Films have always been an important art form. It is a form that contains both the written aspect of art, of literature, in the way that it is born from a screenplay, from what is written, and it is also a form that, like theatre, relies on the visual in order to express what has been written. Strangely, while written literature and visual mediums of art, such as theatre and painting, have been embraced and cultivated in Guyana and the Caribbean, the region, especially Guyana, seems to be a bit behind the rest of the world when it comes to films. This is not to be interpreted as Caribbean people not liking films. In fact, everything points to the contrary. Everyone has “movie-memories” of some kind – watching Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with your mom or Disney classics like The Little Mermaid or Mulan with your siblings or staying up late at night and watching the pulpy horror films, such as Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, from the revival of the slasher subgenre in the nineties, and I am certain that for Halloween this year, many young couples will be going to their costume parties as the Joker and Harley Quinn from this year’s Suicide Squad.

The point is that Caribbean people love films as much as the rest of the world, despite the region’s fluctuating success at creating and marketing films that are representative of the region and all the people who live there. It is for this reason that Bazodee, written by Claire Ince and directed by Todd Kessler, a film coming out of Trinidad, has become so popular, as, honestly speaking, it is not a great film. However, despite its flaws, I can also, with equal honesty, say that I quite enjoyed the film, and that I do like Bazodee.

Now, for the sake of clarity on how one can recognize that something is not great, yet continue to like that said thing, let us turn to literature for an example. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is considered a classic and is widely regarded as one of the greatest books ever written. A keen reader can observe Austen’s contribution to prose, can recognize the early form of feminism in the work, can be appreciative of the representation of the era, can recognize why the work is important and how it contributes to literature and still not like the work. Liking something is different from appreciating something. Perhaps the style in which Pride and Prejudice is written is not to the reader’s liking, or perhaps the concerns of the novel are not those the reader is interested in.
So, I contend that if one can recognize the worth and values in a work of art and appreciate the art and can still not like the same piece of art, then the opposite can also happen – one can recognize the flaws and the lack of any particularly great content in a piece and yet still like the piece, despite its flaws, because reasons that are related to individuality and viewer’s subjectivity and rationale for liking something. This is where we bring the conversation back to Bazodee, a film that belongs to the second category of thought where I recognize it to be flawed and yet I still choose to like it. Now, we will examine the reasons for this.

How is Bazodee flawed? What prevents it from being great? Let’s start with the plot. Submissive Indian girl Anita (Natalie Perera), daughter of heavily indebted businessman (Kabir Bedi), is engaged to a rich businessman (Staz Nair) from London. However, she bumps into Lee de Leon (soca superstar Machel Montano), as he sings, almost minstrel-like, at Trinidad’s Piarco airport. Lee, unlike the rich fiancée, is penniless, but that doesn’t stop Anita from falling in love with him and soon she is faced with a decision to make: Should she follow her heart or do what is expected of her? Does that synopsis of the plot not sound vaguely similar to half a dozen Bollywood movies? Not only is the whole thing formulaic, but it has been beaten to death by many other movies that we have already seen. The plot is nothing spectacular which means that the film relies on its other elements to remain interesting – the acting, for instance.

Natalie Perera in the lead role is a gorgeous woman, but her acting is a bit stilted at times. It doesn’t help that the director gives so many close-ups of her face which only serves to further emphasize her occasional woodenness. Her singing too needs some work, especially when she is paired opposite Machel Montano. Speaking of Machel Montano, I was actually not expecting him to be as good as he was. Sure, he was a bit flat sometimes, but it is also true that his performance was a lot better than a whole host of singers who have tried to move into acting.
While the leads were only impressive in bits and pieces rather than in entirety, the supporting cast (no, not Kabir Bedi) managed to make up for the times Machel and Natalie fell down in their performances. Triniadadian actress, Teneille Newallo, as Poorvi, Anita’s talkative and sassy cousin, is a good actress with a thorough understanding of her purpose in the film and she carries out her role with panache. Equally good is Cindy F. Daniel who plays Lalima, a friend of Anita’s who also works for her family, and although it is a small role, Daniel’s acting showcased several layers of complexity (and complicity) in two standout scenes – the one at the Carnival when she serves as the lookout for Anita and then a later scene when she tries to persuade Anita to follow her heart.
I also liked very much Valmike Rampersad as the film’s “villain.” He contrasts well with Anita, Leon and everyone else he plays against, while seeming to be enjoying the whole thing tremendously. Chris Smith, as Leon’s friend, Bud, also deserves a special mention for being the only character who actually manages to be effortlessly funny, most of the times.

The film, like most of Bollywood from which it draws inspiration, is a musical and features songs by Machel Montano. The good thing about the songs is that a lot of them are songs we know already and it is interesting to see the way soca is used to form the musical backdrop for some of the scenes.
It is a nice touch and the integration of Caribbean music into the film is something I definitely appreciate and like. It is new and fresh and it is shocking that, until now, I had never realized how much potential there was for the use of soca in films.
It is true that sometimes the songs seemed to be randomly added into a scene simply for the sake of adding a song into the scene and yes, the musical numbers could have been bigger, better choreographed and could have incorporated even more elements of the Caribbean, but overall the use of that particular kind of music in the film was an achievement. It represented the upbeat, fun, and carnivalesque feel of the Caribbean and even the background score composed for the film was a piece of music thatWest Indians could groove to and enjoy.

In truth, the best moments of the movie are those which highlight Trinidad itself. Forget the acting, forget the clichéd plot and the contrived ending. Focus on Trinidadian setting. Focus on the little things that the characters say that remind you of Guyana and how similar are the things we say. Focus on the lilts and rhythms of the speech of the Trinidadian characters and marvel at the fact that you are watching a movie where there are Caribbean people telling a story and entertaining people, that the film is being shown on the same screen where you watch the latest Hollywood blockbusters, that you are watching this movie while surrounded by the same people who go to see all those other movies over the years and that they, like you, are enjoying being exposed to the still fledgling Caribbean cinema.

Continue to marvel at the fact that Caribbean talent, coming from coloured people, West Indian people (well, some of them) is what is being showcased in Bazodee. See how beautiful Trinidad is. Let the film remind you of the passion and the colours and the alcohol coursing through your veins and the music pulsing through your feet as you fly wild through the kind of nights that come with Carnival.
See the rastaman at the beach, the water, the tassa drummers, the Indian dancers, the smoky insides of a bar selling cheap liquor, a phone with a cracked screen which is bound to remind you of someone you know; see all these things and then, without a doubt, you will be able to understand why, despite its flaws, I still like Bazodee.
The film presents the Caribbean, a section of Caribbean society and Caribbean people. In this time and age when representation in all forms of art and media is so important, it is astounding to come across a feature length film that has the Caribbean at its core, even if the film is not a perfect one and does come with its flaws. Yes, I am aware that as a Guyanese a Triniadian film cannot represent individual states within the Caribbean, but with the dearth of feature-length films coming out of the region, with nothing coming out of our own CineGuyana (and with the short films they did several years ago not being shown often enough to make greater public, and even international, impact), Guyana and other countries in the Caribbean will have to take Bazodee and embrace it.