Babam ve oglum (My father and my son) - 2005

Many people, specially turks, consider this to be one of the greatest turkish movies ever made. It has also been one of the highest  grossers in the country's history. It is overwhelmingly rated on IMDb. Many consider it over rated and too dramatic. But neither of these things adds or takes away anything from this wonderfully warm film by Çağan Irmak.

Unfolding in 1980's Turkey, the film starts in turmoil with its beginning sequence. A turmoil political for the country, personal for Sadik who loses his wife unable to get her to a hospital when she is about to deliver their son. The film follows their lives some years later when Sadik has to return to his native village with his son, which he had left after developing irreconcilable differences with his father about his own future. How things and relationships transform - with his father, son and rest of the family - is what this movie is all about.

Now this film is what they would call drama. It runs high on emotions, makes you laugh and cry at the same time with equal zest, blends a very coherent and memorable soundtrack (i keep running it time and again) that pitches in to cozy you up to the characters and the story, has just about the right mix of the tragedies and the promises of life, revolves around a family that owns its peaceful farmland away from the cities and lives and fights together, and makes one realize that eventually time is passing and people have to go to never come back.

I could appreciate the film, first, because of its staggering performances. The stubborn yet affectionate grandfather, the lively, loud and cheerful grandmother, Worried, uncomfortable yet helpless father, his naive brother and most of all the motherless kid, innocent and vulnerable. Second, like any good film it manages to work around a lot of themes that include and yet are not limited to undertones of political after effects on peoples lives, the inscrutability of relationships, how deeply and subliminally conflicts affect children (the fantasy sequences were special), aspirational conflicts between the young and the old, the warmth of a family for the young, and the inevitability of people leaving.

Some critics have said that the movie is a bit too loud. But this could be a silo that one might get trapped in - majorly of western viewers. Life too can be loud sometimes. And the celluloid reflecting or even exaggerating it with all its means is no reason to underestimate a piece of lovely storytelling.

4 on 5.

Moment of the film - When Salim is made to run and hit Huseyin and whatever follows !

Watch it for - A heartwarming time with family

Babam ve Oglum @ IMDb