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neadodsNext in a series of Bollywood notes - my thoughts on The Ghost and Mrs. Martin Guerre Paheli.
It's a fairy tale that couldn't sustain disbelief high enough to work. Basically, a lovely young woman has married a man whose idea of a wedding night is to work out the budget for the wedding before he leaves on a 5-year business trip the next morning. That's problem #1; yes, it's funny, but why be in a rush to marry knowing this? Why not wait the 5 years?
While on the way from his house to hers, they stop at an ornate well which is reputed to be haunted. An odd bird taunts the bride, turns into a squirrel, and then scares the crap out of her as wet, ghostly human footprints coming up from the well. We find out that this is a ghost who has fallen in love with her beauty, this exposition given by two marionettes who will function as the Greek chorus for the rest of the movie. It doesn't work, and we never know what this magic-using spirit is - a dead man? A djinn? Problems #2 & 3.
Anyway, the ghost takes on the form of the husband a few days after the wedding and goes back to the house. Hilarity ensues when the husband realizes the error of his ways and also returns... hilarity, and disappointment that he doesn't get a fair chance to redeem himself. Problem #4.
So I'm glad I saw it, but I'm in no hurry to see it again, nor to buy it.
It's a fairy tale that couldn't sustain disbelief high enough to work. Basically, a lovely young woman has married a man whose idea of a wedding night is to work out the budget for the wedding before he leaves on a 5-year business trip the next morning. That's problem #1; yes, it's funny, but why be in a rush to marry knowing this? Why not wait the 5 years?
While on the way from his house to hers, they stop at an ornate well which is reputed to be haunted. An odd bird taunts the bride, turns into a squirrel, and then scares the crap out of her as wet, ghostly human footprints coming up from the well. We find out that this is a ghost who has fallen in love with her beauty, this exposition given by two marionettes who will function as the Greek chorus for the rest of the movie. It doesn't work, and we never know what this magic-using spirit is - a dead man? A djinn? Problems #2 & 3.
Anyway, the ghost takes on the form of the husband a few days after the wedding and goes back to the house. Hilarity ensues when the husband realizes the error of his ways and also returns... hilarity, and disappointment that he doesn't get a fair chance to redeem himself. Problem #4.
So I'm glad I saw it, but I'm in no hurry to see it again, nor to buy it.
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Date: 2005-06-26 03:27 pm (UTC)I just thought he was a magical spirit, didn't matter which kind.
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Date: 2005-06-27 05:45 pm (UTC)