Praying With Anger – Shyamalan’s Debut
I’ll be honest. When I picked M. Night as the first director to cover in my Director’s Series, I debated if I was doing the right thing. I had previously seen only a third of his films, and most of them the “good” ones. So when watching his debut “Praying With Anger” I certainly came in with a lot of trepidation, as Shyamalan has the reputation of having high highs and low lows.
Even at age 21, the bones of a good director were there. His shot choice was interesting. The writing… not so much. But the fact that it was a student film is impressive enough for me to look past the fact that Shyamalan – who plays the lead role – was not really convincing at playing… himself?
I settled down on my comfy blue couch to watch this film. My wife and I had just consumed a nice bowl of leftover taco soup and I was ready to begin my journey to Shyam-town. I had to pull up the movie on Youtube of all places, as it is not streaming anywhere I could find. The 480p quality made it a bit difficult to tell what was happening, but I managed. The story was pretty thin (my wife got bored halfway through and quietly watched TikTok cleaning videos until the credits rolled) and largely uninteresting to me, but I powered through for my loyal readership.
The film tells the story of a young college student (Shyamalan) who returns to his home country of India and attends school there for a year after the death of his father. He is a fish out of water and has trouble adapting to the new customs. He is also incessantly bullied by the “seniors”* who look like they are 15 years older than him. There is also a disappointing subplot about him falling in love that abruptly ends when she tells him she is engaged.
*a note on these aforementioned bullies. They like to shove Shyamalan around a bit. Knock his books out of his hands. Make him ask the girls if they’ve ever kissed a guy before. Classic middle school stuff. Until the end of the movie when they suddenly escalate to pouring gasoline on their teacher and attempting to light him on fire. Maybe I missed something, but that escalated quickly.
Through no fault of the director, I couldn’t relate to the main character. He spends a lot of time dealing with adjusting to the Indian customs that he is not used to. The only time I’ve ever even been in a foreign country is when I went to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls for a few hours and had extreme bathroom issues after eating copious amounts of poutine.
He also is trying to cope with the loss of his father, which he seems to always remember mid-scene. In probably the most Shyamalan-esque scene of the movie, his father’s shadow comes to him while he prays and merges with his own shadow, symbolizing that he will always be with him. This is never addressed again, but it was an interesting idea.
All in all – very impressive work for a student film. I know the struggle of doing it all myself. As a film student, I made plenty of films, just like this one. Well, not just like this one. My budgets consisted of $80 for sandwiches or pizza for lunch. Evidently this film had a budget of $750,000, mostly borrowed from friends and family. Huh. But, a worthy investment it turned out to be, as M. Night made it look easy, directing in India no less. You can see his drive. This is a man who knows what he wants to do.
Shyamalan Rankings
I’ll start by saying that rankings are arbitrary and reductive. These will be my personal rankings. And although I have seen more Shyamalan, I’m going to add those in once we get there on this journey together. So I’ll have to put Praying With Anger in the top spot for now; although I am pretty sure that next week’s Wide Awake will dethrone it handily.
- Praying With Anger
Shyamalan News
We also have a bit of breaking news for Shyamalan’s next project, Trap which is set for an August 2nd, 2024 release. Deadline has reported that the film is described as a “psychological thriller set at a concert.” Sounds like a blast to me.
Stay tuned for my next post on Monday, 6/26/23, when I cover Flamin Hot! Things will get spicy!
