Every time you have to be proven wrong to take a right decision of your life, as human psychology always be judgmental and prejudiced which precludes fair or free decision
The Great Indian Protester are these days more on speculative mode rather than spot assessment .
The Indian protesters evolved in long way over the time specially taking the cue from financial market how they deal with spot and forward deal. This speculative protest is new addition to the portfolio of intolerance like mob lynching , cow vigilance ,ostracising , mudslinging , ink throwing , trolling in the social network and son on. The way Pan Indian Protesters now all out in arms to stop screening the movie Padmabati , the fiction written by medieval poet showcase how our men with hot head, self declared vigilant of our heritage , culture and values by burning effigy and betting bounty on heads have come of age over the time. Neither these hardline critic saw the movie nor they reconcile the fact that the ballad was merely written to depict the chivalry , honour of Rajputana still these knuckle headed protesters simply are now running amok with the blame of character assassination of the queen character in the movie who never existed in reality apart from the heart of balladeer who wrote about it. Just in anticipation that the movie might have trivialised honour of Rajputs these people crossed all lines of civics or sanity. So now onwards every one whether artist or writer , director or poet must be extra alert while engaging with their art like those financial wizard in treasury department with speculative gut to understand what these so called protectors of our heritage, culture are perceiving about their art(without seeing it at all) rather than what what these art actually be. They must take these protesters into account before creating any art form who are thrives on speculation rather than visualisation of real fact.
two cinemas in two days : one causes indigestion and another occasional convulsion. Coming out of pupa is always painful , but coming out of puritan and patriarchal society is just fatal
Movies seen in the Kolkata Film Fest “Pupa” and “The Letter to the President” one from Bengal another from Afganisthan
The first film “Pupa” speaks of life is not just simplex solution but dual one with so many constraints and variables to count. Yes, there are people who just love to keep the equation of life in single degree derivation but they get simply outnumbered by the majority who are always overwhelmed with complexity to the polynomial degree. The former type will tell you priority is important not the integrity or irreproachability or unnecessary emotion, exuberance as they will discount your energy talent, devour your time and toil you put forth to grow you over the years. They will tell your life is a function of space and time which just gets redefined with every moment of existence. So rather than to bear the baggage of the past you hold the moment and exploit the present. They will tell you it is not the disservice to your dear and near one by splitting your care and concern to your duty to the broader life or country at large when they (your relation or responsibility) reaches a saturation point. They will say if the time get stuck and choked with emotion by carrying forward the old legacy of the life which otherwise craves for unrelenting creation of new avenues and contouring for new direction, it will not only fail you but also the society, country or the world which always looking forward to your exclusive contribution. So the decision must be rude but real and reaffirming the victory of life on the whole not individual emotion or relationship.
The story revolves with a man in death bed , in comatose for long pulling clinically but stopped factually. The science , care and affluence could support it but putting planning , proposition of the near and dear ones all I jeopardy. The man in the bed was basically sucking the resources , the valuable energy time and toil while accentuating the dilemmas of all around him to decide on the next course of action. Whether he should be left to die or kept in life support system to create an illusion of life , duty , responsibility and all those ethical questions.
The picture ended with the dying of the man submitted to destiny(and here death )with injection administered by another in control of his own destiny , the younger brother erudite , rationale and no nonsense who took the extreme step to put the whole chaos to an end. The all the lives of others which got in a vertigo because of man in death bed with life support system for months just could be back to normal. The pupa got torn apart with the birth of the adulthood , the maturity from the cocoon of the immature , childish emotion although birth pang is just laden with the ethics , rationale and relationship.
The other film “A letter to the President”which tells how a war ravaged nation might have establish its own rules but could not eliminate its deeply rooted discrimination, divisive and derogatory approach to its woman. Its’ institutions have been sold out , its war lords , politician and govt functionary nexus eat out all spaces for maneuvering of any liberal minded woman and she be any super cop or high flier(literally in the sky as air force officer) the story lines of forced submission of woman in Far east countries like Afghanistan hardly change. So in the film “the letter to the president” when that woman got to the helm of the crime branch or gets the status of super cop the only destiny awaits her is the huge entrapment in the corrupt system , estrangement from the highly biased family and lastly elimination from the world of male chauvinism , machismo and money power of the patriarchal society. The lady here just got stuck up inside the labyrinth of politics, judiciary ,govt and money lord , warlord nexus which ended with her execution . It is so irony that after so many blood bath and war path , the country like Afghanistan never listened the basic mantra of upheaval in the society or the world and i.e. to respect and revere the woman , its power of affection , love and assertion they keep changing with the need of ours . Here the lady victimized and crestfallen from crime branch head must end up in prison and punishment to the extreme measure whether there excuse can be created or not. No matter the storyline framed an excuse in its spiral of lies, biased social animosity against the woman in general , liberal thinking progressive minded lady in particular , in reality the conclusion would have been the same. This is the edition 2017 Afghanistan, or other middle east countries where the woman are yet to be allowed to walk with the same height against the man. The machismo , male chauvinism all are so vulnerable in those places that law and legal system along with age old outdated rules and rituals are simply over protective for those biasness. The film meets its natural expectation , a president reads the letter of the bold lady framed with so many counts to face the punishment of execution. The man behind the mesh simply a fan or follower of the lady with elegance and enlightened mind. Enamored by the charisma of the super lady cop the man never crossed the line but who cares the line in the male world of these rogue warlords’ fiefdoms? Here the only rule prevails what these regional satraps decides not what constitution or laws defines. So the lady while saving one cupid from honor killing just ended being the target by these parallel or quasi power of regional heads framed for more severe cases of murdering her husband who while in scuffle with wife in inebriated condition just got killed by accident. So while the rogues on ruining the top cop lady are her father in-law and one addicted and abusive husband and the casualty is the justice system which simply extends its corrupt leverage to book and banish her from the world by sentencing her to death. The storyline is as expected the only thing not is that the same lines are getting more relevant in these countries. A recent report in New york Times revealed that the woman cops who have been trained along side their counterparts of USA the country are committed and deeply invested in bring the change by these trained woman power , are being just targeted for their open and free attitude , while occasionally predicted by the male colleagues as casting couch. The ladies in force now want asylum to USA which are again opposed by the same force multiplying their harassment or humiliation. It is simply unacceptable with so much support from two of the largest democracies of this planet one USA and other India how a country like Afghanistan could not evolve from its outright discriminatory, divisive attitude towards woman where the institutions, judiciary all just look the other way whenever such injustice occurs. A letter to President is the the story line of such irony of these women in some end of the same world we cohabit with all odds against them where sometimes real life simply overwhelms the reel life .