Director:

Majid Majidi is an Iranian film director, producer, and screenwriter, who started his film career as an actor. Majid Majidi’s sad, soulful film “The Willow Tree” is his second movie to explore blindness and sight on multiple levels. In his films, Majidi has touched on many themes and genres and has won numerous international awards.

Log Line:

Youssef, a blind university professor, is suddenly diagnosed with a fatal disease and must undergo treatment in France. Back home, will he find the life he had before?

Conflicts:

Impossible goal:

Youssef is deprived of a beautiful blessing of sight. But he is seen content with his life he accepts his life as it is and tries to enjoy every bit of it. Until one day, he is diagnosed with cancer. Upon such news Youssef asks God for mercy.

Youssef is worried about his life, either he will be able to return to his house alive or not. But God has different plans for him. Upon reaching Paris doctors learn that Youssef’s eyes are still sensitive to light and give Youssef the hope to see again. Impossible goal is now weather Youssef will be able to see the blessing of this world or not? Weather his prayers will be answered or not? And to his luck all of his prayers are answered. But not long after Youssef regain his eyesight he starts mourning over the lost period of time, disliking his wife and his job too.  And lastly to his ungratefulness he lost his sight again. But this time not to regain it EVER.

Unlikely Hero:

From the start of the movie we tend to develop a soft corner for Youssef, now it is a different thing that it starts to fade away as the story proceeds. Youssef is a 45 year who seems content with his life and is unknown to the difference between ugly and beautiful. His character is somewhat related to a baby who is content and unknown to differentiation and discrimination. His relationship with his daughter is the most beautiful and purest. Also his inability to see draws out attention towards him, the way this character is played it feels like we are living this very moment in our life and makes us sympathies with him.

Invincible Villain:

Sight is a blessing. But what if your inner self turn this blessing into a disaster? Your ungratefulness turns all the best in your life to the worst? It isn’t easy to believe but this is what happened to Youssef life, when he gained his sight he was able to see everything beautiful and he did the same. He saw pari, his uncle’s wife and then his wife. Instead of taking everything gratefully he starts questioning God for taking away the most precious years of his life.

When they say, he destroyed himself. This is what they talk about. Youssef’s character wasn’t built like this but it turns out to be so different and yet gripping.

When God takes something away from you, be grateful, because he always gives you something of much more importance.

Character Analysis:

Back-story:

Youssef is a blind man in his forties, losing his sight at the age of 8 due to an accident is a humble man living with his wife and his daughter. He teaches poetry and is a firm believer in god and writes to him and talks to him usually. He lives a peaceful live and calls his home heaven.

Appearance:

A timid hunched man in his forties usually wears sweater, glasses with a shaggy beard. Looks happy as he plays his daughter and looks like a loving husband when talks to his wife. But it this whole truth? Your appearance tells all about you? Not in this case. He looked content, satisfies and grateful. But to shock he was none.

Beliefs:

Youssef is a 46-year-old introvert Iranian intellectual whose belief in God is somehow tempered by his personal misfortune: he has been blind since the age of eight. On the surface, Youssef deals rationally with his disability but inwardly he is angry with God. Now he has a tumor beneath his right eye, and his uncle has gotten him an appointment in Paris with a special clinic for eye surgery. Just before he leaves, Youssef writes a note to God and tucks it between the pages of a volume of the Mathnawi, the mystical masterpiece by the Persian Sufi poet Rumi. The note says:

“I’m the one you deprived of the beauties of the world and who never complained. Instead of light and brightness, I lived in darkness and gloom and I didn’t protest. I found happiness and peace in this small paradise. Are all these years of suffering not enough that you now want to cause me even more suffering? Will I come back from this trip to my loving family? Will this illness bring me to my knees? To whom should I complain about what you are doing to me? I beg of you to show me more compassion. Don’t take my life away.”

Want &Need:

• Want:

Youssef a 45 year old man who is deprived of sight is content with his existence and his life is going smoothly with his daughter and wife. He could go on telling the world about his satisfied life but deep down in his heart he wants to lead a normal life, to see things and his family to not only feel the touch of his daughter but see her beautiful face.

• Need:

Youssef eventually accepts his life and tries to live a new life leaving everything behind as a newly born in this world.

Act no 1:

When Youssef is diagnosed with cancer and he is asked to move to Paris so that he can be treated under expertise care and guide. But after undergoing a number of test doctors were shocked to reveal that Youssef eyes are still sensitive to light. But there is a 50 per chance of it, he might get his eyes back or he might lose it forever. When he undergoes cornea transplant he is rested in his ward and his eyes are wrapped with a banded around them that is suppose to be removed next morning. But as Youssef is an eager man he couldn’t wait anymore and remove his banded and to that happiness he starts hobbling in hospital corridor.

Act no 2   (Life of a wanderer and a warrior):  

Youssef feelings for pari are more on front page now he doesn’t like his wife doing any of his work he even tries to avoid her presence. The film is most interesting when it isn’t making connections between disparate things, focusing on Youssef’s uncertainty as he grapples with his fidelity to his past and the newfound sense of moral obligation that accompanies his ability to see, as in a later scene during which he watches a young pickpocket swipe a man’s wallet. He feels helpless when confronted with the sight of a pickpocket plying his trade. Even his scholarly writing begins to matter less.

THE THREE ACTS

Act 1 :

The inciting incident of the film arises when the maid tells the protagonist, Pooja about her husband’s second marriage and when Pooja instantaneously mocks the maid for tolerating her abusive husband. This scene is ironic as Pooja soon finds herself in a similar situation, patient and helpless.

Act 2 (life of a wanderer and a warrior):

Pooja turns into a wanderer when the person she blindly loves (husband, Inder) reveals his second marriage and shatters her world that she had built through years of struggle and hope. She gets emotionally disturbed and creates a dramatic scene at an elite social gathering that brings embarrassment to her unfaithful husband who is a known filmmaker.
After spending a short time as a wanderer, Pooja soon turns into a warrior when she forgives her husband’s mistress (Kavita) and willingly signs divorce papers. She chooses to build her life from scratch and stuns everyone with her unusually calm attitude.

Act 3 (Resolving incident):

When Pooja’s ex-husband Inder returns to her, she asks him that if she had cheated on him and treated him the way he treated her, would he accept her. This burning question strikes Inder with a harsh yet true reality and he gives an honest reply (“NO”). This scene of the film can be perceived as act three.

Also, the point where Pooja tells Raj (the man who supported her while she faced divorce) about her decision to make her identity without a marriage or a relationship attached to her name can be seen as a resolving incident by the movie audience.

CHARACTER ELEMENTS

BACK STORY OF THE PROTAGONIST:

It is told several times in the film that Pooja was an orphan who lived her early life in an orphanage. The woman had dreamt of her own house since her childhood and this wish was granted by her husband, Inder after seven long years of their marriage.

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES OF POOJA:

Unlikely to occur in early bollywood cinema, the protagonist in Mahesh Bhatt’s film is a woman who is strong headed and believes in her identity as an individual rather than just a wife of her husband.

Pooja displays a role of an innocent woman who does not question her husband for his long absence from her life and gets fooled by him into believing his work’s hectic schedule.

The story takes a shift when Pooja’s naiive character gradually turns into an emotionally and financially strong woman.

In the beginning of the film, Pooja is quick to judge her maid’s decision to tolerate her husband’s second marriage. Later, she realizes the depth of the situation.

APPEARANCE:

Pooja represents a typical twentieth century Indian house wife. With saari or shalwar kameez as her usual attire and a neat hair bun with a tika on her forehead, Pooja’s attire is quite conventional yet alluring. She often smiles to hide her grief but Raj recognizes her forced smile and the pain hidden behind it (He sings a song for her at the party “tum itna jo muskura rahe ho kya ġham hai jis ko chupa rahe ho” ).

FEAR OF THE PROTAGONIST:

Pooja is scared of her past (as an orphan). After her husband’s betrayal, her fear is reborn and she is afraid to be left alone once again. She calls Kavita and begs her to leave Inder as she believed that her existence and prosperous life was dependent on the marriage.

ELEMENTS OF CONFLICT

INVINCIBLE VILLAIN:

Rather than considering Kavita as the villain, I think of Inder as an antagonist in this film.

It was the most difficult challenge for Pooja to actually confront her husband for her right as he had trapped her in the maze of trust and love. Not only was her fight against her own husband, Pooja’s whole identity was attached with her husband’s name so when he left her for another woman, Pooja was left with nothing but a dependent, lonely life.

IMPOSSIBLE GOAL:

Pooja’s impossible goal is to get rid of her dependent life and stop being scared of her past. In fact, she needed to embrace her past and her individual capability to construct her life without her disloyal husband’s presence.

UNLIKELY HERO:

Pooja leads a life of a naive house wife who is happy in her bubble and after getting her own house, she blindly trusts Inder for his role as a husband. For her, Inder is perfect until he reveals about his affair. That is when the conventional character of Pooja develops into an independent woman who now believes in fulfilling her dreams on her own.

FILM: AWAARA
DIRECTOR: RAJ KAPOOR

Act 1 (The inciting incident)

In Raj Kapoor’s movie Awaara, the inciting act, more commonly known as the first act occurs when the protagonist’s (Raj) mother, Leela is attacked by the antagonist, Jagga’s men after which the life of his mother alters forever. The fate of Raj changes overnight, from being a son of Lucknow’s wealthy judge to a vagabond who grows up in slums of Bombay.
Also, the moment when Jagga confronts Raj and orders him to follow his orders can be considered as act one of this brilliant bollywood classic.

Act 2 (Life of a wanderer and a warrior)

The rising situation takes place when the protagonist, Raj meets his long lost, childhood friend, Rita and for the sake of his love, he decides to abandon his life of a thief, robber and killer. At this point, the worried yet optimistic character transforms into a wanderer. The challenges faced by him gain a dramatic rise and he opts the life of a warrior by deciding to stand against his mother’s evil enemy, Jagga, only to unravel worse situations in his troublesome life.

Act 3 (Resolution)

The resolution point of Raj Kapoor’s brilliant movie sets when the antagonist, Jagga breaks into Raj’s home, reminding Leela of her upsetting past incident. The judge’s abandoned wife orders him to leave her house upon which Jagga gets angry and misbehaves with Raj’s mother. Raj happens to see the real face of Jagga. Filled with maddening anger, the emotional son kills Jagga in his own house.
The shots in which Leela’s husband asks for her forgiveness before her death or when the judge calls Raj his son, may also be perceived as act three.

CHARACTER ELEMENTS OF THE PROTAGONIST

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ATTRIBUTES OF RAJ:

Raj is an intelligent man who is really good at stealing and robbing under the influence of Jagga.

Even though he is a wise son of a well known judge, Raj is portrayed as an emotional man who kills Jagga out of anger (after finding him in his house, misbehaving with his mother).

Loyal to his mother and lover (Rita), Raj is a faithful and a true-hearted person who takes revenge of his mother and never forgets Rita. In fact Rita’s childhood picture stays in Raj’s room even after their separation.

This faithfulness can also be taken as Raj’s weakness as he often had to go through heart breaks due to his true nature.

FEAR AND SECRET OF THE PROTAGONIST:

Raj’s biggest fair was the revelation of his identity as a thief and a robber. He was scared that Rita would definitely leave her once she finds about his dirty past and he often joked about his existence as a vagabond. The sarcastic dialogues exhibited the pain and fear of Raj as he believed that his life would fall apart once his mother and Rita came to know about his work.

BACK STORY:

Raj is a son of a wealthy judge and upon finding his past about his unfaithful father and Jagga’s trap, Raj gets furious with the judge and embarks upon a journey of revenge and anger.

APPEARANCE:

With a hat on his head and a thin mustache, Raj resembles with the famous character of Charlie Chaplin. The care free appearance shows his life of a vagabond. Also, his facial expressions and acting throughout the film exhibited his jolly yet mysterious nature.

ELEMENTS OF CONFLICT

INVINCIBLE VILLAIN:

Jagga plays the role of an invincible villain. Out of anger, he decides to take revenge from the judge who punished his father on little evidence. He creates a plan to trap innocent Raj in his dirty games and successfully ruins the judge’s family.

IMPOSSIBLE GOAL:

The impossible goal of Raj is to get rid of the life of a thief and a killer. In order to do so, he comes to know about his past and ends up killing Jagga. In the end of the film he gives himself to the police and decides to begin life of a decent individual from scratch. Rita waits patiently for him to throw away his old and dirty past.

UNLIKELY HERO:

Raj is such a pure-hearted man that it seemed impossible for such a character to get aggressive to an extent where he kills Jagga. Also, he has this expression of a jolly person all the time and even though he was stuck in a life a thief, he took the decision to rectify his past and the dirty actions attached to his life. This decision proved that the protagonist’s character was more complex than it seemed throughout the film.

Filmmaking, whatever the window dressing or the scale of a film may be, is eventually about telling a story.

-Farhan Akhtar

Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/farhan_akhtar_976327?src=t_filmmaking

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