Charlie Wilson and his war

The first time I felt some interest in knowing more about Afghanistan was when I started reading Syed Mujtaba Ali's works. It was fascinating in itself, because of his wit and his skill of using the borrowed words from Arabic, Parsian and Sanskrit with the everyday Bangla. But some of his writings depicted his experience in Afghanistan, rich with the historic, cultural and political references. I feel sad for those who cannot read Bangla, because such masterpieces can never be translated into any other language.

Recently one gentleman named Charlie Wilson who originated from Texas caught the attention of the American people towards this country. Though this small country has been in the news quite often for all wrong reasons including the Taliban connection, the Bamyan Buddha incident, and many other politico-religious reasons, their USP is probably their unique location near central Asia, bordered by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and of course China. No wonder the big players of the world would be interested in having a presence there. This movie (based on George Crile's 2003 book on Democratic Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson's role in the CIA covert operation during the 80s) talks from an American perspective about the war there.

People who like to see modern day history in movies (and the distortions as well) might find this one interesting. Though it is seen through American eyes, this is no total propaganda, and that surely is a relief (remember Independence Day and OUR president?). I am not a big fan of Tom Hanks and his too-eager-to-be-versatile approach. This one surely is no Castaway, and I have no issue with him in films like Catch Me If You Can. Julia Roberts is breathtaking and stylish. But the best one comes from Phillip Seymour Hoffman (I regret that I have not seen Capote yet). It is a nice film, fast-paced, crisp dialogues, and the flamboyance of Charlie Wilson helped in spicing it up. The best thing I liked (after Ms. Roberts of course) is the stand the filmmakers have taken, to bridge the gap of what happened during that time and where we stand now. The covert operation ended and America washed of its hands, and we all know what happened next. Charlie Wilson tried to raise funds for rebuilding the demolished schools and the other buildings, but the source was dry already. And the movie ends with his comment "These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world...and then we f***ed up the end game". We can correlate between what happened then and how that country has gone into the hands of politico-religious rulers, no elaborations were required.

Watch the film if you could get out of the Holiday Hangover, if not, then I would suggest you see Enchanted. It is a typical Disney film blending the magic of animation and reality, and fairy tale land and modern day New York. Of course the characters are two-dimensional and there are too much of melody and color and pretty things, but isn't that what we expect in such movies? There are funny moments, Amy Adams looks pretty, and so are Patrick Dempsey and James Marsden (yes, unfortunately pretty would be the word for them too). But it is less fairy tale than I expected, and that was good.