Roads

Frost talks about the Road Not Taken. I am here to talk about the road I took. If you ask me whether I reached somewhere travelling on this particular road, well, not yet. The journey through a specific road, no matter what it is , is always a suspense. You never know what is in reserve for you at the end.

The journey may be either very smooth or with all kinds of hurdles. People say, if the journey is difficult the climax would be favourable. Not necessarily. People strive to travel in a particular road an yet they fail to get what they expect.

Now , you may think that I lost what I expected by travelling on this road. well. I dont really reached the destination to give such an answer. But its true that I strive to travel on this road , and I am trying hard to get the best out of it. After all, this is one road which I never expected to take, but eventually I took. Now, its inevitable for me to get the best out of it.

'KHAN’ RULES OUT

Once again democracy rules the roost. After much hue and cry the ‘cliff hanger’ over the release of ‘My Name Is Khan’ ended on an exultant note. The whole situation exemplifies the dictum:” personal is political. ”The pot-boiler sprung out from the actor and co-owner of Kolkata Knight Riders, Sharukh Khan’s reluctance to apologize for saying Pakistani Cricketers should have been picked for the Indian Premier League. Even though the Shiv Sena activists under the leadership of Bal Thackeray triumphed in stimulating a tremor down the spines of Mumbaikars, the public walked out valiantly in order to watch their favourite star’s block-buster. Theatre owners of Inox, Fun cinema and other multiplexes in Mumbai were dwindling in their decision whether to screen the film or not. Finally the whole array of events led to a climax with a cathartic effect. The tickets were auctioned on eBay for *1000[rs.6000] and sold out in five seconds at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Mr. Khan’s obduracy in clinging on to his stand amidst the controversy extracted much support from the film industry too. Earlier Karan Johar, the director of the film was also been criticized and made to apologize to Raj Thackeray[MNS]for using ‘Bombay’ instead of ‘Mumbai’ in one of his films. Thackeray even went to the extend of calling Sharukh Khan “a traitor”. The brothers’[MNS & Shiv Sena] effort to build up a political niche by blind folding the people through ‘fake tradition’ and ‘jingoism’ by problematising narrow issues finally defunct in a quagmire; in effect the backlash helped only to blacken the image of respective parties. The protest against this kind of parochial politics is the triumph of Republic and Democracy which cuts through the subterfuge to attain the desired end.

The political and public interference; say for instance the enthusiasm shown by the Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil and other ministers to promote the screening of the film has been quite appreciative. It is not a question of screening the film which matters but the profound question of ‘rights’: the right to freedom; freedom of opinions and freedom to do anything that law abides. To curtail that right is to violate the Law and Constitution. Politics is not a child’s play and no party has the right to deny public freedom and opinion in a democratic set up like India through threats and violence.

Brando the Hunk and other musings:): Review of A Streetcar Named Desire

Directed by Ella Kazan, the movie is an adaptation of Tennessee Williams' play by the same name. Released in 1951 the movie stars Vivien Leigh, Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter. It is rated at 8.1 on a scale of ten at the IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base). We had a screening of the movie at the Institute yesterday (for those who have the problem of spacio temporal disorientation, the date was 11 feb 2010). I had been thinking about bunking the screening due to some technical reasons (read Term Paper submission) but because Pramod had 'dumped' the CD on me I was obliged to be there and to say the least it was worth it! Can anyone look handsome, adorable, violently angry and drunk all at the same time? Marlon Brando can! The movie was one of the few instances in Hollywood industry were the Broadway cast was repeated with few changes in the movie remake, though Jessica Tandy was replaced by Vivien Leigh. Now I was quite surprised to come back home and find out that Leigh bagged the Best Actress Oscar for the movie while poor Brando did not get any:(. Personally speaking, Leigh looked like she was Sheela's elder sister, Brando was much more natural. In fact he is considered one of the pioneers of method acting. By now any one of you who have bothered to read the post must be very clear about where my allegiances lie, right? Before I turn this into a paean of praise devoted to Marlon Brando, let me move on to the subtler details.
Desire, as an underlying motif, is present throughout the movie in the clanging sounds by the streetcar in the background. But basically I think the movie, or for that matter the play also, is about the dichotomy of illusion and reality. Stanley Kowalski, an ex- serviceman, stands for the world of reality. He despises any show of grandeur and sees through Blanche's pretensions right in the beginning. Used to all those 'virtuous' heroes in the Indian movies i should admit that I was a bit taken aback by the final allusion to rape. Stanley and Blanche are on a collision course from the first time they meet. Stan loathes Blanche all the more because she makes her sister Stella ashamed of him, of his primal behaviour. He spoils Blanche's and Mitch's wedding plans citing her flirtatious and shady past as a reason. He claims that he does not want one of his friends to spoil his life by entering into wedlock with his sister- in- law. But one can always doubt his intentions, the fact remains that the movie is titled "A Streetcar named Desire".
What i would consider as one of the highlights of the movie, besides the script, would be the 'abuse' scenes. I am not sure if it is the director's skill or the actors', but it has to be mentioned that the scenes look so so real. Especially the one's between Stan and Stella. Now I also know from where Mani Ratnam got his idea of love- hate relationship between Inba and Shashi (Madhavan and Meera Jasmine) in Ayudha Ezhuthu. The scenes in this Tamil movie are 'copy- paste' from Streetcar.
As in most Hollywood productions, this one also has a streak of patriotism in it. Stan is often reffered to as the Polack by Blanche, in one of their confrontation scenes Stan screams at Blanche that he is a proud American! and not a Polack!!!
Now I have left many things unsaid in this review here in the hope that others will pitch in with their share of criticism. Awaiting your responses...

Mathiyakkiyo?

Kachavadam poottiiyo?

Break the silence

What's happening guys? Why this hiatus?

A Love Story

she clatters her way through my upper shelf

dissembling books from their literal dispositions

forcing me as a metaphor of pity's metonymy

purging my symmetry and assembling anomalies.

i wake up to find my wretched dream

dreamed into my now slumber life

left to deify her delightful ego

from the letters of my once adored language.

Antichrist- short short review

The difficulties that I had to surmount to watch this movie will run into pages but that not being the primary concern here let me go to the effect that the movie had on me. It was two hours of shock, horror and repulsion. After this movie I don't think I am ever going to be shocked at any of those accounts or sights of sexual violence on man or woman. I don't even understand how the actors were able to carry it out. Friends who were sitting on either side swore that they are never going to bring me for the next version of IFFK. After the movie I was really interested to know what exactly did the director Lars von Trier want to signify with all that sexual violence on screen...he must have meant something. The reviews talked something about the biblical allusions and all...but here is my take on it. The present world is so full of violence and the movie employs a kind of alienation effect wherein the audience is jolted with such scenes that he sits up and realizes what he takes for granted is in fact a grave offense that may destroy mankind. It is intended to give a shock to the conscience of a society which teaches its children to be non- responsive and close their eyes to such crimes (and wait till it happens to you to take some action). I wonder if the eve- teasers and the rapists get the point...#!*%
PS: For those of you who are wondering why this post has no head and not tail, this is just a section from another post in another blog:-)