Ode to Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI

Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai (1954) thrust Japanese cinema to the outside world; and he went on to be conferred with the Academy Honorary Award '89

THE STORY - A poor village in the mountains of medieval Japan is repeatedly pillaged by a gang of bandits. In desperation they seek to hire Samurais to protect their harvest, the paltry payment they can afford being - food three times a day.

Takashi Shimura,who dazzled in Ikuru, impresses as the worldly wise seasoned samurai Kambei; who rustles up a motley bunch of Ronins - unemployed Samurais or mercenaries.

Charismatic Toshiro Mifune is the outside pretender Shishinin, who is grudgingly included in the samurai team. (In fact the original Japanese name of the movie is Shichinin no Samurai)

The story is of the samurai and villagers evolving as a team in spite of their deep mutual antipathy, how old Kambei plans and executes the defense of the village, the sacrifices thrust upon average men in crisis.

The end is sheer poetry - after the triumph of blood and bravery, Kurosawa signs off with pointing out ‘the disconnect of violence’ in a community content with itself.

Why SEVEN SAMURAI is considered a forerunner
The plot element of ‘ building a team with varied personalities to achieve a specific goal ‘ spawned many movies like Magnificent 7, Dirty Dozen, Guns of Navrone, Ocean's Eleven and our own Sholay.

Many other popular story devices like’ Introducing the hero with an incident unrelated to the main story’ and ‘Romance between village girl and outsider’ were seen first in Seven Samurai.

In fact, many management institutions screen Seven Samurai as a study of effective leadership – team building, delegation of duty and goal orientation

Kurosawa Influence
From Satayajit Ray to Spike Lee - The list of directors who have conceded to the inspiration of this Japanese icon is pretty long. In tamil, Mani Ratnam paid a tribute to Akira Kurosawa in the Thalabathi song sequence " Sundari, kanaal oru seidhi" and Kamal with his Virumandi.

Kurosawa is like a restaurant, you like to frequent.  Roshomon, High & Low, Stray Dog, Ikuru.. hmm.. These are my favorite dishes