Saturday, December 25, 2010

RIP 2010

The year in which
Com. Jyothi Basu died.
BT Brinjal paused.
Information highway leaked.
Octopus predicted.
Chile resurrected.
Burma freed.
Dreams incepted.
Ayodhya split-verdicted.
Haiti trembled.
Binayak Sen gagged.
Leader faded.
Europe Eyjafjallajokulled.
Dantewada raged.
Nandhalala released.

Life,
continued.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Inception , The Leap of Faith

Leap of Faith 





Early in the movie, Saito had offered Cob a choice and urged him to "take a leap of faith" .

Later, when Cob meets the aged Saito in his limbo, it was time for Cob to remind Saito of the idea planted inside him. "..take a leap of faith. let us return back as young men together".

Mal too is seen prodding Cob "to take the leap of faith". "how long would you continue to be hunted down by corporates and international security agencies? Take your leap of faith and stay with me. This is reality"

Cob wouldn't!

Elsewhere in his dream, he once took a similar leap, by anchoring himself to Mal (or rather to the chair she was seated in) with not so convincing results.

Standing between two mirrors, it is indeed difficult to differentiate between the multiple reflections. Once the barrier between the images is broken (as was done by the architect, Ariadne) it becomes easier to connect and walk through the multiple levels of dreams, as if in a single continuous walkway.

By the end of the 10 hour journey (a giant leap?) Cob is ready to 'face ' his kids. The single obstacle that stood between him and his kids - guilt- has been dealt with!

Incepted Totems
Fisher tries to 'plant' the idea - that which connects him to his father- as a framed photograph by his father's death bed. And laments that his father fails to notice it.

But in another dream, in another space , his father had placed the wheel to be discovered later by his son.

All other totems lose their significance. The top continues to spin or does it wobble?
Does it matter?

Dream and Reality
Like in any other dream, you never knew when the movie itself started. Thats because there were no opening credits at all. You just find yourself in the middle of the movie. You never   (you dont have to) know where it began and where it ends.( In fact if you decide to pursue the beginning and end (like an eternally nested   group of parenthesis ) you would be left wondering if your visit to the movie hall was  a dream. Or reality.)

And as Nolan ( the dream keeper in Yousuf's basement) says : " Dream is the reality. Who are you to say otherwise?".  There is no point in differentiating between dream and reality. You never know what you are looking for.

The top continues to spin ? Or does it wobble?
Does it matter? Ever?

Whats there in for you?
The snow sequences open with a close up of Cob focusing his view finder on Fisher. Ariadne calls out Cob's name - as if trying to wake him up from his sleep. Cob wonders 'whats in store down there for Fisher'. Ariadne retorts "Whats in there for YOU?"

Each viewer has a different  response. And it varies with each viewing experience.

PS: Wondering how Nolan planted the idea of making such a movie into the  consciousness of  the big corporate , Warner Bros. And its said that Nolan took 10 years to make this 'Leap of faith'.

Read previous post on Inception dreams here 

..and your comments?

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Aham Brahmasmi - Nan Kadavul



Bala breaks  quite a few  idols. Divine as well as the celluloid ones.

Picha edukurathukku intha vesham thaan kedachutha?” he (one of his characters) asks those dressed up as tamil cine actors.

Hard hitting.

The gods are ridiculed, abused and exposed. It was a masterstroke of Bala to let us focus on the god man up the hill  who ‘never speaks or opens his eyes’. And let him declare finally  ‘naan sami illai’ .  That’s when the viewer should have been made to realise “Aham Brahmasmi” (Nan kadavul). And the personification of aham , is the protoganist of this movie-who can decide one’s fate in this and the next incarnation. 

Yes. The body in this world and the soul for ever  can be liberated. (Where is Nair’s body? BTW )  

Realise the truth (Aham Brahmasmi)
Get yourself liberated in this and subsequent births .
Return to your guru.

The synopsis is illustrated in a wider canvas. Hindi, Tamil ,Malayalam speaking characters  expose the  pan Indian market  where citizens are traded as commodities.

Like the physical deformities of the characters , quite a few  populate the movie too. The compromises catering to a wider audience conditioned by the song and dance sequences of tamil cinema for example. Like a mainstream magazine running a story on *orn literature with illustrative excerpts , Bala introduces the same sequences that he wishes to ridicule.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Inception , The plot, The synopsis




SPOILER ALERT!

Those who havent seen the movie yet, proceed at your own risk.









Mal(Cob's wife) 's presence is not mentioned because hers is a different orbit.
click to enlarge










Saturday, July 10, 2010

Bhoothakannadi


The Magnifying Glass
(July 03, 2010 We TV)



Revisiting the movie after a decade , its contemporaneous relevance helps us get closer to the movie and the issues raised in it more than ever.

Lohita Das's first directorial attempt , Bhoothakannadi (1997) hasnt been in the limelight unlike many of the movies which he directed or wrote. At the most, the film used to be referred to as the one in which Mamooty came up with a high voltage performance as Vidhyadharan, the clocksmith.

Vidhyadharan, who is addressed as Mani (reference to 'time'?) in the early part of the movie is a man from the 'pre development' era. One whose existence is threatened by the arrival of sophisticated quartz watches. He also represents the 'silent' majority of the Keralian society.

In the scene (arguably one of the most haunting ones in Malayalam cinema) where his neighbour -who also happens to be the one closest to his heart on earth- runs desperately crying her heart out into the middle of the night looking for her lost daughter followed by the villagers, Vidhyadharan, instead of going out to console her, feels more concerned about his own daughter. Or rather weighed down by his cowardice, he seeks justification for his inaction by expressing concern for his own daughter. Thats when he moves away from his terra firma and hides himself in his attic. He starts losing his sense of time.

In the next part of the movie, Mani, who is now referred to as Vidhyadharan, when faced with the reality of taking care of a family with a new wife and his grown up daughter, once again feels comfy by moving further away from reality.

Instead of facing the challenge of real world, he looks through his paranoid glasses and 'discovers' that there are others who need his care , attention and voice in the virtual world. His personal challenges are substituted onto a broader scale of society and while he loses himself in a wider perspective , ends up in a state he is not even able to recognize his own daughter, let alone the issue of raising her up.

Parallels can be drawn to any of the issues currently being magnified by the people of Kerala and its media.

Incidentally in one of the scenes the protagonist is seen imitating the swinging movements of a pendulum , moving Left and then Right... Left and then Right....

Time progresses?