Not So Millennial: Re-visiting Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" in 2021.

The movie begins by educating the audience on the meaning of "pulp". So pulp fiction is the fiction dealing with lurid or sensational subjects, often printed on rough, low-quality paper manufactured from wood pulp. Now, what is Tarantino's Pulp fiction about? Undoubtedly the Tarantino wackiness. I am no movie-critic or filmmaker, I am movie enthusiast. Here, I will be sharing my thoughts on Pulp fiction. 

 

Everything might seem normal in the gangster world. Blowing up a person's head in the daylight-normal, Killing a guy in fight and escaping without the knowledge of anyone- normal, Getting OD'd and coming back to life-normal, Stabbing a woman's heart with a syringe- normal, escaping a set of gunshots without a slightest injury- NORMAL. So, it is the Gangster's world and others are just a part of it. We, the viewers are allowed to sympathize or feel only for the people linked up in the gangster world. We see a women getting shot in the middle of Butch-Wallace fight, we see four young men getting killed, We even see Quentin Tarantino as Jim in the movie, who is only scared about his wife and not seem to bother about the boy who was killed in an accidental gunfire.  We travel with them and feel for them because we are watching the movie from their point of view. The kill people for their living thus they are like any other working man. The women in the movie are opinionated, they have fantasizes of their own. Mia Wallace living on her terms for one day when her husband is not there, the women who is so passionate about her 18 piercings, the driver who wants to know what is it like to kill a man, the girlfriend who wants to have a pot belly and eat a pancake with blueberry breakfast, portray women with desire. Men are in the run. They are either trying to kill or escape. The not-so straight manner of film-making makes the movie interesting. It makes people to watch it over and over again only to discover new elements. The movie unleashes elements of humor in the most unnatural way, that is what dark-humor does, isn't it? The pep-talk delivered by Wallace and the monologue by Walken builds to the movie's biggest laugh. Before the scene shifts to Wallace I thought Butch was talking to himself. That is what is special with this movie, the screenplay, the editing and the camera id perfectly is in sync even when the story is not non-linear. Who needs a straight graph when one can connect the dots on their own? Jules' version of Ezekiel 25:17 and his theory of divine intervention makes us question about right and wrong. In fact that makes us clear that each person's perspective towards a particular incident is his right or wrong. It is your decision. There are a few dialogue which stayed with me. Mia Wallace saying, "That's when you know you found somebody really special. When you can just shut the fuck up for a minute and comfortably share silence". Fabienne's wise words, " It's unfortunate what we find pleasing to the touch and pleasing to the eye are seldom the same.'' Wallace standing up to the man who raped him, giving him a punishment that he deserves, Jules trying to calm Yolanda, Butch saving Wallace, Vincent not behaving inappropriately with Mia shows the gangster's character. The experienced trying to teach the inexperienced with ease is also showcased in  the movie. Winston Wolfe who cleans up the mess and Jules advising Tim and Yolanda are those instances. What the anthology made me think was that if the climax of every story a divine intervention? Might be.

 

I see Uma Thurman holding a cigarette in the poster for pulp fiction. That is great but I want a poster with Maria de Medeiros' character Fabienne saying, "I don't give a damn what men find attractive.'' With all those dialogues in the movie we can say that, Tarantino is undoubtedly a visionary and probably the coolest director during that time. 

Not So Millennial: Perspective on Lijo Jose Pellissery's "Churuli"

A maze is everywhere in the film and what continued to amaze me till the very end is how my thoughts spiraled into something else rather than forming a perfect circle. This is my take on Churuli. I am not a critic or film maker but I am someone who enjoys watching movies and taking something from them. 

So, let the ideas flow!

 

Imagine you are in field, an endless field of essentials. You have everything to eat, drink, enjoy, struggle and survive. Would you want to continue living your entire life there? knowing that there will be no ups and downs just a smooth straight road? I don't want to stay there for sure. I would say that place is a metaphor for trapped. The two main characters of the movie, Antony and Shajivan represent two different attitudes to this trapped situation. Antony wants to be in the field, enjoy his life and continue like that. Shajivan, who is young and is married and has certain things to look forward to , wants to go back even from the very beginning. They are two cops coming in undercover for finding a criminal. They discover, Churuli, a place in the mountains, the field where every action takes place yet nothing is etched or remembered. At first, they become judgemental and considers the mountaineers  as so humble and down-to-earth people. The story and their perception of the people and the land alters as they cross a wooden bridge. It might seem simple, the act of crossing a bridge, but the scene is presented in a way that we, the viewers wants to do something so that their vehicles, the jeep, crosses the bridge. The inhabitants of Churuli whom they considered to be innocent snaps into verbally abusive brats. Everyone in Churuli is surviving in their own hell yet continues to celebrate that. There are no answers for most of the hints or doubts being delivered. There are notions of aliens, religious intervention, revenge, psychological traps and time-loop. Honestly, nothing seems to connect the dots but it does make your head go wild. We feel like we are trapped in the labyrinth of thoughts even after watching the movie. That's what happens when you see art and starts to analyze it.  

For me the essence of the movie lies in the identity of the inhabitants of Churli. They don't have strong emotions like love or hatred. They don't care if one of them dies. They treat women with no respect and the women in turn reflects a carefree attitude. The scene where the transformed the local toddy shop into church made me understand that they twist everything according to their needs. Nothing holds an attachment to them. If they want to be spiritual, they let it be, if they want to do all the horrible abusing they chose to do that. Life goes on and on. We see the inhabitants of Churuli going out and coming back to that place. Where they go might not be a far place either. At a point of time I thought this is Lijo Jose Pellisserry's version of hell. They might have landed there accidentally and wants to go back. The movie points out that they are no good people either. Shajivan killing an inhabitant and Antony's whole attitude to be a part of Churuli explains it. What they need to escape is somebody who should take up all the sin. Like Adam complained about Eve and Eve in turn put all the sins on the snake, they both blame the criminal for their acts. Once they finds him and reaches a bright spot, they don't get nowhere near the end. As the story told in the beginning of the movie, they continues to be in the labyrinth. Soubin's Joy is either the controller of the Churuli universe or he is himself someone who got entrapped in the maze a very long time ago. The head exploding emoji is the apt thing to describe the movie because that it what it is.

Diya Maria George