BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, NANA & EMILE ZOLA

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST,  NANA  &  EMILE  ZOLA

                 

During my teens my dream was to take doctorate in literature.  My mother tongue, national language along with English motivated and attracted me to take a masters degree in arts.

Many writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Shakespeare and a long list of geniuses in literature attracted me.   Many of my Blog posts were about books and movies.  The artists, writers, actors and directors always found mention in my blogs.   The relative studies of Victorian literature and modern classics continued to influence me.  The fascination for literature occupied most of my free time.  Even mythological stories including Greek and Roman always found a deeper insight into my vision and splendor spirits.  The writing was more than a hobby to me and I was always hunting for food for thought and new subjects. 

I must thank my stars and god for being blessed with ideas and storming my brain with untapped talent and resources.

Emile Zola’s work ‘Nana’ was read by me in my curious days of finding world literature and Emile Zola made it to the best of fifteen ranking in the all time writer category.   Emile Zola, the naturalist writer’s classic books were among the Penguin Publishers collections.  Emile Zola was the advocate of naturalist philosophy.

‘Beauty and the Beast’ the term found significance whenever a beautiful wife married to an ugly person or a savage brute possessing a beautiful partner.

Disney cartoons famous ‘Beauty and the Beast’ must have caught your fancy.  Many movies were made in various languages across the world with the subject. 

From the inception of human race ‘Beauty and the Beast’ exists.  Many wars were fought to possess beautiful women.  The emperors were not only won the battles and wars but also captured the enemy’s boudoir beauties.  Man‘s quest for wealth and territory alone was not enough for him but for his interest in the beautiful Venuses and Aphrodite of the femme fatales.

Since we discuss “Beauty and the Beast”  it reminds me of a 2014 French film of the same name.

The movie starred Lea Seydoux  the latest bond girl in the title role.   She has also acted in “The Grand Budapest Hotel”  and “Ingolorious Basterds”.  She was last seen in the bond movie “Spectre” opposite Daniel Craig.  


 

        

Lea Seydoux made it to the Vogue cover feature Bond Bombshell.  She is best known for her role in the award winning movie “Blue is the Warmest Color”.

                                                        Lea Seydoux in "SPECTRE"



                                                
Beauty and the Beast

                        

  

    

                

         

Lantier, the "human beast" of the title, has a hereditary madness and has several times in his life wanted to murder women. At the beginning of the story he is an engine driver, in control of his engine "La Lison". His relationship with "La Lison" is almost sexual and provides some degree of control over his mania.

As a result of a chance remark, Roubaud suspects that Séverine has had an affair some years earlier, with Grandmorin one of the directors of the railway company, who had acted as her patron and who had helped Roubaud get his job. He forces a confession out of her and makes her write a letter to him telling him to take a particular train that evening, the same train Roubaud and Séverine are taking back to Le Havre.

Meanwhile, Lantier who is not working while his engine is being repaired goes to visit his Aunt Phasie who lives in an isolated house by the railway. On leaving he meets his cousin Flore, with whom he has had a longstanding mutual attraction. After a brief conversation with her his passions become inflamed and he is on the verge of raping her but this in turn brings on his homicidal mania. He has a desire to stab her but just about controls himself and rushes away. Finding himself beside the railway track as the train from Paris passes, he sees, in a split second, a figure on the train holding a knife, bent over another person. Shortly after, he finds the body of Grandmorin beside the track with his throat cut. It was also discovered that he had been robbed of his watch and some money.

An investigation is launched and Roubaud and Séverine are prime suspects as they were on the train at the time and were due to inherit some property from Grandmorin. The authorities never suspect their true motive. Lantier sees Roubaud while waiting to be interviewed and identifies him as the murderer on the train, but when questioned says he cannot be sure. The investigating magistrate — believing the killer was Cabuche, a carter who lived nearby — dismisses Roubaud and Séverine. The murder remains unsolved.

Despite being cleared of suspicion, the marriage of Roubaud and Séverine declines. Zola casually tosses in a remark that the money and watch stolen from Grandmorin was hidden behind the skirting board in their apartment, thus confirming the reader’s suspicion that Roubaud was the murderer all along. Séverine and Lantier begin an affair, at first clandestinely but then more blatantly until they are caught in flagrante delicto by Roubaud. Despite his previous jealousy, Roubaud seems unmoved and spends less and less time at home and turns to gambling and drink.

Séverine admits to Lantier that Roubaud committed the murder and that together they disposed of the body. Lantier feels the return of his desire to kill and one morning leaves the apartment to kill the first woman he meets. After having picked a victim he is seen by someone he knows and so abandons the idea. He then realizes that he has the desire no longer. It is his relationship with Séverine and her association with the murder that has abated his desire.

The relationship between Roubaud and his wife deteriorates when she realizes that he has taken the last of the hidden money. Lantier has the opportunity to invest money in a friend’s business venture in New York. Séverine suggests they use the money from the sale of the property they inherited from Grandmorin. Roubaud is now the only obstacle to this new life and they decide to kill him. They approach him one night when he is working as a watchman at the station, hoping that the murder will be attributed to robbers. At the last moment however, Lantier loses his nerve.

Cousin Flore, meanwhile, sees Lantier pass her house every day on the train and noticing Séverine with him, realizes they are having an affair and becomes insanely jealous, wishing to kill them both. She hatches a plot to remove a rail from the line in order to cause a derailment of his train. One morning she seizes the opportunity when Cabuche leaves his wagon and horses unattended by the railway. She drags the horses onto the line shortly before the train arrives. In the resulting crash, numerous people are killed and Lantier is seriously injured. Séverine, however, remains unhurt. Wracked by guilt, Flore commits suicide by walking in front of a train.

Séverine nurses Lantier back to health but, in the absence of "la Lison", his mania returns and he murders her. The unfortunate Cabuche is the first to find her body and is accused of killing her at the behest of Roubaud. Both are put on trial for this and the murder of Grandmorin. They are both convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Lantier begins driving again but his new engine is just a number to him. He begins an affair with his fireman's girlfriend.

The novel ends as Lantier is driving a train carrying troops towards the front at the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War. The resentment between Lantier and his fireman breaks out as the train is travelling at full steam. Both fall to their deaths as the train full of happy, drunken, patriotic and doomed soldiers hurtles driverless through the night.

 

The novels by Emile Zola in alphabetical order :

 

 

 

 

 

 

A

• L'Argent
• L'Assommoir
• Au Bonheur des Dames

B

• La Bête humaine

C

• La Conquête de Plassans
• La Curée

D

• La Débâcle
• Doctor Pascal

F

• La Faute de l'Abbé Mouret
• The Fortune of the Rougons

G

• Germinal (novel)

I

• L'Inondation

J

• La Joie de vivre

M

• Madeleine Férat
• Les Mystères de Marseille

N

• Nana (novel)

O

• L'Œuvre

P

• Une Page d'amour

R

• Le Rêve (novel)

S

• Son Excellence Eugène Rougon

T

• La Terre
• Thérèse Raquin

V

• Le Ventre de Paris

NANA – Novel by Emile Zola – Summary

 

      

Nana is a novel by the French naturalist author Émile Zola. Completed in 1880, Nana is the ninth installment in the 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series.

Monsieur Fauchery, theatrical reviewer for a Paris paper, is attending the premiere of The Blonde Venus at the Variety Theatre because he had heard rumors of Nana, the Venus of the new play. She is the epitome of sexuality. Paris’s smart set is well represented at the theater that night, and Fauchery and his cousin Hector de la Faloise note a few of the more interesting people. In the audience are Steiner, a crooked but very rich banker who is the current lover of Rose Mignon, an actor in The Blonde Venus; Mignon, who serves as procurer for his own wife; Daguenet, a reckless spender reputed to be Nana’s lover for the moment; Count Xavier de Vandeuvres; Count Muffat de Beuville and his wife; and several of the city’s well-known courtesans.

The play, a vulgar travesty on the life of the Olympian gods, is becoming boring until Nana finally appears; with beautiful golden hair floating over her shoulders, she walks confidently toward the footlights for her feature song. When she begins to sing, she seems such a crude amateur that murmurs and hisses begin to sound. Suddenly a young student exclaims loudly that Nana is stunning. Everyone laughs, including Nana. It was as though she frankly admitted that she had nothing except her voluptuous self to offer. Nana, however, knew this was sufficient for her audience. As she ends her song, she retires to the back of the stage amid a roar of applause. In the last act, Nana’s body is veiled only by her golden locks and a transparent gauze. The house grows quiet and tense. Nana smiles confidently, knowing that she had conquered them with her flesh.

Thus Nana, product of the streets of Paris, starts her career as mistress of the city. To get money for her scrofulous little son, Louis, and for her own extravagant wants, she sells herself at varying prices to many men. She captivates Steiner, the banker, at an all-night party after her initial success as Venus. He buys her a country place, La Mignotte, a league from Les Fondettes, home of Madame Hugon, whose seventeen-year-old son, George, was the one who called Nana stunning the opening night of The Blonde Venus and who had been enraptured with her at Nana’s party. Nana, making no pretense of belonging exclusively to Steiner, invites a number of friends to visit her at La Mignotte.

Madame Hugon entertains Count Muffat, his wife, Sabine, and their daughter, Estelle, at her home in September. George, who had been expected several times during the summer, suddenly comes home. He had invited Fauchery and Daguenet for a visit. Mme Vandeuvres, who had promised for five years to come to Les Fondettes, was likewise expected. Mme Hugon is unaware of any connection between the coming of Nana to La Mignotte and the simultaneous visits of all of these men to Les Fondettes.

George escapes from his doting mother and leaves in the rain to Nana, who finds him soaking wet as she is gathering strawberries in her garden. While his clothes are drying, he dresses in some of Nana’s clothes. Despite Nana’s feeling that it is wrong to submit to such an younger person she finally concedes.

Nana (nah-NAH), an ignorant courtesan whose beauty, selfishness, and erotic cunning prove disastrous to the men of fashion who patronize her. A product of the Paris streets, she is discovered by a theatrical promoter and becomes a success by captivating men with her sexual charm. Soon she has a clientele that includes the richest men in Paris. Tiring of this life, she goes to live with a brutal comic actor. When her fortunes reach a low ebb, she is reduced to streetwalking. Later, an infatuated nobleman becomes her protector. Her financial and sexual extravagances achieve new extremes as she acquires a lavish mansion, new lovers, and a lesbian prostitute. Many of her lovers ruin themselves; one goes to prison, and two commit suicide. Ironically, she dies of smallpox, her beautiful and notorious body ravaged by the disease lies in a posh hotel bed.

The prominent people in “NANA’s” life.

M. Fauchery

M. Fauchery (foh-sheh-REE), a second-rate journalist who writes about Nana in the press, at first favorably and later adversely. A hanger-on of the theater and society, he spends his time seducing other men’s wives.

M. Steiner

M. Steiner (SHTI-nehr), a wealthy and crooked Jewish banker who pursues actresses. He is twice Nana’s lover, the first time providing her with an estate. His financial career roughly parallels Nana’s erotic career; he is spectacularly successful, suffers heavy losses, and then regains his fortune before he falls again, this time to bankruptcy.

Georges Hugon

Georges Hugon (zhohrzh ew-GOH[N]), a pampered, effeminate, silly young lad.

Critical Evaluation of the novel “NANA”

                       

                
 Emile  Zola

Émile Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series (1871-1893), including Nana, ran to an aggregate of twenty novels, exploring the naturalistic philosophy of literature. This philosophy was strongly influenced by the scientific method outlined in Claude Bernard’s Introduction a l’étude de la médecine expérimentale (1865; An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine, 1927). Zola himself explained the relationship between science and literature in his theoretical works: Le Roman expérimental (1880; The Experimental Novel, 1893; a direct application of Bernard’s principle to literature), Les Romanciers naturalistes (1881; The Naturalist Novel, 1964), and Le Naturalisme au théâtre (1881; Naturalism on the Stage, 1893). According to Zola, naturalism combines scientific determinism, pessimistic and mechanistic views of human behavior, pathological assumptions about human motivation, and a predilection for examining the life of the lower socioeconomic classes. Thus, Zola’s Rougon-Macquart series, designed after the model of Honoré de Balzac’s seventeen-volume La Comédie humaine (1829-1848; The Human Comedy, 1895-1896, 1911), seeks to portray the society of the Second Empire by “scientifically” describing conditions of life.

Zola, however, did not recognize that hereditary (biological) determinants cannot rationalize behavior. His attempt to trace through twenty novels a family epic of neuroses and alcoholism was therefore less than successful. Nevertheless, it did produce some memorable character studies—among them, Nana—in the multifaceted collection of one-thousand-odd characters who appear in the series, depicting various social classes, circumstances, and places that Zola knew well.

Indeed, so attentive is Zola to naturalism’s scientific principles that he paints in words as vivid a portrait of Nana as could be painted by the most adept realists. Of course, attention to detail as well as to psychological motivation is paramount in the naturalistic canon. Just as scientific experiments require exacting attention to statistical data, so also do naturalistic novels demand factual accounting. Thus, Nana satisfies its philosophical imperatives by providing such meticulous details as would be necessary for a laboratory report.

Nana – the Novel by Emile Zola another view by a reviewer – The Innocence Lost : 

Monsieur Fauchery, the drama critic, takes his cousin la Faloise to the theater for the opening of a new musical featuring an exciting new star known simply as Nana. At the theater, the two men recognize many people from the fashionable world, among them, the pious Count Muffat de Beuville and his wife, Countess Sabine. When Nana appears onstage, it is obvious that she has no talent, but she possesses one outstanding quality — she is the epitome of sexuality.

At first the audience laughs until a young boy, Georges Hugon, cries out, "She's wonderful." From then until the end of the play, Nana is in control of the audience, especially during the final act when she appears on the stage virtually naked.

The next day, while Nana is making arrangements to receive her lovers, fans who had seen her the preceding evening begin to call upon her. Among the visitors are Count Muffat and his father-in-law, the Marquis de Chouard, who pretends to come to collect money for a charitable organization. Both men are visibly affected by the presence of Nana. A wealthy banker named Steiner also comes, and even though he has a reputation for spending fortunes on actresses, Nana refuses to see him.

The following week, at a party given by the Count Muffat, the discussion between the men concerns a party that Nana is giving after her performance. She has told Fauchery to invite the count to the party, but most of the men think that he will not accept. At the party, more people come than Nana had expected; but the count does not come. At the end of the party, Nana decides it is time to look after her own interest and lets Steiner know that she will accept him as a lover.

As Nana's reputation spreads, soon foreign dignitaries begin to come to the theater to see her. Count Muffat must accompany an English prince to the theater and while there can hardly constrain himself because Nana has aroused in him unknown desires. Before the prince takes her away for the evening, the count discovers that Steiner has bought her a country house close to a family he often visits. She tells him to come see her there.

The country house is owned by Madame Hugon, the mother of Georges, who shouted in the theater that Nana was wonderful. When Georges hears about Nana's visit, he goes to see her. He is so young that Nana does not want to accept him as a lover, but after some mild persuasion she succumbs. This new relationship pleases her so much that she decides to postpone her affair with Count Muffat. After a week, however, Georges' relationship is discovered and his mother forces him to remain at home. Then Count Muffat slips into Nana's bedroom and begins his love affair with her.

Three months later, Nana begins to resent the fact that Count Muffat never gives her much money. Furthermore, she has formed an infatuation for an actor named Fontan. When both Muffat and Steiner arrive and find her in bed with Fontan, Nana throws both her old lovers out and decides to be true to Fontan. However, the actor soon tires of Nana and begins beating her brutally. Finally, he even locks her out of her apartment.

Nana now decides to renew her relationship with Count Muffat but makes it clear to him that she expects much more than she previously received. The count agrees to all her demands, buys her an expensive mansion, furnishes it elegantly, and gives her twelve thousand francs a month for expenses. Still Nana is not satisfied; she begins to have relations with other men, even men whom she picks up from the streets. Out of boredom, she begins to experiment with lesbian love and finds that it is rather pleasant. Count Muffat must learn to accept all of her vagaries or else leave. By now he is so completely enslaved that he cannot deny her anything.

At the famous race, the Prix de Paris, one of the horses is named after Nana. Everyone comes to the race and many bet on the filly, Nana. After the race, which is won by Nana, the owner of the stable, Count Vandeuvres, is suspected of some shady transactions and commits suicide by setting fire to himself and his stables. Nana, however, is celebrated because her namesake won the race.

No amount of money or pleasure seems to satisfy Nana. She begins to spend money so wildly that she has to have many more lovers to supply her insatiable demands. Quickly, she begins to go through the fortunes of many men and leaves them destitute and bankrupt. Through all of her experiences, the count remains imprisoned by her capricious behavior. Only when he unexpectedly discovers her in bed with his decrepit father-in-law is he shocked back into his senses. But by then, he too is a broken man.

One day, Nana disappears from Paris. No one knows of her whereabouts, but rumors begin to grow up about her. All of the rumors concern huge sums of money and fantastic lovers for Nana. One day, it is discovered that Nana is in a hotel in Paris dying of smallpox. Many of the old actresses and courtesans go there to see her, but they are too late. Now, only Nana's body, corrupted by the ravages of the disease, lies unclaimed in the austere hotel room.

Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast” is a Super Hit Broadway Musical.

The “Beauty and the Beast”(La Bete Humaine)  and “NANA” always  fills our imagination and Emile Zola reaffirms he is one of the greatest  novelist and the protagonist of naturalistic philosophy of writing.

AHALYA - Thou art synonym for adultery or Indra's victim

AHALYA  -  Thou art synonym for adultery or Indra’s victim

 

          

                                                                         

*****Adultery is the end of all trust with that person who indulges in it.  Fidelity is a much revered and safeguarded virtue.  A strong and lasting relationship lies in the fidelity of the partners.

Brahma, the creator god utilizing most of his time including the leisure time and creative energy given life to the most beautiful maiden namely Ahalya the princess.   She was the most beautiful of feminine creations, an envy for both the material world and the celestial beings.  She was the most beautiful woman in the entire world.  She was married to a sage much older in age to her called Sage Gautama.  Lord Indra (the king of all the gods) was fascinated by her beauty and used to ogle at her while she was plucking flowers in her hermitage garden.  He used to spy on her in his flying horse which used to hover around sage Gautama’s Ashram situated near the river Godavari.  Indra driven by love, sex and desire lusted after the beauty of sage Gautama’s wife Ahalya and was waiting for an opportunity to satiate and consummate his passion.

                                                  Mallu painter Raja Ravi Varmas’s  Ahalya.  

(In fact, Raja Ravi Varma gifted Hindus a portrait to worship by giving a current visual form to adore Hindu gods in human replica.)

Not willing to wait any more, one day he appeared in sage Gautama’s hermitage in the dead of night and crowed like a rooster to wake up the sage from his sleep and make him to mistake that it was dawn.  An unsuspecting sage Gautama woke up and set out for the river to bath and then to proceed to the mountains for meditation as was his daily routine and rituals. 

Once the sage was out in the river,  Indra disguised as the sage Gautama went to his home and woos Ahalya to have sex with him thus consummating his desire to be in the arms of Ahalya and passionately ravishes her beauty.  Ahalya though sensed something fishy was overpowered by the tricks of Indra and surrendered to him and she too enjoyed the act.  There was burning desire and fire under the belly that they made steamy and lustful sex.   Lord Indra enjoyed fully the best and most beautiful creation of Bramah and satiated his sexual desire.

The sage Gautama with his inner eyes saw that Ahalya was in trouble and steadied his steps towards the hermitage.  He sensed that he was duped and it was not yet dawn.  The sages are blessed with the instincts to realize and observe things due to their ascetic life which is not possible for ordinary mortals.  They had the power of both boons and banes.  They can curse even a god in human form and destroy or disfigure him.

The more he advanced towards his hermitage he became increasingly suspicious about the foul play.  In the hermitage he caught both Indra disguised in his form and Ahalya in intimate position and was enjoying the act.  He caught them red handed and cursed both Ahalya and Indra.  The woman who did adultery was ordered to go deeper in the forest and to become a stone.  A terrified Ahalya pleaded her innocence and was told to his husband that she was tricked by Indra.  Sage Gautama given a boon to Ahalya that Lord Rama when he travel across this forest one day will brush his feet on you and you will be forgiven and liberated to regain your feminine form.

He cursed the fleeing Indra after spotting Sage Gautama in the form of a cat to have thousand vulvas in his body and that he will be castrated.  The testicles of Indra was fallen on the ground and was replaced by that of a ram (lamb) thereafter.  The Lord Indra was ashamed with thousand vaginas all over his body by the curse of Gautama to repent his dastardly act of seducing a married woman.  Lord Indra later taking bath in river Godavari which caressed the stone of Ahalya got his body full of vaginas to transform into thousand eyes.

Who can forgive a woman who has done adultery which was the end of all trust ?

It took sixty thousand years to finally Ram (an avatar of God Vishnu)  to travel by that forest near the river Godavari and brush against the stone and give Ahalya the “shapmoksh”(reprieve or liberation from the curse).  Sage Vishwamitra who was escorting Rama to the King of Janaka along with his younger brother Lakshman and wife Sita asked him a question.

“If you, heir of Raghu clan, Prince of Ayodhya, touch her without judgement, she will be liberated from her curse,” said Vaishwamitra.

“But isn’t adultery the worst of crimes, for it marks the end of trust?  Renuka was beheaded for just thinking about another man; this is far worse,” said Lakshman.

‘How much punishment is fair punishment? Who decides what is enough? A king needs to intervene, balance his ruthlessness with compassion.’

Ram immediately touched the rock that was Ahalya.  It moved. He stepped away and she materialzed, letting out a sigh, and then a wail, for she had been relieved of her burden of shame.

Gautama appeared from the shadows, looking confused, happy to have his wife back, yet unable to forget his humiliation.

‘Let go of your self-pity and your rage, noble sage.   Let the knots of your mind unbind until aham gives you atma.  Only then will be able to restore your hermitage and bring back joy to your world,’ said Ram with a demeanour of a king.

Guatama stretched out his hand.  Ahalya, once beautiful, now gaunt, paused for a moment, and then accepted it.  Vishwamitra poured water over their joined hands so the two could start life afresh.

A curious Mandavi wondered why fidelity is so important in marriage. The rakshasa women, she had heard, did not restrict themselves to her husbands and the rakshasa men did not restrict themselves to their wives.  In nature all kinds of union existed: swans were faithful to each other, the male monkey had a harem of females that he jealously guarded, the queen bee had many lovers. Why then was fidelity so important to the Rishis?

‘It is a measure of how satisfied we are with the offerings of the spouse. The dissatisfied seek satisfaction elsewhere,’ said Vishwamitra.

‘I shall always strive to find all my satisfactions in a single wife,’ declared Ram.

‘What if your wife doesn’t find satisfaction in you?’ asked Vishwamitra, eager to hear the response of the prince.  But it was a princess who responded.

‘If she is wise, she will accommodate the inadequacy. If he is wise, he will strive to grow,’ said Sita, still looking at Ahalya and the hesitant tenderness of Gautama.

 AHALYA -  a 14 minute short film by the famous Bong and Bollywood Director Sujoy Ghosh.

It is a challenge to make an epic thriller in such a short duration.  Ghosh's short film is competent and has a certain mysterious charm.  It certainly attracts repeat audience.   It has already enjoyed 5.45 million views in You Tube since its release in July, 2015.  

After watching Sujoy Ghosh’s Bollywood offering “KAHANI” which enjoyed much fanfare and critical acclaim, the writer‘s curiosity was aroused for his future contributions.

Ahalya is an Indian short film which is a modern adaptation of the mythical story of Ahalya, but with a feminist angle to it. 

 

  

The director succeeded in presenting Radhika Apte the actor in the role of “Ahalya” alluringly seductive and an enchantress with irresistible charm.  She was sensuous throughout the film and had the desired aura of the killer instinct.  Her golden anklets adds to magnifying  her beauty who a clad in her slip as she climb the stairs followed by the policeman.  The heroine ‘Ahalya’ is married to an ageing artist who knows he is unable to sexually satisfy his wife.    He finds a way to make his wife enjoy life by attracting young and handsome men to his studio and making them game for his wife’s libido.  The story narrates the criminal plot hatched by the old man and turning the victims into dolls.  The table in his living room has a magical stone covered by glass which if touched by a person can lead to fatal liaison and then becoming figurines.  In one of the sequence when a figurine falls down Ahalya calls it naughty with a mischievous smile.

The movie is a rip-off from the epic “Ramayana” featuring a beautiful princess called Ahalya and her old husband, a sage called Gautama and a fatal attraction towards her by the king of all the gods, the Lord of heavens, Indra.   We have already discussed the relevance of the epic and how the movie title justifies the name “Ahalya”.

The Lord Indra’s role is essayed by a young police inspector called Indra Sen.  Indra Sen (Tota Roy Chowdhury) knocks the door of artist ‘Gautam Sadhu’ (veteran Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee) to investigate the mysterious and sudden disappearance of a young and handsome model ‘Arjun’ who last visited the artist’s studio.

Indra Sen serious and duty bound finally caves in to the trap of husband-wife duo.  The arrangement was slowly liked by the artist’s wife and she started enjoying the game which was masterminded by her husband who was incapable of satiating her libido.  The number of figurines in their show-case increases by day by day and the investigating cop too becomes a target.

Plot

A young policeman Indra Sen comes to the home of a famous ageing artist Goutam Sadhu investigating a case of a missing man Arjun. There he is greeted by his young and beautiful wife whom he mistook for his daughter.  The old man introduces her as his wife with a certain glee and mischief in the corner of his eyes.  The missing man's doll-version is placed on the mantelpiece, along with other dolls, who Sadhu tells him had been modelling for himself. A stone is also placed there in a glass case. Sadhu tells the policeman that the stone has magical qualities and that anybody who touches it turns into whosoever he or she wishes to. He tells the policeman that Arjun knew about it and suggests that he might have used it. The policeman does not believe him initially but agrees to try it when the old man dares him to.  He goes up to hand his mobile over to Ahalya, who addresses him seductively as her husband.  She asks him to shoo away the policeman and come back to her. He plays along with her only to find himself cast in stone like other dolls placed on the same mantelpiece.

       



Auteur Sujoy Ghosh

Inspirations -

The film takes elements from the mythological story of Ahalya from Ramayana but crafts a modern version of it with a spin. In the original tale the young and beautiful Ahalya is seduced by Indra (the king of all the gods), and is cursed by much older husband sage Gautama to turn into a stone. But in the retelling of the story in the film, the punishment is visited on the character based on Indra alone, while the woman is shown to be an accomplice in the seduction game.  Our earlier mention of it as a modern adaptation of the mythical story of Ahalya with a feminist angle to it.

The film has shades of The Collection, an episode from The Twilight Zone TV series and of Satyajit Ray's short story Professor Shonku and Strange Dolls and also of Alma, an animated short film.

There isn't really much suspense in Sujoy Ghosh's Ahalya. Not that this matters. Ghosh's short film is competent and has a certain eerie charm. Even if you guess the end, you’ll give it the 14 minutes it asks of you because the old Kolkata home looks beautiful, legendary actor Soumitra Chatterjee is in it and Ghosh has succeeded in setting his story in a world that looks normal but feels weird.

As the title of the short film suggests, Ahalya is a contemporary take on a Hindu legend about infidelity. Many of us are familiar with Ahalya’s story, thanks to Ramanand Sagar's teleserial Ramayana and perhaps some Amar Chitra Katha comics. Ghosh’s retelling appears to be a “bold”, modern version – an Ahalya who doesn’t melodramatically weep because she’s had sex with a man other than her husband, an Ahalya with a touch of evil in her. At first glance, Ghosh’s Ahalya seems to be unadulterated contemporary, but spend a little time with the myths, and you’ll realize that the ancient storytellers may still be cleverer and more sophisticated than our contemporary auteur.  It is surely a rip-off from the epic Ramayana.

       

       

There are at least five different versions of Ahalya, Gautam and Indra's sex triangle floating around the treasure trove of stories that is Hindu mythology. The most widely-known version is from Ramayana, but all of them have the same barebones. Ahalya is the beautiful, young wife of the old sage Gautama. Indra sees her and becomes lust-addled. When Gautam leaves his home, Indra appears, disguised as Gautama, and makes love to Ahalya. Ahalya realises she's been deceived when the real Gautama returns home and the fake Gautama is still in her bed.

Furious at being cuckolded, Gautama curses Indra (who has, for some inexplicable reason, turned into a cat) and Ahalya.   Indra (by now, de-felined) becomes sahasrabhagavat — or one with 1,000 vulvas. This curse is eventually turned into something arguably more useful for the leader of the devas: the vulvas turn into eyes, allowing him to somewhat literally keen an eye on everything. Or at least 1,000 things. (And just like that, in an astoundingly prescient transition that is richly prophetic, Indra goes from sex-obsessed to potentially creepy voyeur.)

                                                                      Radhika Apte

Ahalya points out to Gautama that she had been deceived and that she couldn't have seen through Indra's disguise. While Gautama accepts this, the fact that Ahalya had sex with a man other than her husband makes her impure and so she too is cursed – to be a stone for 60,000 years, in the Ramayana version. In another, she's reduced to a skeletal hag. One of the earliest retellings says that Ahalya was turned into a dried-up river. This may be the reason Indra after taking holy dip in the river Godavari got thousand eyes in his body than vulvas.

Although the Ramayana is what has kept Ahalya’s story in circulation, if you equate authenticity with age, the version involving Rama isn’t the ‘original’. Ahalya, Gautama and Indra’s affair appears in older texts, like Brahmapurana, which gives us some back-story, including details of how Gautama and Ahalya were married.

In Brahmapurana, we find out that Ahalya was Gautama’s student for years. Indra and the other gods wanted to marry Ahalya when she came of marriageable age, but Gautama won her hand, thanks to his punning abilities (No, seriously - pun intended).

Brahma, Ahalya’s creator and father figure, decreed that the one who could go around the earth fastest would marry Ahalya. All the gods raced off to perform this feat. Gautama went to the divine cow Surabhi, who was pregnant, and walked in a circle around her. Because there’s a word for pregnant in Sanskrit whose alternate meaning is “earth”. Just to play it safe, Gautama also made his way around a Shiva lingam. Then he showed up and asked Brahma for Ahalya's hand in marriage.

Brahma, ever appreciative of geekiness, decided Gautama’s version of circumambulation was acceptable and so, by the time Indra and the other devas returned, Gautama and Ahalya were man and wife. Indra was furious, but could do nothing about it since Brahma had given Gautama the go-ahead.

Later, when rumours reach Indra of how Ahalya is in a state of marital bliss with Gautam, he decides to go down to earth and see for himself. And the story follows the familiar path of lust, disguise and curses. Indra’s punishment is the same across versions, but in Brahmapurana, Ahalya is cursed to become a dried river and there's no mention of Rama. Gautama decrees that Ahalya will regain her human body once her cursed form is able to join the river that washes sin away, the Gautami. So it happened, we’re told.

Somewhere along the way, someone decided that the Ahalya story was a good one to slip into the Ramayana (and the Mahabharata). What is it about this thoroughly domestic story that made the ancient bards think it belonged in epics about heroes, kingship, war and colonisation?

The most obvious connection is between Sita in the Ramayana and Ahalya. Aside from being flawlessly beautiful, they share an unusual connection through their names. Sita — furrow in Sanskrit — is named so because she was found at the tip of a plough. Ahalya's name contains the Sanskrit word for plough. Both women live in the forest after marriage. Sita has a short stint in Ayodhya's palaces before heading out with her husband Rama for his vanavas (exile). Ahalya lived with Gautama in Brahmagiri, a pastoral idyll that is believed to be in today's Western Ghats. Both these women's beauty drew the attention of a king — Indra, in Ahalya's case; in Sita's, Ravana.

Ravana initially tries to seduce Sita by appearing before her in his natural form. One version of the Ahalya story says Indra did the same. He praised Ahalya’s beauty in eloquent poetry, trying to woo her with words. But Sita and Ahalya reject these kings who attempt to impress them with their might, and swear fidelity to their un-royal husbands. Indra and Ravan both respond with deception. They give up their youth and virility, and disguise themselves as old men. Indra takes on Gautama's form while Ravana pretends to be an old beggar. Both of them appeal to the women's morality. Ahalya is being a good wife because as far as she’s concerned, she’s having sex with (and initiated by) her husband. Sita crosses the lakshmanrekha to give alms to the needy.

Later, despite Gautama saying she's impure, Ahalya's virtue is not besmirched. She proves her innocence. Sita faces similar charges of impurity and she too clears her name and reputation. They also survive years in wilderness because of their husbands' lack of trust. Sita is abandoned in the forest while Ahalya is all alone in her cursed shape (neither a rock nor a dried-up river have much by way of company). Effectively, they're silenced and kept away from society where they could, perhaps, be seen or heard.

To think someone noticed the parallels between the stories of these two women and inserted Ahalya’s story in the Ramayana is a fascinating idea and one that becomes all the more intriguing when you realize that there was clearly an effort made to ensure Ahalya’s story wasn’t edited out of the epic. To ensure it would remain in Ramayana, a thoroughly tenuous link was forged between Ahalya and Ram. Her punishment changes as does her redemption, in which the young prince Rama is cast as her saviour. And so Ahalya stands in the Ramayana, unforgotten. We don’t know who inserted her into either the Ramayana or the Mahabharata, and neither can we authoritatively claim the reason behind that decision.

What we can do, however, is wonder and interpret. Because wound into an epic that reeks of testosterone, aggression and masculine strength is the story of a woman who is wronged by the man who marries her and used by another man who claims to be in love with her. Perhaps it’s a word of warning that in the games of masculine posturing, the victim and the pawn is the woman. This was true in the golden age with Ahalya, when Indra’s wounded ego demanded he have the last hurrah in his competition against Gautama. It happens again, 60,000 years later, when Sita is ostensibly the reason that Rama goes to war against Ravana. Yet when the war is over, he rejects her as impure even though she’s been faithful to him. It’s almost as though the narrator is suggesting – albeit with great subtlety – that some things don’t change with time.  This shows Rama’s double standards.  In one way he liberate Ahalya from the shame and at the same time doubt his wife Sita ‘s chastity who was forcibly abducted by Ravana.

Ostensibly, Ahalya’s story is a rap on the knuckles of any woman who strays, and of course it is. But at the same time, it also points out all the ways in which women were (and continue to be) restrained and straitjacketed. Even though he is her teacher and knows of her intellectual prowess, all Gautama – and those hearing the tale – can see in Ahalya is her beautiful body and how that beauty is bound to drive a man insane with lust. Intriguingly, Ahalya’s story is never told without mentioning the curse that Indra suffers as punishment. She is at fault, but we’re not to forget that Indra is to blame. And from the fact that his curse quickly turns into an advantage while Ahalya must wade through time to restore herself, we’re to note that the stigma doesn’t stick to men.

As devices go, Ahalya’s story is complex, intricate and full of possibilities – for both conservatism and subversion. It’s not often that we find stories that are so spectacularly slippery.

This is why Ghosh’s interpretation of Ahalya is a rip-off if you know the myth. His take on Gautama is more interesting since the Maharishi is turned into someone who almost preys on youthful masculinity. Ahalya, on the other hand, is at best her husband’s sidekick. She’s someone who willingly reduces herself to a sex object and that too, seemingly at her husband’s direction. Perhaps the men that Goutam Sadhu sends up to his wife are feeding her sexual appetite.

Perhaps she’s the mastermind – though there’s nothing in the film to suggest this. Goutam Sadhu definitely appears to be the alpha in their relationship – but even in that scenario, Ahalya is reduced to a body. It’s evident from the way Ghosh’s Ahalya dresses and moves that she’s titillating the men (and the viewers), but subtly. The brush of skin seems accidental, but isn’t. The clothes seem casual, but are studiously seductive. Ghosh seems to suggest it isn’t Indra’s fault if he’s turned on by this Ahalya. She’s goading him, with every look and every gesture. How can any man resist that much bare skin, that figure, the invitation in her eyes, is the unspoken question in the short film.

Not just that, by trapping Indra in one of Goutam Sadhu’s dolls at the end, Ghosh ensures that all our sympathy is for this poor man who, thanks to eyeballing a scantily-clad woman who was flirting with him, has suffered a horrible fate. Ahalya is the sexual predator in disguise.

Watching Ghosh’s Ahalya, you can’t help but wonder if the story he tells in 14 minutes would have survived if it didn’t have the rich tapestry of the myth as its background. Stripped of all the issues and complexity that is contained by the myth and its ancient retellings, Ahalya stands as a decent but unremarkable story. It’s difficult to imagine it surviving and allowing for the kind of interpretation and reinventions that the Ahalya myth has engendered.

Then again, perhaps the old myth nestled in the Brahmapurana would have suffered the same kind of obscurity had some bards not had the genius idea of weaving it into an epic that was being told and retold. And here’s the truly heartening part – for all the rigid sexism and conservatism of Hinduism’s guardians and followers over the ages, Ahalya was embraced, accepted and remembered with respect. So much so that the film  directors  later, in the 21st century, here we are, retelling her story.

Facebook Friends and Vishwamitra -

In the times of spiraling Facebook friends, we need to know about the legendary Ramayana Sage “Vishwamitra”.   ‘Vishwa’  means Universe and ‘mitr’ means friend.  Vishwamitra is the friend of Universe.  With the light touch of your laptop keyboard we can reach international friends and cement a friendship that upsurges from any part of the world.  You Skype them and chat with them and build a bond of friendship.  The growing acquaintances courting friendship is increasing like never before.

Vishwamitra was the teacher of Rama.  He taught Rama to turn ordinary arrows into potent missiles with the power of fire, water, the sun, the moon, wind and rain.    With the telescopic  arrows he can destroy a tree with arrow of fire and create a fountain of water from the earth by shooting an arrow into the earth and create wind by another weapon of arrows.  He can destroy planets by using telescopic arrows. Vishwamitra merits a separate blog post and hence not detailing him here.

Let me conclude this BLOG post with the opening sentences**** -

Adultery is the end of all trust with that person who indulges in it.  Never cheat your spouse with infidelity (However, a cheated spouse may seek vendetta a tit-for-tat).  Fidelity is a much revered and safeguarded virtue.  A strong and lasting relationship lies in the fidelity of the partners.