Asif Khan Inc.

The Motorcycle Diaries

‘Let the world change you…and you can change the world.’

‘The Motorcycle Diaries’ traces the journey made across the heart and soul of South America by one of the the biggest revolutionary icons in the history of Latin American, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna, better known as ‘Che’ Guevara, accompanied by his friend, Alberto Granada on a beat up 1930s Norton christened as ‘The Mighty One’ (which ‘peed’ oil, backfired and had the inadvertent tendency of skidding across the road at any apparent indication of a turn).

The journey starts with the young and impressionable, slightly asthmatic medicine student, Ernesto (or Fuser, as he was addressed to by Alberto) and the brash, know-it-all, biochemist Alberto determined to scale the length of the continent on their motorbike, leaving the beautiful Patagonian landscape of Argentina (Dec’ 51), crossing over to Chile (Feb’ 52) via the Andes amidst chilling snowfall, reaching Peru (Mar’ 52) to the largest leper colony in South America, San Pablo, navigating across the Amazon to eventually reach Colombia (Jun’ 52) and Venezuela (Jul ’52), covering a distance of more than 13,000 kms.

The beauty of the movie lies in the subtle manner in which it has portrayed the evolution of a young, impressionable human being with upright ideals into man who was set to change the world view of the Latin American world. When they embark on this journey, their only objective is to probably ‘travel for travel’, have fun on the way (‘get laid in every town, if we are lucky’, as Alberto says), and come back to lead normal, distinguished lives as practitioners of medicine. This facet of their objective remains till the time Ernesto bids farewell to his sweetheart, Chichina till the time of the failed-attempt-at-seducing-bike-mechanic’s-wife-run-for-life.

The change starts becoming apparent once they cross over the Andean landscape and see the plight of the farmers being thrown off their land by unscrupulous landlords, the manner in which they are trying to unite themselves to combat the problems and issues common to them all, people homeless and workless leaving their native places, reaching out for work in mining quarries at the risk of their lives, the way in which their indigenous civilization was destroyed by the onslaught of European ‘civilization’ (the memorable sequence at Machu Picchu, the cradle of the Incan civilization). The event which probably did contribute the most to ensuring what Ernesto had in front of his life, was their stay at San Pablo among the lepers. The most portentous scene in the entire movie is the one in which Ernesto, on the night of his birthday (and the final night at San Pablo, which he was celebrating with the doctors and other members of the colony at the northern bank of the Amazon), jumps across the river to spend his final night with the lepers staying on the southern bank. It was portentously metaphorical in ways more than one: the jump across the river implying that Ernesto had made up finally made up his mind on what lay ahead for him and was leaving the distinguished life for which he was preparing himself: the remark of the onlookers that ‘no one had ever swam across the river as long as one remembers’: the lepers (societal rejects) egging him on towards them and rejoicing in his triumph over the tidal currents of the Amazon.

The haunting B&W images of the folks he had experienced on the journey which changed his world view of life around him are thought invoking (like I always feel, its B&W which actually brings out the true colors of life).

All in all, an amazing story put together which shows the coming of age of Ernesto to Che, a changed man out to change the world. Kudos to Walter Salles, the stellar performances of Gael Garcia Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna, and the absolutely stunningly captivating soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla.