To Kill a Tiger

"To Kill a Tiger" (2022) has won various festival awards and was nominated for an Oscar.  As a documentary it draws less attention, but  is very thought provoking.

At a small village in Jharkhand, India we quickly learn a 13 year old girl has been raped by 3 young identified men.  Her father wants the perpetrators to be punished, but runs into opposition.  A local leader suggested she marry one of the 3 rapists to protect the honor of the village. Further discussions reveal that both men and women in the village insisted she marry one of the rapists.  Fortunately a gender rights group decide to take up the case.  The 13 year old victim decides this behavior needs to be stopped and is willing to testify.  There is a long time consuming process before punishment is imposed.

Her father receives many threats during the process including to have his house burned down. 

Consequences should help deter future examples.  Marrying the victim carries the notion that it is okay.

In such an atmosphere trust is key.   As in much of the world most rapes are not reported.  The young girl does face ostracism, but remained determined to get justice.  Nisha Pahuja also had to earn trust as this intimate film reveals.

 In the west we may feel superior to a "backward" part of the world, but we also have problem dealing with sexual assault and harassment.  We may feel we have made progress, but the underlying thoughts are still part of the problem. The idea that the woman bears more responsibility by her choice of clothing and of behavior somehow obviates male responsibility.

The title comes from a local saying that it takes more than a single man to kill a tiger.   

Nisha Pahuja is director, writer, and producer.  Born in India, raised in Canada.  She studied English Literature at the University of Toronto.  After a meeting with Geeta Sondhi she was hired to do research for a documentary aired by the CBC.  From there her interest in documentaries led to making films.  She has 5 credits for each of directing, writing and producing.

Priyanka Chopra  Jonas stepped in to be an executive producer.  She has 80 credits as an actor, 16 as producer and 4 for music department including "Don" (2006), "Dostana"(2008), "Ra.One" (2011), "Barfi" (2012), "Mary Kom" (2014), "Dil Dhadakne Do" (2015), "The White Tiger" (2021)  and "Love Again" (2023) She produced and starred in my top film for 2019, "The Sky is Pink" (2019).  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2021/08/priyanka-chopra-from-bollywood-to.html

 Jonathan Goldsmith, wrote the music.  He has 103 credits for composing and 15 for music department including "Away From Her" (2006). 

Mrinal Desai did the cinematography.  He has 31 credits as a cinematographer and 6 under camera and electrical department including Oscar winner, "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008), "Court" (2014) and 4 episodes of "Frontline" (2011-2023). 

Editing was shared by David Kazaia and Mike Munn.  David has 28 editing credits while Mike has 55 credits including "Owning Mahowny" (2003).

 Available on Netflix either subtitled or dubbed.

Priyanka Chopra from Bollywood to Hollywood

North Americans might be familiar with Priyanka for "Quantico" and a few movies, but there is much more to her.   Following her book gave me more understanding of this very rounded woman.  Time put her on a cover and declared her one of the "100 most influential people, while Forbes named as one of t"he Most Powerful Women".

She is the daughter of two military doctors and was moved around quite a bit, partly to military bases, but also with relatives, including three years as teenager in the U.S.  She had thoughts to becoming an aeronautical engineer, but got sidetracked as a model and really turned around when her younger brother trying to get his old room back suggested her for Miss India World contest which led to the Miss World contest in London, England.  Surprised to learn there is betting on the Miss World and not surprised that at first she had long odds, but they crept up as she was seen and heard more.

Bollywood is patriarchal and sexist.  Her beauty title gave her name recognition, but still directors felt women were interchangeable and consequently didn't deserve as much money as the male leads.  A nameless director suggested she needed a "boob job".  Another aspect of appearance is skin color and many in Bollywood have endorsed skin lighteners including Priyanka who explained she used them at a time of insecurity (some people had said she was "dusky") and then was happy to get paid for endorsing them.  However as her personal confidence grew she looks upon them as something to be discouraged and has distanced herself from them.  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2013/08/bollywood-and-skin-colour.html

A chance for an American music career sidelined her for awhile, but then uncovered new opportunities.  She had been spotted lip synching to Sunidhi Chauhan (one of my very favorite singers) and later an segment was found where she actually did sing quite capably.  One of her music clips was used for a  pre NFL game, but was met with strong racist attacks.  After many inter continental trips back and forth she decided to shelve the idea.  The many events she attended in her efforts had brought her into contact with television people.  She has occasionally been used as a playback singer.   I bought one of her tunes in Marathi language used for a film she produced.

Below are some of the films she has appeared in, but she has done quite a few more.  Her film career started in 2001 with a short film just after being crowned as Miss World.  Starting as a novice she gradually learned to always be improving.  She had to learn dancing, martial arts, riding and gain more familiarity with other languages.  Her advice to actors is to listen carefully before delivering their lines.  When reacting to someone else it is important to convey the multiple emotions one might feel under the circumstances.

Her first feature film, "Thamizhan" (2002) was in the Tamil language which she was not fluent in.  but she was coached to speak phoenetically.  A common problem in India with dozens of languages that established actors find opens up opportuntiies.  Sometimes words are dubbed and other times they are able to speak phoenetically.  Priyanka was paired with popular Tamil star, Vijay.

"Bluffmaster" (2005) was  an early film with Abhishek Bachchan and was where she lip synched the song that got international attention.

"Krrish" (2006) was with Hrithik Roshan and was a bit of a science fiction movie.

"Don" (2006) and "Don 2" (2011) were played against my favorite actor, Shah Rukh Khan where she played a police officer in pursuit of the very slippery international criminal.  They played together in another movie in between "Ra. One" (2011).   For more on the very popular Shah Rukh Khan:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2016/06/shah-rukh-khan-worlds-most-famous-actor.html

"Fashion" (2008) was a woman centric role about the glamorous and shady world of fashion.  Also starred Kangana Ranaut with the two of them winning lots of awards.  More on Kangana, another actress who is used a lot in women centric roles:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2014/07/kangana-ranaut.html

 "Dostana" (2008) was filmed in Florida and co starred Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham pretending to be gay to get preferred accommodation.  They both fall in love with Priyanka who is especially sexy.  A song that has come to be associated with Priyanka is " Desi Girl" sung later by Nick Jonas to good effect.

"Kaminey" (2009) was actually a minor role that Priyanka sought as she liked it.  The star was Shahid Kapoor.

In "Agneepath" (2012) this time she played the sister of leading man Hrithik Roshan.  Hrithik helped when Priyanka's father need some international treatment for a critical illness. 

"Barfi" (2012) was another challenging role as an autistic woman in a romance comedy and she get the buy played by Ranbir Kapoor.  Another set of awards.

"Mary Kom" (2014) was still another challenging movie, not only for playing a real life champion boxer, but also because her father died during the preparation phase.  Physically demanding she had to develop her body to fit the part.  More awards.

 

 

"Dil Dhadakne Do" (2015) was a sort of family romance written and directed by Zoya Akhtar and included her brother Farhan Akhtar.  For more on Farhan who is one of the most accomplished film makers:  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2011/11/farhan-akhtar-young-man-on-rise-in.html

"Quantico" represented a big breakthrough for the American market as she was the first born Indian to lead a tv show.  She appeared in 57 episodes from 2015 to 2018) filmed in Montreal.   A sex scene from "Quantico" which I watched a trailer on tv grabbed a lot of attention.   Priyanka had played sexually active women in some films and didn't expect the criticism for this particular episode.  As she points out as with her Bollywood films sex was suggestive rather than explicit.   So far I have not watched a single episode.  She commented that at various times although very fluent in English she had been asked to change her accent back and forth between British and American.

She appeared in a short film with her popular cousin, Parineeti Chopra that traded on the success of "Frozen 2"  It was "Frozen 2-Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Praineeti Chopra-Promo" in Hindi.  

"The Sky is Pink" (2019) was a movie she co-produced as well as starred in., this time again with Farhan Akhtar  It was reported that her husband shed tears for one of the scenes and was unlikely to have been the only one.  A favorite of mine:   http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/12/the-sky-is-pink-my-top-movie-for-2019.html

 

 

 

 In "The White Tiger" (2021) which she was an executive producer she played an American back in India with her husband Rajkummar Rao.  It had been based on a Booker Man prize winning book by Arvind Adiga.  Read more     http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2021/01/the-white-tiger.html

There is more to tell.

Together with her mother who formed Purple Pebble Pictures she started producing regional films in India.   They produced films in Marathi, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Sikkimese-Nepali and Punjabi.  These ventures helped develop films for relatively small audiences, but in some cases enriched the Indian film industry  One very notable example was "Ventilator" (2016) in the Marathi language won national awards and was remade as "Ventilator" (2018) in the Gujarati.  It was very good and for me hit me personally.  http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2020/07/ventilator-serious-movie-with-comic.html  She has also been involved producing movies for Bollywood and Hollywood.

As Miss World she went to many charitable events.  When she became a star she got involved with individuals needing charity.  One example was when visiting her parents she learned that one of their caretakers was a young girl whose parents could only afford to give her brothers high education.  She realized she had been blessed with understanding educated parents and in individual cases set up to help.  In 2011 she formed the Priyanka Foundation for Health and Education.  She was involved with UNICEF projects in India, but then was asked to be an international ambassador taking trips to Bangladesh and across Africa, and the Middle East.  She was acutely aware of female discrimination and sexual abuse. 

At age 35 she finally met the man she wanted to marry, Nick Jonas a musician 10 years younger.   Mutual friends suggested they should meet, but for quite awhile contact was very fleeting.  One early example was the 2017 Met Art Gala where by coincidence they were both wearing Ralph Lauren fashions.  For awhile contact was by Twitter and very short encounters.  By 2018 things started moving faster.  At one point he took his brothers (of the well known rock band, Jonas Brothers and in December of that year they had three day marriage celebrations that some have said were more impressive than the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.  The first ceremony was Christian and was administered by Nick's father, a pastor and then a Hindu ceremony.  Now they live in Los Angeles and Priyanka goes back and forth to India and elsewhere. often joined by Nick   She is now known as Priyanka Chopra Jonas.

I hope her memoir title remains true.  There is a lot of potential left.  Right now they have a few dogs, but both claim to be family oriented.  Priyanka has more to offer films than acting.

The movies seen by me are bolded.  Priyanka takes up a longer personal film list, but I felt this list covered most, admittedly not all  of the highlights.

The White Tiger

When Priyanka Chopra married Nick Jonas, I suspect it opened a few doors and the rest of us are beneficiaries.  "The White Tiger" (2021) is set in India, but is virtually in English with just a few lines of Hindi that are subtitled.  Priyanka has an important role, but is not the critical star, but her name gives much prominence.  Rajkummar Rao has a good following in Bollywood,  The real star is Adarsh Gourav.  More on them later.

The book is set at a time when India is modernizing and growing economically, but for the masses life is still a struggle.  Modernization comes with disruption.  The story tells of one man from a poor background who somehow overcomes many obstacles to become a successful entrepreneur.  Actually that one man is the narrator and soon we will be amazed at the contrast between his current look including confidence and where we are taken to his past.  How does he get from such humble life to a wealthy man?  It involves endearing himself to a young wealthy couple, but even that seems like only a step to being a servant.  We encounter a level of corruption not only of the wealthy family, but of the politicians they deal with.  The turning point is when the liberal have a problem and turn on him with a somewhat  guilty conscience.  Living in a sort of limbo our hero realizes it will take drastic action to get out of it.  We are near the end at this point and there is a big shift in his fortunes, due to his aggressive action and clever opportunism.

The viewer can appreciate that India is modernizing, but also has a lot of dead weight in the form of caste, crime and corruption.  Poverty means that literally millions are very poorly educated.  Modern times have opened up opportunities for those who are smart and well situated.

The book, "The White Tiger" came out in 2008 and won the Man Booker award plus made the New York Times Best Seller list.  The author Aravind Adiga had been born in what is now known as Chennai, India but his family moved to Sydney, Australia.  He managed to study at Columbia University and Oxford before he became a financial journalist for the Financial Times and later an Asian correspondent for Time.  He has moved back to India.  

The producer, director, script writer and editor, Ramin Bahrani  must have been inspired by Aravind as he had five movies going back to 2005 thanking the author in screen credits.  American born with Iranian parents, he has been involved as a producer, writer, director and editor for such films as "Chop Shop" (2007), "Goodbye Solo" (2008) and "99 Homes" (2014).  His touch on so many aspects of this film is one reason it is so satisfying.

The music score is by the team of Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans.  They had met when they were both playing in different bands.  Danny played cello and studied music in Denmark, Germany, United Kingdom and United States.  Teamed up with Saunders, son of Dutch immigrants and wrote music for "Martha Marcy May Marlene" (2011), "The OA" (2016), "Ozark" (2017).

Cinematography by Paolo Carnera who has mostly worked in Europe is another highlight of the film.

The other editor, Tim Streeto has mostly worked with tv shows, the most recentl yone being "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" (2017-19).

Priyanka Chopra played the spoiled, sexy, liberal(rated) rich wife which she does very well, but also demonstrated a wide range of emotions.   She was born with two military physicians, educated in both India and the United States.  In 2000 she won the Miss India and Miss World beauty pageants which opened up movie opportunities. Some of movies she starred in included "Bluffmaster" (2005), "Krish" (2006), "Don" (2006), "Don 2" (2011), "Barfi" (2012), and "Mary Kom" (2014).  In 2015 she became the first Bollywood actor to headline an American tv. sries, "Quantico."  In 2019 she co-produced and starred in my top movie of that year, "The Sky is Pink." (http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2019/12/the-sky-is-pink-my-top-movie-for-2019.html).  She has been a playback singer for 4 movies including "Dil Dhadakne Do" (2015).  In addition she has been a producer including "The White Tiger."  With her mother she had produced some regional language films including the Marathi version of "Ventilator" where she also sang a song.

Rajkummar Rao played the rich boss.  Some of his memorable movies include, "Kai Po Che" (2013), "    ( http://www.therealjohndavidson.com/2013/05/kai-che-po.html" "Queen" (2013), "Trapped" (2016), "Newton" (2017), "Bareilly Ki Barfi" (2017) and "Stree" (2018). 

Adarsh Gourav had the key role as the narrator telling the story about himself going from poor, unsophisticated rural peasant to a smooth talking tough entrepreneur.  In his first movie he played the younger version of the Shah Rukh Khan character in "My Name is Khan" ((2010).  He also appeared in "Mom" (2017) with Srivdevi.  Prior to this movie he had been a regular on three tv. mini series and done numerous commercials.

Swaroop Sampat played the corrupt politician as very hypocritical.  She earned a Ph.D. from the University of Worcester in England and then went on to become Miss India of 1979 and later married prominent actor, Paresh Rawal.  She has appeared in a number of television shows and films including "Yeh Jo Hai Zindagi" (1984)  and the acclaimed "Uri: The Surgical Strike" (2019).  She has been a producer of two long running television shows.

I hope Netflix's promoting this film encourages more to check out Bollywood.  As it is we can better appreciate that film making involves international cast and crew and we all benefit.

As normal I have bolded movies that I have seen.  Maybe for vanity, but I think it indicates an appreciation.