THE GREAT DEBATERS

Now, movies have always been a great and productive way to spend my weekends, though some of my friends would beg to differ!LOL. So yesterday, at 2 in the morning, I got down to watch a movie called 'The Great debaters'. And I had a grand time, like one I've not had in a long time!

The movie is about a debate team from Wylie College in Texas from the mid 30s. A time when blacks were lynched for no greater crime than being black. A time also when they had separate institutions for educating the blacks and the white people. Wylie college is a black college, which means that it educates only black students because of the regulations in place at that time. In such harsh conditions a black professor, Melvin B Tolson, dares to dream of the impossible- equality and justice for everyone irrespective of color or creed.

The debate team is obviously at the center of the movie's scheme, and the cast assembled to play the various roles hit the nail spot on! Through the efforts of prof. Tolson a debate team is assembled and the movie takes off in ways that delight the human spirit. They undergo immense struggles of both self and society to finally achieve what was considered as virtually impossible. The fact that the movie is based not on fiction but on real life is all the more amazing and inspiring.

Even though it is about the debating team of a college, it manages to be so much more than just another running movie about the victory of the protagonist and the defeat of the baddies. More than anything else it shows the struggle not between colors of the skin, but between the norms and privileges associated with cultures and between established institutions. The struggle for equality is not shown as being one that draws it's source from the question of whether someone is my equal but from the more accusatory one of whether I want to let another take his position as my equal. The human yearning for equality and justice is placed at odds with the equally human desire to occupy a position that grants superiority, no matter how unfair or irrational.

Among the cast Denzel Washington is as masterful as ever. Seriously what can that man not do?!:-) He sits in the director's chair for this movie and his effort is both sincere and exquisite. Forrest Whittaker as the father of James, one of the debaters, is an overwhelming presence in the movie despite his short reel time. The quiet dignity he manages to infuse into his character is proof of his Oscar winning talents. Among the other cast I am partial to Samantha, the only girl on the debate team. But as a man I have my own weaknesses and lord, is she pretty!LOL. Besides, the drawl with which she pulls and slurs her words is sheer music that has to be heard to be believed.

An awesome film in every way, though maybe not as great as 'The Shawshank Redemption', about which I'll be writing another time. But still deserving of all the credit and rave reviews it gets. As the final credits roll in along with a cinematic epilogue about the characters, I could not help feeling elated and re- affirmed. Elated at having been witness to the victory of justice over segregation, and affirmation in the belief that there is nothing stronger than the human will to prevail- against all odds.

I absolutely recommend this movie to anyone who is looking for cinema that is both entertaining and uplifting! Till the next time I hit the couch here's wishing you all the best in life. Ciao'