South African film on street crime a big draw at IFFI

PANAJI: Let’s get back the decent, tolerant, human way of life. Let’s give up the cult of gu-ns, gore and mindless violence. Let’s give peace and humanism a choice, ‘cause, as Bob Dylan once sang — "how many deaths will it take for us to see that too many people are dying."

That seems to be the leitmotif of the noteworthy films drawing the maximum crowds at the 38th International Film Festival which now enters its film-packed third day. After Shoaib Mansoor’s Khuda Ke Liye, it is Tsotsi, the South African hip-hop celluloid number on the underbelly of violent street crime, which is creating waves. The film won the Oscar last year for Best Foreign Language film and is all set for an India release next month.

Producer Peter Fudakowski, currently at the festival, is overwhelmed by the response. His idea of good cinema is simple and universal. "I believe in making films that talk about morality and value, and are yet hard-hitting and grim."

Ultimately, the audience comes in to be entertained, he believes. According to him, Tsotsi has been accepted worldwide and has won laurels because it has action, drama, morals and a music score that appeals to the young. The songs in the film follow the hip-hop rap style called Kwaito.

Tsotsi which in local lingo translates as ‘thug’ follows a simple premise. It enunciates that decency is a virtue that is innate in every human being, even in the most violent gangster who overtly seems to follow no moral code, other than the cult of self-gratification.

And it takes just six days in the life of Tsotsi, the street goonda, to transform himself into a loving, caring, non-violent man. The lessons of life are learnt gradually, covertly, as he tries to look after his prized ‘loot’ that lies hidden in a shopping bag after a violent heist.

And the loot is none other than a gurgling baby that lay in the back of a car he stole after shooting the mother. The gangster not only awkwardly and absurdly plays surrogate father, he comes to terms with his lonely, violent past as a runaway who grew up on the outskirts of a glitzy Johannesburg.

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com