Dubby Bhagat

Kathmandu:

Robert Redford who produced The Motorcycle Diaries said, “For me, what makes the film special is, there’s a lot of mythology about Che Guevara as Che. And this motorcycle trip, setting the seed for what would become an evolution for him, politically, is what interests me. It’s the story of these two guys that I think is a terrific story.” Two young men Ernesto Guevara de la Serna and Alberto Grando set out to discover South America with a clearly defined route in mind and no thought to what would happen between the beginning and the end. The Motorcycle Diaries is about the discovery of a beautiful continent, exquisitely brought to the screen by director Walter Salles and in his words, “When they confronted themselves with the reality of a trip that started as an adventure it became something different. They got completely transformed in the journey.” The young men (almost like a Nepali prince 2500 years before them) encounter poverty, depravation, death and injustice and to quote the poet, “A terrible beauty is born.” Ernesto is called Che for the first time in Chilli where the word means someone from Argentina. And slowly but surely his life begins to take a shape that would alter him into a legend. Che Guevera is played by Gael Garcia Bernal of whom Walter Salles says, “That soulfulness and integrity that he has. He never refuses anything. He just goes for it. That kind of radical courage. I think Guevara also had that, that inner strength that he transmitted in a very quite manner. This is about changing in layers, and not changing in, imposing something on the audience, and Gael was the right guy to do it.”

With Ernesto and Alberto you meet the homeless, the deprived, lepers, good people, bad people and when their motorcycle collapses you walk with them through a time to change. In the words of critic Bret Fetzer, “The Motorcycle Diaries gives us a glimpse on an awakening social conscience, and that’s worth experiencing.” In the Polar Express the song ‘Believe’ also nominated for an Oscar come on as the credits roll, and the words, “Believe in what you feel inside, and give your dreams the wings to fly..,” is what the Polar Express is about. The technology of the Polar Express which is a kind of digital innovation called “performance capture” overwhelmed critics into condemning the movie and forgetting the beautiful little story by Chris Van Allsburg of a child whose search for belief has him adventuring to the North pole on The Polar Express. He meets new friends, one of them, perhaps, a ghost and others who turn out to represent learning, friendship, leadership, all the while trying to capture the spirit of an occasion, in this case Christmas. Tom Hanks played several characters including the young hero and the all- important conductor of the train Polar Express. The Polar Express might be seen as a Christmas movie but says Duksangh Sherpa who is 12 years old, “The Polar Express is about friendship, about trust, about believing in yourself and it is also what the conductor says,”Seeing is believing but sometimes the most important thing are things we can’t see.’”