The King and I

I'd had this movie for many months and for some reason it never seemed like the right time to watch it. Today, after having a lazy day... It seemed like the right time to watch a musical. What a beautiful movie! I'm kind of disappointed that it was over so soon. For those who haven't seen it, here's what it is all about.

The movie is based on the book by Margaret Landon, Anna and the King of Siam which was later turned into a successful Broadway musical which ran for some 4000+ shows and a movie, which is The King and I. There have been many versions of this movie and I saw the 1956 one with Deborrah Kerr and Yul Brynner.

The movie opens with the arrival of an englishwoman Anna Leonowens (Deborrah Kerr) and her son Louis to the land of Siam, now Thailand in the city of Bangkok. She has been appointed by the king to tutor the royal children in a scientific and secular education in which the tutors before her had failed. She's shown to be a beautiful, strong woman who's not afraid of authority. Her character reminded me a lot of Julie Andrews character in the Sound of Music primarily because the premise was so familiar. A governess appointed to teach the children of the household who eventually falls in love with their father. Well Anna or Mrs. An-n-na as she's called in the movie begins to teach the many children of the king the lessons of geography and songs in english. She was promised a house of her own, but the king went back on his word. She tries many ingenious ways to persuade the king to fulfill his oath, by teaching the kids proverbs about home and their beauty, to teaching and making them recite songs about the love of homes... She is well respected by all the women in the palace, including all the many wives of the king. Seeing the king display all his wives reminded me of what it must've been for the Maharajas of our country in their times. The guides at our ancient forts up north, take pride in talking about the many wives of the kings. She begins to teach not only the kids but also the royal wives.

One of them, is Tuptim, a beautiful woman presented to the king by the prince of Burma. She's educated and knows english. In a ball organized by the king in order to gain favour and a good standing with the Queen Victoria, Tuptim is allowed to stage a theatrical performance of an adaptation of an American novel about the escape of a slave. She uses the performance to explain her stance and runs away when the curtains fall. The theatrical performance was a delight to watch, the costumes, the story line, and most importantly the sound effects combined with the beautiful visual effects that they managed with just silk threads, glittering leaves and colorful cloths is amazing! I absolutely loved the scene in which they showed a thunderstorm and they used silk threads scattered across to signify the rain lashing onto the ground.

After the performance, the king is jealous of how Anna was dancing with an old friend of hers who accompanied the ambassador to the ball. While explaining to the king about the customs in England, she begins to dance and then he asks her to teach him. This is probably once of the most famous scenes in the movie to see the king dance with her. There is a strong attraction that is shown between them and you're sort of hoping that something happens.

Towards the end, we see that the king is not able to punish Tuptim for her mistake of running away because Anna asks him to forgive her and to see for himself how his behavior is Barbarian-like. Faced with this, he shuts himself from everybody and falls terribly ill. Anna decides to leave for England and it is on the evening that she is supposed to set sail when the head wife Lady Tiang comes to her asking her to meet the king who has sent a letter for her. He describes her as a difficult woman more difficult than generality. When she goes to meet the king she is struck by grief at seeing his condition and all the kids who plead for her to stay. The king then instructs his heir to take over and make proclamations fit for a king, and the young king talks about the abolishment of prostration, something which the king says was Anna's doing. It is while the young king is addressing the people, that the king breathes his last.

After watching the movie, I ended up reading about the movie, the reality and the truth is that Anna Leonowens was in fact born in India! She was the daughter of an Anglo-Indian and was born and brought up in India. She married a clerk whom she fell in love with at Poona and then with him she left this country to travel and settle abroad. They had four children, two of which died in infancy and with their two kids they finally went to Australia. After her husband's death, Anna returned to England and it was there that she received the appointment of the King of Siam. She was in Siam for a period of 6 years. The Thai government banned the movies saying that they portrayed the king in very poor light and the entire history was exaggerated. They said that her influence on the king was over-done and that it wasn't the truth. It is true however that after her leaving for England, she and her pupil who went on to become the king used to correspond amicably through mail. He even visited her 30 years later. Her son went back to Siam years later to be a part of the cavalry and established a trading company Loius T Leonowens that is still running business successfully.

Irrespective of what the truth is, the movie is a beautiful treat to watch. Especially because of the beautiful songs that it has. There's a song about 'I whistle when I'm afraid' which reminds me of 'My favorite things' from Sound of Music, and of course the beautiful 'Shall we dance'.

Shall we still be together
With are arms around each other
And shall you be my new romance?
On the clear understanding
That this kind of thing can happen,
Shall we dance? Shall we dance? Shall we Dance?