Neerja by Ram Madhvani

Neerja
India (Hindi, English, Arabic), 2016
122 min, thriller, biography
Directed by Ram Madhvani
Starring Sonam Kapoor and Shabana Azmi

On September 5th, 1986, Palestinian terrorists hijack Pan Am flight 73 while it waits on the tarmac at the Karachi airport. The head purser of the flight, Neerja Bhanot, tries to keep the passengers safe by negotiating with the terrorists and trying to outwit them. Based on a true story, this movie depicts how Neerja became an international hero by saving the lives of most of the passengers and crew, while dying herself.  Meanwhile, we see the emotional fallout at home of knowing that your daughter, sister, or girlfriend is in mortal danger – and there’s nothing you can do to help her.

While this could have easily become melodramatic, the powerful performances of Sonam Kapoor as Neerja and Shabana Azmi as Neerja’s mother imbue this film with the right mix of tension, fear, and bravery to make it one of the most lifelike and emotionally complex films I have ever seen. I think this is the only movie that has left me bawling in my seat at the movie theater, and I daresay you will have a similar experience.

Neerja’s history of abuse

While it doesn’t go into great detail, the movie does explore Neerja’s history of surviving intimate partner violence. After having an arranged marriage, she is taken to Oman by her husband, who proceeds to verbally and emotionally abuse her – finally escalating into physical violence. Part of this abuse is letters sent to her father demanding that he give more money for her dowry.  When Neerja escapes from this terrible situation and returns to her parents’ house, she has to deal with the social and familial censure of her actions. As a woman, she should have been able to accept and adjust to any situation, or so the logic goes. Neerja bravely perseveres in doing what is right for her: getting a divorce, picking up her modeling career again, joining PanAm as a stewardess, and just generally creating a new life for herself.

Read the rest on The Asian Cinema Blog

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Chewing Gum by Mansour Bushnaf, translated by Mona Zaki

Chewing Gum 
Mansour Bushnaf
Translated by Mona Zaki (Arabic)
Originally 2008, I read ebook of 2014 translation
126 pages, satire

Many thanks to Darf Publishers for providing a review copy of this novel. 

“Our hero looked on as our heroine walked away in the rain, wrapped in her black coat and red shawl. Ten years went by before he was able to whisper into her ear again, ten years during which he remained standing in the exact spot where she had left him in the park, enduring his terrible suffering. Days went by, then months, and years. He waited in the rain while she walked on, hoping she would stop, turn and run back. Her red shawl fluttered gently as she headed towards the sunset, revealing her black shoulder-length hair.”

So begins this story – a satirical fable about life in Libya, centered around these two characters and the park where our hero waits in the rain. The tale is told in dreamlike vignettes with a different focus on almost every page; some of these are only tangentially related to the two main characters. This creates a fully formed, if piecemeal, narrative that critiques Libyan society from the pre-colonial period to the present day.

Actor Network Theory

While other reviewers have noted the existential nature of this novel, I want to highlight something completely different: the way that these various narrative strands correspond to Actor Network Theory, or ANT.

Stick with me here.

ANT is a social science theory that emphasizes the fact that everything (from sunlight to a can of coke to the person drinking it) is an actor, or active player. Everything happens because of the actions of innumerable actors, and every action has an effect on innumerable actors. If you look at any scenario widely enough, you can trace these connections.

In this novel, Bushnaf looks at the circumstances of his two main characters from exactly this angle. He examines the park - its history, who goes there, and why it gains attention. Actions hundreds of years ago, such as the building of a pleasure palace, still have repercussions in the present and future. A statue of unknown origin has incredible effects on its viewers. Even estranged blood relationships have significant effects.

It is for this reason that the narrative, if you want to call it that, expands so much without bursting and becoming overdone. All of these disparate stories are intimately related, and the author emphasizes the importance of that relationship.

Satire

This novel is written in a highly satirical tone with frequent breaking of the fourth wall. The narrator wants to convey the absurdity of life under the changing Libyan governments. It pokes fun at everyone: from the Italians with their finely manicured parks, to the excesses of the Ottoman rulers, to the brutality and repression of the Gaddafi regime. Although I am not familiar with Libyan history, these often hilarious anecdotes were not difficult to connect with, and I highly enjoyed this novel. I recommend it for anyone who likes satire or expansive, existential cultural critiques.

Further Reading: 

"Monsour Bushnaf on 'killing books' in Libya" (video) from BBC

"A Novel That Represents 'A Complete Generation of Libyan Writers and Intellectuals'" from Arabic Literature (in English) 

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Hurma by Ali Al-Muqri, translated by T.M. Aplin

Hurma
Ali Al-Muqri
Translated by T. M. Aplin (Arabic)
First published 2012, I read ebook of 2015 translation
166 pages, cultural critique, psychological

Many thanks to Darf Publishers for providing a review copy of this book! 

A nameless female narrator from Yemen attempts to reconstruct her childhood and youth. Her formerly communist brother, who became a radical Islamist. Her scandalous sister who was allowed free rein because of her high-paying job. The sex tapes she and her friends watched in secret. The fatwas that restricted every part of her life. Her marriage to a jihadi.

This psychologically complex book provides the insider woman’s viewpoint of restrictive Islamist society, jihadis and terrorism. More than that, it examines the thought processes of a “radicalized” female terrorist from childhood to adulthood.

Sex

In this novel, women feel the full power of a religiously supported patriarchy. They are expected to follow innumerable fatwas that limit their actions, clothes, speech, and thoughts with the sole purpose of removing their sexuality - but in the same breath they are constantly sexually objectified. It is a no-win scenario, in which the narrator can never find sanctuary from objectification regardless of how hard she tries to follow the rules.

The first memory that the narrator recounts is the extreme punishment she was given for drawing a heart on a piece of paper in school. She was in 4th grade, and had no idea what this symbol meant! She was immediately knocked unconscious by her teacher, after which they summoned her father to school to be reprimanded for not “bringing her up properly.” This, of course, was followed by beatings – and even more beatings when she asked her mother what she had done. Even at such a young age and for such an innocent action, she is made into a sexual object that must be controlled through physical violence.