There's a certain charm about olden movies which, while telling a jolly good story, manage to take in a lot about a span of time and a range of topics, describing a whole way of life prevailing at a certain time. Hindi movies of 1950s like the Dilip Kumar-Vyjayanthimala starrer 'Naya Daur' come to mind. This style of storytelling is quite different from modern movies which look at so many different aspects of the same thing, be it love or depression, sometimes sacrificing the charm of a good story itself in doing so.
Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life' (starring James Stewart and Donna Reed) is that kind of a movie. It's ostensibly about a do-gooder George Bailey in an American small town who gives up his aspirations to help his family (shades of Rakhee's character in 'Tapasya', though George marries and settles down unlike in that movie) and the larger community, is on the verge of suicide at one point (no thanks to skulduggery by a villainous character), is saved by a guardian angel from heaven, and is then helped to his feet by his friends and family. The angel actually makes him realize how things would've turned out if he was not born at all (as George, in a moment of despair, wishes) - much worse, as it turns out - since our individual lives are connected to so many other lives in so many different ways. Typical Christmas eve feel good fare.
But within this span, the movie looks at and comments on many American phenomena between the two Wars: the housing crunch (and the beneficial role of S&Ls), the Great Depression and runs on the banks (even a simplistic primer on the mechanics of banking industry), the American campaign in WW-II, et al. Interestingly, the angel here walks around with a copy of a Mark Twain book - allusions to the post Depression 'New Deal'?
Given that modern life has perhaps grown too complex to be explained with the help of simple stories (though that's a doubtful premise!), it's sometimes good to hark back to simpler times with such movies from a bygone era.
Frank Capra's 'It's a Wonderful Life' (starring James Stewart and Donna Reed) is that kind of a movie. It's ostensibly about a do-gooder George Bailey in an American small town who gives up his aspirations to help his family (shades of Rakhee's character in 'Tapasya', though George marries and settles down unlike in that movie) and the larger community, is on the verge of suicide at one point (no thanks to skulduggery by a villainous character), is saved by a guardian angel from heaven, and is then helped to his feet by his friends and family. The angel actually makes him realize how things would've turned out if he was not born at all (as George, in a moment of despair, wishes) - much worse, as it turns out - since our individual lives are connected to so many other lives in so many different ways. Typical Christmas eve feel good fare.
But within this span, the movie looks at and comments on many American phenomena between the two Wars: the housing crunch (and the beneficial role of S&Ls), the Great Depression and runs on the banks (even a simplistic primer on the mechanics of banking industry), the American campaign in WW-II, et al. Interestingly, the angel here walks around with a copy of a Mark Twain book - allusions to the post Depression 'New Deal'?
Given that modern life has perhaps grown too complex to be explained with the help of simple stories (though that's a doubtful premise!), it's sometimes good to hark back to simpler times with such movies from a bygone era.
