‘Joker’.....no joke!
Hiya people!
How are the
Deepawali preps going on?
Ab is samay toh aur koi baat karna
criminal offence lagta hai, nia kya?
But what to do
mah sweeties, movies consistently barge the screens and unhein dekhna apna dharm hai, hai naa?! :)
Ab yadi dekheinge, toh obviously it will
affect us, aur koi naa koi pratikriya hona avashyambhavi hai, hai ki nahi?! :)
Aur fir jab pratikriya hogi, dimaag mein
chahal pahal hogi, toh us bare mein baat karne ki icchchha hona bhi waajib hai,
bolo hai ki nahi?! :)
Toh ab jab mere saare sawaalon ke jawaab
aapke ‘haan’ mein hain, toh lets
begin.
This movie that
I am talking about now, is the other extreme of the spectrum vis-à-vis what we
have been doing in the past.
‘Joker!!’
The dictionary
says,
‘Joker is a person whose words or actions
provoke or are intended to provoke amusement or laughter!’
but what we’ll
be talking about hence is far from this, yes all of what will follow is going
to be anything but amusement. Mirthless laughter mostly, sad chuckles maybe,
but no happy laugh.
World-cat [a
catalogue of libraries in 170 countries] records no less than 250 productions
featuring the Joker as a subject, including films, television series, books and
video games. Lo bolo bhala, >250!!!
Not to forget
our own Bollywood 1970, Raj Kapoor flick, ‘Mera
Naam Joker’ with a huge run time of >4 hrs !!!
As also an
inconsequential 2012 Akshay Kumar starrer Joker.
In the present
premise lets concentrate on the movie we talk about today, 2019 ie.
The Joker has
been portrayed by
Cesar Romero in
the 1966 film, Batman,
Jack Nicholson
in the 1989 film Batman,
Heath Ledger in
2008 The Dark Knight,
Jared Leto in
the 2016 film Suicide squad,
And finally……..
Jaoquin Phoenix
in the 2019, the solo origin story film with the central character, Joker!!
Till now no
other movie featured Joker this way.
While sitting in
the theatre as the movie started, the joker that I expected to find was the
archenemy of Batman, a ruthless hard core dark criminal mastermind, a
continuation of The Dark Knight maybe.
I never knew
then; I was in for a shock.
I hadn’t even
expected a coherent storyline.
But what I was
faced with was far from spooky or scary.
The movie
begins.
What meets us is
a nearly emaciated Joker [Phoenix lost all
of 24 kgs for the movie]
In 1981 there
lived this ‘Joker’ in Gotham City Arthur Fleck, trying to make ends meet as a party
clown entertaining the children in a hospital and loving his work, loving the
children. He aspires to become a stand up comedian and is working on it
learning by observing famous people in the field. In the family front, he lives
with his old physically debilitated mother who he takes care with love,
compassion and sincerity. That’s all he apparently has.
Its here that
the problem starts. He suffers from pseudo-bulbar
affect, a neurological condition where one looses control of one’s emotions
like happiness, sorrow, frustration and……. anger. That’s quite a handful to
handle. He takes seven medications for the same and his treatment is funded by
the social service organizations.
As if dealing
with all this wasn’t enough, amidst of riots and chaos, the funding is stopped.
Randall his
friend lied about the gun and he even lost his one job that he had and loved.
Arthur tried to
the best of his abilities to make the least bad of all that destiny had thrown
into him, no job, no meds, a health condition totally beyond his comprehension
and control.
His sole ambition
of being a stand up comedian and liked by people, for which he worked hard upon;
was the worst.
This nervous human
equipped with all the home work he could, carrying his tattered notes stands
behind the mike, facing the prejudiced audience that he had not just to please,
but to make them….. Laugh.
To add insult to
injury, as he starts his self mocking joke, he is consumed in a fit of
laughter; mirthless laugh, completely unbridled, incessant. We feel his
struggle as he closes his arms around his face so as to stop it, but in vain.
The torturous
moments finally pass and he completes his joke. This faux-pas wouldn’t have done much harm had Murray Franklin not used
it to make complete fun of Fleck.
Unexpectedly the
step boomeranged on him when this video clip is universally loved by the
people, forcing Murray to invite Fleck to his hugely popular talk show.
Arthur has no
friends, nearly none to call his family either. But through the whole movie we
the audience, could feel what he felt.
His sinewy, bony,
caricatured body breaks daintily into a dance with intricate, perfect and fluid
steps and grips us, the audience, into its aura. The bony prominences throwing strange
shadows that should have looked grotesque, give an artistic punctuation to the
whole phenomenon. The melancholia, the sadness yet his will to go on, reaches
us directly inside our ribcage hitting our beating hearts.
During the film,
this dance changes subtly in mannerisms according to his state of mind then.
The final dance
as he is decked up in Red about to go to the talk show in the high stairs was
the best. For once there was exhilaration, hope and happiness, but not depicted
by words or expressions – he had his face completely painted as a ‘Joker’, lips in a smile while eye make up running down with a tear. All of it came out loud and
clear only by his….Dance.
This neurological
condition of his was utterly ruthless and unforgiving. It started as a bout of Kookaburra laughs in a train cubicle
with three drunk Wall-street guys who obviously unknowing of his helplessness
nor the reason of his laugh, bully him mercilessly taking advantage of his
frail, very frail frame. As a last ditch effort at saving himself, Fleck guns
them down.
This was done as
a reflex but it didn’t deter or affect him with as much feel-bad feeling or
remorse as his mind must have calculated and it gave him a way out to get back
at people who troubled and insulted him.
He kills Randall
but spares Gary as he had been good to him in the past, even opening the door
for him to pass over Randall’s dilapidated body. He is scared to core on the
inside even while he is committing heinous murders.
His mother has
told him a false story of his father being the Mayor Thomas Wayne. Again this
person doesn’t want any hierarchy or money or name nor fame from this very rich
and famous father of his but just a little warmth and psychological support…maybe
just a loving reassuring hug. He was denied even that and he finds Wayne calling
lesser scales of society as ‘Clowns’.
He has a scuffle
with Alfred and we get a tiny view of Bruce Wayne- our Batman as a child when Arthur goes to meet his ‘Father’ Thomas.
But he is in for
a shock when he is told that Thomas Wayne is not his biological father and his
mother was a delusional worker in the Wayne household who had adopted him.
Wayne on the other hand to save his reputation tortured and abused the mom-son
duo back then. This was apparently the reason that caused this neurological
condition that he faced now.
He is shattered
and kills his own mother for deceiving him, landing him into the bizarre situation
that he is in.
He kills as a reflex
then on, not withstanding what he was actually doing. All he knew was, that was
the way out for him to get back at the people, society and scenario…..to survive.
Joker in Heath
Ledger of The Dark Knight - D.C. Extended Universe, was a psycho, ruthless, powerful coldblooded monster.
He was taking out at the society for no reason at all.
Joker in Fleck
was as a total contrast, timid, scared, faltering and utterly helpless getting
back at the society unassuming and as a survival instinct who wanted nothing
else but to live in peace but the society wouldn’t even allow that.
Both committed
similar crimes but with absolutely nothing else in common.
Joker – 2K19 had
a herculean effort behind it. Phoenix emerged triumphant with his superlative
performance.
And what we as a
society can learn from this brilliant movie is just to be a tad bit more
empathetic towards our fellow humans. Every thought, word or deed can have enormous,
unexpected and sometimes unwanted repercussions on others around us, some even
those who mean well for us and those, that we Love.
So people gear
up and watch the movie, again if you have already seen it; with my eyes this
time and celebrate Cinema that percolates deep inside of us.
Do not forget to
let me know how you feel.
Till then, its
again Bye-bye, Tata and Take care from me here at Page-3. :)
