The Tale of Two Movies

The Dylan biopic and Amaran

By some cosmic coincidence, I happened to watch two wonderful movies in the last week, which, on the face of things, are completely unconnected and yet bound by a deep truth at the bottom of it all. The first movie was “A Complete Unknown,” an account of Bob Dylan’s rise to fame. The second was “Amaran,” a tribute to Major Mukund Varadarajan, martyred in an anti-insurgency operation in Kashmir.

In this week’s installment, I’ve included my reviews of these two films.

Review of “A Complete Unknown,” the Bob Dylan biopic

Sometime in 1965, there was a night in Newport that split the folk music community and tore the 1960s right down the middle. Bob Dylan went electric (guitar wise), scandalizing fans, one of whom yelled “Judas” as he belted out “Like a rolling stone” at the Newport Music festival.

“A Complete Unknown” starts with the arrival of a young and unknown Bob Dylan in New York City in 1961, and captures his rise to stardom, leading to that eventful night in 1965. Dylan drops out of college and arrives in the city with nothing more than a guitar, a notebook of songs, and a backpack full of lies.

“How does it feel?

How does it feel?

To be on your own

With no direction home

Like a complete unknown

Like a rolling stone?”

The movie presents Dylan as an enigmatic cipher, whom even those closest to him like Pete Seeger (folk singer) and Joan Baez (his champion with whom he had a tempestuous relationship) struggled to understand. “You were so good with words. And at keeping things vague,” Baez would later sing of him in “Diamonds and Rust.”

You may rightfully ask, “Who is this Timothy Chalamet, and what gall does he have to play Dylan, let alone sing 40 of his songs on the soundtrack?” Chalamet delivers a masterfully muted performance as “Bobbie.” He even learned to play the guitar for the movie. Is there anything this man cannot do? I think this movie automatically places him at the top of the Oscar list contenders. Monica Barbero (Top Gun 2) plays Joan Baez and captures Baez’s famous soprano beautifully. Elle Fanning puts in a strong show as Sylvie, Dylan’s girlfriend, who is tortured by his chemistry with Baez. If Ed Norton goes unnoticed, it’d only be a tribute to his masterful portrayal of Pete Seeger, Dylan’s original fan, backer, jealous rival and dogmatic folk musician. Norton learned the banjo, an extremely unforgiving instrument for the movie. You can’t tell when you watch him. You’d think he was a banjo maestro!

These are actors imitating real life and how well they do it. Sometimes it shows. Chalamet is “pretty, … maybe too pretty,” to paraphrase Dylan himself who said that about Baez.

The most memorable scene comes towards the end, in a late scene where Dylan looks over his shoulder at the three people who want him to go back on stage at Newport, all stacked up in the shot like planes waiting to land: an eager Bob Neuwirth, an I-dare-you-to Johnny Cash and a furious and betrayed Joan Baez. You can all but hear Dylan’s plaintive words from “It’s Alright Ma, I’m Only Bleeding,” released that year: “It’s alright, Ma, if I can’t please them.”

Go watch it. You don’t have to be a Dylan fan to enjoy it. I’m not well versed in Dylanology and yet I was able to fully immerse in it. I give it two thumbs up only because I have but two to offer.

Review of “Amaran,” a tribute to Major Mukund Varadarajan

Life can be deliciously giving and unspeakably cruel in parts. A Malayali Christian girl meets a Tamil boy in Madras Christian College, and they fall in love. The families, who are unfamiliar with the idea of strangers falling in love, resist. The fact that the boy, Mukund Varadarajan, has enlisted in the Indian armed forces, is a hill too high to climb for the girl’s dad. “I don’t care that he is Tamil or not a Christian. I’ll never marry my daughter to an army man,” he proclaims. Eventually, it all works out. Mukund gets to marry the love of his life, and they have a beautiful daughter.

“Amaran,” is as much a tribute to the eternal nature of Major Mukund Varadarajan’s martyrdom as it is to the timeless romance between him and Indu Varghese, the girl he meets in college.

There are a few questions that haunt a human being. Why am I even here. Why do things happen. What am I supposed to be doing while I am here? For thousands of years, we’ve divided ourselves into two groups to answer these questions. One group is firm that there are no answers. Life is a biological event that plays out for no apparent rhyme or reason. The other group offers there must be more to it.

Major Mukund Varadarajan was martyred in anti-Kashmir-insurgency operation. His sacrifice makes you want to reconsider your position no matter which camp you’re in before this. It makes the believer wonder if there is a God who can be so cruel. It makes the atheist wonder if there is a God who can make us so selfless.

Sai Pallavi plays Mrs Indu Varghese, the girl who fights to marry the man she loves above all, only to lose him in the end. Did she really lose him? Or is she enriched forever? Sai Pallavi is an incredible talent, the likes of which I have not seen before in Indian cinema. She’s a genuine article and a super star. Sivakarthikeyan puts in a solid show as Mukund. A line in “Vennilavu Saaral,” a song composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar goes “Engey irul enralum, angey oli neethaney..” (Tamil). Translation: Even if it’s dark all around, you’re my light. Perhaps, that is how Mrs Indu Varghese looks on the love of her life today.

We get to live our lives because of selfless people like Mukund and Indu. The movie is heart rending. I was a complete basket case halfway through it even though I knew how it ended. Forever grateful to Major Mukund Varadarajan and his family. God bled them.

As I watched Amaran, I couldn’t help but hear Dylan’s words in my head.

“Yes, and how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

And how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take 'til he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind

The answer is blowin' in the wind.”

How many deaths will it take till we know that too many people have died? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.

Have a great week ahead.