HARI-OM

India, 2004, 106 minutes, Colour.
Veejay Raaz, Camille Netta, Jean- Marie Lamour.
Directed by Bharatbala Ganapathy.

Hari Om is a rickshaw driver, though he dreams of being an actor or a model. Not very likely – especially when he gets into impossible gambling debts and becomes the victim of the crime boss’s thugs. However, the film is not quite as predictable as that might sound.

Enter an arrogant French jewel merchant who sees India as a place for money-making but really just a mess – and has no self-consciousness about loudly expressing himself accordingly. His girlfriend wants to experience India which she loves. Now it becomes predictable. Who is to be her guide? None other than Hari Om trying to escape the thugs.

They experience all kinds of adventures which serve as plot devices for an Indian road movie but which also provide opportunity for a pleasingly prolonged look at the beauty of Indian landscapes, of the architecture and of life in cities and villages. It also gives the opportunity for a wise man to tell a guru like story so that audiences experience the mystic side of Indian culture.

The end has the touch of farce with a car and rickshaw chase – but it all concludes nicely. It is not a singing and dancing Indian film but a popular comedy adventure which is also aimed at an overseas audience.

1. Entertaining Indian film? Not in the Bollywood style? Use of music – but focus on character, plot, action?

2. The location photography, the provinces, the range of towns and villages, the countryside? The tourist look at the beauty and culture of India in detail? The tourism being worked into the plot?

3. The songs in the background, their lyrics? Indication of themes?

4. The title, the focus on Hari-Om? The rickshaw driver, the would-be actor, his home, getting up in the morning, work, his gambling, his debts, the gangsters arranging his debts and threatening him? His bravado?

5. The introduction of Isa and Benoit: the train, their relationship, affluence, at the station and being met, the car, the fashionable hotel? The rajah and the buying of jewels, Benoit examining the jewels? Isa being bored, the clash, her going out? The encounter with Hari-Om? and escaping in the rickshaw? The photography of riding in the rickshaw, in the streets, the traffic, the buildings, the tour of the day, the visual delights, the atmosphere of India? The contrast with Benoit, his disdain, calling everything a mess, his criticism of the breakfast…? Isa and her contemplating India – and missing the train?

6. Harry and the gangsters, the argument with them, his escape? At the hotel, the chance encounter with Isa, driving her around all day? Taking her to the station? The irony of finding her by the roadside after the bus breakdown, their travelling together, on the road, their different adventures, her phone calls, buying the petrol, her giving him the money? The story that the old man told her? Hari- Om and his getting drunk, his boasts about thwarting the gangsters, the chases, on the camels, the rickshaw being impounded, the final village?

7. Isa in herself, her French and Catholic background, with Benoit, her going out on her own, her love for India, sights and sounds? The phone calls, her being hurt? To the station, the bus breaking down, on the roadside, encountering him again? The adventures, the phone calls? The beauty of the building, the shower? The house, the old man and his moving story and her tears? Her having to leave? On the bike, driving the rickshaw, the camels etc? The community and her meeting the people?

8. The build-up to the chase, Benoit and his change of heart, getting off the train, his cases, on the top of the bus, stranded and arrested? Hari-Om? and the goons? Isa with Hari and the dangers?

9. The rickshaw drivers all getting together, confronting the goons, the fight?

10. The old man, the wisdom of his story, it being moving – and his telling the story of his own love for the rich woman, her marriage, serving her as her driver, looking after her in her illness, her finally understanding and her dying? His own life in the house?

11. The farewells at the station, Hari and his kissing Isa, her leaving, with Benoit? The experience of each?

12. India for visitors, the disdain and the transition to seeing it as an interesting mess? Others and their love for India?

13. The future for Hari-Om? – a touch wiser?