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Heat and dust
Bollywood emotions run riot in Shekhar Kapur's The Four Feathers
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Aseem Chhabra
The opening shots of Shekhar Kapur's The Four Feathers has a group of young British men playing rugby, that ultimate contact sport event of male bonding, often enacted in muddy, drab and cloudy English countryside settings. The backdrop is a familiar sound, Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's vocals reminiscent of his late uncle's haunting voice in Kapur's earthy feminist, art-house film Bandit Queen.
In The Four Feathers, the younger Khan's voice has an ominous tone. Although things might seem calm --- the following scene with the rugby players goofing off in the men's locker room will give that sense --- be warned. Kapur is setting the ground for a gripping, rousing adventure, where the young men's spirits will be severely tested, cowards will become heroes and friends will make the ultimate sacrifice for each other.
Kapur narrates this late 19th century British saga based on a screenplay by Michael Schiffer and Hossein Amini and the novel by A E W Mason, in his own terms. A former chartered accountant, ad filmmaker and model until he directed his first film, the beautifully crafted melodrama Masoom (inspired by Erich Segal's equally melodramatic novel Man, Woman and Child), Kapur has not forgotten his Bollywood roots.
Western audiences will fail to notice it, but The Four Feathers is rife with Bollywood emotions. It is much more a Bollywood film than Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge. Kapur's men express an entire gamut of emotions rarely seen in the cold and reserved British Victorian films. They hug each other, cry, show the pain of losing love, and talk about friendship and betrayal.
The only thing missing is that they don't break into ridiculous Bollywood numbers like Yeh dosti hum nahin todenge (from Ramesh Sippy's Sholay) or Dost, dost na raha (although The Four Feathers has shades of Raj Kapoor's Sangam).
Australian actor Heath Ledger (Monster's Ball, The Patriot), in a career defining role, plays Harry Feversham, a fine British soldier and friend to Jack Durrance (Wes Bentley, the creepy neighbour in American Beauty). Feversham is engaged to marry prize society catch Ethne (the luminous Kate Hudson).
When faced with real test of bravery, Feversham is overcome with self-doubt and dislike for war and violence. When his regiment is about to be shipped to Sudan to fight a rebel force that has attacked the British colonial presence in the African country, Feversham resigns from the army, much to the dismay of his father, a general (an older-looking Tim Piggot-Smith of The Jewel In The Crown).
Confused by Feversham's decision, his three close friends send him a white feather each, a symbol of cowardice. Upon learning Feversham's decision, Ethne too sends him a white feather. With the four feathers wrapped in a leather pouch, Feversham makes his own journey to Sudan, to help his friends. Disguised as an Arab with a flowing beard, Feversham (Ledger here bears a striking resemblance to John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban), is assisted in his journey by a mysterious African slave, Abou Fatma (West African actor Djimon Hounsou of Gladiator and Amistad).
As Fatma, the dark skinned and beefed up Hounsou has a commanding presence in the film, especially when he is around the shorter, less stalky-looking Western actors. Fatma's motivations to assist Feversham remain unclear, other than the fact that it is God's will.
The bulk of The Four Feathers is set in the deserts of Sudan (Moroccan landscapes friendlier to Western film production companies are a substitute for the Islamist terrains of Sudan). Although The Four Feathers never reaches the giddy heights of David Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia, Kapur and cinematographer Robert Richardson (Platoon, JFK, Snow Falling on Cedars), lovingly capture the vast expanse of the rolling dunes of the Sahara, lush sunsets and the walled Arab quarters populated with camels, horses and a large cast of extras, especially women dressed in black burkhas.
At the center of the film are some of the most gripping and harrowing battle sequences filmed in recent memory, where British and Arab war strategies are played out with disastrous results. In a war that tests the futility of the British colonial policy, much like America's Vietnam war, young boys will overnight become men. And they will start to wonder whether their goal is to preserve the glory of the British crown or to make sure that at least some of them will come home alive.
Kapur extracts brilliant performances from his young actors. The film belongs to Ledger's Feversham whose confused mind and eventual transformation carries the story through its conclusion. Bentley's role does not have the intensity he got to display in American Beauty, but his Jack Durrance is a man of substance. Although Hudson's Ethne is a relatively small part (the actress is missing from the screen for a substantial portion of the film), her facial expressions and radiant smile, reminiscent of her mother Goldie Hawn, give the film a warm touch.
Composer James Horner creates the flashy sounds that compliment the film's battle scenes. But it is Rahat Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's mesmerizing vocals that will stay with you as you leave the theater.
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