it does.
In the process Raju realizes that the soul or “athma” is higher than anything else and it is always pure. Raju realizes the god in himself and if we all do that one day I am sure it would be pouring good will all over the world.
I would not out it in my list of must watch films, but do g0 ahead and watch it if you get a chance. I have heard the book is much better – so I am certainly going to try it out!

Mean while, I looked out of my window and felt the lovely smell of earth…and then it rained…