Sai and Shujath talk Cinema

Every movie buff has been talking about Borat since the movie released last friday. The movie released in just 837 theatres in the US and created a sensation by taking in over $26 million for the weekend (its budget is just $18 million). When I first heard about this movie, I wasn’t interested one bit. When I got an opportunity to watch an advance screening, I passed it. However, I had to reevaluate my interest when it got some of the best reviews of the year so far.

The movie is a mockumentary about a television reporter from Kazakhstan who travels to America to make a documentary. Circumstances and Pamela Anderson (mainly Pamela) make him travel through the country meeting a variety of people. The movie has some staged portions and some real interactions with people (it is difficult to make out which is which). It has to be noted that the depiction of the Kazakhstan people is very over the top and nobody should take it seriously (though this seems obvious, you will be surprised to know that some people take what is depicted in movies far too seriously). It really is a satire on American culture and a great one at that.

Firstly, this movie isn’t for those who are easily offended. In fact, it isn’t even for those who are offended on occasion. You can enjoy it only if you can view it objectively. It is a satire on everything. This is probably the only film I know that can offend so many diverse groups of individuals. People of different countries, religions, race, gender, sexual orientation, class and more might be displeased, annoyed, embarrassed and outraged. The movie mocks everything from American humor to homophobia to feminism to George Bush. I had to suppress my laughter at times to make sure that I do not offend anyone beside me.

Crude, Obscene, Gross and Indecent are all words that different people might associate with this film. However, it cannot be overlooked that this movie is funny. I laughed till my throat hurt. When I first heard about a sequence in this film with two nude males wrestling, I believed that it would not make me laugh but that happened to be the scene where I laughed the hardest. More than being funny, it makes a point. It makes a lot of points! There is some very keen observation in the movie and in fact you might miss some of it the first time. The reactions of some of the people that Borat interacts with are highly shocking.

Sacha Baron Cohen, a British Comedian is the star of this film. The movie is apparently inspired by his Da Ali G Show. He does a great job as Borat and his spontaneity is the key to the humor in this movie. Ken Davitian is the only other person in the movie is a substantial role and his performance gets lost in everything else. The writers (Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer) do a great job with tremendous imagination and piercing observations. Larry Charles, who wrote for some episodes of Seinfeld, directs this movie and his contribution isn’t too much.

I would like to really know if Cohen wasn’t pummelled by someone at some point during the making of this film. To say that some of the things that he does in the movie are unexpected might be quite an understatement. Some of the sequences in the movie are unimaginable and almost unbelievable. I won’t tell you that this is the funniest movie of all time like some have said (it doesn’t join my list of favorite comedies) but there aren’t too many movies that have made me laugh as much (I’ve enjoyed a lot of comedies more than this for a number of different reasons). If you are one of those people that can laugh at themselves and is rarely offended by anything, you will definitely laugh till something hurts.