Okay, I gave in and watched Chori Chori for Filmikudhi’s birthday/Mom-day celebration. So now, just to be fair, I will agree to watch Parugu for Genevie’s Mom-day celebrations. I’m only free for two more watchalongs before the holidays, so decision time! Genevieve! Parugu this weekend or next weekend?
Parugu
It’s an Genevieve’s favorite movie! For reasons I can’t quite understand! But maybe will become clear when we watch it! It’s a 2008 Allu Arjun Telugu action/romance/comedy, all of those words sound good. But do they sound “favorite movie rewatch it a million times” good? I am confused.
Anyway, it’s on Netflix, so I no longer have a good excuse for NOT watching it. And all of Genevieve’s many children were born around now, so it is only fair to let her make a pick.
GENEVIEVE!!! Pick a day and time! We are DOING IT!!!
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YES!!! Let’s do Sunday morning?
I don’t really believe that you don’t know why I’m obsessed with this movie, because you know I’m obsessed with servant relationships. Americans don’t have servants, but so many in India do. And Americans don’t really have strict class differences (as compared to the rest of the world), which makes how we would related to someone serving us complex. So depictions of relationships between those served and those serving in film fascinate me, and Parugu has one of the BEST servant relationships, maybe THE best I’ve ever seen. The Tiger immitation Parugu turned the servant into a flighty stupid girl so that the inequality between her and the heroine wouldn’t stand out. But from what I can tell the makers of Parugu simply filmed the world as they saw it, so that the inequalities are all there, in broad daylight, not disguised, or even focused on. And within these inequalities a real relationship is formed. The servant is not stupid, she is not ever shown to be less worthy or intelligent than the heroine, (they are both extremely naive and adolescent), she and the heroine are friends, within this unequal dynamic.
And the Actor, Sheila, is good, in the same way that Anushka Sharma is good in JHMS. She is not likeable, she is flawed, and she grows throughout the movie. Though as an American I would argue she is WAY TO YOUNG to get married at the end of it. It is one of those performances that you appreciate more the more times you see the film.
Also, in the package of a giddy fun family pic with an outrageously charming leading man… the film unpacks a lot of cultural and societal evil without giving an easy way out. The father loves his daughters, but should not be forcing them into marriage. AA’s attempt to help his friend hurt the family badly and almost lost his friend his life. Sheila is adolescent and thinks of herself, NOT her sister or anyone else throughout the whole film, because well, that is what adolescents do. This is NOT a difinitive lecture on WHY you should elope or WHY you should do what your parents want. This is messy. A big hot mess of life and love tied neatly together with Allu Arjun’s charming smile.
There is a reason why it was remade in so many languages.
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