First thoughts-Baishe Srabon

Firstly , let me apologise for my limited knowledge about Bengali cinema( and its literature)  . Lets just say, that I was less exposed and also due to the escapists junkies of the 90s, I forged my views into a generality about the snobbishness  of Bengali culture. However, here's my take on the recent phenomenon called Baishey Srabon, which challenges the very limits of tradition.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT, if you haven't already seen the film , then a further reading is not advisable .

The movie takes off in a dramatic note.Kolkata , The city of Joy , is dissected by a series of murders which takes place across the length and breadth of the city. A psychopath serial killer is on the loose, and he mostly targets people from the lower echelons of the society, and after each murder he leaves a small piece of paper beside the dead corpse .A poem (by a famous Bengali poet), which the police later finds aptly symbolises the circumstance involving the murder, is scribbled in that paper. The Kolkata police force is baffled , scratching their thick heads unable to come up with anything fruitful. With nothing left to lose, the police chief recalled a suspended officer, whom he deemed could provide valuable expert insight into the case . The officer in question , is Prabir Roychoudhury(Prosenjeet Chaterjee), who was convicted of custodian murder and eventually suspended from the police. His deep rooted hatred for lowly criminals, often taking the form of excessive aggression lead to his eviction from the force.
I had gone to watch the  movie after hearing much about its "twist" ending. I was wary of guessing the "twist", and was half correct about my apprehensions.The film which is a first of its kind in bengali cinema , can analysed by two different angles: 1> how it compares with its predecessors in Bengali cinema?2> Its level of comparability in the international context.

I prefer to answer neither questions in its full subjectivity , as i have already made it clear  that my lack of adequate knowledge prevents me from doing so ,but surely from the point of view of an audience whose view about the art of film-making has matured through the years, I shall proceed. The elements of objectivity of the film were already made clear from the first shot , as we were going on a thrill ride through dark alleys of kolkata and darker alleys of people's minds.Abhijit (Parambrata) finds himself in a fix when unable to get a lead in the case, Prabir comes in the way , whose eccentricities initially got on his nerves.To take care of the commercial aspects, the director slyly puts in five melodious numbers scored by Anupam Roy, and also at the right moments. The verses , fittingly got synchronized with the situation . The most satisfying aspect , which I found was that  , unlike the escapists realities of bollywood premises, here the score remained largely background and believable. In this regard ,the director has shown a way for future Indian films . In real life, people usually don't put on their dancing shoes and grooves to the beats suddenly in the middle of their daily routines.

 The dialogues were quite mature and there were some cross references(at one point  Prosenjit in exultant excitement , Parambrata "Topshe" in reference to his earlier stint  with the character) to other films. The dialogue , apart from the "twist" ending is the one which generated the most discussions among its viewers. Some vehemently criticising it for its low derogatory use of obscene cuss words , at times quite unnecessarily. Well, while this may limit the audience , but it does portray the lingo of the law enforcers not quite in a good light. I would abstain from giving my own opinions on this issue.The dialogue , though containing doses of colourful vocabulary, some humourous , some taking a dig at the politicians, or our faulty democracy . Sometimes the darker elements of humour creeps in when prosenjit  describes his favourite odour. 

The one aspect of the film which I personally found to be quite amazing was the cinematography of the by-lanes and alleys  at night, which are only lit by the silent street  light giving the place an orange tinge.At times, the darker areas smolders into the lighter ones(during a chase scene) and the constant interplay of shades had its symbolic significance in the ever transforming nature of the human mind.
When a film boasts of an assemblage of such high profile cast, its hardly necessary to comment about the acting. Each actor brought about his character  alive. Goutam Ghose, who returned as a actor after a very long time, gave a brilliant performance of a Hungryalist Bengali poet , whose poems were rejected on the grounds of being too obscene, which drove him to the point of frenziness. Parambrata fitted quite well in the boots of an idealist police officer and a man recovering from an estranged relationship.  While Prosenjit's  role drew applause from many quarters, I too  found him too be brilliant-in most parts. In some parts he appeared to have slipped into his old avatar as an out -of- the -world action hero and delivered his lines in that same cliched format.

The ending , proved my apprehensions half correct. Although some may argue my previous exposure to the movie viewer's discussion about the film may have spoiled it, still i would say that if i had no clue , I would still sense the ending when  at one point Prosenjit had  called Parambrata for some"important" issues in the film. The predictability of the ending takes me back to my previous two questions.  I feel the ending, or rather the nature of it was its weakest aspect of a perfectly made film(relatively  of course). The statement would raise many eye brows, but the whole point of a suspense thriller is the element  of surprise. The surprise should come from an angle which the audience doesen't expect , but would later marvel at the cleverness of the director. Here I must mention it in the international context. "The sixth sense" by M.Night Shyamalan  contained that punch, as it opened a whole different direction to the film. Also, the film "seven" featuring Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt, which surprisingly bears some degree of similitude  with 22se Srabon in its plot construction, delivers two surprise endings one of which was apparent while the other one was quite logical yet invisible to the audience. Now in this case ,the twist , instead of portraying it  in one single frame shot which would have had a greater impact took quite some time for its build up . This was quite inadequate  as it revealed the objectives of the director before he wanted the audience to know about it. 

The film , though cleverly diluted with the commercial aspects is still a breakthrough film for the dying industry of commercial India cinema. Dying not in the sense of economy, but art. A movie does not necessarily be of social importance , or a discourse of ethical dialogue, but as long as it can deliver in accordance with its objectivity , i will rate it as a great movie(keeping aside some consideration of the content).Having said, I think Baishe srabon , though not perfect, yet considering a film of it kind being made for the first time in Bengali with no references to look at and keeping the commercial aspects in mind, it did quite brilliantly. In the international context, some level of directorial maturity is still to be attained, but certainly those crappy Bollywood films doesn't stand a chance in comparison  . Hope with time this renaissance of Bengali cinema blossoms , and let Bengali cinema break the stereotypical image of Indian film industry as only of escapist's nature.If  Bengal wants to get back its lost glory why not start with cinema?

Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

A Modern Literary Classic

A Metaphor Of India...

At one point in the book, the narrator says,

 “Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I’ve gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each “I,” every one of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you’ll have to swallow a world.”

To the uninitiated, the above lines may appear to male little sense, but anyone reading them will feel the intensity with which it has been written.  This kind of intensity confronts the reader from the very first lines and spans through the entire book. Even after its completion, the effect lingers for an interminable period. It was somewhat a painful process to read the complete novel but I have  finally finished reading it. In truth, I finished the book that launched Rushdie’s career proper. I needed to let it pretty much slosh around my head for a little while before I could distil the experience down to a few hundred words. One of Rushdie’s many attractive qualities as a writer is his clever use of humorous images and metaphors to describe and discuss incredibly controversial and painful issues. One of the recurrent images in Midnight’s Children is the “pickles of history.” Pickles, of course, are an edible comestible, but they have curious properties—they are sour and yet somehow appealing for many people. Considering the entire panorama of history presented in Midnight’s Children, write an essay in which you explain the pickles of history as conceptualized by Rushdie.  This concept is further extended and leaves its mark upon the reader, who experiences the same feeling upon its completion.

Salman Rushdie’s illustrious career is well documented: shooting to fame by winning the Booker, The Satanic Verses, The fatwa, political asylum, hiding from Islamic fundamentalists. All these aspects dominated his life and his career. The intensity of the his style and the story of Midnight’s Children , was perhaps like a fictional prelude of things to come. However, published in 1981, it remains one of the most important books of post –colonial literature and is often compared with the likes of One Hundred Years Of Solitude by G. G Marquez and The Tin Drum  by Gunter Grass.

Midnight’s Children is not a masterpiece, but it is a typical reflection of a master story creator. Not a storyteller – a story creator, for that is what Rushdie excels at. Surely Rushdie laboured over each chapter, each paragraph, yes, even each line, to create a labyrinth of themes, a plethora of allusions, a pickle-factory of twists and turns. Midnight’s Children is not a masterpiece because its creator did just that: masterfully create a story. Midnight’s Children tells the life story of Saleem Sinai born at midnight on the August 15, 1947 at the moment modern India became an independent state. Saleem’s somewhat timely arrival is not a coincidence; our protagonist’s life destined to follow the ebb and flow of India’s own fortunes. Telepathically linked to the other children born in the first hour of India’s independence, all of whom have their own gifts, we follow Saleem from cradle to fatherhood as he relates his story to his lover Padma.

First released in 1981; this was Rushdie’s second novel and won the Man Booker Prize of that year; in 1993 it was judged the Booker of Bookers (the best novel to have one the prize in the first twenty-five years of the award’s existence).

And it’s good. It really is. It’s a breathtakingly ambitious allegory distilling the story of the subcontinent down to a single character’s story, a fantastic fusion of Indian and Anglo-Western culture. The observations are startlingly, brutally honest, on occasion profoundly dark and more often quite funny, the rendering of postcolonial India nostalgic without being sentimental. Sometimes the narrator reflects the post colonial public frustration and the anarchy, which were engendered along with the formation of independent India . The author writes,

“Midnight has many children; the offspring of Independence were not all human. Violence, corruption, poverty, generals, chaos, greed, and pepperpots…. I had to go into exile to learn that the children of midnight were more varied than I—even I—had dreamed.”

Avatar – The last airbender

A TALE OF FRIENDSHIP AND DESTINY…

Avatar – The Last Airbender is an American cartoon series aired on Nickelodeon. In almost all good cartoon lovers, this is remarked as one of the best there is; though, it cannot be ranked among the legendary “Tom & Jerry”.

The story, in short is about saving the world from the ruthless Fire nation who are about to conquer the world and throw it out of its peaceful balance. In the fictional context, the world is divided into four nations named after the four ancient elements – Air, Water, Earth and Fire. Besides this, people of each nation have the ability to control the elements using martial arts of different styles. The Air nomads are monks who are brought up in the ways of spiritual philosophy. The Water tribes dwell at the polar ice caps and are cultural artisans and their bending, i.e. waterbending, is more fluid and incorporates healing abilities such. The earth kingdom is more political and though with an imperial leadership, it follows a steady system of government. Their bending is similar, i.e. follows the mentality of a stubborn and steadfast nature. Fire nation is completely hierarchical and industrial. They are the only group of people who use metal and their mental setup is more similar to Adolf Hitler during World War II. They have a natural thirst for power and are ruthless. In this entire hullabaloo, the most powerful of all is the Avatar. The Avatar is the only one who has the ability to bend all four elements at the same time and has other powers such as to contact the spirit world. It is prophesized, that the Avatar is the only person who can restore balance when there is chaos. The Avatar spirit is a life cycle and is born into each nation, one per generation, the cycle being air, water earth and fire.

                                         

The concept is quite imaginative, and a story emerges on this backdrop. Aang is the Avatar, an airbender. After the previous Avatar Roku’s death, the Firelord (king of the fire nation), Sozin, wiped out all the Air nomads knowing that the Avatar would be reborn into the Air nomads. By some miraculous luck Aang escapes, but is frozen in an iceberg for a hundred years. He is then discovered near the South Pole by Katara and Sokka, two kids from the southern water tribe. The story then begins and follows Aang’s learning of the four elements while the Fire nation tries to hunt him.

In this series we see the power of the bond of friendship, the importance of family, and the reward of trust. We are allegorically made aware of the evils of the modern world, of how we should not be driven by a lust for power, how we should care for nature and most of all the people around us. It teaches us the moral values of respect and of honor; it portrays the difference in class of society; and gives a visual of most of the proverbs we’ve come to know in our youth. Spanning over an epic trilogy of seasons, this tale will take the viewer through an entertaining ride through comedy, romance, action and adventure. It is an altogether family package worth watching. Enjoy people!!!

2001: A Space Odyssey - The masterpiece

"This film is the Big Bang of our generation" -Steven Spielberg

Countless number of articles have been written on this subject , each one attempting to penetrate the cosmic message  conveyed through this powerful cinematic endeavour  . This movie has inspired a generation . In this blog we will try to look at things a little differently. The analysis demands a historical context. No masterpieces remain immune  from the vicissitudes of it's time.

Apes- Invention of Tools

 The genius is not in how much Stanley Kubrick does in “2001: A Space Odyssey,'' but in how little. This is the work of an artist so sublimely confident that he doesn't include a single shot simply to keep our attention. He reduces each scene to its essence, and leaves it on screen long enough for us to contemplate it, to inhabit it in our imaginations. Alone among science-fiction movies, “2001'' is not concerned with thrilling us, but with inspiring our awe.

The Monolith

The Monolith2001 was written at the very beginning of the space age, before man first set foot on the moon in 1969. It was clearly inspired by much of the fascination with space, which gripped a nation exploring an uncharted terrain in the 1960s.The 1960s were also a time of confrontation with the communist U.S.S.R. and tension over the potential for use of nuclear weapons. The Cuban Missile Crisis was recent history at the time 2001 was in the process of being conceived. The instability of foreign relations as well as the proliferation of nuclear weapons led many at the time to wonder whether a nuclear holocaust might be around the corner.

Music plays a crucial part in 2001, and not only because of the relatively sparse dialogue. From very early on in production, Kubrick decided that he wanted the film to be a primarily non-verbal experience, one that did not rely on the traditional techniques of narrative cinema, and in which music would play a vital role in evoking particular moods. About half the music in the film appears either before the first line of dialogue or after the final line. Almost no music is heard during any scenes with dialogue.The film is remarkable for its innovative use of classical music taken from existing commercial recordings. Consider two examples. The Johann Strauss waltz “Blue Danube,'' which accompanies the docking of the space shuttle and the space station, is deliberately slow, and so is the action. Obviously such a docking process would have to take place with extreme caution (as we now know from experience), but other directors might have found the space ballet too slow, and punched it up with thrilling music, which would have been wrong. We are asked in the scene to contemplate the process, to stand in space and watch. We know the music. It proceeds as it must. And so, through a peculiar logic, the space hardware moves slowly because it's keeping the tempo of the waltz. At the same time, there is an exaltation in the music that helps us feel the majesty of the process. Now consider Kubrick's famous use of Richard Strauss' “Thus Spake Zarathustra.'' Inspired by the words of Nietzsche, its five bold opening notes embody the ascension of man into spheres reserved for the gods. It is cold, frightening, magnificent.

The music is associated in the film with the first entry of man's consciousness into the universe - -and with the eventual passage of that consciousness onto a new level, symbolized by the Star Child at the end of the film. When classical music is associated with popular entertainment, the result is usually to trivialize it. Kubrick's film is almost unique in enhancing the music by its association with his images.

The film falls into several movements.Tribe of herbivorous ape-like early humans is foraging for food in the African desert. The film depicts the apes in a way which may malign to the psychological precedence of our current intelligent(if not wise) minds, which may be unsettling for a few people . We are not used to confronting the fact that we were evolved from "lower" beings in this way. By taking this perspective on the man- apes, the narrator jars us, putting people, including the reader, in their proper evolutionary framework. Humans are conceives as intimately related to the man-apes. The opening of the film implicitly connects us back with beings whom we would most likely consider animals.The activities by the monolith offer a particularly interesting bit of science fiction, while raising many questions. For many it represented a kind of perfection unattainable by humans, while others think that  the smooth artificial surfaces and right angles of the monolith, which was obviously made by intelligent beings, triggered the realization in an ape brain that intelligence could be used to shape the objects of the world.

HAL 9000 the AI computer

Next the scene shifts millions of years into the future when Mankind as a species has evolved and is capable of traversing the realms of outer space.  We meet Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester), en route to a space station and the moon. This section is willfully anti-narrative; there are no breathless dialogue passages to tell us of his mission. Instead, Kubrick shows us the minutiae of the flight: the design of the cabin, the details of in-flight service, the effects of zero gravity. The sequence on the moon (which looks as real as the actual video of the moon landing a year later) is a variation on the film's opening sequence. Man is confronted with a monolith, just as the apes were, and is drawn to a similar conclusion: This must have been made. And as the first monolith led to the discovery of tools, so the second leads to the employment of man's most elaborate tool: the spaceship Discovery, employed by man in partnership with the artificial intelligence of the onboard computer, named HAL 9000.HAL is an artificial intelligence, a sentient, synthetic, life form. According to John Thurman, HAL’s very existence is an abomination, much like Frankenstein’s monster.While the film remains ambiguous, one can see evidence in the film that since HAL was instructed to deceive the mission astronauts as to the actual nature of the mission and that deception opens a Pandora's box of possibilities. During a game of chess, HAL misstates what move is to be made (by using a hybrid of algebraic and traditional chess notation) and how many moves it will then take to mate him .HAL, as the supposedly perfect computer, actually behaves in the most human fashion of all of the characters. He has reached human intelligence levels, and seems to have developed human traits of paranoia, jealousy, and other emotions. By contrast, the human characters act like machines, coolly performing their tasks in a mechanical fashion, whether they are mundane tasks of operating their craft or even under extreme duress as Dave must be following HAL's murder of Frank. For instance, Frank Poole watches a birthday transmission from his parents with what appears to be complete apathy.The HAL sequence is the most famous from the film and for good reason. HAL represents the limits of man's current evolutionary paradigm. What began with a bone has turned into a computer whose intellect arguably surpasses man's own. So, now rather than tools aiding man in his progress forward, it is actually limiting him, HAL sabotages the mission and this sabotage is indicative of the fact that man has lost control of what once aided him. This is why man needs to evolve, because the tools have become too powerful. This menace is implied in the cuts to the dying animal during the first sequence where the ape figures out how to use the bone as a destructive tool.

Inside Hal 9000

So, Dave uses his ingenuity to defeat HAL and in essence kills man of the present. Man has advanced beyond using tools, where can he go now? The answer lies beyond the infinite.

Later comes the famous “star gate'' sequence, a sound and light journey in which astronaut Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) travels through what we might now call a wormhole into another place, or dimension, that is unexplained. At journey's end is the comfortable bedroom suite in which he grows old, eating his meals quietly, napping, living the life of a zoo animal who has been placed in a familiar environment. And then the Star Child. When the main character sees the older version of himself break the glass and the wine flowing out, he realizes that the body, like the glass is just a vessel. So when he dies (after his own time collapses on itself or something) the star child is what remains inside of the vessel, free from human bonds.

“2001: A Space Odyssey'' is in many respects a silent film. There are few conversations that could not be handled with title cards. Much of the dialogue exists only to show people talking to one another, without much regard to content . Ironically, the dialogue containing the most feeling comes from HAL, as it pleads for its “life'' and sings “Daisy.''

There is never an explanation of the other race that presumably left the monoliths and provided the star gate and the bedroom. “2001'' lore suggests Kubrick and Clarke tried and failed to create plausible aliens. It is just as well. The alien race exists more effectively in negative space: We react to its invisible presence more strongly than we possibly could to any actual representation.

The film creates its effects essentially out of visuals and music. It is meditative. It does not cater to us, but wants to inspire us, enlarge us. It is about man's journey towards perfection , his evolution. The entire film is about this evolution, showing us man's roots, his present status and then his future. It's about our journey as a species towards higher and higher planes, leading to this eventual massive evolutionary jump.

Star Child

There are very few films so ripe for analysis as 2001 . It's the sort of film that is a great reflection what your beliefs are, if you're looking for something in this film, you can probably find it, which isn't to say that it has no intended meaning, it's just that Kubrick created a film that is much about what the viewer brings to it as it is what's contained in the text. Our minds have given us the tools to understand where we live and who we are. Now it is time to move on to the next step, to know that we live not on a planet but among the stars, and that we are not flesh but intelligence. This interpretation may not be absolute, maybe Kubrick's genius , his vision is still way beyond the reach of ordinary comprehension. As Kubrick himself has said ,

"You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film—and such speculation is one indication that it has succeeded in gripping the audience at a deep level—but I don't want to spell out a verbal road map for2001 that every viewer will feel obligated to pursue or else fear he's missed the point."

Star child and Earth

A full circle

"I know that I know nothing"  -Socrates

The inherent quality of the human species that makes it markedly different from the rest is its "curiosity". When other species are happy grazing the fields or  making treacherous hideouts to pounce on their prey or just soaring the heavens with full expanse of their wings- mankind(the more intelligent ones) used  their pastime to ponder about the events unfolding in nature and questioning their divine rights. Science was inadvertently formed when humans started having a tingle in their brain. The tingle took the shape of a curious  and ardent urge to  dive deeper into their thought process.

The Western Philosophy which are the thoughts of the Occidental world is the root of the subject which is today known as science. Perhaps his most important contribution to Western thought is his dialectic method of inquiry, known as the Socratic method or method of "elenchus", which he largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts such as the Good and Justice.To solve a problem, it would be broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer a person would seek. The influence of this approach is most strongly felt today in the use of the scientific method, in which hypothesis is the first stage. The development and practice of this method is one of Socrates' most enduring contributions, and is a key factor in earning his mantle as the father of political philosophy, ethics or moral philosophy, and as a figurehead of all the central themes in Western philosophy.To illustrate the use of the Socratic method; a series of questions are posed to help a person or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of their knowledge. The Socratic method is a negative method of hypothesis elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. It was designed to force one to examine one's own beliefs and the validity of such beliefs. In fact, Socrates once said, "I know you won't believe me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself and others."

After Socrates , his students Plato, Xenophon expanded his work and laid the foundation of Western Science as we know it today.The  Western view of science was a fragmented view. Any problem was broken down into finitely numbered parts and was  worked  upon. After Plato, came Aristotle , who was is disciple . His views would have a lasting impression on western scientific thought. The church legitimized his teachings as it was in line with the views put forward by the Bible. Nicholas Copernicus had to face the ultimate fate of death for speaking out against deceptiveness of the church. Even Galileo was not spared as he had to live a part of his life in seclusion. But the Truth did prevail. After the Renaissance   a plethora of new ideas were introduced. Great minds like Newton, Laplace,Gauss,Darwin, Hegel,Smith,Marx etc  changed the way the world  was perceived .Then came the industrial revolution and the world was never the same again.A technological Boom had taken place and it was there to stay. People's lives became faster and more convenient. everyone started to celebrate the new dawn of Human civilization. Many said that it was the bridge between Man and superman. Human would evolve into a much superior species. Alas,,,,the events of August 6, 1945 and  August 9, 1945.  made people think about their progress. Was developing science and technology the real development? Or is progress signifies a much more essential quality which we have failed to recognize? It is time for us to address this questions. the very same ones that Socrates had asked some two thousand five hundred years ago. He inquired about life and its Truth .Socrates stressed that "virtue was the most valuable of all possessions; the ideal life was spent in search of the Good. Truth lies beneath the shadows of existence, and it is the job of the philosopher to show the rest how little they really know."

Standing in the aisle of the twenty first century, its time for us to look back at the start ....where it all started.

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As an end note I would like to say that this blog will not lead any one to a Higher metaphysical Truth . It will only provide a perspective which is there in front of everyone but which is clogged by the hazy shades of commercialism, political concealment , social  segregation , yellow journalism and other nonsense pieces of jingoistic ideals.  At this important junction of human timeline , its necessary to look back and learn the paths followed by man  in times of quandary and predicament. There will always be a path less trampled by. This blog will endeavour to find that path .