Vincent Vega

'If wishes were horses, beggars could ride'
How I wish I were Mia Marsellus!

I am a huge fan of Quentin Tarantino. So much so that I wish my other favourite Vishal Bharadwaj should have stayed away from Tarantino's genre when he made his half-baked 'Kaminey'. Unintentionally, I believe Anurag Kashyap is closer home to Tarantino - especially in 'Gulaal'.

I have watched 'Pulp Fiction' at a much later date than 'Kill Bill'(another personal favourite). I have never watched the entire movie in one go. I have watched the bits and parts several times. And my favourite part is when Vincent Vega(the incredibly sexy Travolta) takes out Mia Marsellus(the uber gorgeous Uma Thurman) to a restaurant quirkily named 'JackRabbit Slims' (this is vintage Tarantino for the uninitiated).

The sexual tension between Vincent and Mia is apparent right from when he steps into Marsellus' plush apartment and hears Mia over the intercom. The song in the background is 'Son of the Preacher'. Mia comes into the room - you can see that she has bobbed black hair with fringes on her forehead. She is wearing a white shirt and black trousers which stop a little short of her ankles. You can't see her face because she's filming with a handycam. A bizarre interview follows where Mia captures Vincent's answers in a handycam. I love the part when Mia asks Vincent 'Favourite way of saying thank you?' and Vincent replies 'Merci Beaucoup'.

They leave for dinner at JackRabbit Slims where Mia has reserved a 'car'. Mia orders a 'bloody' hamburger with a 5$ shake while Vince settles for a 'bloody' steak with a Vanilla Coke. Their conversation is highly ordinary and yet extraordinary. The audience hangs onto every word practically. She speaks of a pilot TV show she had done. He gingerly asks her about one of her admirers who had attempted to give her a foot massage and was consequently dropped down 4 floors all the way through a greenhouse by Marsellus! After finishing their food, they enter a dancing competition where they dance 'twist' to 'Ces't La Vie'. Travolta has twinkle toes(remember 'Saturday Night Fever'?) and Uma was pretty nifty on her foot too.

They reach Mia's apartment and he goes to the loo while she plays 'Girl - You'll be a Woman Soon'. He resolves to just have a drink and leave as soon as possible. While she ODs on heroine!
Vince rushes a bleeding and unconscious Mia to his drug-dealer friend and after marking her heart with a red 'Magic Marker' - he jabs an adrenaline shot. She comes to life with a gasp and Vince and his crony roll on the floor with relief. He drops her home and they conspire to disclose nothing about Mia's ODing to Marsellus. Vincent tells Mia 'Now if you'll excuse me, I will go home and have a heart attack'.
While finally leaving, Vincent blows a kiss at Mia - something which she never sees because she has her back turned towards him.

And there end Vince and Mia. At a later part of the movie he asks her about how she is doing. And she answers him. But that's it. The magic of the whole episode is in the pulsating sensuality held back by almost superhuman restraint. It is the holding back which has enhanced the passionate nature of their encounter. Salute to Tarantino for capturing such unusual romantic magic on celluloid!