POSTSCRIPT FILMS

Greed Is Back and Even More Wolfish Than Ever

Martin Scorseses The Wolf of Wall Street is an acid dissection of the wanton life and times of a criminally wealthy stockbroker.
Sudarshan Ramani

he lowers himself to unfathomed moral depths even as he or a lot of Indian cinemagoers, The Wolf of Wall Street soars to new heights of success. will be familiar yet strange. Its based, like most Perversely, however, Belforts journey to doom involves of Martin Scorseses lms, on a real-life gure, a the creation of opportunities as well. As a job creator, he wealthy stockbroker named Jordan Belfort who has since transforms hopeless, low-end drug dealers into corporate abandoned his amboyantly wayward high-lifestyle to sharks, and even gives a desperate single mother benets that re-engineer himself into a much-sought-after motivational the US social welfare system overlooks. Its clearly possible speaker. What makes the lm exceptional, however, is to argue that Jordan Belfort is a better job creator than that it projects the corrupt nancier as a different kind of Merrill Lynch; when he, in one of his many crypto-fascist criminal altogether. speeches, declares that his rm Stratton Oakmont is America, Belfort starts out as an honest broker, one who hopes that proclamation carries weight. to make a living through commissions from every stock The yearning for money as succour drives contemporary his client purchases. The young Jordan, who is cast out of capitalism. If every revolution and alternative has failed, paradise on the Black Monday of 1987 when Wall Street why not work to enable the one that actually exists, why famously crashed, lives in a small apartment with his rst not do what your stockbroker tells you, and keep investing wife, scouring classied ads for job listings for unemployed to circulate money in the economy? The original Forbes stockbrokers. Now if that picture of a jobless stockbroker magazine expos that labelled Belfort The Wolf looking up jobs in his trade (under classieds The Wolf of Wall of Wall Street likened him to a twisted Robin literally listed as Wanted Stockbroker) reminds Street attacks the Hood who takes from the rich and gives to himyou of a political cartoon, then youre watching lifestyle of the self and his squad of losers. Is that not what we the right lm. middle-class, the expect from the market, what keeps housewives Up to this point, Jordan Belfort is no different world of advertising glued to the television, watching CNBC for the from countless eager MBA graduates in India who and consumerism, latest stock information, and what drives many to work in the stock or bond markets for global the lust for the start demat accounts? nancial rms. Belforts lifestyle, while perhaps good life and the Surely many of us will laud Belfort when he more (or less?) excessive than that of Indias protection it offers says: At least as a rich man, when I have to super-rich, is still something a lot of us covet. He face my problems, I can show up in the back of a stretch acquires a harem, a hot blonde wife, a daily dose of recrealimousine, wearing a two-thousand-dollar suit and a twentytional drugs, a yacht, a yellow Jaguar and a white Ferrari. thousand-dollar gold watch! These are charismatic brands that several of Indias merIt is this observation that makes Scorseses The Wolf of Wall chant princes aunt and made more familiar to us through Street profound, locating and attacking the very appeal of thousands of Bollywood fantasies. money. Scorsese refuses to dish out false platitudes that Most criminals in American and Indian movies are depicted crime doesnt pay nor does he echo the sentimentalism of as small-time lowlifes whose rise gives us the vicarious pleasure Oliver Stones Wall Street movies. Apparently, its good to of an upward social mobility denied to the vast majority of be rich and, for a certain class of people, theres no real honest citizens in the working, lower-middle classes. Howpunishment for excess. ever, The Wolf of Wall Street differs by showing us a middleThe only other lm which has made this argument is surclass man, with loving parents and a supportive wife, disprise of surprises! an Indian one, Satyajit Rays Seemabaddha covering within himself a huge appetite for corruption. (Company Limited), which portrayed the life of Indias emerging What drives this appetite is not explained but the imperamiddle-class in the Calcutta of the 1970s at a time of political tives of class seem to be the safest bet as an answer. Formerly a nobody on Wall Street (pond scum is how Belfort is turmoil. In that lm, the rich are safe and secure, and the hero, described on his rst day), he becomes a real wolf when he a middle-class family man, who would have been an idealistic descends to a low-end ofce job, door-to-door selling, a far teacher in the Nehruvian 1950s, is now a corporate honcho who cry from swanky Manhattan. Surrounded by social inferiors, nds great exibility of conscience in protecting his lifestyle. Belfort decides to wrench himself out of his class by outdoing Like Company Limited, Scorseses The Wolf of Wall Street is his peers at their hopeless, unregulated work; in the process, an exploration of the contemporary world that few would
EPW

Economic & Political Weekly

january 25, 2014

vol xlix no 4

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POSTSCRIPT FILMS | CONTEMPORARY DANCE

India Aditi Mangaldas, Anita Ratnam, Daksha Seth and Mallika Sarabhai for a lm I made on contemporary dance in India, titled Beyond Tradition. It was interesting to note the existence of certain commonalities, alongside many differences, in the approach and works of these dancers. All of them are trained classical dancers who imbibed their inspirations from Indian traditions, be it in form or theme. Each dancer boasts a collection of works which are universal in Sudarshan Ramani (sudarshanramani@gmail.com) is the Editor of Projectorhead appeal and of international standard in terms of presenta(projectorhead.in), an online film magazine. tion. And yet it takes just one look at their work to realise that it cannot stem from anywhere else other than India. This is one aspect common to all four dancers, whose productions are markedly different from the works of many dancers of Indian origin settled abroad. A prime example of the latter category is Akram Khan, the UK-based, kathakContemporary Indian dancers are drawing on trained dancer who is making waves in the international classical traditions to craft a new aesthetic and dance circuit. Akram uses a lot of Indian elements in his vocabulary of dance that reflect current sensibilities. dance, especially the fast rhythmic footwork and pirouettes of kathak, yet his work is more reective of the diaspora. Sharmistha Mukherjee While lming Beyond Tradition, I also realised another common point that binds the four women dancers at some very art form reects the sociocultural milieu of its point or the other, they have worked with feminist issues. existence. For any creative artiste, it is extremely But there the similarity ends. Each dancers strong individual important to imbibe the nuances of her times and personality and approach make her works unique. As a interpret them through her art. Towards that end, practisocial and political activist, Mallika Sarabhai reects sociotioners of contemporary dance in India are demonstrating a political themes in her works. Daksha Seth, on the other remarkable nesse. hand, is focused more just on the art of dance per se, and India has an immensely rich heritage of classical dance. her concern is to create a different movement vocabulary Timeless in its beauty and appeal, Indian classical dance that challenges the limits of physicality. Anita has already won global acclaim. The biggest Todays dancers challenge for many Indian dancers today is how are highly creative, Ratnam delves deeper into Indian myths and trato dive deeper into that reservoir of tradition to thinking individuals ditions, re-interpreting them in a contemporary light. A stunningly beautiful woman herself, she draw inspiration, and yet transcend and go bewho incorporate is not overly bothered with the physical attributes yond conventional practices to create a new dance new themes of of a dancer. In fact, I was surprised to nd a aesthetic which is more reective of the concerns contemporary slightly overweight dancer in her group. She disand sensibilities of contemporary India. relevance like missed the issue, saying as long as a dancer is t The trend started as early as the 1920s with those related to enough to dance, nothing else matters. On the Uday Shankar, who is considered the father of gender and the contrary, Aditi Mangaldas is extremely particular modern Indian dance. Todays dancers are highly environment about being overweight. One of the ttest (and creative, thinking individuals who incorporate slimmest) dancers of her age group, she is known to tick off new themes of contemporary relevance like those related to her own dancers if they tend to put on weight. gender and the environment. They do not shy away from In making Beyond Tradition, I missed having a male experimenting with different types of music, and creating a dancer in the lm. Without the participation of Astad Deboo, new movement vocabulary and completely fresh forms of who unfortunately was not available for the lm, the nal presentation, be it multi-media or cross-cultural fusions like a mix of kathak and amenco. Some dancers, like Astaad Deboo and Daksha Seth, had their training in various forms Web Exclusives of classical dance, but journeyed away from it by creating a The Web Exclusives section on the journals website (http:// novel vocabulary of movement. Others, like Aditi Mangaldas www.epw.in) features articles written for the web edition. These articles are usually on current affairs and will be short pieces in kathak and Geeta Chandran in bharatanatyam, have offering a rst comment. worked within the framework of their respective forms, yet The articles will normally not appear in the print edition. expanded their boundaries to create refreshingly startling All visitors to the website can read these short articles. Readers of the new horizons. print edition are invited to visit the Web Exclusives section which Last year, I had the opportunity to work closely with will see new articles uploaded every week. four of the renowned contemporary women dancers in have expected from these two artistes, given their rened sensibilities. The Wolf of Wall Street attacks the lifestyle of the middle-class, the world of advertising and consumerism, the lust for the good life and the protection it offers. The visible surface and texture of contemporary life corrupts us all, making us wolves thronging the pack of the alpha male rather than being benign, though gullible, sheep.

Pirouetting Skywards

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january 25, 2014

vol xlix no 4

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Economic & Political Weekly