Why So Serious?

Bramha made Horses and Donkeys with a difference, unfortunately his other creation- man is disregarding that difference...

India would have been deprived of the magnificent art, architecture, cuisines and literature with which the legendary Mughal emperors calligraphed the history of India if Behram Khan, Humayun’s general, decided to seek opportunities and explore the unexplored rather than grooming Humayun’s orphan Son Jallal-ud-din, who later went on to become Akbar the Great.

Everything around seems anarchic and absurd. Opportunism has suddenly become passive after assessing the futility of my decisions. The myth of Sisyphus is an exemplification of futility... he was punished by the Gods to carry a heavy stone over his shoulder and climb a mountain, only to see the stone fall down from the mountain. He would repeat the monotonous exercise untiringly again and again, knowing that the stone will never be perfectly placed on the paramount. Albert Camus in his essay “The Myth of Sisyphus” professes that the myth of Sisyphus is interpreted as a tragedy only because we assume Sisyphus to be unhappy of what he is doing; one must imagine Sisyphus to be happy, to make meaning out of life.

I further advocate the stance, Let it be assumed that no God punished Sisyphus to climb the mountain and try to place the stone, he did it out of his own free will (on hourly-daily-weekly basis as he obliged to do), knowing in his heart of hearts that the stone will never settle on the paramount. His act of climbing the mountain with the will to climb was neutralised by his pessimism about the stone being placed at the paramount. Time passed by, he dissolved himself physically and mentally into the act of climbing the hill with the stone mounted on his shoulder, making it his second nature. The stone, which he only removed at the pinnacle to be subsequently rolled down and lifted by him again, became an extension to his body.

A snail on the pinnacle observed Sisyphus religiously; matching if not exceeding Sisyphus’ passion to place the stone on the paramount. Sisyphus’ physical strength, honed over years of repetition of the same act was also matched by the Snail with his steel like shell. Slowly, the Snail, without informing Sisyphus, started to push the small stones off the paramount by the force of his shell. He went over to the extent of rubbing his shell against the rough and sharp edges of the pinnacle to smoothen them. The shell did not break, not because Zius/Bramha blessed the snail with an unbreakable shell; the Snail knew his physical limitations, beyond which he tactically pushed and rubbed his shell against equally hard surfaces with an angle which would put bearable pressure on his shell. Watching the Snail, other snails also joined him and started doing the same. Not only did they remove the small stones which disbalanced Sisyphus’ stone, they also buffed the pinnacle to a flat base for the stone to settle on. All this happened in Sisyphus’ ignorance as his mind was focused on his climb and the stone, not on the pinnacle. Subconsciously he observed that Snail and later other snails on hill top.

One fine day, Sisyphus climbed the mountain with the stone over his shoulder, reaching the top, he tried to place the stone on the pinnacle, doing what he did for out of a mechanic reaction, he climbed down the hill to lift the fallen stone again; only to realise that the stone was not there, it was resting on the pinnacle. All of a sudden the jigsaw made sense to him; he could decipher the movement of the Snail on the hill top, slowly followed by other snails. His mammoth achievement after countless attempts did not infuse joy in him, he realised that he could have cleared the pinnacle with one strong brush of his foot for which a Snail had to risk his shell!

As SOMEONE said, everyone is an opportunist, so was the Snail in my story, he worked to clear the pinnacle, not out of a sense of duty but out of the need of the stone to be placed on the pinnacle which would enable him to defy the barrier of height over which the mountain took pride, and use the stone, placed on the mountain, to reach a height, unachieved previously and thereafter.

And So He did!

Its 3:20 a.m and I should sleep or study for my Rise-fall test, but at Night i don’t want a Fall.
I will watch As Good As it Gets for the Nth time.

“Always Look At the Bright Side of Your Life”
Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson)

Cheeni Kum

Cheeni kum marks a non-conventional Bollywood cinema.

The element of comedy and the chemistry between a 64 year old ‘young’ chef, played by Amithabh Bachchan and a 34 year old Indian tourist, portrayed by Tabbu, bridge the age gap of 30 years between the two.

Amitabh Bachchan’s vigor style and overall appeal which makes him irresistibly sexy justifies his candidature for a lead role at the age of 64 while his contemporaries are battling it out in politics. His overcoat and muffler, glasses, ponytail, jeans and even the tracksuit add heat to his aura.

With London as backdrop, Tabbu’s criticism of the Zafarani Biryani marks the onset of the romance between her and Big B which gets intense by Tabbu’s regular visit to his restaurant, long walks and spending time together for London sightseeing.

Tabbu fits in the role of a matured and daring single woman who consciously falls in love with a guy six years elder to her father!

Under the direction of R Balakrishnan the title track of the movie, Zohra Sehgal as Big B’s amusing mother and Big B’s affection for the 7 year old girl, ‘Sexy’ who is suffering from blood cancer are the elements apart from the age-gap afflicted love story that keep the viewers in high sprits during the first half of the film.

Paresh Rawal, who plays a Gandhian father, fails to live up to the expiations set by the viewers.

In the second half Delhi is canvassed as the backdrop and viewers can afford to go out of the hall to grab cold drink and pop corn or even attend the not so important calls because the film goes off-track and becomes stretched at times.

The climax is chaotic as Paresh Rawal goes on fast to stop his daughter from marrying a man almost twice her age; this act amuses his neighbors but not the viewers.

The film also acts as an advertisement film since stuff like spices, artificial sugar, glasses and motorcycles are marketed effectively through surrogate advertising.

The editor of the film must have been on a holiday as the latter part of the movie goes offbeat. The first half is unquestionably entertaining and hilarious but after the second half you will feel “movie me Cheeni Kum hai.”

Die Hard 4

It’s Willis all the way!

Bruce Willis hits the silver screen in his most famous portrayal as Detective John McClane in Live Free Or Die Hard a.k.a. Die Hard 4.0, the third installment of the famous film Die Hard which grossed over $100million worldwide and made Bruce Willis a household name.

If vintage action is what you crave for in the contemporary films then Die Hard 4 is the right liquor for you. Well past his prime, buried in debts, divorced and facing aloofness from his children; Detective John McClane safeguards a local hacker Matt Farrell (Justin Long) who is threatened and fights cyber terrorists who plan to halt the cyber and electric operations in the entire country and toy with it. Pistols, automatic Guns, crashing cars, bomb blasts, helicopters, jets; John plays with all of them and still without a broken bone!

It hardly takes time for the electrifying action in the film to bedazzle the viewers; saving Matt from a terrorist attack gives the viewers an idea of what’s in store for the next couple of hours.

Under the direction of Len Wiseman, the film differs in direction from the first three films as there is rap music playing in the backdrop instead of the original “let it snow” used in the first three films. After some encounters with the bad guys and blowing up a couple of cars and a helicopter; which marks action and special effects at its thrilling best; the viewers get a chance to come back to their senses in intermission.

When the local police, the intelligence agency and the F.B.I. fail to teach a lesson to the notorious terrorists, John McClane takes the task himself and escapes some near-death encounters while fighting with his bare hands. Action continues in the second half of the film and the action lovers of the 80’s get old wine in a new bottle.

The morphed President(s) speech and the breakdown of The White House are the two things apart from Bruce Willis which are remarkable on screen.

When the terrorists abduct John’s grouchy daughter things get personal and can only become more Action packed. The encounter between John’s truck and a fighter jet in the climax is the crown jewel of the movie and when all the dust and smoke is cleared the bruised Bruce saves his daughter and saves America yet gain; but this time its not Christmas, its 4^th of July, the American Independence Day. In the end it may appear to be an Amitabh Bachchan Bollywood action film in which the police arrives once the hero has floored the villain.

Bruce’s patent white west is replaced by green body hugging shirt to cover his age but even at 52 Willis looks fit enough to give complex to a 20 year old in a gym and it goes without saying that he was born to do the role of Detective John McClane.

The overpowering action in the film veils your eye to find a technical flaw in the film (if there is any) but over all its well directed, edited and action is used in profusion at the right time

(You can say all the time).

If you haven’t seen the prequels to the film even then you can go for it as there is hardly any link established but once you see this, you will be raring to watch the first three action packed and equally exciting films, but be cautious to leave its after-effects in the multiplex rather than being John McClane yourself while you drive back and yell “Yippee-Ka-Yee!”