Da

I watched the movie a couple of days back. It was a DVD copy from a friend's original. A wonderfully knit script based on a man's imagination.

The movie was made in 1988, starring Martin Sheen and Barnard Hughes. Directed by Matt Clark and Julie Corman.

"Da" is the Irish equivalent of "father". So I learnt from a friend. The movie itself is a autobiographical drama about playwright Hugh Leonard's relationship with his father. So I learnt from the internet.

Charlie gets the news of his father's death and travels to take care of the funeral. What follows is Charlie's imagination involving his father, to a large extent his mother and to a small extent his pet dog. He relives many of his childhood moments.

As I sat watching this movie, I was reminded very much of my father and mother. How they would care, be angry one moment and melt with love the very next. How they would try to put me off a topic when I, as a child, keep pestering them for answers that a child cannot understand. How I used to think that I am being weighed down by all the love and care they show. I did grow up and realized that I was wrong to feel so.

The sequence where a middle-aged Charlie transforms into a kid Charlie and asks his father, why he had lied to him about his mother, is lovely.

"It was not a lie. I would never lie. It was a maky-up", was his father's reply. I smiled.

Was it because I was thinking of my own father, that I smiled the way I usually do when I watch kids play their games, when I watched the movie? True.

It was the wonderful chemistry between Martin Sheen (Charlie) and Barnard Hughes (Da) that made me see a father and son relationship, as it would normally be in real life. They were amazing in their roles.

"I love you, Da"
"Ofcourse, you do. Why wouldn't you?"

Now, I smiled again.