The movie is a biography of 14th Dalai Lama – starting from how he was born, how he became Dalai Lama and how and why he left Tibet for India
Plot:
The movie starts with a women narrating a
story to her kid on ‘how he was born’. The next day while eating, the mother
remembers another event which happened during the kid’s birth. She saw two
crows flying over the house (This is a sign that the kid might be next Dalai
Lama because the crows are always bound to safeguard Dalai Lamas which is
explained in a latter part of the story)
The kid is later found by a Regent (a person
who searches for new Dalai Lama on the death of present Dalai Lama). The kid is
tested and he passes it and he becomes the Dalai Lama. Then he is taken to the
monastery where every Dalai Lama lives.
From then, it is about how Dalai Lama learns,
grows and teaches back. Just when he is about to reach 18, Chinese attacks
Tibet claiming it’s an integral part of China. They capture Tibet by fooling
the world and UN by saying “We are freeing the Tibet from the barbaric Dalai
lama and to protect the country” Dalai Lama couldn’t do anything and visits
China to speak to Mao and convince him, but in vain. After some years, there
was a revolt and while suppressing it, the Chinese plan to kill Dalai Lama. So,
the people of Tibet convinces Dalai Lama to leave Tibet for India. He leaves
and the movie ends with 14th Dalai Lama seeing the mountains of
the Tibet with a telescope from Dharmasala, Arunachal Pradesh.
Some Interesting facts:
1) The
Tibetians put kodi as we Tamilians put during death.
2) They
even make a sound similar to Oppaari we make during death.
3) And
another one thing: they don’t cremate or bury the body. Instead, they cut the
body into pieces and feed them to birds.
4) They
too have the ritual of “Saamiyaaduthal” like we have here in Tamilnadu
5) They
touch their heads as we hug to exchange joy and sorrow
About Dalai Lama:
1) As a
kid, he doesn’t want anyone to be harmed. For the first time during childhood,
when he sees a herd of sheep, he asks his father to buy them for him so that
they will be saved from butchering. Again, somewhere in middle of the movie, he
does the same.S
2) He
frees all the prisoners from the prison
3) He
hates the custom of people falling to his feet (We Tamil people must make a
good note of this)
Some scenes to watch out for:
1) In a
scene, the following conversation summarizes the entire world situation:
Dalai Lama: Non-violence takes a long time
Soldier: Do we have the time, Holiness?
Dalai Lama: I have never known
2) And
when Dalai Lama describes about a Chinese General whom he meets,
“I thought he would be some kind of monster,
even with horns growing out of his head. But he is only a man, just an ordinary
human being, like myself.”
3) And
another dialogue in a scene: “Non-violence means cooperation when it is
possible and resistance when it is not”
4) The
scene where the monks plead him not to leave Tibet shows the kindness,
confidence and trust they have with Dalai Lama
5) And
another scene, where a women when asked ‘Are you happy?’ by Dalai Lama replies
‘I am very happy and prosperous under the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman
Mao Tse Tung’ which she says out of fear and she cries while finishing the
sentence. This scene depicts how Chinese had forcefully took control over Tibet
by fooling the world with prosperous rule.
6) And the
epic scene, where he visualizes himself at the center of many dead monks during
a dream
The Chinese Communism shown here:
The Chinese and its government are shown as
Communists which is a visibly true but not a fact. It’s because ‘The Chinese
were Communists when the uprising started in China to free themselves from
Imperialists. But when they won, Mao became a dictator and did whatever he
wanted and the Communist Spirit got washed away.’
A real Communist will never hurt oppressed
people. A real Communist always sees a fellow man as a Brother/Sister. They
don’t care about your religions or your castes or any other thing. (Not
applicable to most of the self-proclaimed Communists from the past till now.
Some people to whom it may be applicable are Karl Marx, Thozhar Jeeva) All they
want is Equality in everything to everyone so that everyone sleeps well at
night without an empty stomach. But, the Chinese government under Mao never did
that. So, it’s not right to say that Communists took forceful control of Tibet
Music:
The cuteness of child blended with the
mesmerizing BGM melody (in the starting phase of the movie) will get your
brains down and feel like ‘Can I just die now with this feeling? I don’t want
anything anymore’
Direction:
Martin Scorsese, seriously? I thought him as
a man of streets and its voices. I never expected a movie like this from him.
No violence. No words of Fucks and Shits. But, still getting down to the minute
detailing of the environment, characters and the culture. And all the
characters have acted very well, particularly the kid version of Dalai Lama. He
steals our heart with that single word ‘Mine’. This is definitely a Cinema of
Martin Scorsese overlooked by us. But, still a Master Piece no way lower than
any of his other films
Finally
We never know whether Buddha existed (same
goes with every single God created by us Humans) or whether Tibet is an
integral part of China. But, what we can know for sure is that ‘It’s bad to be
intolerant – across castes, across Religions, across States across Countries
and maybe in the future, across planets. It feels like a long movie at first
but once you are absorbed into the movie you never want it to end dreaming to
see the 14th Dalai Lama enter a free Tibet. That’s the powerful
magic of Martin Scorsese.
NOTE: The
sad thing was ‘Even the Dalai Lama had to carry a gun’ (which happens while he
escapes from Tibet for India)
