The other day I had seen this Movie on World Movies called Apple. the movies about 2 girls mentally retardd locke dinside their houses with a blind mother and an ever gentle father. Forced by c ircumstances he ends up locking them so that they are safe. and they carry spoons and jingle across the bars making a dance a tune in their own small lives.
Takes have been amazingly simple and subtle. the house set in the lone roads of afhghanistan ( ok i couldnt watch it from the start so duno what place ) . White houses in a painfully white vibe and tone seem to linger around the tape. ( Gah if my comparisiosn goes vain due to Digital DVds) So these two girls in their small dark house in this white neighbourhood seem to be leraning about every inch oflife they get to sieze. The father an old man of 70 drags himself to work and beg for them. he comes back home with bread and ice for the kids while the wife clad in a burqua seems to be shouting and retreating into her oen self, and drawing the childish kids to dark inner magnets of inncoence. The father was a nice man sandwiched between his wifes demands and his wish for his girls to be free. Chil authotrities would bombard them with questions and this lady would threaten him that theyd take his children away. She plays a subtle slaughtere kind of role. Pushing the old man to the edge and telling himt hat if he doesnt unloxk them and let them have a future theyll take them away.
Once this lady jumps over the wall and she sees them locked dabbing spoons on the walls and making songs with their expressions. She akssk them what they want and gifts them a mirror each. The girls Mausmah and i cant remeber the other , lets say D seem to love watching themselevs. theyd smile and make faces at the mirror. The father enters the house tired and csrrying bread and ice for their daiily food. He unlocks the cage while the lady stands fuming and she lets D and Mausameh free. she yessls at him saying he cant lock them while the old man only replies wiht pain that hehas no other option. All the while neighbours look in like puppets and statues indiffrent and self concerned.
Mausameh and D trail out for a while and come running inside , still scared to venture. After being locked up for 11 years in their own house theres nothing unnew for these girls aged 7 and 5. They look like weak aliens unknown of human emotion and anxious to explore the same. Have you observed that all mentally retarded people have this different kind of face , features which makes it so obvious that they are not so " normal"a s some people say. And there with all the lerning and knowldede we seem to be looking like sleek knifes. well its funny but faces change with emotion , Not age i say.
While these two kids saunter outside carrying their new found childhood and proofs of their girlddom dripping in as they smaile at their refelections in the mirror. Outside on the roads , so white and barren these kids find a pipe of water leaking and they put their mirrots instinctively below it givin ecg othe chances , while the mirrors is washed with gentle splurt of water snd their faces seem to appear neater cleaner and more alive and human as before. filmotographically this shot was amazing.
Now they wander on the streets , how naive their father thought they were, while they dont even flicker once before exploring whatever comes inf ront of their eyes. like a gentle sea of emotion nudging you towalk for just a while with her and enjoy the calm breeze, the girls walk on step by step longer than before. and we forget that we were supposed to return ( were we?) as we , full grown sane adults are totallyc apable of losing in the flow, while these kids do just that. their first taste of human emotion is to not hink its sometthing different from your conscience.
Now this suddenly gets disturbed , ( that is they growing more laive in their refelctions ) by this kid who was selling ice creams and later this kid who suspended apples from his balcony suspended by a rope to a stick , while he nimbly controlled the string drwan over to his toe like a pulley and dodged the apple above the girls heads while they try hard to catcj. I htinkthis was an amazing scene.the girls jump higher and higher to catch while this kid just seems to be getting it higher and dodging fromt herm. he nimbly swiftly manages to play with the apple and the girlsf or a while before they get tired. lets call this kid . Now this kid comes down and asks them if they want apples. and theys ay yes. so he carries the apple on the rope suspeended to a stick on his shoulders while the girls follow him thinking theyll get an apple. he takes tham all over the city while they follow numbly lost and focussed beaiutifully on to the apply. and they say the world is full of haze.
this kid takes them to an apple shop and evidently he shooes them away telling htme to get money. the kid takes the girls back home to their father, knowing that the girls have been locked for so long to give them money. the father removes all his earnings and gives three hundreds to the boy. 2 for the girls and one for him. Now the girls go out again with their apples while they find another set of 2 girls playing. while they walk down together on roads on tracks on mountains the simplicity of the movie and the fantastically normal and painstakingly real pace nly stings to those who cannot afford to stop and think. They reach this shop where they F too wants ti buy a shop like another girl they just met. Unaware that they are sisters , that they have a house that they afre prone to danger the girls walk run climb and smile exploring all the beauty that seems to strike them and yell drink us you beautiful souls and make us more beautiful.
the watch guy tells them to go and get their father. the friends of the girls get them back home hwile all the while D and Mausameh have just been whimpering and making noises. while they reach home their parents are locked by the lady from childacre. the lady tells the faher that thy could be free only if their children could oen the so called cage. D tries hard and cries while she opens the door while the father looks on shiveringin his own cold. the girls try hard to let their father free whie the mother yells from the room inside abuses at her hsuband. finally when they do the girls walk hand in hand with the father to go and buya w atch. the wife suddenly left alone , blind comes oiutside tlking to herself loudly where is every one. while she stands in front of a mirror her alter ego begins to speak and question her abouot whats is it that she wanted. she walks outside the house when this kid again over the balcone is plaing with his apple. the wife spends all the time trying to ctach the apple. and when she finnaly does we all relaise that it is that when you really hold a lot that things let go. when you hold more sand it shall only slipout more than before. when you nknow that living with this moment of let go is isntilled in you forever no apple will be too far to reach.
