That film, Pushpak (known in the language of the filmmakers, Telugu, as Pushpaka Vimaanam) is the story of a poor man who suddenly finds himself rich and at the same timefalls in love with a beautiful girl. The obvious inspiration for the film is City Lights, although there are many differences between the two. What the two do have in common, however is a lack of dialogue: the better to win an audience with in linguistically splintered India. The film isn't silent: there is music as well as sound effects and "concrete" noises. There are simply no spoken words. Surprisingly, one doesn't even notice this after awhile.
The star of the film is Kamal Haasan, who, from what I've gathered, is one of India's top stars, successful both at the box office and among critics, the Indian equivalent of Tom Hanks. I didn't find him all that interesting in Pushpak: perhaps he is better in films with dialogue. The girl he loves is played by an actress dubbed "Amala" (Indian actresses, like Brazilian soccer players, commonly use only one name). Amala is a lovely girl, and actually quite funny as well.
Haasan plays an unemployed but educated young man who just can't get a break. One day he bumps into a beautiful girl (Amala) several times, each time accidentally giving her the impression that he is wealthy. That night, the young man discovers a dead-drunk man who happens to be carrying a key to a suite in the nearby luxury Pushpak hotel. Haasan carries the unconscious man to his own meager flat, where the ties the man up and lock him in. Then, he's off to the hotel to enjoy a bit of the dolce vita.
He transforms himself into a gadabout and starts wooing the girl in earnest. The main plot complication is the girls' parents. The would-be lovers go through a number of pains to keep the parents from knowing what is going on. In the funniest and most touching scene of the film, they walk through a funeral receiving line several times, as that's the only way they can safely walk together. Eventually, Haasan realizes that this imitation of a rich man is nothing but a distasteful charade, so he changes back into his old clothes, writes a letter of farewell to the girl, and returns the rich drunkard back to the gutter where he first found him. As a poignant postscript, the girl sees Haasan again, so she writes him a note which she wraps around a flower and throws it to him from the car she is riding in. When he picks up the flower first, the note flies away in the wind. If the film isn't exactly Chaplinesque, the ending at least comes close.
To the detriment of the film, there is a silly subplot involving an assassin who kills people with knives made out of ice (I swear I'm not making this up). Also, quite a bit of disgusting humor involving an enema. Since the film did run a little long, it seems that these scenes could probably have been cut to the film's benefit. The movie did make me laugh however, and it was interesting seeing it in a theatre full mostly of Indians. The total Indian film-going experience, perhaps?
In any case, certainly worth a look for those in search of something different. Since most international films screened in the U.S. tend to be of the "art film" variety, it was refreshing to see one that was unabashedly targeted towards the masses, if a different mass than in the United States.
Three stars
Copyright 1997 by Dale G. Abersold
