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Such a Long Journey
Canada/UK 1998
Reviewed by Nina Caplan
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
Bombay, India. Gustad Noble is a Parsi bank clerk living in Bombay in 1971. His son Sohrab refuses to attend college; his friend Jimmy Bilimoria has disappeared; his wife Dilnavaz is increasingly influenced by a neighbour who practises the black arts; and the wall of their building is used as a latrine by passing drunks. Gustad is also haunted by the memory of an uncle's betrayal which bankrupted his father and hardened the young Gustad. Jimmy writes asking Gustad to collect money from the sinister Ghulam; Gustad complies, but balks at illegally transferring it to a bank account. Meanwhile, Sohrab has left home and Gustad's young daughter has caught malaria. Dilnavaz tries with increasing desperation to cure her daughter's illness and her son's rebellion by diverting the poison, via black magic, to the local madman Tehmul.
Threatened by Ghulam, Gustad enlists his colleague Dinshawji to help transfer the money. Dinshawji tells a secretary what he's done. Gustad persuades a pavement artist to paint the wall of his building; the urinating stops and a community grows up around the religious images depicted. Jimmy is arrested for fraud; Ghulam demands that the money he handled for him be returned. Dinshawji helps recover it, the dies. Gustad is reconciled with Jimmy, who is dying. Sohrab is also reconciled with Gustad. Jimmy dies. During a demonstration against the demolition of the wall Tehmul is killed. During the vigil for him, Gustad is at last able to cry.
Review
Such a Long Journey is like a work of art that has been painted over: you can just see the outlines underneath of Rohinton Mistry's beautiful novel. Director Sturla Gunnarsson's film charts bank clerk Gustad's journey from emotional detachment to greater tolerance as he copes with a slew of familial and historical problems. He softens and matures as his wife grows estranged from him, his son leaves home and his daughter catches malaria, but it is difficult to follow the progress Gustad makes: his journey is long in the watching, certainly, but as with many literary adaptations it's largely an internal one. Besides, his problems all have fairly straightforward solutions, and the way they're all neatly tied up by the end sits ill with the film's wry, realist tenor: as a Parsi, Gustad is a member of a minority religion in a country so uncomfortable with its multi-ethnic make-up that religious divides have brought it to the brink of war.
It is in the details rather than in the more melodramatic events that this film excels. Gunnarsson makes the dirt, smells and bureaucracy all appear equally and instantly present - an immediacy which is unnecessarily sharpened by a series of yellow-tinted, irrelevant flashbacks to Gustad's childhood. The community of Gustad's apartment block - from the old witch to the mad child-man Tehmul - is subtly rendered, as are the devotees who appear around the apartment block wall after Gustad persuades a pavement artist to draw his religious pictures there. Remarking on the faith Gustad's wife has invested in the black magic practised by her neighbour, the street artist provides the film with its most telling comment: that all life's problems begin when we look for permanence.
Such a Long Journey's problems begin when it rejects the permanent in favour of the temporarily exciting. So Gunnarsson's humorous portrait of 70s Bombay and study of a family coping with personal and political difficulties gives way to the trite thrills of a conventional crime story in Jimmy's attempts to demand illegal favours from Gustad. The final orgy of reconciliation and the predictable tears don't help.
Credits
- Producers
- Paul Stephens
- Simon MacCorkindale
- Screenplay
- Sooni Taraporevala
- Based on the novel by
- Rohinton Mistry
- Director of Photography
- Jan Kiesser
- Editor
- Jeff Warren
- Production Designer
- Nitin Desai
- Music/Music Conductor/Orchestration
- Jonathan Goldsmith
- ©Long Journey Inc. and Amy International Artists Limited
- Production Companies
- The Film Works and Amy International Artists present with the participation of Telefilm Canada/British Screen and The Harold Greenberg Fund
- Produced in association with Canada Television and Cable Production Fund/Telefilm Canada - Equity Investment Program
- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation/BSkyB/TMN - The Movie Network/ UTV - United Television
- Developed with the assistance of British Screen Finance Limited/Telefilm Canada/The Harold Greenberg Fund and Ontario Film Development Corporation
- Produced with the participation of The Government of Canada/ Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit Program and the Government of Ontario/Ontario Film
- and Television Tax Credit Program
- Executive Producer
- Victor Solnicki
- Line Producers
- Stephen J. Turnbull
- Don McLean
- India:
- Amita Sehgal
- Associate Producer
- Suresh Jindal
- CBC Executive in Charge of Production
- Tara Ellis
- Supervising Producers
- India:
- Ronnie Screwvala
- Firdaus Kharas
- Production Co-ordinator
- Radhika Jha
- Unit Managers
- Ramesh Sadrani
- Mike Higgins
- Location Manager
- Rajguru Swamy
- Post-production Supervisor
- Karl DiPelino
- Assistant Directors
- Wendy Ord
- Manoj Jha
- Rob Fowler
- Kanchan Ghosh
- Lindsay Stephens
- Rajesh Tiwari
- Script Supervisors
- Vivianne Royal
- Linda Hayter
- Casting Directors
- India:
- Dolly Thakore
- Tigmanshu Dhulia
- UK:
- Jennifer Jaffrey
- Casting Co-ordinator
- Farahanaaz Dastur
- Script Editor
- Paul Stephens
- 2nd Unit Cinematographer
- Faroukh Mistry
- Set Decorator
- Suzanne Caplan Merwanji
- Costume Designer
- Lovleen Bains
- Costume Co-ordinator
- Sajid Mitha
- Wardrobe Supervisor
- Sabina Chhachhi
- Chief Make-up Artist
- Hajera Coovadia
- Titles/Opticals
- Film Effects Inc
- Music Performed by
- Esraj/Sitar/Sarod Tamboura/Surmundal:
- George Koller
- Bansuri Flutes/Clarinet:
- Ernie Tollar
- Tabla/Percussion:
- Ed Hanley
- Scoring Engineer
- Michael Banton Jones
- Soundtrack
- "The Donkey Serenade" by Rudolf Friml, Herbert Stothart, Bob Wright, Chet Forrest, performed by Artie Shaw and his Orchestra; "Thare rahiyo" by Naushad, Ghulam Mohammed, Majrooh, Kaif Bhopali, Kamal Amrohi, Kaifi Azmi, performed by Lata Mangeshkar; "Dil deke dekho" music by Usha Khanna, Majrooh, performed by Mohammed Rafi; "Ni main yaar manana ni" music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal,Sahir, performed by Lata Mangeshkar, Minoo Purshottam; "Chal dariya mein doob jayen" music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Anand Bakshi, performed by Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar; "Pyar hua ikrar hua" music by Shankar-Jaikishan, performed by Manna Dey, Lata Mangeshkar; "Dwana karke chhodoge", "Sun ja ja thandi hawa" music by Rahul Dev Burman, Majrooh, performed by Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar
- Sound Recordist
- Henry Embry
- Re-recording Mixers
- Lou Solakofski
- Orest Sushko
- Steph Carrier
- Supervising Sound Editor
- David Evans
- Sound Editors
- Rick Cadger
- Paul Shikata
- Phong Tran
- Clive Turner
- ADR
- Recordists:
- Eric Apps
- Ashwin Saksena
- Scott Jones
- Foley
- Artist:
- Donna Powell
- Recordist:
- Ian Rankin
- Stunt Master
- Alan Amin
- Animal Supplier
- Shankar Narayanan
- Cast
- Roshan Seth
- Gustad Noble
- Om Puri
- Ghulam
- Soni Razdan
- Dilnavaz Noble
- Naseeruddin Shah
- Jimmy Bilimoria
- Sam Dastor
- Dinshawji
- Vrajesh Hirjee
- Sohrab Noble
- Kurush Deboo
- Tehmul
- Ranjit Chowdhry
- pavement artist
- Pearl Padamsee
- Mrs Kutpitia
- Shazneen Damania
- Roshan Noble
- Kurush Dastur
- Darius Noble
- Noshirwan Jehangir
- Inspector Bamji
- Dinyar Contractor
- Mr Rabadi
- Souad Faress
- Mrs Rabadi
- Shivani Jha
- Jasmine Rabadi
- Meher Jehangir
- Freny Pastikia
- Aileen Gonsalves
- Laurie Coutinho
- Sohrab Ardeshir
- Mr Madon
- Rashid Karapiet
- Joshi
- Chatru L. Gurnani
- Bhimsen
- Madhav Sharma
- Peerbhoy
- Pratima Kazmi
- Hydraulic Hema
- Sunny Bharti
- prostitute
- Antony Zaki
- Morcha director
- Irfan Khan
- Gustad's father
- Anahita Oberoi
- Gustad's mother
- Rajesh Tendon
- Gustad age 20
- Meral Durlabji
- Gustad age 10
- Meet Nandu
- Gustad age 8
- Aloo Heerjibehedin
- Gustad's grandmother
- Anupam Shyam
- milkman
- Anirudh Agarwal
- street butcher
- Nina Wadia
- Sister Constance
- Shauket Baig
- waiter
- Viju Khote
- taxi driver
- Lovleen Bains
- worshipper
- Nizwar Karanj
- Nusli
- Zul Valani
- Kavasji
- Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal
- Alamai
- Rakesh Shrivastav
- Arun Kanan
- municipal workers
- Noshir B. Andhyarujina
- Dasturji priest
- Renu Setna
- Doctor Paymaster
- Certificate
- 15
- Distributor
- Optimum Releasing
- 10,200 feet
- 113 minutes 20 saeconds
- Dolby digital
- In Colour