If you liked Baghban

I saw this movie la Tete en Friche ( titled in English, My Afternoons with Marguerite). There is this 96 year-old actress acting as a 95 year-old lady left in an old age home by her nephew in a small French town. He is already complaining that he can't afford to keep her there, but the lady is still full of life as she is very well-read  and loves to go sit in the park watching pigeons and reading her books (like Albert Camus's Plague). Sitting one day on her favourite bench, she meets a middle-aged man Germain, who is also a regular there. He comes to watch over the pigeons. He has in fact given each one a name like Thief and Crabster, having closely watched and discerned their personae.

Germain ( enacted by Gerard Depardieu)  is a simpleton but with green fingers. He grows and sells vegetables. He also does odd jobs. Germain was abused as a child and often remembers how he never felt loved by his mother. She also drove out his father, a waster. She is now old and crazy and Germain simply shakes his head in mild irritation during her frequent outbursts when she uproots his plants and screams hell.

Germain was ridiculed at school as he never could read well. But he  has a very likeable child-like nature. Sitting on the park bench on languid afternoons, he is all good-humoured attention as the old lady reads and explains the classics to him. Their friendship develops beautifully as Germain really cares for the lady. One day she brings over a huge dictionary as a gift, and tells Germain how the dictionary is a fascinating journey from the world of one word to the world of the next. But Germain finds the dictionary a tough read, unable to spell words like labyrinth or Anette. He is also unhappy that the dictonary mentions only one type of tomatoes.

The town's social life revolves around a small restaurant, and you can tell that the folks there like Germain for a steady fellow. Germain is also dating young Anette who drives the local bus. They are a sweet and simple couple and Anette wants to have a child.

When the old lady tells Germain that her eye-sight is going down rapidly due to macular degeneration, Germain feels terribly for her, and at Anette's suggestion decides to learn to read to her. He goes to the library, and in a really humorous scene, succeeds in explaining what kind of a book he would like to borrow- not too thick, with a story of adventure, with pictures. Sitting up late in bed, word by word he struggles through the book with Anette's help, and gets to a point when he can indeed read to the old lady!

One day Germain's mother reveals that his real father was not her useless husband but a charming young man. In the next scene Germain comes home to see his mother dead. Sadly bewildered by the turn of events, Germain discovers a photo of his parents in a box of knick-knacks left behind for him. soon his mood changes to astonishment when he learns how his mother had finally been able to express her love in her own way -she had actually saved up her meagre pension and bought for Germain the house they lived in. Doubly happy to know that his girl friend Anette has gotten pregnant, Germain wants to share the news with the old lady. Alas, he finds out at the nursing home that her nephew has taken her away to Belgium, saying this place is too expensive.

The story ends with Germain rushing in a borrowed van to Belgium. He confronts the nephew, discovers where the lady is stowed away in a depressing old-age home, and rushes there to find her sitting like a faded picture in her wheel chair. He simply rushes out pushing her wheelchair, bundles her into the van and drives her back to his world. They are both happy that she can live with him and Anette and he will now read to her her favourite books. Life's truly happy moments are about sharing and caring.