A poetic and melodramatic Peck on the cheek

Written for my intro to World Cinema ii class. we were assigned to analyze A peck on the cheek (2002) using key concepts from class.

Poetic films tend to be more expressive. So a natural progression of any melodrama film is to be poetic. "The impact of poetic work is more expressive and emotional than rational" (Nichols 80). Both melodrama and avant-garde cinema want to engage the viewer not only mentally but emotionally. Narratives that "tug at the heartstrings'' of the viewer are common in these genres. Making clear that the intense emotions that accompany any melodrama make that film poetic. In the movie A Peck on the Cheek at the very beginning of the film the audience is introduced to the protagonist's birth mother and father. By minute marker 9:30 they are separated. The audience had witnessed this couple celebrate their coupling and share a very intimate moment. At minute marker 12:36 the audience is made aware that Shyama’s husband is severely wounded and possibly dead but it is too late for her to save him. As everyone who was able made onto the boats to escape the warzone they once called their home. The audience was made to feel as overwhelmed as Shyama through this clip. On the boat she is feeling many intense emotions that are causing internal conflict to coincide with external conflict. There is a war which has caused disruption of her marriage and the future of her family, as she is pregnant, indicative of a man versus man conflict. There are also the waves crashing violently against their make-shift boats, almost overturning them and knocking her off, which evidently indicates a struggle between man and nature. These struggles and intense emotions add to the poetic nature of the film.

While a frequent theme among Bollywood films is to have spontaneous song and dance sequences that pair with the narrative, it is also an element utilized in poetic cinema. “Poetic films frequently explore what it feels like to experience qualities of cinema as such” (Nichols 84). The use of song in this way is to bolster the intense emotions that come with the melodrama genre that this film already explores. For example, at minute marker 18:30 there is a song and dance sequence that is very jovial. This sequence delves into who Amudha is as a person as well as the family dynamics in their house. The song sets Amudha up to be a sort of rascal who is inquisitive, rambunctious, and at times a trouble maker. We certainly see this personality come forth on several occasions within the film and by setting up that precedent through song the film lends itself to more dramatics and emotions.

This film follows a very concrete structure narrative wise, meaning that there is a very apparent beginning and a very apparent end. In the beginning, the audience is made aware of a problem, or rather a question, to be answered. “The beginning typically launches the story by identifying a problem, conflict, or lack, establishing a situation that will pose an issue in need of resolution” (Nichols 141). Within A Peck on the Cheek the audience is made aware of the problem at minute marker 26:00 when Amudha is told by her father that she is adopted. The conflict arises out of her need to find out who her family is and what family means to her. Due to the fact that the film already established her to be curious and inquisitive, then it was a natural continuation for her to be curious about who her birth mother was.

Continuously, the concreteness of the beginning of the film was followed by a concrete conclusion. In a story about finding family and appreciating those closest the conclusion of this film circles back to Amudha and how much she cares for her adoptive family and how much they care for her. As Nichols puts it, “The ending typically rounds out a story by resolving the initial problem, conflict, or lack” (142). To put this in the context of A Peck on the Cheek, Amudha had to find resolve in the fact that she cares more about the well-being of her adoptive family, specifically her adoptive mother, than solving the mystery of who her birth mother was. At minute marker 1:59:00 after Amudha and her family were caught in the crossfire of an explosion and her and her mother are wounded, Adudha looks at the disheveled state of her mother and asks her father to go home. Meaning that she comes to the conclusion that it is not worth losing one mother to potentially find another.

The way that this film interacts with the melodrama genre is very by the book. This film hits all of the commonalities among this genre. Within the genre of melodrama there are intense emotions within a family dynamic that are the center of the story (Nichols 250). This is true for A Peck on the Cheek in which the film is all about how Amudha’s family’s dynamic has changed since she found out she was adopted. At minute marker 1:39:00 Amudha’s adoptive mother expresses frustration at Amudha because she has raised her for nine years and now Amudha is looking for a woman who would essentially replace her. This frustration rings throughout the entire family because moments later Amudha’s adoptive mother gets on a phone call with her adoptive brothers both of whom yearn for their parents to come home and are holding resentment towards Amudha for taking them away on a wild goose chase. This really alludes to the resolution of the film when Amudha finally realizes that her adoptive family loves her whole-heartedly and she reciprocates that love without longing for her biological family.

Bibliography

Nichols, Bill. Engaging Cinema: An Introduction to Film Studies. W. W. Norton & Company In., 2010.

A Peck on the Cheek. Mani Ratnam. Madras Talkies, 2002. Film