Unfolding a memorable memoir

ANAND PARTHASARATHY

With six Oscar nominations, "Memoirs of a Geisha", which opens in India this Friday, is unlikely to come away empty-handed when the Academy Awards are announced next month.

A MOVING WORK OF ART Stills from Rob Marshall's "Memoirs of a Geisha" releasing this Friday

`We are not courtesans. We sell our skills, not our bodies,' explains the `mother' of the geisha house to her newest recruits. "The very word `geisha' means art... . The geisha is a moving work of art."

But clearly the life of these stately female teahouse entertainers in Japan whose heydays ended with the Second World War, is no cakewalk. "Memoirs of a Geisha" draws on a best-selling novel by Arthur Golden, which took a more gritty approach to its subject than this quintessentially Hollywood film - great to look at, rough edges nicely rounded, hard questions skilfully ducked, and the ending happy in a manner that Bollywood has patented long ago. Which is why this story of a young girl child sold into bondage at the age of six by a poverty-stricken parent, who by sheer grit ends up as one of Japan's top geishas - and also ends up wining her life-long love - will seem all to familiar to Indian audiences.

Substitute Lucknow for Kyoto, Meena Kumari and Raaj Kumar for Ziyi Zhang and Ken Watanabe and we can see with minimal jogs to memory why this is really nothing but a Japanese version of Kamal Amrohi's timeless classic, "Pakeezah".

The young Chiyo, played with a bubbling effervescence by Suzuka Ohgo, attracts the jealous attention of other inmates of the geisha nursery, principally Hatsumomo (Gong Li). But as Japan enters the War, Chiyo enters adulthood under the tutelage of the ageing geisha, Mameha (Malaysia-born Michelle Yeoh of the Oscar winning "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" fame).

She has a crush on a middle-aged man known simply as The Chairman (Ken Watanabe), the only one to show her some kindness in her childhood days - and her constant devotion to him sees her through the upheavals of Japan's defeat and the large presence of Americans in post-war Japan.

"The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope, like leaves... until one day, there are no hopes," goes Chiyo's voice-over at the film's end.

The mildly happy ending apart, there is no attempt to inject a false bonhomie into a dignified film as muted as its colours.

There is no attempt to gloss over the cruelties of the geisha system - but dramatic highlights like Chiyo (now renamed Sayuri) being auctioned off to the highest bidder and the non stop internecine war among the geishas, are handled with some taste and decorum by director Rob Marshall, better known for his last big musical film "Chicago".

The film has unsurprisingly garnered all its Oscar nominations in non-acting/directing categories like cinematography, costume design, set direction, original score, sound editing and mixing: Every frame is a treat for the eyes and John Williams' score is a painstaking recreation of the 1930s-40s setting in Japan.

Much ado about Chinese

Much has been made of the fact that almost all the leading female stars are Chinese, rather than Japanese.

That is hardly surprising for a mainstream Hollywood production. After all, these are the guys who bootstrapped the American Audrey Hepburn into a cockney's role in "My Fair Lady" because Julie Andrews was less `box office'. It's all about money, honey - and these skilled Chinese actresses are the biggest names on the Pacific Rim.

It may be mostly hokum, but with its uncompromisingly Oriental setting and sympathetic treatment, the "Memoirs of a Geisha" is a colourful proof of mainstream American cinema's recognition at last, of themes, opportunities and audiences, beyond its own shores.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu