city in film, film in city

In the past few years, Hong Kong and India have seen totalitarian governments toppled and democracy set up; India has overcome colonialism but is still holding on to parts of ancient culture, and Hong Kong has struggled to make a full democratic transition. Two films that greatly highlight the process of nation building behind contextual ideas are Confessions of Pain and Kahaani. These movies are a representation of Asian metropolises in their dynamic postcolonial states. The films focus on globalized identities as a critical site for the mapping of a convergence of anxieties about urbanity and modernity. Hong Kong and Indian cinema are driven by one narrative over another narrative, in the sense where the movies here are telling a cover-up story about political states. Both films have taken a scope of crime as a method to convey a moment of change in the world. These films are centered on police affairs but perfectly manage to deliver an alternative portrayal. Confessions of Pain and Kahaani play with the dynamics of a fraught space where two different countries are trapped in an in-between status: often, a film’s contexts and narratives identify the film plot itself as a signifier of the disorientation that it proposes to explore, enacting both limitations and possibilities.

India and China share the commonality of being in a transition, where both countries are in development but still caught in the past. There is a collective anxiety in both cities, which puts into question the present, future and past. Confessions of Pain is a crisis movie indirectly relating to a country that is confined in a political controversy. Draped in deep melancholy the film sets a strong mood in contrast to the current condition of Hong Kong. While Kahaani, is filmed in a city that is overcoming a post independence point in time. The sacred city is surrounded by old, and new aspects. The city is moving into a more modern way of life while holding onto ancient religious traditions. Both films enact a liminal stage between a previous way of living and a new way of structuring identity and community.

Confessions of Pain addresses the concern of a city that is loosing its identity; the director has grappled the issue by making a connection between Hong Kong cinema and Hong Kong’s local personality at the intersection of colonialism, nationalism, globalization and post-colonialism. With a crime and police drama film the director was able to deliver a narrative within another narrative. The police have been used as a metaphor of the state in order to stress a collective anxiety. The city has all the basic structure to become independent but is still tied down by the past. It is a story that is enacted by the mood and characters of the film; much like the city of Hong Kong one of the main characters Lau Ching Hei is searching to free himself from his past.
            The timely circumstances create the films plot. Kahaani explores the present situation in Kolkota where the movie is filmed. Highlighting the current identity of the city that has just gained freedom to the old ruling. There is a change in engagement with modernity ever since independence, which is stressed all throughout the film. India remains filled with tradition and religion, but has advanced to a new state. A patriarchal society remains, but the movie takes on a feminist aspect by centering the entire plot on the character of a woman. The film as a story is especially well suited to play with the dynamics of this tense space of urbanity and sexuality within the impulse of innovation and post-modernity. 

            Confessions of Pain exposes a heart broken city, through a character filled with hatred and guilt. The film deals with the ongoing distress in Hong Kong by analyzing the distress itself. It is no accident that the story is delivered through a counter story involving the police. The police is used to make a political statement; their legitimacy is put into question which turns the movie in a political critique and not a murder investigation. When the director decided to cope with the crisis of Hong Kong society within the crisis of Hong Kong cinema itself, the issue was tackled by bringing into question the legitimacy of the police. By setting a cover-up story to a movie that is touching into political matters, it provides a rupture through which to investigate issues and ideologies taken for granted. The film clearly demonstrates a censorship regime, where there is very limited space for exploration. 

            Mixed conventions in the way the film is captured underline the status of men and woman. Indian culture is amidst the process of nation building, moving from a very unreserved philosophy to a very repressed way of life. Globalization has set back the country in the sense where, the “sensible” is becoming risky. Women lost the status of equality they held, and are now put under the wing of men. Kahaani returns the space that signifies ‘modernity’ and produces an image in relation with ‘traditional’ ethics of a very old culture. There is an ultimate epitome of feminism in the way the director has chosen to follow the main character Vidya Venkatesan-Bagchi through her search for her missing husband. She takes on two different identities until the very end of the film without ever being questioned. One line that reappears all throughout the movie is “nobody can be trusted” not even a pregnant woman, which is the character Vidya impersonates.  

            Kahaani, which stands for ‘story’ engages and buries the audience deep within an intense, and intriguing investigation that evolved into irony, complete with melodrama, comedy and action. Suffice to say that the film manages greatly to keep identities hidden, while considering nearly every character as a suspect. The setup and prologue will keep you guessing, since the film does not unveil until the last couple of minutes. Everything is controlled by the way the director chose to place his camera. The entire film is shot at eye level, creating the impression that the camera is there observing along with the audience. That is how the director has chosen to play with persuasion, by being part of the story there are no distractions, the audience is not inclined to search outside the frame; there are no questions. Chaos and disturbance is a major tone appearing in Kahaani, the film leans on symbolism to deliver a message of liberation. 

            These films give an incite on cultural, sociological and intellectual intervention in the process of the making, breaking and shifting of metropolitan identities in post- independence times. There is a common theme appearing in both films, which is discussed in two different settings. The diverse cities explore a changing world where an undercurrent of hostility has taken over. Both films have used identities as a substitute of good versus evil, or in other words the Yin and Yang. The main characters in Confessions of Pain and Kahaani are hiding behind secret identities, while attempting to recollect everything they lost. Vidya and Lau’ characters are related by the idea that they are both chasing karma; forgiveness. The heart is a lonely hunter in a city chasing a past that is close yet so far.