Mr Bean - the Phenomena

Guest Column: Gautam M

 

 Bean Episodes and Bean Movies

Mr Bean is like a fresh breeze from the river and a call to the nature - a desire for a simple life surrounded by simple people like Bean. On the hindsight, Bean is an ailment each one of us carries in our adult full-grown body – a trait of childish idiosyncrasies, in varying degrees. The character that was grown in British downtown, torpedoes British gentlemanliness  and poke fun on the erstwhile world colonial ruler's etiquette and customs.

A scene from Bean's Holiday

Bean devises his own world of daily routines – carrying many a utility tools inside his plain coat and is never shy to experiment and pick up a few shillings by dancing on the downtown street or using his drilling machine making a hole big enough in the room next to his in a Hotel, to mischievously access a bathroom, as if a silent dignified (?) rebellion for the hotel offering him a room without an attached bathroom-cum-toilet. Often the modern gadgets play truant to the simple living style of Bean when he brings his first TV at home that relays images when only he is not in front of the TV or again, in the movie Bean, when he kicks and pushes a whole Turkey into the Microwave Cooker that bursts or in another Christmas episode( it’s my favourite too), when Bean loses his wrist watch inside the Turkey’s tummy and then ends up locking his head inside the same to retrieve the watch. The acting is so natural one forgets that it’s an acting but watching someone’s real life like a peep show.

Christmas : A Turkey struck on head

Whatever may be the background that gave the world a character bubbling with life – Bean, the Englishman of contrast - is so popular and his typicality in taking quicker turns to poke at the society where he lives and even poking at himself. That’s a humble man who carries on with his life the way he leads is what raises our brows with Ohhs! The style of this performer was inspired by Buster Keaton and Jacques Tati.

BACKGROUND : ORIGIN OF THE CHARACTER

The character was first tried and tested by the actor in 1979 in a Montreal Laughter Show, Canada where he wanted to present the English act before the French audience and to get a feel how the play would be received by non-English speaking audience. The response was good. And Mr Atkinson went on to sculpt Mr Bean – the character is Mr Atkinson’s baby though the scripts that we equally adore are mostly written by Robin Driscoll, Richard Curtis, Ben Elton(one episode). These names of script writers are worth a note of thanks from the Bean fans as well. What came out as a creative product that will become an all-time asset of a civilization - compassion, kindness, equality and struggle for survival as a hotly misused terminology?  Bean, is the balm in this highly polarized and highly divisive world where equity, justice, money power and muscle power – all go hand in hand while Bean, the hapless,brings fresh air and poke funs at our own miseries.

Mr Bean in bed with only companion of life : a doll 

MR BEAN CHARACTER TRAITS AND RECOLLECTION

Bean plays like a buffoon or a super-intelligence guy with his subtle tricks to let  hell break loose in an fair or visiting a exhibition that has a shop offering a prize bet for throwing soaked sponge to hit the target: an old man’s protruded head, and the failed frustrated thrower loses his temper and begin picking up and throwing hard objects on display, targeting the anxious face just to win the bet – the sore point of betting competitions that make man insane; or yet in another movie, changing the speed level to high during a thrill ride in a fair as Bean needs much higher and faster levels of adventure or else he dozes off while co-passengers cheer and celebrate. An alien streak in Bean and the super intelligence which he keeps under wrap and leads an ordinary life.

In the episode The curse of Mr. Bean,   Bean displays his liking to be a self-doer than a buyer of services and  makes a sandwich sitting on a roadside bench where another gentleman was eating his ready-made sandwich. And  Bean as usual,  always likes to compete and display his queer innovative instinct in using a scissor to cut bread, socks for grinding vegetables inside and the shoes for smashing the leaves and making way into two bread slices to make his own sandwich. Perhaps, a silent protest against the mechanization of life with all ready-meals and time saving mechanized devises. Bean is just a next-door law abiding citizen who often becomes a law-forgetting citizen like a child. And, he never suffers from guilt, for doing all kind of silly mischief in the world and try to hoodwink the law at times. No wonder, Bean has majestically entered the dining rooms of the families where people can always try and discover some inner traits that we suppress in the common interest of the society, but often suffocate with too much rules chaining people and their lives and they are not yet  free in a “free” society.

Mr Bean and a gentleman in a park:eating sandwich 

Bean making a strange sandwich!

 ACTING DISABILITY

Very few Bean fans knows about the speech deformities of Mr. Atkinson and the resulting inability to speak fluently. The speech weakness, this great man made his strength and an acting style evolved with total reliance on physical comedy with very few words spoken by Bean– even if he speaks he speaks very slowly.  

“What’s your name, sir?”

A pause and then “BBBean …”( The B pronounced louder always) and a smile.

CAMERA ACTION

We raise a toast here for this great creator of character and the performer - Sir Rowan Atkinson, and the team of of co-writers for gifting a series that will remain etched as a pride possession in many home archives – the champion of simplicity and raw goodness…dropped like a flash of light on earth …CAMERA:ACTION: ….Mr Bean stands up and walks….  

Bean, Christmas  shopping and returning home driving car from roof!

Copyright @Gautam M 2012