Recently I heard about this film and I watched the trailer. Looks interesting. It sounds like this film is following Sita Sings the Blues model. Pay what you can. For more information on the film, check out Shyama on MovieSet.

It talks about how important it has become for black women to have straight hair. They have been constantly bombarded with the images of European women having hair that moves. Apparently a lot of black women spend more on their hair than the rent or mortgage and the pain that one needs to go through to obtain a man made standard of what is considered good looks.

I enjoyed the section where Chris Rock goes to India to check out how Indian hair is exported to Los Angeles. All the way from a temple in Thirupathi. This section of the movie was quite hilarious, but I had not known that human hair was exported, it was sold and more precious than gold. The temples in India are such a rip off. They sell the hair that is offered to God as prayer.

I cannot help finding parallels between Timothy and so many yogis that I meet, including myself. This is a typical day in Mysore, for the westerners who hang out there for months. They return to Mysore summer after summer, just like Timothy going back to Alaska. Their agenda is fascinating.

The yoga class for the morning supposedly starts at 6 am. But all the yogi nutcases  are there by 5.30 am. So the class starts at 5.45 am instead of 6. This can happen only in Mysore. After this, they talk about all things mind, yoga, stillness and mostly what sounds like onset of madness to me. Most yogis then attend a back bending session which is one of the toughest classes, I hear. Then some more self practice or free classes by yogis. At the end of the day, yet another astanga class. I am usually done for the day after my first astanga class in the morning and do not seek enlightenment at such a pace. But the Timothy yogis do yoga all the waking hours running from one class to the other watching their grizzlies and sometimes recording it on film. I am not sure who the grizzlies are in this movie. May be it is the wild minds of the yogis. The Mysore story ends with the mind eating all the yogis. Consumed, that’s what it is.

I wish someone would make a spoof of this film with Mysore yogis as Timothy.  That would be such a fun film to watch.

It is one of the immigrant stories which was fresh, light, funny and sad. Life in Palestine seems like being in a prison and the move to America is not without issues. The confusion between Jews and Arabs cannot be quite explained to the Americans.  It is a well made film and has a sense of humor.

I also learnt that checkmate is an Arabic phrase. Shah mate in Arabic means the king is dead, which is borrowed in English as checkmate.

The main character in the film is one confused person. He confidently jumps from one set of ideals to the other one. While he is at it, he strongly believes in it and then leaves it for something else when he reaches the end of the line. The other characters around him question his behavior. Is he really so shallow that he leaves one for the other?

The film starts of with Sachish, the main character being an atheist and studying English literature in what looks like India during the British rule. He is inspired by his uncle who is a strong character who opens a private hospital at his house to treat the plague victims of all religions. After his uncle’s death, our main guy is lost. He turns to religion now, precisely what he did not like before. He follows a guru and is part of some cult. He meets a young widow at her house whose husband had donated the house to the guru. The woman is attracted to Sachish, but he is following the religious advice. So, he cannot accept her. This is where the questions for spirituality come up. What does it solve and where does it lead one to? Sachish’s friend mentions that spiritualism is like fake currency, absolutely useless. It is a flight of the weak from real life. The film ends with Sachish leaving the guru and being lost again.

I enjoyed the film a lot. The movie is made like a play with just a few people in it.

Thanks Papi, for the link.