A boy falls in unforbidden love with a tribal girl. The two go through a lot of trouble before
they eventually find them in each other’s arms but a man is pointing a gun at both of them about
to shoot, let’s see how the story goes! Welcome To Movie Recall. In Today's video,
we will be going through the 2003 Romance film : “The Sleeping Dictionary”.
It's Time To Recall. Let's Get Started.
Turn On Subtitles and Spoilers Ahead! The story begins in 1936, England at that time
reigned over so many countries, whoever wanted any government job was sent to the remote areas
for their education. They would do everything with them and when they came back, they would
join the job. Our main character in the story is a young and naïve Englishman named John Truscott.
He goes to Sarawak, a country that is nowhere near developed and so many people there do not
know his language. A guy who knows his language comes to him and greets him,
then he takes John to his officer. The man’s name is Henry and he has been there for a long time.
Henry asks John that he has so many other options, why did he choose to come to this place?
He tells him that his father served here. He wanted to educate these people and that he
is here to complete his father’s wish. Henry then tells him that he doesn’t think John will succeed,
he further adds that there is no use teaching these people.
Henry takes John to meet the head of the local tribe, he tells him that he will have to do
whatever he asks. To John’s bad luck, they bring him a drink, and John does not drink. But this
time he does so because it would be disrespectful if he does not drink. The drink is brought by a
beautiful girl named Selima. John really likes the girl, they all drink a lot, Selima dances with her
friends, people ask John to perform something for them and he reads out a poem to them,
which they find boring. A boy named Balensai then dances with John and everyone laughs.
The next morning, John is really embarrassed by what he did last night. Henry comes to him and
he brings Selima with him. Henry tells John that she will work exactly like his wife. He tells him
that if he wants to live here, he will have to learn the language and Selima is going to help
him with that. He further adds that if he wants to learn the language, he will have to be intimate
with her and this is the only way to learn the language. John seems baffled by the whole thing,
he does not even know the girl. Henry tells John that they have not forced the girl to do this,
she is there with her own consent. John agrees but he tells Henry that he is not going to be intimate
with the girl, Henry gets pissed off and leaves. Selima is also angry at him for what he said.
Some Chinese people enter their border and they fought with them,
the local people killed those Chinese and the king ordered them to bring their heads to him.
John asks Belansai to do this job and Belansai brings him a monkey’s head.
However, John does not recognize it and everyone laughs at him. John is new there and he feels
he is not being taken seriously. So, he plans to do something about it. When he comes home,
his chef brings a boy with him, introducing the boy as his nephew. The Chef tells John that he can
be intimate with him. He said that because John refused to be intimate with a girl and he thought
John was gay. John gets extremely angry, he says he is not going to tolerate this nonsense.
He also fires Selima and she goes outside. Chef tells him that if she goes out there being fired
by you, people are going to make fun of her for being ugly. John then goes to her and tells her
that this is not how things work in their society, he cannot be intimate with her just like that. He
says sorry to her and wants to try learning the language once again. Selima agrees with him.
In the next scene, we see John at Henry’s house, where he meets his wife Aggie. She asks him how’s
his sleeping dictionary? Selima’s profession is sleeping dictionary. This is the tradition
of this place. John and Selima sleep in the same room at night, but on different beds. Selima tells
him that if he has not been with any girl yet, he will be inexperienced when he gets married.
John makes fun of her notion and tells her that he will take a class. John then asks her why did
she choose him, she tells him that she thinks John is different. The next morning, John goes to meet
the local people, they are still not listening to him, he is teaching some kids but Belansai
says he finds no point in the kids learning this. John tells him he knows Belansai can
stay underwater for so long, he is the champion of it, and Belansai says yes, I am a champion. John
then asks him to a competition. Belansai comes out before John hence John wins the competition.
John has an oxygen cylinder with him and these people have no idea what an oxygen cylinder is.
After John beats Belansai, everyone starts listening to him and takes him seriously.
At night, Selima teaches him from a children’s book, she reads him a poem and this is the poem
that John’s father used to tell him when he was a kid. Selima tells him that her father
also read the same poem to her when she was a child. When she is teaching him the language,
she is also teaching him about the neck, feet, and other body parts. They start touching each
other and then they proceed to have sex. They then frequently start doing it. One night, after having
sex, they are lying together, and then Selima gets up to go to her bed. John asks her to stay but she
tells him that if they wake up being in the same bed together in the morning, they will have to
get married. The next evening, Henry invites John to his house, his daughter named Cecilia has just
gotten back from England after completing her education. They have dinner together. Cecilia
was researching this local place in England, she said there were so many strange traditions in this
place. If a new officer came there, they would get accompanied by a girl. She has no idea that
this tradition is still in practice. She wonders if the two would have any feelings between them,
but Henry points out that it would not be right to establish any feelings in this manner because this
is just a tradition. John however points out that it is possible that they might develop
feelings toward each other as he is developing for Selima. It does not sit well with Henry.
John comes back and passionately kisses Selima. The next day, John and Cecilia are
working together. John shows her all the places as she is conducting research on these people.
She is taking pictures of these people. She takes a picture of Selima, Selima doesn’t like it and
asks John to stop her. But John is unable to do so. Then we see some people come by the river
on a boat, the people are dead, presumably from a dangerous disease. John goes with some people
to investigate this, Selima and Belansai are also going with him. Before they leave,
Aggie comes to John and says that her daughter is so well educated and that John will be lucky
to have her, that’s why the two should get married. John is surprised to hear this,
Aggie pressures him to say yes or he will lose her. At night, John talks to Selima,
he asks her if there was any other officer like him with whom she slept, and Selima says yes.
Selima is angry at him for not protecting her earlier when Cecilia was taking pictures.
She tells him that he is just like others. John realizes that she is really angry at him.
The next day, John along with some other people goes upriver to investigate the disease in
the Yakata tribe as so many people are getting infected by it. John is then attacked by someone
and Belansai sees in time and saves John. They then follow that guy and find out that so many
people are mining silver. John realizes that they are the reason behind this disease. When he gets
back, he sees that Selima has also caught the disease. John remembers that Selima has eaten
rice, and the people who were mining there, gave them rice to eat planning to kill all of them,
they thought if all of them die, no one will find out about their mining. He guesses correctly that
the miners have poisoned the rice in order to get rid of the Yakata. Knowing that they
will exact vengeance, John tells the Yakata what has happened. The Yakata wipe out the miners.
On the other hand, John realizes that he is falling in love with Selima, he shares his
feelings with Selima and proposes to her to marry him. She says that people will not allow this.
John talks to Henry about this and Henry gets pissed off at him, telling him that this is not
allowed, he adds that this will be a disrespect to their government. Aggie overhears everything,
she tells John to forget about Selima and move on. John gives him an offer, John has to give
up Selima, and go to Britain for a year's vacation to meet Henry’s daughter Cecilia. He says that If
John rejected his offer, he will send him to trial for the death of the European miners. Meanwhile,
the tribe leader also blackmails Selima that if she does not let go of John, the people will kill
Belansai. Belansai’s father begs her but she does not listen. So they lock her up. John comes to
her, she says to him that she told him this was never possible. Henry gives the last warning to
John and Selima, saying if they don’t listen to them, both of them will end up behind the bars.
Selima does not want to see John in jail so, she says she will never meet John again.
In the next scene, we see one year has passed, John gets married to Cecilia. On their wedding
night, Cecelia asks John if he has ever had any sleeping beauty. John tells her the truth but
Cecilia is not really bothered by it. John goes back to the tribe again, they go to watch a movie
but John keeps looking here and there for Selima. Cecilia notices it and tells John that she knows
everything about him and Selima. She then tells him that Selima is married and also has a kid. She
tells John that she too wants him to be happy with her. The next day, John comes to see his old house
and finds another officer named Nevil living there with a sleeping dictionary. He sees that Nevil has
been physically abusing the girl. So, he tells Nevil that if he laid a hand on the girl again,
John would cut off his private body parts. One day, John is near the river and he sees Selima
with her son, the boy is white which means he is actually John’s son. John asks his chef to set up
a meeting with Selima who tells him that he has already tried and that Selima is not interested
in meeting John at all. However, John somehow manages to meet her and he also meets his son,
he sings him the song his father used to sing for him. The next day, John is making a toy for the
boy and Aggie sees him. She understands everything and confronts him. She warns John, saying that she
will not let this happen to her daughter. John does not listen to her and starts spending time
with Selima and his son regularly. Belansai who is now Selima’s husband sees all this and tries to
kill John at night. Henry decides that he is going to have Belansai executed for attempted murder.
Henry reveals to John his past about his own 'sleeping dictionary', which resulted in the birth
of another child and that child’s name is Selima. Selima is actually Henry’s daughter. When Belansai
is caught for trying to kill an officer, he is sentenced to be hanged. Selima is not happy
that Belansai will be killed as he's been a good father to Mandar. Not wanting to kill Belansai who
was once a friend to John, John goes through with announcing Belansai's hanging as he had no other
option. Later that night, Selima tries to break Belansai out, not knowing John is already there.
When she walks over to the jail cell, she sees John breaking Belansai out and handing him a gun.
As Belansai escapes, John asks Selima to meet him at the dock so they can escape on the boat.
Meanwhile, John finds out that Cecilia is pregnant. He gets confused and starts writing
a letter. Cecilia comes to him and tells him to go to Selima, saying that she does not want to force
him into this relationship. In the meantime, Selima has been forced to become a sleeping
dictionary for Nevil, at night, Nevil forces her and she with the help of the chef kills her.
She then goes to the dock and waits for John. John gets there late and does not find Selima.
Henry on the other hand has found Selima knowing that she has murdered Nevil,
instead of arresting her, he helps her escape. Aggie on the other hand is pissed off at Henry
for letting Selima escape, Henry tells her that he knows what’s best for his daughters
and that he will take care of everything. It turns out that Nevil is still alive
and Aggie was behind the whole thing when she made Selima his sleeping dictionary.
Aggie is now so angry at John and Selima that she orders Nevil to kill both of them.
John is looking for Selima everywhere, he finally finds her, and the two hug and kiss. This is when
Nevil comes, having a gun with him. He goes on to handcuff John and starts harassing Selima.
Suddenly, some tribal people come there, these are the people who John once saved from dying,
so, they owe their lives to John. The tribal people kill Nevil and save John and Selima from
the devil. Then we see Selima is sad knowing that she will never be able to go back, and if
she does, she will be executed. She then says to John that if he decides to stay with her here,
he will never be able to go back, she says that he will have to live in this jungle forever. John
tells her that he does not need anything else, he is with his family. The three of them are happy
together. And this is where the movie ends. Thanks for watching.
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