Take it to the limit

The title of this 2007 film is the second half of a blessing of sorts: May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil knows you're dead. In Sidney Lumet's latest movie, the devil is checking his watch. Andy Hanson is on his way. Played to crisp perfection by Philip Seymour Hoffman, Andy is a drug-addicted, impotent real estate accountant who honestly believes money will get him and his beautiful wife, Gina (Marisa Tomei), back to Brazil, where life was easy and good. "I'm a smart guy; I'll figure it out," he tells his wife when she asks exactly how he plans to regain paradise.

Another saying goes: money is the root of all evil. Andy, in a Mephistophelian manner, coaxes his weak younger brother, Hank (Ethan Hawke), into robbing a mom-and-pop jewellery store. It is their parents' store, one into which Charles Hanson (Albert Finney) had sunk his whole life. But Hank is a coward who has a friend do the job. Only the friend, and Hank and Andy's mother, end up dead. Andy, smart guy that he is, comes up with another scheme. The devil, however, is one step ahead.

In the DVD's making-of featurette, Lumet describes the movie as a melodrama and not a suspense thriller. He defines drama as a movie in which character determines the story. In melodrama, he says, the story determines the character. In Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Lumet and Kelly Masterson, a former seminarian and a first-time screenwriter, have placed characters in a situation much for the same reason a boy might pull the wings off a fly: to watch it struggle. Lumet has mined this territory before, in 12 Angry Men, Network, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon: characters are pushed to their limits and forced to reveal their inner core.

Films generally have a moral code even if the characters in them do not. The medium requires the viewer to identify with a character. When the character is despicable, the viewer-protagonist relationship becomes a source of tension and unease. Because Andy's core is as hollow as a rolled-up bank note and Hank is essentially a frightened lemming, it is not easy to attach one's self emotionally to them. It is one of the strengths of Before the Devil Knows You're Dead that shifts in time and changes in point of view force the viewer to evaluate and judge characters over and over again as new information is revealed.

It is not until we meet Charles Hanson, the father, that we have someone to identify with. We feel complete sympathy for a man who has just lost his wife to a violent crime and who is frustrated by police inaction. The character is not without his edge, however, which evolves as the movie arcs towards its final act. A diamond cutter tells Charles at one point: "The world is an evil place. Some of us make money off it; others are destroyed."

If this is true, the devil must have us on timers.

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Company profile

Name: Back to Games and Boardgame Space

Started: Back to Games (2015); Boardgame Space (Mark Azzam became co-founder in 2017)

Founder: Back to Games (Mr Azzam); Boardgame Space (Mr Azzam and Feras Al Bastaki)

Based: Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Industry: Back to Games (retail); Boardgame Space (wholesale and distribution)

Funding: Back to Games: self-funded by Mr Azzam with Dh1.3 million; Mr Azzam invested Dh250,000 in Boardgame Space

Growth: Back to Games: from 300 products in 2015 to 7,000 in 2019; Boardgame Space: from 34 games in 2017 to 3,500 in 2019

It's up to you to go green

Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.

“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”

When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.

He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.

“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.

One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.

The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.

Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.

But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”

Batti Gul Meter Chalu

Producers: KRTI Productions, T-Series
Director: Sree Narayan Singh
Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Shraddha Kapoor, Divyenndu Sharma, Yami Gautam
Rating: 2/5