The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

At the moment, I am rotating through a four month placement called 'Care of the Elderly', a more plain term for a specialized branch of medicine called Geriatrics. Most days are spent looking after people aged 65 and above. Even then, 65 is fairly young and most of people under our care are around 80-ish. Occasionally, one gets the centurion...

Trailer for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Anyway, I always wanted to watch The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (for the Elderly and Beautiful). It's a British movie released several months ago and may not be everyone's cup of tea. But I saw the trailer of Dev Patel proudly announcing "Welcome.. to the Best Marigold Hotel!" with great sincerity and instantly decided it would be a movie I will want to see, no matter what. Despite the lukewarm reviews from friends, I still wanted to watch it.

Imagine my delight when I saw it was screening at my local cinema!

I walked into the screen and it was rather amusing to note that I was probably the only person under 50 years of age there. Definitely the only person under 40. And, I was watching a film about elderly people. Having spend the whole day being surrounded by the aging made me think about my future as an elderly person, my journey there, my dreams, hopes and fears; and to think about my elderly patients, their feelings, hopes and fears.

I loved the movie.

I loved the movie because it was down-to-earth and daily-life comedy. I loved the movie because the relationships between characters was simple yet profound. I loved the movie because each character had their own agenda which they believed in or eventually believed in. I loved the emotions conveyed which were so vividly real! I loved the movie because it tossed and turned, tumbled, flipped and stirred my emotions all round. The script was amazing. So many lines I loved. So many basic but philosophical lines. And, I play it in my mind over and over. I love the movie because it seems to portray so much of what I think/believe of in life. I love the movie in so many ways and parts I can't seem to do my own feelings justice. "Words fail me", as one of the characters said.

For the first time, in a movie, I let myself cry without holding the tears back. There was one scene where the man dreamt and had such passion to 'see the top of the mountain'. He had his vision blow out like a candle the spark completely disappeared from his eyes and I cried.

And there was the case of the gay couple... And the man who had no secrets with his wife. "That's the way it should be". Yes, no secrets.

It was a wonderous 2.25 hours. I thought, "Don't send the OAPs to Jaipur. Send me instead!".

When it was over, I had to go home... in the cold. But, it didn't feel cold. All I could think of was various scenes in the movie, how they touched me. I just wanted to put my face in my hands to laugh and cry.