Two of a kind

To be honest I was more scared than thrilled at the prospect of watching Paradesi given the pedigree of its director. Bala is the master of pathos, whose films have a heart-wrenching portrayal of the not-so-ordinary people of the society. If Sethu dealt with the transformation of a college student into a mentally retarded person, then Nandha was about a protagonist who gets killed by his mother. If Pithamagan revolved around a grave digger, then Nan Kadavul dealt with the lives of Aghoris and the travails of beggars. I enjoyed (though with a heavy heart) his first three creations, but Nan Kadavul didn't impress me and hence skipped his penultimate offering Avan Ivan. So here I was re-entering the world of Bala after a break of one movie and hence all the trepidation. You might ask why force myself to do something when I am not so comfortable doing it. That's because deep down I have lot of respect for Bala, who has the rare ability to create unconventional characters that get completely assimilated into the narrative without disrupting its flow. And added to it there were all the rave reviews floating on the internet.

The milieu is a rural village in Madras Presidency during the British Raj. The first half is focused on establishing the lead characters and providing a glimpse into the social dynamics of the village. There is the protagonist Rasa raised by his harsh yet doting grandmother, whose sole purpose of existence is to fill the stomach. Then there is his uncle who is always drunk and seems to have lost count of the women he had impregnated. And we have Angamma, an effervescent village damsel who engages in lighthearted banter with Rasa. A major highlight of the first half is the marriage sequence which brings to the fore the interplay between different characters. There is also the sidetrack on the booming romance between the Rasa and Angamma. And just when you were on the verge of forgetting this is a Bala movie, there comes the first reminder in the form of the 'Kangani' (slave recruiter). From then on it is a one way descent into agony and suffering.

The Kangani on the pretext of providing better wages along with food and shelter, convinces the villagers to work in the tea plantations owned by the British. But once they reach there, they realize they have been duped into working in absymal conditions and there is no way out of this hell. Right from the British to their fellow countrymen, they are betrayed and exploited till they give up and surrender to the futility of the situation. You can't help but wonder if there is any other species on this earth which so shamelessly exploits members of its own kind just for its own betterment. Kudos to Bala for exploring a relatively unknown dark  episode of our own country in such a gritty and poigant manner without any commercial compromises. And he is ably supported by his cinematographer and music director who capture the mood through their sepia visuals and melancholic sounds.

But when you are watching such movies where the innocent are just free-falling into more and more suffering, the viewer becomes disillusioned and gets submerged in a sea of grief. So for all those distraught souls who want to indulge in some vicarious pleasure of good bashing the evil, I would suggest watching the English movie 'Django Unchained' directed by Quentin Tarantino. Tarantino is a maverick genius known for his unconventional but highly gripping narratives, which have complete disregard for both history and geography. In Django, he choses a theme very similar to that of Paradesi, the era of black slavery and racism in the United States of America. But in his own inimitable style, he uses slavery as a running leitmotif and unleashes an improbable chain of events through some strange concoction of characters. 

The movie begins with a German bounty hunter releasing a black slave from his white masters and together they indulge in bounty hunting, with the final goal of freeing the black man's wife from a notorious white plantation owner. True to its intended Western Spaghetti style, we see the protagonists riding on horses with cowboy hats, drawing guns at the speed of light and shooting anything that is white and mean. Then there are the Tarantino regulars like the insane shootouts where blood becomes spray-paint and internal organs get splattered all around. Amidst all this there are the occasional glimpses of racial segregation and the inhuman treatment meted out to the blacks, which have striking similarities to scenes in Paradesi.

The movie becomes more engaging when the protagonists meet the plantation owner to rescue the black man's wife from him. From then on there is a palpable tension in the air as to how the events will turn out to be. The sequence at the dinner table in particular keeps you at the edge of the seat and it is made all the more gripping due to the stellar cast of Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Waltz and Samuel L.Jackson. And the roller coaster ride comes to an end with an incendiary climax, that is befitting of the outlandish yet enjoyable narrative that preceded it. So for those feeling very heavy after having Paradesi as a main course, you can try a light dessert named Django Unchained.     
      

BANG !

It is very depressing to see scores of people die in an accident. And it is all the more distressing when the 'accident' is a premeditated effort by some corrupted human minds. Once such cowardly heinous crime is the act of terrorism, where in the name of religion (almost always) innocent lives and their dreams are snuffed out in a split second. Until the last decade you could maximize your lifespan by staying healthy, by minding your own business and being lucky enough to be not born into the Gandhi family (Remember Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi). But with the advent of terrorism the rules of the game have all changed. And what is most frightening about this barbaric spineless act is that they are very random in nature and completely unpredictable, as the perpetrator has no specific grudge on the victims. The majority of the victims are just collateral damage and the only mistake they commit is being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is as if our destinies should be re-written to account for this new avatar of death ! 

Every time there is a terrorist attack, the first thing that comes to my mind is the huge void left behind by the victims among their family and friends. Their lives are never going to be the same and they have to live with this grief for their entire lifetime. Then I think of all the dreams that the poor souls would have nurtured for a long long time and how they have been shattered so mercilessly in the blink of an eye. Once I get over all this grief,  the question that pops up in my mind is "When will be my turn as a victim?". It might seem very hysterical, but then these attacks don't occur in some distant battlefields or in some highly secured government buildings. They occur in places where an ordinary man like me would hang out with friends or go shopping or just cross by. The very clandestine nature of these attacks make it very difficult for even the most efficient governments to prevent them and hence it would be unrealistic to expect our government to be any better. So as an individual I have taken it upon myself to safeguard my life. On days that are considered auspicious by terrorists like Independence Day, Republic Day and a bunch of other days, I don't venture out to crowded places or use any sort of public transport. And on ordinary days when I am forced to venture out to a shopping mall, my antennas are constantly scanning for ULOs (Unidentified Lying Objects) and suspicious looking men, thereby running the huge risk of losing focus on the lady accompanying me! And the moment I sense an ULO, I tiptoe in a direction completely opposite to the object. It seems like a very selfish act but then I don't want to create chaos and panic just based on my hyper-active senses.

Similarly when I travel by buses, I ensure there are no unclaimed luggages near my vicinity. There was this one time when I was traveling to my native town in a government bus. The bus had made a short stop at an intermediate town and some passengers got down at their destination and some others got down to have refreshments. One of the passenger sitting a few seats ahead of me got down and I saw a bag lying under his seat. Immediately my radar got locked on to that location. It stayed locked for more than ten minutes and suddenly the bus throttled alive with the guy still not returning. I started to sweat profusely and wanted to jump out of the bus before something bad happened. But assessing the speed of the bus and my physical agility, I calmed down and decided to inform the conductor about the unclaimed luggage, all along hoping the bag only had a pair of boxers and some dirty trousers. He was initially hesitant and skeptical about my strange request but as I was persistent he gave in. The moment he came over and saw the bag a big smile broke on his face. It turned out to be his bag ! I felt very embarrassed and at the same time happy, for having done my best to live another day. But when it comes to trains I don't even have the luxury of being alert because my antenna doesn't have the required range and I just keep hoping the karmas of my previous lives will come in handy. And anyways the probability of the top berth falling on my head unable to hold the heavily snoring uncle is much more than an explosion ripping through my compartment.

If the above narrative sounds light-hearted, it is not due to non-cognizance of the gravity of the situation. But rather due to the acceptance of the futility of worrying about something over which I have no iota of control. Well I haven't completely given up and thats why I keep my senses extra sharp when I am out in the public, realizing well this increases my chances of survival only by a very meager amount. Thousands and thousands of innocent men and women have already 'sacrificed' their lives in the war against terrorism and it is more than high time we launched a global concerted effort to cull this menace. Unlike earthquakes and tsunamis, terrorism is a man made disaster borne out his own invention called religion. If the invention seems to cause more problems than provide solutions it serves well for the inventor to do away with it. Until then terrorism is here to stay.    

Why this Kolaveri !

Intolerance these days is a virtue frequented by those who are not completely convinced of their own beliefs. Either this or they seem to have all the time in the world to do nothing. Else how can you explain their propensity to agitate whenever someone even remotely seems to infringe on their beliefs. Hold on ! What did I just write. Oh shit ! I forgot to write the disclaimer and before any of your blood pressures start shooting up, I earnestly pledge to everyone out there that my words were not targeted at any religion, language, caste, color, creed, gender and what not. So please forgive me and don't descend at my doorsteps or my uncle's or my cousin's husband's sister's and disturb our peace of mind. Many might think that I am taking myself way seriously. Yes its true that I am an insignificant nothing in the public landscape. But there are many more such 'not so significant' people out there who want to become significant by targeting even a nothing like me (Let me throw some hints to prove my point in case. Sena - Hooliganism - Two girls - Social Network). So imagine the joy of such people when someone like Kamal Haasan - the unparalleled legend in the world of cinema - makes a movie on a very sensitive subject. Viola ! Its party time folks !

As a Kamal fan it was an established fact that I would be watching Vishwaroopam come what may. But with all the controversy surrounding the movie, I wanted to watch it at the earliest before the Tamil Nadu government chewed out some part of the movie. What I and almost everyone who watched the movie felt was that the movie depicted world events in their true self. The movie talks about the terrorists who operate out of Afghanistan and hence they turn out to be Muslims. There is isn't the slightest hint of any provocation and added to it Kamal is smart enough not to jeopardize his 95 crores investment by stoking any religious tensions. But like there is no absolute space and time, there is no absolute perspective too. So it is understandable that some Muslims felt hurt by the movie. In that case they could have simply abstained from seeing the movie. Or they could have requested Kamal to put a disclaimer saying 'All Muslims are not terrorists' (as demanded by some Muslim leaders in Karnataka), though I find it unnecessary mentioning Muslims in the same vein as terrorists.  But demanding to ban a movie that has been certified by the Censor Board is an unlawful act and attacks the strongest pillar of a democratic society - Right to Expression ! So such acts should be strongly condemned and dealt with by the government. Time and again the the cocktail of religion and movies has gone terribly sour and surely Vishwaroopam will not be the last one too.  

In India, not just religion but every component of the social fabric seems to cause trouble. Over the past decade there has been heavy migration between states which is a natural follow through of globalization. This has stoked regional fascism in many states to such an obscene extent that at times it disrupts the national integrity. Such in-tolerances occur in the flourishing regions where there is lot of migration to take part in the development process. People should realize that the prosperity of a region is majorly due to its geographical location and natural resources and not due to a particular caste or tribe. So just based on nativity one can't claim ownership of all the resources, because based on this argument then all the resources would belong to the pre-Dravidian tribes who are the real ancestors of India. The other problem with this migration is the perceived threat to language and culture. I understand that preserving language and culture is very important for the social development of humans, but not at the cost of harboring hatred for our fellow countrymen. In-fact there are lot of forums like arts, literature and movies to develop these social tools and so people who are very passionate about language and culture should participate in these. And finally comes the mother of all intolerances in the form of female subjugation. Indian society has made great strides with respect to female emancipation, but the mindset of many Indian males still seems to be stuck in the medieval times. They aren't able to tolerate the sight of a 'alpha female' and find cowardly means of asserting their male supremacy, the most gruesome of them being the crime of rape.                   

To those who have tolerated my monologue on intolerance and have come so far, I would like to tell you that I am not a completely tolerant person myself. I have not much interest in religion, region or language and respect women a lot (Come home and ask my wife :) ) and hence have no issues with these topics. But I adore a lot of exceptional human beings and when someone talks ill of these people, I fume internally and argue with them crazily giving my everything for the argument. But once the argument comes to a closure, I forget about it then and there and never land at their door steps rampaging their personal properties and thrashing their loved ones. The reason I don't indulge in such anti-social activities is that I am very strongly convinced of my beliefs and also believe every individual is entitled to his own belief which might or might not concur with mine. For all the negativity surrounding intolerance, we also shouldn't forget the part some intolerant people have played in the advancement of mankind. If Newton had tolerated the fact that apples fall on the head rather than flying into the atmosphere, gravity would be existing everywhere except within our brains. If Mother Teresa had been tolerant of the sufferings of the under-privileged, she wouldn't have made a immeasurable difference to the lives of so many needy people. If Martin Luther King had been tolerant of racial segregation, African-Americans would still be treated as second class citizens. And if our freedom fighters had been tolerant of the British Raj, we would still be part of the British empire (in a state of decay though) with the only bright spot being that people would be respecting the concept of queues. So it is very essential that we be intolerant towards things - ignorance, sufferings and wrongful doings - that will help in the development of the human race. And stop being intolerant in those directions that might lead us back to the stone ages !