The day I saw an Iranian movie … at last!

“Made by Women” film festival is currently on, in Mumbai. The highlight of the first day, for me was the fact that an Iranian film was being shown. My introduction to Iranian films has been limited to the name Mohsen Makhmalbaf. With the opportunity of watching a movie by the great man somehow eluding me, imagine my horror on realizing that even his daughter Samira, I guess, has made films. That is when I realized that my backlog of Iranian films might just be too much.

After a hectic day at office and literally running away, to be on time, I found myself standing in the movie hall, which was screening a documentary titled “My Body”. Mumbai being Mumbai, had come in hordes and every single seat had been taken. This 30 minute documentary captured the essence of how one’s appearance and body features are considered to be liabilities, in comparison to others. And the delight a woman has when her daughter says that babies choose to come down to earth on finding the “right” person. But then, that story is for another time, this one being for the Iranian movie.

The movie is titled “The Day I became a woman” and has 3 stories. The first one is about a small girl of 9 years old who wakes up to find that she has become a “woman” that day, as per her grand ma and her mother. The girl, named Hava is keen to go out and play with her friend – Hassan. However, the grand ma and mom forbid her from going out. After much pleading, the grand ma allows the girl to go out, subject to the fact that she reaches back before “noon” (the girl was born at noon, and hence would complete 9 years by noon!). The grand ma tells Hava that she should come back when there is no shadow for the stick, when placed on the ground (metaphor for sun being directly overhead). The kids on the beach trading the beautiful plastic fish for Hava’s chador (scarf), Hava checking for the shadow of the stick every once in a while, speed of exchange of the lollipop between Hava and Hassan, as time draws to a close, are all captured elegantly and matter-of-factly, on film. The boys setting off with the chador as sail and Hava being taken away by her mother are very poignant scenes, perhaps indicative of the freedom that males enjoy compared to the restrictions imposed when a girl becomes a woman.

The second story is about a girl (around 20’ish) by the name Ahoo cycling herself away from all the societal strings imposed on her. The camera work is stunning, to say the least, beginning with the deer and pigeons that get scared by the animated shouting of the man mounted on a horse galloping at tremendous speed, until he comes up on the hordes of young girls, riding bicycles. The black of the burqa contrasts with the deep blue of the ocean. The bursts of speed that Ahoo gets are probably symbolic of the dollops of energy that Ahoo gets on successfully ignoring the pleadings of her husband, the priest, her father and her tribe. And finally, she stops … and the story is left at that.

The third story is about an old lady with a horde of boys gorging on a shopping spree. The comedy in the portrayal does not dilute the impact of the statements of the lady that she had all along wanted to enjoy life and that “they” did not let her. The music, the merry making of the boys on the beach and the caring black boy all enmesh well into the script. At the end, as expected, the director tries to interweave Hava and Ahoo into the old lady’s story. But, it is commendable that this is done without any pretext or justification, with the director careful about not trying to give any “answers”, so to speak. The name of the old lady – Hoora being revealed at the fag end of the movie compared to Hava and Ahoo being revealed in the very first scenes, is also striking.

To me, it seemed as if the director was trying to say that the process of denial starts with a girl becoming a woman (story of Hava), and all her life, she tries to escape from the trappings imposed by the society, ultimately she may not be successful in this (story of Ahoo). Finally, it is when one is as old as one can get, that a woman is able to enjoy whatever she dreamt of, all her life (story of Hoora). By then, she does not have anyone to enjoy these with, and is beginning on the journey towards completion and fulfillment of life.

All in all, the first taste of Iranian movie was elixir for me. Makhmalbafs et al, where art thou …!

PS: Later on, I realized that this was in fact Mrs. Makhmalbaf first movie as director and that credit for the script goes to Mr. Makhmalbaf himself!