The Warrior
***1/2
Cinema Releases - May 10, 2002
Rated on a 4-star scale. Certificate 12. 86
minutes. India/UK. Written and directed by Asif Kapadia. Starring Irfan Khan,
Noor Mani, Aino Annuddin, Puru Chibber, Mandakini
Goswami.
Lafcadia is the kind of character usually relegated
to the background of the frame -- he's one of those men who plunder villages
and behead peasants on the order of local barons. In "The
Warrior", which is a powerful and passionate drama set in northern
India many years ago, we spend time with Lafcadia at his home, as he prepares
food and quietly takes care of his son. We see him with his colleagues, who
joke about the bloody sights they have seen and roll their eyes at their
pathetic victims. "Enough of that!" he tells them. "You used you join in
with us," replies one of his men.
Lafcadia is growing tired of his job. An early
scene shows him taking part in a raid and pausing in horror as he holds his
sword to the throat of a young girl who wears the same necklace as his son.
He's not sure if the girl is in his imagination, and indeed time does seem
to freeze as he pictures himself lost in snowy mountains... but the point
is that his conscience can no longer allow him to continue.
The boss is not happy. He kills Lafcadia's son
and orders Lafcadia to be tracked down. Lafcadia escapes and begins a journey
across the desert, across landscapes so epic that he feels all the more lonely.
He thinks about the sins of his past, the poor fate of his son (and whether
it is karmic payback), the possibility of coming to terms with his life and
maybe even making it one of value.
We're never told any of Lafcadia's thoughts in
words, but the above is what he must be thinking about, isn't it?
The director of "The Warrior" is a British man named Asif Kapadia, whose
camera regards faces and whose actors meditate on emotions and let them shine
through. Irfan Khan, the leading man, has a sorrowful and introspective
expression throughout the picture, but it seems like more... it seems like
language.
Many artsy movies try this kind of thing; few
pull it off, and fewer pull it off this powerfully. Another example would
be the recent American movie "In the Bedroom" -- both pictures succeed because
of the conviction in their performances and the clarity of the dramatic
situations that precede their silences.
"The Warrior" is not packed with events, and yet
it does find time for some memorable scenes and threads. The boy Lafcadia
meets on his journey relates that his parents were killed by a band of warriors;
in a lesser movie this would lead to a revelation that Lafcadia was the assassin
from all those years ago, and there would be a showdown. Here the backgrounds
of the men are simply a sad irony that they have to come to terms with in
their own minds. There's a scene in which a fruit seller turns on the boy
for being a thief, and even though he is a thief, what comes across is the
way people are getting impatient with each other because of an underlying
environment of poverty and oppression. And look at the sad moment in which
a blind woman feels Lafcadia's face and refuses to accept his help; "You
have bloodshed on your face," she tells him.
What stays with us is the clarity and power of
the images. They're understated, but put together in a visual style that
seems simple and direct -- you could perhaps watch "The Warrior" without
subtitles and still be moved by the emotions of the story.
COPYRIGHT©
2002 Ian Waldron-Mantgani
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