2005
Anyone who had caught NDTV today would have seen the item on a corrupt police official. While the channel kept repeating how shocking the incident was, it is not something totally new for us. What WAS new for ME, was the reason that a leading politician Ambika Soni (incidentally she belongs to the party that can take credit for having institutionalised corruption in India) ascribed to corruption in India. And guess what is it - US :-) for is it not the common man who pays bribes ’’to get his work done quickly’’ (she said). She made this statement shamelessly and brazenly on television. Three days before this program was aired, a little boy died after being thrown off a running train in Orrisa (or was it Bihar?). The reason - he refused to pay the daily hafta to the Railway cops.
1948
The Bicycle Thief (I learnt long after having seen the movie) is set in postwar Italy. The times are hard, there is grinding poverty and jobs are difficult to come by. It is in such an environment that the protagonist gets a job. The job requires a bicycle and he and his family (wife and kid) stretch themselves to acquire one (I again learnt later that it was their own pawned bicycle that they retrieved). The cycle gets stolen right in front of his eyes and the rest of the movie is about their increasngly unsuccessful attempts to get it back.
I saw this movie when I was in my fifth standard. I lived in an industrial town that had a reasonably good cinema hall and close linkages with the film industry. They used to come up with these mini film festivals and this movie was part of an Italian film festival. We (the kids) had somehow assumed that the bicycle thief was some kind of a police-thief action movie. The reason why I mention the context of watching the movie is because that was not an age when one understood life (or cinema) at any reasonable depth.
Yet, I not only understood the story but was also clearly affected by it. It is a simple story told in a direct manner. And as the father and son go on their futile search you are taken through a roller coaster ride of alternating hope and dejection, that leads inexorably to desperation and the final breaking point. You see a proud and upright man - the hero of his son - fight a moral battle ...... and lose. And when you leave the hall you leave with a sickening feeling that lingers on long after.
The story on one level is the story of one man, his family and the circumstances in which he lives. On another level it is an account of the society in which we live - a society where the need to survive pushes an honest, upright and proud man to give up his self respect and pride.
The original Italian name of the movie actually translates to ’’Bicycle thieves’’ - and as much as one may not like it, the person who steals the protagonist’s bicycle in the first place is as much a product of society as the protagonist himself.
The movie has many firsts, bests and specials to its credit. I did not know of them when I saw the movie and I am sure you can do a google as well as I can. For me however the most important aspect of this movie is its enduring relevance.
1994
My father took a voluntary retirement and decided to settle down in his native place. The telephone had become a necessity by then and he applied for a connection. He refused to pay a bribe to ’’get his work done quickly’’.
1999
The telephone was duly installed at my home and the linesmen demanded Rs.400 to get it activated.
A suggestion to Ambika Soni - try getting off your high horse and understand the ground realities of the country you are supposed to be ruling before making statements about the corrupting influence of its citizens on your CLEAN and OH SO INNOCENT government.
And yes - my father did pay that Rs.400 - another bicycle thief.