Wes Anderson and India: A Symmetrical Triumph
Drawing inspiration from Satyajit Ray, Anderson embraced India as more than just a scenic backdrop or a tourist attraction.
In Wes Anderson’s 2007 film The Darjeeling Limited, three brothers embark on a journey through the landscapes of Rajasthan to find their long-lost mother. This wasn’t Anderson’s first love affair with India, and certainly not his last. In his 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums, there’s a scene where Chas Tenenbaum (played by Ben Stiller) watches a documentary about his family. One of the segments of the documentary is titled “The Little Brown Indian Man” and features a character who appears to be Indian. Though it’s a minor reference, it demonstrates Anderson’s early interest in incorporating elements of Indian culture into his work.
With The Darjeeling Limited, however, Anderson fully immersed himself in Indian culture and landscape. Drawing inspiration from the renowned Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, Anderson embraced India as more than just a scenic backdrop or tourist attraction. Instead, he integrated it as a rich and immersive cultural setting, avoiding any kind of superficial tokenism.
Wes Anderson and Satyajit Ray
Widely regarded as an auteur, Wes Anderson leaves no room for doubt. He is celebrated for his unique filmmaking style: symmetrical composition, vivid colour palettes, detailed production design, and quirky characters and dialogues. However, one of his understated talents is his use of carefully curated soundtracks in his films. This mastery is beautifully showcased in The Darjeeling Limited, where he dedicated the entire film to Satyajit Ray. In a 2007 interview with The Statesman, Anderson expressed his thoughts on Ray: “He is the reason I came here (to India) in the first place, but his films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways.”
Charulata (1964) and its outstandingly well-put music, finds a seamless place in Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited. It is stretched throughout the opening sequence, right until the Whitman brothers are met with an unexpected spiritual experience along the journey. It serves as a poignant reminder of the tragedy of their lives and the comedy of their actions.
Anderson remarked to Rolling Stone at the time, “It’s some of the most unique music that we’ve ever used. I had to personally introduce myself to the Satyajit Ray Family and Foundation and convince them that it was worthwhile to digitise all of his master tapes. I wound up sitting in Calcutta for five days waiting for them to hand them over. But that was one of the great experiences of my life.”
Ray’s films often theorised and depicted familial relationships and their dysfunctional nature. In The Apu Trilogy, regarded as Ray’s magnum opus which influenced not only Wes Anderson but also the likes of Martin Scorsese, Akira Kurosawa, and François Truffaut, the filmmaker explored Apu and his family, depicting their struggles, conflicts, and moments of reconciliation. In Charulata, Ray explored the dynamics of a wealthy, but emotionally distant family in 19th-century Bengal. The protagonist, Charulata, finds herself isolated and neglected by her husband, leading to a deep sense of longing.
In The Darjeeling Limited, Anderson dealt with similar themes and emotions. There is a classic scene on the train — beautifully structured compartments, a confluence of Persian and Indian aesthetics in typical Wes Anderson fashion — where the flawed chemistry between the three brothers is explored. Francis, played by the brilliant Owen Wilson, playfully deceives Peter, played by Adrian Brody, and Jack, played by Jason Schwartzman, into coming on the trip to India, hiding his original plan to find their long-lost mother, Patricia, played by Anjelica Huston. Whereas Peter’s impending divorce and the fact that his wife is pregnant are known only by Jack, who was asked by Peter not to tell Francis. Jack, on the other hand, doesn’t want Francis to know about his exit plan, which, when revealed, leads Francis to hide his passport.
Upon close analysis, Ray’s influence on Anderson becomes apparent in the minor details and even the grand character arcs. As the story unfolds, the brothers finally encounter their mother, now a nun residing in a remote Himalayan location. In this poignant moment, they find themselves compelled to confront her about the abandonment they endured. Here in this scene, Anderson’s brilliance lies in weaving a simple storyline into complex and human themes such as regret, loneliness and neglect, all of which aren’t alien to the body of work by Satyajit Ray.
Good artists copy, great artists steal, said Pablo Picasso. However, even greater artists pay homage to their heroes. In Anderson’s latest offering from 2023, Asteroid City, he shot a scene very similar to one in Ray’s lesser known film Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest, 1970). In the later film, the story follows four friends from Kolkata who embark on a weekend trip to the forests of Palamau. As they navigate the wilderness, their encounters with the locals and each other lead to introspection and self-discovery, exploring themes of urban-rural divide, masculinity, and societal expectations. At one point, the group of friends play a word game while sitting in a circle. This mirrors closely to a scene in Asteroid City where the group of ‘brainiacs’ sits in a circle, deep in a memory game. They take turns recalling famous names chosen by others in the circle, adding their own pick to the growing list. With each round, the challenge intensifies as the list expands, testing the limits of their recall skills.
When Wes Anderson met Henry Sugar
Anderson’s recent outing, ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More,’ is an anthology film consisting of three different shorts adapted from the works of Roald Dahl, and is streaming on Netflix. Incorporating elements of a meta style of filmmaking, infused with a quirky and fast-paced narrative, Anderson presents a whimsical and rich portrait of an Englishman — Henry Sugar — who learns the ability to see without opening his eyes. The film has an ensemble cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes, Dev Patel, Ben Kingsley, and many more; all of them deliver outstanding performances.
Henry Sugar marks yet another linkage between Anderson’s filmography and the vibrant tapestry of India. Infused with themes of magical realism, greed, and morality, it is an attempt at experimental filmmaking by the auteur. Henry Sugar, with his gambling habits, learns about a strange patient called Imdad who can see and interact without using his eyes. Following Imdad’s meditative techniques of gazing into a candle flame while envisioning the face of his beloved, Henry, after three years of dedicated practice, achieves the extraordinary ability to see through playing cards. This feat, considered attainable only by one in a billion individuals in such a short span, involves reading the face value of the cards without physically turning them over. The rest of the film explores what he does with his newfound ability.
The yogic traditions, meditations, and candles are very Indian; they are seeped into the very fabric of Indian history. Albeit a short film, ‘The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar’ is a charming addition to Anderson’s list of Indian-inspired films.
Visual style: Wes Anderson’s cinematic philosophy
“India gets under your skin in no time. I have travelled widely and can’t think of any other place that is filled with colours like India,” Anderson said in an interview given in 2007 during the promotions of The Darjeeling Limited. Even though he received a fair amount of criticism for the white gaze in his films, particularly in this one, he has still managed to capture the essence of the subtropical land while maintaining his cinematic philosophy.
Be it a taxi journey navigating the bustling streets of Jodhpur, a panoramic view from atop the Udaipur mountains, or a glimpse within the intricately adorned train carriages, Anderson’s portrayal of India is nothing short of vibrant and breathtaking.
However, it’s not solely about the settings. The people play an equally significant role too. Take Rita, for example, the beautiful train steward who had a short-lived fling with Jack. Their affair sprung up and died in the blink of an eye — but when the conductor threw the brothers out for creating a nuisance for other passengers, Rita’s eyes beamed with heartbreak. Or consider the villagers as a reference. In one of the emotional high points of the film, Peter tries to save a drowning child from a flowing river, only to fail and return the lifeless body to his family. The legendary Irrfan Khan played a small but significant role as a grieving father who, even on the saddest day of his life, was courteous to the three guests. When the brothers were cordially invited to the funeral, Anderson masterfully cut to the past, where the three of them were on their way to attend their father’s funeral, juxtaposing the lingering memory.
Cinematographer Robert Yeoman, who has often collaborated with Anderson, openly acknowledged that he had never encountered a more demanding project than The Darjeeling Limited. And rightly so. Shooting on Indian streets can be challenging, especially when the people in the country are utterly fascinated by a moving camera, the film stars, and the silver screen. A street shoot always pulls the crowd like a magnet. However, Yeoman delivered in a classic Wes Anderson fashion, abiding by his three unsaid principles — composition, colours, and character.
Reception in India: A one-sided affair?
Despite Anderson’s never-ending attraction to the country, he hasn’t been able to make a mark in the minds of Indian audiences. One palpable reason is the obscure and offbeat nature of his films. A Wes Anderson film is not for everybody; it’s not massy, it’s not heavy on action, and it’s never what an average cine-goer expects from a Friday evening watch.
Anderson, as highlighted in the previous section, has been accused of cultural appropriation. Some would argue that the film appropriates elements of Indian culture, such as religious rituals, ceremonies, and symbols, without fully engaging with their significance, particularly in the funeral sequence. However, as a counter-narrative, Anderson combining the funeral in India with the funeral in the USA (father of Whitman brothers), makes a sublime statement on the lines of universal consciousness. He makes a comment on the very nature of loss, be it in the east or the west.
“Wes Anderson manages to make the exotic Indian countryside seem like a suburb of Houston,” Kelly Vance noted, writing for the East Bay Express in 2007. It is important to note the criticisms that western filmmakers often receive when they film India. However, Anderson’s filmography has many praiseworthy elements into his visual storytelling with his scrupulous attention to finer details; he enhances the aesthetic appeal of the settings he chooses to shoot, which invariably makes him stand out in the crowd. Anderson’s portrayal of India is not something that will satisfy everyone; no art ever does. But certainly it does prompt one to examine a world of cultural complexity and subtlety via the lens of his whimsical, eye-popping cinema.
Beyond the rails
The Darjeeling Limited, with all its merits and demerits, stands alone as a careful examination of familial bonds in the West, and how those bonds are mended, broken, and mended again on a spiritual journey. The film not only showcases Anderson’s signature aesthetic flair but also solidifies his status as a filmmaker capable of weaving rich, emotional stories that resonate with audiences long after the credits rollIn.
In the end, the Whitman brothers run aggressively to catch the last train at the station while carrying the luggage marked with their father’s initials. In a beautiful metaphorical way, they drop the bags on the ground and leap onto the moving train, signifying the ‘letting go’ of the emotional baggage they had been carrying throughout. They enter a compartment, much like the one they started their journey in. They are greeted by another beautiful steward, reminiscent of Rita, prompting Francis and Peter to glance at Jack. They sit down and then decide to smoke a cigarette and have a drink, similar to their first encounter on the Darjeeling Limited.
It all came down to where they started; however, this time it was different. This time, they had learned to let go of their past, the very practice they all wanted to master when they decided to go to India. Anderson’s film garnered both praise and critique for its portrayal, but what could be more quintessentially Indian than the breathless leap towards a departing train?
