Such a long journey

Beautiful New Film Examines Order and Chaos

The new film Such a Long Journey is set in a turbulent Bombay in 1971 on the eve of India's war with Pakistan. Directed by Sturla Gunnarsson (Gerry and Louise, Diplomatic Immunity), it is beautifully made and contains touches of subtle humor. The narrative draws the viewer into a rich, multilayered drama, based on a novel of the same name by Rohinton Mistry. Bombay is a city of cars and ox carts and people crowed on dirt roads and hanging out the windows and doors of trains. A permanent haze settles over the city, a polls in turmoil and stricken by poverty.

This is the world of Gustad Noble (Roshan Seth-known to American audiences as Nehru in Gandhi), a mild-mannered and world-weary office worker and father. He is from a once-prosperous Parsi family, but his own world is a reflection of the chaos surrounding him.

His family is falling apart. His son Sorhab rejects his father's dreams and leaves home, his daughter Roshan becomes dangerously ill, and his wife, Dilnavaz, is seeking counsel from a witch.

But chaos is also just outside the front door, trying to break in. The compt municipal government is threatening to throw Gustad's neighborhood into disarray by widening the street The city's Hindus and Muslims are at each other's throats seemingly just steps from his home. Then there's the brain-damaged neighbor, Tehmul, who is constantly getting into mischief. To top is off, vagrants are using Gustad's garden wall as a latrine.

There is more chaos at the national level, as the government is in turmoil and about to go to war. Gustad finds little relief. His home is unpleasant. All of his windows are covered in black paper he refuses to remove (a remnant of a previous war, the paper was part of the "blackout" so the enemy could not see any light in the city). Mosquitoes have infested his living room. It may not be the Hilton but at least it's something he's used to and has a say over.

Friendship has let Gustad down. He is angry that ex-friend Jimmy skipped town without a word. And yet when Jimmy contacts him to ask a favor-to illegally deposit a large sum of money for the Indian Secret Service-Gustad sees an opportunity to do something heroic. Gustad then meets Ghulam, Jimmy's gangsterish cohort, and is drawn into a network of deception. When Gustad tries to extricate himself, it is too late. Involvement in Jimmy's schemes ultimately leads to the death of one of Gustad's loyal friends:

Of the many themes in the movie, one of the most interesting is the interplay between order and chaos. Gustad struggles to preserve a semblance of order, permanence, sanity and stability amid the chaos around him. He tries to exert control over his world by pressuring his son to attend a prestigious school, in hope of regaining the lost status for the family. He tries to preserve the wall surrounding his courtyard to maintain his privacy and lifestyle. And he engages in shady behavior, rationalized as heroic, in trying to mend a friendship.

Gustad's inability to preserve the wall outside his apartment is a metaphor for his inability to preserve his disintegrating life. He recruits a street artist to paint the wall with religious imagery, and it becomes a successful and popular shrine. But conflict between municipal authorities and those who want the wall preserved escalates into stone throwing and the brain-damaged Tehmul is killed.

Is Permanence the Problem?

The authorities have their way and the wall is torn down. The artist doesn't regret that the wall is being destroyed, for he is content with the pleasure it provided. When Gustad asks him what he will do next, he says, "What does it mater where I go in a world where roadside latrines becomes temples and temples become ashes? All life's problems begin when we look for permanence."

But this sounds more like surrender than wisdom to this movie-goer. Order and continuity are good things, as anyone who gets off an airplane that has landed saftely will tell you. Indeed, part of what it means to be human is to long for order and permanence and to plan and build for the future.

Westerners may be fortunate in that the Judeo-Christian worldview provides a basis for both political and personal ordersomething Gustad could begin to approach only pragmatically. In the Judeo-Christian worldview, God has strategy for human history, and He is willing to pursue that strategy even though human beings by their choices have introduced and perpetuate disorder and chaos in the world (theologians call that "the Fall").

This same worldview provided a basis for a healthy political system (not the chaos of democracy but rather the ordered liberty of a constitutional republic, as our Founding Fathers recognized), one that allows freedom that is not chaotic, and order that is not totalitarian, as long as its people are willing and able to practice self government under God.

In the end, Gustad has progressed toward finding a pragmatic way of sanity in a world of chaos. He has suffered great lossDinshawji, Jimmy and Tehmul die, and the wall is torn down-but his family unit is intact. When his son returns, Gustad accepts him lovingly. Through adversity he has come to accept his limitations and become a stronger man, a better husband, friend and father. Any man would be thankful for such a result. And most would con tinue the search for that philosophic worldview that makes possible not just pragmatic victories for today but also a rock-solid basis for victory the next day and thereafter. The long journey continues.

Miss Williams, formerly director of communications for the Cato Institute, is now president of the Education Leaders Council.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Apr 14, 2000
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