Sense vs sensational

As already obvious I am a huge movie buff and love to read books and articles on how a film is conceptualised ,written, cast ,shot ,edited ; how an actor prepares or a cinematographer visualizes ; what is the director's vision and things which are really about the craft. But such articles are really not even 1% of what media writes about cinema. Most of the promotional interviews too have the (ironically) path breaking questions like how it is to work with each other or a funny incident on sets. Lol😂  I understand paparazzi is interested in celebrities and their personal lives. All of us are curious to some extent. But how much is fine?  We find articles ranging from Salman's nephew to who is doing who, star kids participating in a school competition to even how some star kid has a hot girlfriend. Recently Kangana-Hrithik issue was blown so much that a famous daily had a full page displaying  personal mail information with important words highlighted! How ridiculous is that! As individuals we always fear being judged for what we are. But when it's about celebrities it doesn't take even a full minute to form an opinion. It's also about  media sensationalism where there is no word called 'neutrality' .I feel saddened by such humongous media attention on a frivolous issue. Forget cinema, even if there is a serious debate in Parliament, its reported as how someone gave it back to someone else or how the former shut up the latter as if its happening in a rohit shetty/prabhu deva movie where dialogue-baazi happens between the hero and villain to prove who is stronger. We absolutely fail to have a rational debate. If a celebrity gave any statement against popular opinion, time is not spent to counter what he/she said but on how he doesn't have the right to have that opinion. I just wish that so called increasing literacy rate over the years has some actual effect on how we understand democracy, or atleast on the basic etiquettes of having a meaningful debate!!

I know there exists a whole community which craves for sensible  journalism be it any field. It's visible every now and then on social media. Thanks to internet that we atleast have a space to appreciate and encourage good work. Some hope!!

When life sucks..

Few days ago I had so much to write. My thoughts were flowing incessantly and it was difficult for me to pin down a certain thing among many in my head. Then suddenly came a string of failures in my life. What was definite according to me became a fantasy in a fraction of second. It's painful to deal with failure when you know it's your fault, atleast partially. But its mind numbing when you are not even responsible for it. It is challenging  already to convince people that you deserve success but to maintain the self confidence that you are still worthy is the bigger challenge in a crisis. So with the state of mind of a tragedy movie and the melancholy feel of jagjit singh songs in my head ,my thoughts were in a never ending abyss when I saw the interview of one of the few individuals I really tremendously look up to -Anurag Kashyap !

This brilliant man at the starting of his career had made 3 films but were not releasing due to censorship for several years. But he made it through all that and gave us Black Friday, Gulaal, Dev D, Gangs of wasseypur. I am not much a fan of dark films and sometimes can't even handle his way of portraying violence, but I am a great admirer of his cinema and his undying passion for it. Last year ,he had given us Bombay velvet - his dream project for a decade with a massive budget never attempted by him before, which later happened to become a commercial flop. Well,worst part didn't end there. Along with loosing his money and a part of his confidence this man was surrounded by an industry which was sadistically happy about it. But instead of sulking in it ,he found his flaws soon, accepted it and is already prepared to showcase his next venture this year. What made this happen was that he didn't let the failure suck him up inside.

Similar phase comes in everyone's life. When you hit rock bottom you really don't ve anything to loose. All that needs to be done is that you shouldn't let those negative draining thoughts to pull you down and let them sink and drown you, but just go ahead and believe in yourself no matter what. Keep doing what you want to do. One day or the other the world will notice and applaud ! Even if not , you will be peaceful and happy!  😃

Me vs society

Remember my post about life being a quadratic equation? Well from few days my mind is going round and round finding solutions for one such complicated equation of my life.

Meanwhile it was mothers day yesterday and it made me think about my complicated but beautiful relationship with my mother. I have been the focus of her world for years now. She raised to me to be an independent person with enough freedom to create my own set of thoughts and beliefs. Often we don't agree, major reason being that we belong to different worlds and our perceptions are most times different if not opposite. I am a pure sagitarrian guarding my freedom at every occasion possible and she tries to put the free spirit I am into the frame of society. Our priorities mainly differs when it's about individual vs society. I can see her point too , since i do agree that certain rules are very much needed to bind and maintain a stability of sorts in the society. We are all social beings and societal approval is needed for a peaceful co existence. But does it guarantee inner peace ? If not then what's more important?

Coming to think of it , all our decisions are mostly directly proportional to either the importance we give to what we believe is right or what society upholds as right. We are often like pendulums dwindling between these two extremes trying to find our ground somewhere in the middle. Its a fact that we are entities of this whole and if we change, the society changes too. But this constant evolution is a very slow process. Therefore, trying to be the change we want to be in the transformation phase becomes the hardest part of being a part of the society.

The insecurity ghost!

As humans we are all a bundle of insecurities. Some of them depend on how others treats us and some on how we treat ourselves.
      Society often tries to point it out to us if we are tall enough, rich enough, successful enough according to its own barometers . Hence, one of our biggest struggles turn out to be keeping these insecurities under check and being strong enough to not believe in them. But a greater struggle is when we have to deal with our own securities ; those which emerge out of self- doubt. Although some of these are true and come with a sense of reality ; some of these are apparent and emerge because of our own comparisons with everyone around. All of these together persists in our mind deep down but tend to be invisible in a happy confident state of mind. However, when we hit a kind of rock bottom, all these negative thoughts suddenly go on in our mind like some audio cassette in auto play mode. We tend to believe in the negative things more than the positive. Likewise,I was going through a similar phase when I happened to randomly read about converting insecurities into our capabilities ; like that famous quote of building a castle out of bricks thrown at you. Better said than done , I agree. But it may not be impossible right? If we look into it, these thoughts arise because of our own denial of our flaws sometimes. Accepting them wholeheartedly for once, may be the first step. What if we are short,dark or a little extra curvy, until we are healthy we should love and accept ourselves however we are. That's how God wanted us to be and let's admire his creativity. However, when it is not about physicality let's not blame God and limit ourselves since he has given our mind infinite capabilities we are at times unaware of. No one is perfect but he has made all of us special and unique. Why judge ourselves from someone else's perception and make a flaw out of it. Instead of whining that we are different from others,let's be proud of it!  Let us find that special unique part in ourselves and celebrate it. Perhaps, that can convert our insecurities into capabilities !! :-)

The power of silence

Have you ever thought of running away from a place because everyone around suddenly fell silent in the middle of a  conversation?  Well i have. As a teenager I used to have constant chatter in my head and felt quite uneasy in situations where I had no choice but remain silent. With time,experience and a little maturity I have struck a deal with silence and often find comfort in it now. I ve realized that quieter you become , more you hear yourself and connect. Moreover , in certain circumstances silence is a far safer option because meaningful silence is always better than meaningless words. However, silence can even be fun when used to torture the one who expects you to be enraged. But astonishingly, have you ever noticed that silence can be so paradoxical. It can be beautiful or painful depending on the circumstances.
      It is love when two people are dying to speak but don't know where to start from. It is hurt when the same duo doesn't have anything left to say.
      It is solace when u want to converse with yourself ; irritating when you are running away from your truth.
      It is breathtakingly beautiful when silence is between you and nature ; numbingly painful when amidst the same nature you feel lonely.
But they say even pain is beautiful occasionally !  Not such a paradox may be ? :-/

Rama vs Krishna

Rama and Krishna are known to be India's famous mythological figures. Some may claim them to be historical but that is not what interests me. What really intrigues me is that both Ram and Krishna are characters who are kind of diametrically opposite to each other. If Ram stands for rules which needs to be established in society to achieve stability and equilibrium, Krishna stands for removing redundant rules which may bring stability but cause injustice. One is who sacrificed almost his whole life for the sake of abiding by the rules and the other is who bends them. Mind u Krishna doesn't bend them for convenience like most of us humans do to get things done our way. He bends rules for justice and gives new meaning to dharma. In this day and age we have reduced Ram to be a 'Hindu god' and Krishna limited to his 'leela's forgetting what they really stand for. What we really need as a society is not Rama vs Krishna ,it's Rama and Krishna. As much as stability is important in a society, abolishing redundant rules which tend to oppress the weak are also equally important. As we can see ,with time monogamy has been upheld and sati has been abolished. Further if we observe keenly we wil realise that all of us have these two tendencies in different proportions. There are some of us who are obedient and never cross the line. And rest of us who bend their lines to accommodate what we feel is right. The big question is not about which of the two is right because ultimately what matters is justice.

Bharatiya Naari !

Had time to catch up a typical 90 s Bollywood flick today. Though entertaining I could not help but notice the way Indian women have evolved onscreen. In 90s women could ve been a working woman but stil she would still be the damsel in distress who needs a man to protect her. Her purity was held by a certain part of her body. She dint seek for love but for marriage. She was the God fearing obedient daughter, dutiful wife, in short the "Sanskari Bharatiya naari" . Well our heroines today are still all that but much more. They are unapologetic about who they are and work not just to make a living but for the love for their work. They crave for true love not marriage. They may be in distress sometimes but they equally or even single handedly find a solution. She certainly doesn't try to prove her sanctity in old ways. Of course this evolution is reflected and evident in society today. With much larger percentage of women on their own feet, financial independence has certainly given more confidence to today's women. But in her core,may be women has always been this way, waiting for the opportunity to be herself for years. Because in 1980s and 90s far from those quintessential Indian movies, men like Mahesh Bhat (long ago in arth ) or Mani Ratnam ( in his pallavi Anu pallavi ) have always had strong women leads who are not just women as society wants them to be seen but the way Indian women really are. Strong with a mind and flaws of their own and don't necessarily need a man to complete their lives. Well surprisingly Tagore did the same almost hundred years ago in his stories, be it Chokar Bali or aparichita.This makes me think may be Indian women have always been the same but only some great unthreatened observant minds saw it then too.