Emotional Analysis

There are various definitions of emotions; different people define emotions in different ways.
John D. (Jack) Mayer says, “Emotions operate on many levels. They have a physical aspect
as well as a psychological aspect. Emotions Bridge thought, feeling, and action – they operate
in every part of a person, they affect many aspects of a person, and the person affects many
aspects of the emotions.”

Emotions control thoughts, feelings and actions; emotions also affect our physiological
bodies as much as they seem to affect an individual’s behaviour and actions. Emotions are an
important part on an individual’s life as they help people get in touch with their needs,
remove boundaries, take decisions and also motivate us to do better.

Emotions can be conveyed to others through our body language or through our facial
expressions. A facial expression results from one or more motions or positions of
the muscles of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of the individual to
observers. Facial expressions are the most efficient form of non-verbal communication.
Expressions are so closely tied to emotions that majority of the times they are involuntary
though we can express certain expressions voluntarily. Some expressions can be accurately
interpreted even between members of different species such as anger and
extreme contentment ,some however, are difficult to interpret even in familiar individuals
such as disgust and fear can be tough to tell apart.

Since faces have only a limited range of movement, expressions rely upon fairly minuscule
differences in the proportion and relative position of facial features and reading them requires
considerable sensitivity. Some faces are often falsely read as expressing some emotion, even
when they are neutral because their proportions may resemble those of a face emoting a
particular emotion.

We were asked to interpret a silent movie that would help us study the various emotions
experienced by humans. The movie given to us was “SMILE” a short film made by Dnyanesh
Wadekar. It was produced in 2007 and won an entry into the ICE short Films Festival with its
discreet and subtle emotional elements.

As much as we emote through verbal communication far more emotional transaction takes
place at he non verbal level of communication. When we interact with others, we
continuously give and receive countless words and signals. This short movie which has no
dialogues has delivered a strong message. It makes one realise that it takes more than words
to create fulfilling strong relationships, either in a story, between characters or beyond the
story in a real life situation.

Emotional Analysis of the movie- “SMILE”

Director: Dnyanesh V. Wadekar

Producer: Avirat Films Production
Genre: Drama
Produced In: 2007
Country: India
Synopsis: The film is about perception and interpretation. A simple smile can make a person
restless. Smile can convey many different views and interpretations of it are depending upon
us. A person can spend hours to understand the meaning of a smile given to him. In this film,
same thing happens; ultimately the beggar understands the meaning of the smile given to
him.

SUMMARY cum SCRIPT

The movie starts as a day in the life of a beggar who occupies a certain spot on a busy road
and begs or earns his daily bread. A passerby drops packets of food and he starts devouring
the food. Meanwhile a man on the other side of road who is talking on the phone sees him
and the beggar suddenly catches his attention.

On seeing the plight of the beggar the man starts walking towards the beggar and sits in front
of him. The men lock gazes for a brief moment. The man takes out his wallet and passes a
SMILE, a brief smile that disappears in a second or two. The beggar suddenly notices that the
man has dropped something or maybe given him Rs.1000 intentionally.

The beggar is shocked; he picks up the note and gazes at it. He realises that there are people
around him and hastily puts the note in his pocket, which he then clutches. He can feel a
thousand eyes peering at him; he gets up and starts walking towards a more secluded spot.
Once there he takes it out again and stares at it. He then rolls the note and peeps through it,
this act symbolises to the poor man how the world looks when you have money. It is a
description of how an individual’s perspective changes with money or currency in hand. He
realises that this currency as the power to fulfil all his desires.

When he peeps through the rolled up note the man’s smile flashes in front of his eyes, he sees
a clothing shop after a brief moment and decides to purchase clothes for himself. Seeing the
beggars dishevelled state many shop owners shoo him away. After a while he finally
purchases a t-shirt and track pants for himself. He then counts the left over money proudly
and then goes and gets himself a haircut, shave and a facial massage. The beggar is happy
seeing his makeover.

He again peeps through the note and the man’s smile flashes in front of his eyes again. He
then decides to watch a movie. Since this was his first time in a movie hall he apes the people
sitting next to him trying to display the same reactions and emotions. He then decides to get
himself some food, he orders food and wonders how to use a fork and a spoon; after many
failed attempts he resorts to eating food the way that is familiar to him; i.e. with his hand.
When he sees the waiter staring he passes on a SMILE to the waiter.

He then goes and gets himself an expensive cigarette. The taste of this good life makes the
beggar SMILE to himself.
The beggar than goes and sits on the banks of a river, just as he does so a small boy comes
and asks him for money, he bends down SMILES and gives the little boy a Rs.10 note. He
does this the same way the man gives him the note.

The beggar then pulls back the small child holds him and closes his eyes in a desperate
attempt to remember something. Suddenly everything seems to be clear to him; the man took
out the Rs. 1000 note, twirled it around a few times and then left, leaving the note behind. In
India this is a way of giving money to a poor person in the form of Bhiksha or Alma, is a
means of transferring one’s own misfortunes to those who are weaker and unfortunate.

The major themes and emotions that came across in the movie are as follows-

Pity

Pity is an emotion that evokes a tender and at times a slightly contemptuous sorrow or
empathy for people or a person or an animal in pain, misery or distress. In the human aspect a
sort of parental feeling of pity maybe felt towards marginalised or impoverished people such
as the homeless families, orphans, people with disabilities or terminal illnesses etc. in the
movie the man is in a state of shock when he sees the plight of the beggar. A beggar who has
resorted to begging to fulfil his basic needs, this sadness compels him to go and give the
beggar money. The background score in the movie also helps infer that the individual feels
sorry and sad seeing the plight of the beggar.

Self Consciousness

Self-consciousness is an acute sense of self-awareness. An unpleasant feeling of self-

consciousness may occur when one realizes that one is being watched or observed, the
feeling that "everyone is looking" at oneself. The beggar is an extremely self conscious
person, he is embarrassed at his own state. When the beggar realises that the man is looking
at him he immediately stops eating and tries to clean his face. This acute sense of self
awareness related with the unpleasant feeling of being watched can also be inferred when he
sees the thousand rupees note and hastily puts it inside his pocket aware of the presence of
others.

He is extremely conscious of the fact that he is not as polished as others this is also evident
in the way he looks around when he starts eating in the restaurant, after making sure that no
one is watching. When he does finally realise that the waiter is staring he stops eating and
passes a Smile to the waiter probably hoping to take the focus off his eating.

Shock

This emotion of disbelief strongly comes across in the movie when the beggar sees the Rs.
1000 note in front of him and picks it up and checks and re-checks it. His eyes are filled with
disbelief. He immediately gets up, walks to a secluded spot and checks the note again; as if
making sure that his eyes did not play a dirty trick on him the first time.

This emotion also comes across strongly when the beggar goes to purchase clothes for
himself. Shopkeepers seeing his dishevelled state shoo him away, but then finally when he
takes out the thousand rupee note the shopkeeper scratches is head in shock and wonder.
Wonder is an emotion comparable to the surprise people feel when they witness the
unexpected. It has historically been seen to link curiosity to the drive for intellectual
exploration.

Happiness

once in a secluded spot the beggar takes out the note from his pocket and the initial emotion
on shock and disbelief has changed into joy or happiness. This can also be illustrated with the
help of the opponent process theory of emotion as the initial emotion of fear, shock and
disbelief at getting such a large amount of money has now been replaced with its exact
opposite emotion of relief and joy. This opposite emotion however is likely to re-emerge
strongly and interact with the initial emotions.

The beggar takes the money and feels all powerful and indulges into the materialistic pleasure
of life and becomes extremely happy doing so.

Even though he initially follows the same method of giving money to the little poor kid he in
the end changes his smile to one of happiness, the happiness of giving someone in need. This
shows how a simple facial expression such as a smile can be interpreted in so many different
ways. He in the end gives all his money to little boy and is happy doing so, probably having
realised the importance of his own life and the joy associated with just being who he is.

Embarrassment

The beggar is embarrassed of himself and his own state. This is a strong emotional state
experienced upon having a socially or professionally unacceptable act or condition witnessed
by or revealed to others. Usually some amount of loss of honour or dignity is involved, but
how much and the type depends on the embarrassing situation. He embarrassed with the way
he eats, thus he passes an embarrassed smile to the waiter when he sees him stare.

The beggar is embarrassed with his whole being and changes everything the minute he can
from is clothes to his hair.

Contentment and pleasure

in the end after having one of the weirdest days in his life the beggar is extremely content and
satisfied with living life like the rich people do. He experiences immense satisfaction in
having experienced living with money and luxuries, even if it lasted just one day.
Emotional Analysis Practical

Prakriti Gupta

M.A. Previous Year 1st Semester