Pablo and Lenin

Il Postino - have been meaning to watch this movie for a while now. Baba wants me to watch it every time I come down to India. But have stubbornly resisted watching any "intel" movie - I don't know why I always feel lazy about starting a new movie, esp if I know I am supposed to love it and appreciate it! For that matter, I feel lazy about starting new books as well. Mostly you can see me curled up on the garden chair reading either a yellowing Enid Blyton or a fading Fantastic Mr Fox! But ofcourse, once I take the plunge I love it (in the past 2 months I've just taken the plunge for Shantaram and White Cargo and devoured about 2 dozens Famous Fives, Five- Find Outers and Three Investigators in the interim!)

So I got convinced at last and watched Il Postino (The Postman).

1952, in a small island in the Mediterranean Sea, Pablo Neruda is sent on exile to this little island, where he meets Mario Ruoppolo. Mario is an unemployed (and adorably vulnerable looking) son of a fisherman who is hired as Neruda's personal mailman - as Neruda gets too many letters from his (men and) women fans. Too many for the only other postman to handle! Neruda introduces Mario to his world of poetry and Mario uses this skill to win over Beatrice, an amazing-looking woman. But Mario learns more than the love of poetry from Neruda.

The movie is immensely powerful without being sentimental and beautiful without being pseudo intel. From poetry to politics, the movie has it all. I was blown away.

Why the Lenin in my title? Well, somewhere it reminded me of my other "favorite" Good Bye Lenin. No, I don't mean the political parallels. But something about the handling of emotions and politics is really real in both the movies. And there is so much of fun and laughter in spite of the seriousness of the topic. In Il Postini, it's the contrast between the sometimes brooding Neruda and the naive and curious Mario which makes you smile. In Good bye it's the occurances in Post Fall of the Wall Berlin - like the BIG coca cola banner and ofocurse Lenin's statue being hoisted away - which make it impossible for the son to maintain the illusion of pre wall days for his ailing mother.

Maybe I'll watch it back to back someday and I'll be able to tell you better what I mean by "these two movies are similar". I felt the same way about The Girl in the Cafe and Lost in Translation - oh ok I've said that before...