Enjoy your stay!

Kolkata surely has lost her share of good English movies. With hardly a few movies running in the city theatres, we are not left with an option to hop theatres for a new English release. With occasional releases like The Avengers, Kolkata seems to say “That time of the year thou may’st in me behold” a good English film. Intermittently, of course, we come across such feel-good movies like John Madden’s The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: for the elderly and beautiful. A tapestry of human relations, an exploration of old age and a saga of loneliness, the film delves into the hearts of the audience; and although it relies heavily on the exoticism of India, yet the portrayal is unpretentious. With a simple story, episodic lives, riot of colours and sounds and an ensemble that shines throughout, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is basically a celebration of love.

A “group of self-deluding old fossils” who have “outsourced” their retirement decide to visit a less expensive country like India, to have a slice of the exotic Jaipur. The hotel promises a luxurious stay when searched on the internet. However, when they arrive in Jaipur at the hotel, they face the worst. The photo-shopped images never revealed a  dilapidated building where phones are out of order. Even the platters of otherwise exotic Rohan Gosht kind of Indian dishes do not provide  any solace to their gastronomical disasters. In their struggle to cope with the adverse circumstances, masks unveil and relationships mature. Evelyn (Judi Dench), Graham (Tom Wilkinson), Muriel (Maggie Smith), Douglas (Bill Nighy), Jean (Penelope Wilton), Madge (Cilia Imrie) and Norman (Ronald Pickup) live under one roof till their lives intersect and they are ready to fight their own battles with themselves.

Evelyn has lost her husband recently only to survive his debts. Graham, a retired court judge, disappears everyday in the morning  to visist a particular place. Muriel, a retired housekeeper flies to India to have her hip replaced at a lesser expense. Douglas and Jean have waged their money for their daughter. Madge needs another man in her life and Norman still struggles for a date and either sees a sexologist or reads Kama Sutra. The film depicts how each of these characters evolve amidst the barriers in a new country. Evelyn takes up a job as a cultural advisor at a call centre to teach its employees how to talk to elders. Douglas soaks in the flavours of the city visiting temples and forts. A racist Muriel finally comes closer to her maid, an Indian woman who is supposedly ‘untouchable’ . The scene where Muriel talks about her own trials to the maid who does not understand her language is a master stroke. Even the Indian doctor who is supposed to translate Muriel remains silent and the audience realizes the pathos of these two women who  share a simliar predicament, irrespective of their colour, language and a social upbringing. Madge presents herself at a hotel as Princess Margaret, unaware that the Princess had actually died nine years ago, until the manager mocks at her effort. Her desperate efforts to find a man lands her up with Norman. Things do not materialise between them and Norman falls in love with Carol, (“as in Christmas Carol”, he says to woo her), played by Diana Hardcastle. Graham is a homosexual, “a gay more in theory than in practice” and we come to know how he had been brought up in India and how he had disgraced his lover’s family in his youth, which he still repents. As he confronts Manoj’s wife, he is astounded to realise how Manoj had revealed the greatest truth of their lives to her. They reconcile but Graham dies of a heart attack and Jean’s momentary admiration for Graham reaches newer heights. Jean doesn’t change, the only character who remains constant in her angst, her dislike for  everything good until she asks Douglas to return to Evelyn, with whom he had fallen in love. Jean realises the futility of their marriage and only in her arrival at the truth does she shine.

Sunny (Dev Patel) is the manager of the hotel. In his garrulous self, we find a man of conviction. He tries to make a man of himself, staying rooted in the hotel which had been started by his father. Unlike his elder brothers, he stays in Jaipur and dreams to make it big. Inspite of the constant railings by her mother (Lilette Dubey), he stands for his dream and chases his love Sunaina (Tara Desae). Muriel goes through the accounts of the hotel and talks to a businessman. She comes across as a Messiah who saves Sunny’s dream and his hotel and offers herself as the Assistant Manager. The film ends with Sunny and Sunaina riding a bike when they cross Evelyn and Douglas on a moped. Such a brilliant frame capturing the two generations united in love is the triumph of the film. It ends on a note of love and it promises a dawn for the elderly people who, in their quest for the best and the exotic, confronts the worst and fights their occidental ghosts.

The film is a riot of sights and sounds. Ben Davis captures Jaipur with her gamut of  richness and colours. The din and the bustle of the city provides a stark contrast to the lives of the elders. A fusion of the indian and wetern music by Thomas Newman soothes your ears and the Classical instrumentals in the background complement the essence of the film. The performers add to the verve and the Evelyn’s blog in the narrative functions like a tale told by an elder to her grandchild before the afternoon nap.

The film might seem to tread a stereotypical path in the depiction of India as exotic, but it treats the subjects with an  astute Indian-ness. Formulaic and sometimes clichéd, the film blends humour with the tragic, wit and irony, love-lorns with love(s) in a comforting scale. The performances alone are worth the two hours.

If love is what you seek, if love is what redeems, if love is what resurrects, go by my “advertisement” and trust me, you will not be lured into a trap. Book a room and enjoy your stay!