Films based on a great, even superb story and script, offer so much to life. One such film is my all-time favorite “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” starring Judi Dench, Tom Wilkinson, and several other fantastic actors. There is one particular scene in the film where Graham Dashwood, played by Tom Wilkinson, and Evelyn Greenslade played by Judi Dench, had just finished their evening dinner in the hotel and are both retiring to their bedrooms. Below is the film’s script from that point…

GRAHAM (CONT’D)
“Mrs Greenslade?”

EVELYN
“Evelyn.”

GRAHAM
“Can I show you something?”

74 INT. GRAHAM’S ROOM – NIGHT 74

Moments later. Evelyn is sitting in front of Graham’s
collage.

GRAHAM
“I grew up here. Just a short
drive away. It was a big house,
and we had servants, everyone
did. We knew their wives, their
children. One boy, Manoj, became
my friend. We played a lot of
cricket together, played anything
we could. And that’s how it
stayed for years. Until one
night, he became something more.”

(BEAT)
“We had a few months, we had that.
There was a weekend in Udaipur,
we sat by a lake and watched the
sun go down, and I remember
thinking . I will never be this
happy again. And I was right.
Because quite suddenly it was
over. We’d fallen asleep, and
they found us.”

(MORE)

47.
GRAHAM (CONT’D)

(BEAT)
“For me it was bad enough. But I
already knew who I was, and I
think my family had guessed. For
Manoj, the disgrace was absolute;
a double taboo. His father was
fired, they were sent away, all
of them. I don’t know what I
could’ve done, but it should’ve
been more than nothing. I put up
no fight. I let it happen.”

(BEAT)
“Soon afterwards I went to
England, to University. I always
told myself I’d come back. But I
never did.”

EVELYN
“Until now.”

GRAHAM
“And now I think .. what if I am
the last person on earth he wants
to see?”
Evelyn says nothing.

GRAHAM (CONT’D)
“I don’t think I can go through
with it.”

EVELYN
“Do you want to see him again?”

GRAHAM
“Yes. Yes. Oh yes.”

EVELYN
“Then you must.”

I can’t imagine what humiliation and pain Graham must have felt (and still feels?) while his close friend Manoj suffered an even more severe public punishment; a punishment for something that was purely natural, purely human. I felt my heart sink into my stomach for them. I thought to myself, “what a horrible, horrible place to have to be born into and live through.” I’ve experienced places and people just like it. Though this is just a movie, the reality is that Manoj’s and Graham’s world is our reality too.

I will never be able to phathom WHY a person would want to create such a suffocating puritanical life void of more compassion, tolerance, understanding, but instead wrought with bitterness, hate, and self-righteousness…as if a theocracy was the more noble cause. Excuse me while I go throw-up.

Since I was unable to find this specific scene above on the internet, I will play another similar scene from another of my favorite films:

Love was never designed to be one-dimensional. It is not merely erotic or romantic or sexual. It does not distinguish between genders. It is expansive….so expansive that some cannot imagine or allow, however, that does not diminish acts of love or its unstoppable power and goodness. It will always be.

I’ve often concluded some posts with “Fear stifles, courage fulfills.” Though it would be proper now, I will instead end it this way….

Piety stifles, love fulfills.  Conformity stifles, beauty fulfills…and excites.

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Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often — Learn Always

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