The Awakeining - 'Let It Go' mantra

6-10-2016

As I'm writing this note at 11:58 PM today, just  two minutes before end of this date,  I think about a curious factor this date brings which most of us have never noticed. It's a palindrome  date which comes as rare in our life time. Ironically we never think about these rare factors as we are busy running behind our lives trying to achieve something that may or may not worth, but missing these curious factors around us. 'The art of moment creation' is the lesson I learnt from this thought. To say, this may be easy,  but it's not as easy as to implement in our daily life. The art of moment creation comes from spreading love and happiness around you. To do that you need to be happy and content with your life. Again, happiness is subjective. My happiness needn't be yours and vice versa. But an effort to make us happy everyday means a lot. One way we could achieve this is by learning to practice 'let it go' mantra. There are many things around us, little to large that make us disturbed. Some are thought provoking problems that need our eyes. Some others are not. The latter belongs to little things that we get disturbed with our lives, it could be an act from others, word, attitude, uncomfortable sayings, controversies and what not? But you have got an immense power to accept or reject it without taking these things to so close to you, rather letting these things go away from you. It sounds simple as I mentioned before, but a powerful life tool to be happy within yourself.

Kerala Election : Another Hope?

Enough talking about developments, kudos to all the previous governments for showcasing Kerala as one of the highly developing states in India with elevated HDI rates. Today being the decision making day for new government in Kerala, below are the key focus areas in my eyes for any government to rule next.
We claim that we are number one in literacy rate... having said, we are ranked one in unemployment rates as well. Educated youngsters work in other states like Bangalore, Chennai & Mumbai. One of the reasons for this issue could lead us to the next issue which is lack of manufacturing and production industries. Thanks to extreme leftist thoughts, I say ‘extreme’. I’m also not denying the fact that high literacy rate has an adverse effect on us with lack of people to do social jobs like carepenting, plumbing etc... which is helping migrant’s state workers to boost their economy. Also, there is a hug dependency on foreign remittance especially from the Malabar people working in Gulf and central Kerala people working in Europe, USA. Are we utilizing these remittance by providing scope for new initiatives and business? No..
Also, kerala now being the high consumer state despite having resources to generate its own products, it will soon face drastic issues in health index which is one of the key contributing factors for high HDI. The reason is, we import even rice and coconut from other states (forget about veggies) which are artificially flavoured prone to serious health concerns. If this is going to continue, the factors which we are proud of in HDI like life expectancy and health care will face serious setbacks.
Last but not least, old stories related to roads, infrastructure and public safety.
Five major development areas,
1. Lower the consumption rate.
2. Fix unemployment issues
3. Improve manufacturing and production.
4. Fulfil the basic needs for lower caste community (hate using the word ‘lower’ though)
5. Public upliftment (women safety, infrastructure, roads etc...)

എത്ര വേണമെങ്കിലും കട്ടോളൂ ... പക്ഷെ മേൽ പറഞ്ഞ കാര്യങ്ങൾ കൂടെ ഒന്ന് ഗൌനിചേക്കണം .. അപേക്ഷയാണ് !

Leela - bold, classy tale

The luxury of elaborate narration and extravagant conceptualization are those aspects which a writer always enjoys. Ironically, these aspects define the boundaries for a filmmaker which will be a difficult task while transforming a literary work into cinema. Leela has succeeded that challenge turning out to be a bold, classy & unorthodox film adaptation of an acclaimed literary work in malayalam. The opening sequence of the movie furnishes the lead character, kuttiyappan keeping the vibe until the climax scene. The directo r actor duo to be given full credit for this charm. It’s indeed a daring attempt by Renjith to sketch this short story in big screen. He has succeeded in almost every aspect of this movie, including cast & crew. Surely its a ‘Film by Renjith and crew’. Biju Menon, Vijayaraghavan, Indrans, Jagdeesh & Paravthy contributed their fullest to the performance part while Prashant Ravindran scored well with brilliant cinematography, particularly those top angle aerial shots of deep forests. Bijibal’s background music was magnificent, creating the perfect mood for the movie.

My call outs are, Vijayaraghavan with his impressive body language and gestures proves one of the finest actors in malayalam industry. Jagdeesh has his career best performance till date playing the role as Nair, must say a come back movie. Indrans, yet another example of late discovery. Parvathy as Leela with deep shadowed eyes, without having any single dialogue in the movie set a stand for her promising career. Finally Biju menon with his natural grace and impulsive dialogue delivery handled the major portion of kuttiyappan character, also succeeded in going beyond his comfort zones in intense emotional sequence.

Movie intrudes into the man’s hypocritical ethics, vulnerabilities and moral values perhaps also gives the viewers something to think and act against current social issue.

JNU - from a Neutral Political Eyes

For the past few days many people are furious about the JNU incident, political situation in India and controversies around it. All these concerns started as part of a cultural event organised by students from Democratic Students Union (DSU) against the judicial killing of Afsal Guru and Maqbool Bhat.  Anti India slogans were raised at the event and there is no doubt that this has happened at JNU. After this incident, ABVP members started their protest, demanding the expulsion of student organisers. Media took this issue with much glorification triggering various discussions, debates and dull-witted political fights. Things turned out to be a nasty game when Delhi police arrested JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar on charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy. The arrest soon created the major political squabble, leaders from the opposition party and others extended their support for students in JNU, against the arrest and police crack down. This provoked the government of India to issue the statement regarding the need for disciplined universities and claimed no one would be spared for creating anti-national activities in India. Fights at the patiala court and related controversies added much flavour to these incidents. 

This is the synopsis of my understanding about JNU incident from various articles and news reports.

Now, trying to sum up all these -

Anti National slogans were raised, pictures of Afsal Guru and Maqbool Bhat were displayed at JNU. DSU claims it was executed by ABVP and vice versa. No matter which party did it, lets find out the real culprits a.k.a ‘Anti-Nationals’.

Lets also agree to the fact that fake video was fabricated by Zee news and Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested with a political motivation. Channel to be sued for unethical journalism and Kanhaiya Kumar must be freed if he has not done any crime.

As a believer of neutral politics, I’m looking for only one answer.

Ultimately all these wreckages have occurred as part of an event. What’s the motive behind the protest against the judicial killing of Afsal Guru & Maqbool Bhat which was organised by an ultra leftist party, DSU ? If the answer is, we are fighting for the ‘human right’, I don't want to listen further, rather I will reach to the conclusion why they are called Ultra leftists !

Airlift - Tale Of Largest Evacuation

Some stories are meant to be told and Airlift is one amongst them. The tale of largest evacuation in the history of world by a civil airline, Air India is gritty, classic and reasonably well textured with incredible detailing of 90's middle east. Airlift takes off with no turbulence. Ten minutes into beginning, the plot is set for the race and never lost its momentum until the last bit of the film which looks bit hurried. There is no dramatic build ups or Bollywood heroism through out the movie, kudos to director Raj Krishna Menon for perfect shaping of lead character with the shades of real life unsung heroes. The movie is backed by impressive arial shots, nice background score and also well performed by lead as well as supporting actors. Akshay Kumar has given one of his best performances on screen, calm & composed. Purab Kohli, Inaamulhaq & Prakash Belawadi are terrific with their performances. Airlift with tight plotted script, execution, cinematography and editing is a must watch movie for this patriotic season.

Past is Present : A Complicated Journey

X is an experimental film with a blend of fiction & reality. The crazy abstract narrative style is confusing at times and exciting as well, leaving a note for the audience to build up their own imaginary story. The main plot deals with the complex life of a movie director who realises the meaning of his past life with a reflection of incidents that happens during the course of one night at present. This film which is been put together by a bunch of 11 directors is not a recommended watch, however those who loves watching experimental films with a different eye can try it for once.

Stories Do Exist in Bollywood

Wazir is held together by Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar with a massive backbone support of maestro called the 'Script'. It starts off at a fast pace but slows down at the half where the story comes to handle the emotional moments. Second half opens with a thriller face eventually turning the plot to have a fair ending.

The plot is about two wounded men coming together in their lives, ultimately revealing the facts backed by the Chess game. The well written story has made this film uniquely stand apart from plotless wonders of Bollywood gimmicks. However, the making could not keep the essence of the story intact, especially when you expect something different from the director who gave us the deadly 'Shaitan' and silent slow killer 'David'. Bejoy Nambiar's portrayal of dramatic representations of realistic scenes backfired the movie with over sentiments and worthless cliches. He follows his style with slow-motion songs sequences, overtones and brilliant background score. His extra effort to explain every move and turn of the movie disconnected the viewer from the world of imagination, however performances of Amitabh Bachchan and Farhan Akhtar made up the gaps thus giving the viewers something to carry away after the movie.

Wazir is not a thriller movie, but proves that stories do exist in Bollywood.