Once...

Once a saint said that complexity was born to make us appreciate the importance of simplicity.
Once a writer said that beauty lies in short sentences and not in long paragraphs.
Once a scientist said that unless small magical moments dont inspire you, you can't achieve miracles. Once a truck driver said that if tomorrow that particular dhaba closes then he might consider changing his occupation.
Once a mother said, that day, when she found her son, after returning from a high profile party, silently opened the fridge to have the home made payasam, made her feel like the best cook.
Once I discovered appreciating such things can actually change the way world is to you.

Sense, Within

A silent cry,
A loud silence,
Few rippled memories,
Few more in a state of reconstruction. 

A broken pedal,
Tires, little flattened,
At times over grass, some-other over mud,
On my bicycle, without any urgency of progression.

Blowing winds,
Few drops of rain, just before a drizzle,
Specs taken off, thrown far away,
Tired of cleaning them, tired of interruption.

Cause dreams were never about the visible routes.

The Smart-Ass Artist

Into haze and enjoying it.. There is fun in struggle. Atleast it makes you feel that you want to come out of it, you know, trial for betterment. Closing your eyes, covering your ears can make you the smartest one in a world where you live alone. Craving for purposes has always thrown me into dilemmas. For me 'Everyone has one, their own', but somehow I find people acting as if  'Everyone has one, the same one'. I mean why the fuck do I have to follow rules to be just like you, where is the point if people cant say who's me and who's you.

You are someone who wakes up every morning just to go out and prove that you are a good servant, serving your master ignoring the fact that every other person around you is trying the same, even your master. The guy cleaning your loo considers you his master(though in reality I doubt that, strongly) and you start feeling better thinking you are able to afford someone who does that. When I observe myself , I find leading a similar life, doing the same shit to acheive the same shit, to afford someone who cleans my shit.

If in the above stanza I swap 'You' with 'me', the meaning wont change. You wont be able to say, who's me and who's you, and that my friend, proves my point. It actually shows where we stand :) Nowhere.

'Being cynical doesn't pay you off, its depressing' I hear that often from people around me. My dear caring friends, I am depressed, hell I am and I am not depressed about that cause I know when chips are down your motives change and you do that cause you are unaware of the things that you are doin.You are unaware cause you have, through out your life, followed flocks, which itself is following some other flock. If some image of a flock is kept and moved round and round in a circle and you are asked that following that flock makes your life better, believe me you will do that, i,e going round and round throughout your life.

The guy whom you consider next to god and worship every morning is one of them who makes such real to life images. People very easily start saying, 'he is an artist'. I say hell he is, but he is a smart-ass too. 

Lunatic is in my head

Want to go out and meet old friends and foes like strangers. Want to know them, again, in a new way. Want to listen to their stories and tell them mine. Want to talk for long and don't wanna make sense. Want shoulders to rest my head on, shoulders of persons with a head without intellect thoughts. Want to be with fools and be fool with them. Fools who believe in truth, trust, present, past,  relations, feelings, love without lust, and everything else that makes me smile, smile sarcastically. I want my smile not be hungry for reasons and be purposeless, and if that makes me look like a 'lunatic', then dear you, I don't blame you.
 

The Untied Knots

A smile or may be a half one and you make my day.

But how truly, on one of those days, the same becomes the hardest thing to come up with.

Hitting you while pulling out that pillow from the corner. Blowing in your ear while crossing the narrow gap near the wardrobe. Poking in your 'tummy' while picking up the things from the ground. Hiding the thing you are searching since almost half an hour so that you scream at me, cause I know withing next 15 minutes I am going to get a message saying 'may be I shouldn't have screamed, but u need to grow up'.

Didn't exchange such messages since months, in-fact not even saying where actually we went wrong.

Now going around the bed and getting that pillow seems to be easier than asking each other for that. Now in clumsy corners, mostly, either one of us give way for the other. As they say ignorance is bliss. Been almost a year, I cant remember we tried household works together. After coming from the office, when I sit in our hall to untie the knots of my laces, it feels like the kitchen, easily visible from the place where I mostly sit, misses us more than we miss each other.        

We almost  became so self dependent that we rarely require each other to find our belongings. Socks, earrings, wallet, bangles, watch, purse, specs, shades...we rarely lose them now a days. Though possibility of finding us in each others arms got lost somewhere on the way.

The Lives of Others : Characters in Dilemmas

Any feeling, whether love, sorrow,  respect, hatred, insult, happiness or in fact any feeling when cannot be expressed or shared, has the ability to give you intense pain. The lives of others (Das Leben der Anderen, 2006, German) is primarily about 3 characters in such pain, some accepting and living with it, and some giving it a good fight.

In the bigger frame, it portrays a time(1980s) in East Germany when people were under constant surveillance by 'Stasi', GDR's secret police. It involves bugging the houses with microphones in every possible corners. With the intention of finding any threat for the Government, this movement was ruining the privacy of many lives at that time.

One of the main protagonist is Weisler, who is splendidly played by Ulrich Mühe. His frozen face, strict and rude behavior almost makes you believe that he is just one of them unless he is instructed to spy a Playwriter-Stage Actress couple, which brings to two other central characters, Dreyman and Sieland. Though not vocally or not by any action but Dreyman's plays were playing parts in social movements than. Being one of the few writers read in the west, made the things just worse for him.

Matter gets complex for Weisler when he starts realizing that its not the threat for the Government but one of the powerful minister's lust for the beautiful Actress which is making him do all these. He finds himself questioning the government and his own work ethics, but cant help continuing with it. It starts getting worse for him when he realizes that he too, is falling for the lady and it is making him involve in something which can easily spoil not only his career, but his whole life.

His involvement starts enlightening him to the social movement that can possibly bring a better tomorrow and unknowing he starts supporting and respecting it and Dreyman for trying to bring atleast some change. Untold love and pain can bring such strengths too :)

The movie works in many other layers too. Constantly it questions sacrificing your ethics for earning livelihood and success. You will also find the characters in real dilemmas, some so real that you will be easily able to connect to the world we live today. It also questions right to expression that is mostly suppressed to make the Government look a Better one.

Along with a stupendous script, the editing, cinematography is top notch. The Director treats the movie exceptionally well. The way he handles the sensitive issue shows how strong his grip was. Its really sad that we did not see such products any more from him.

Though the movie keeps you mum until its over, some of the scenes will surely stay with you for long after the final credit rolls up. One where Dreyman requests his neighbour to keep the secret that he cant tie a tie, though is funny, is dark in its own way. One where Wiesler, though being in love with Sieland, writes down about couple's intimate moments for the report portrays Wiesler's inability to do anything, with skill. One where Sieland is interrogated and forced to take a decision is another scene that will move you for sure.                 

Sometimes its very difficult relating to something you are reading or watching which is in no way related to the place you are from or grown up in, but this movie breaks all such barriers and involves you in it. May be that's where it excels the most.

A must watch.             
  

Spellbound session with the yellow boot Girl

     Sometimes, certain things in life leave you in a state of disbelief cause till then you never faced and believed that reality can have such faces. Something very similar was going through my mind as I knew the end credits were about to roll up.. and as the background score took the front-seat, these thoughts pierced through my mind and soul.

     As I write these, almost every person interested in this movie knows the plot, so not repeating. Being a follower and observer of Kashyap's movie I had my preconceived notions about it, and though some of them fitted my thoughts, some other took me to a world I never could imagine can exist. True to his genre and style, its dark and really, very disturbing. 

      As the movie opens up, we get to know the characters. Other than Ruth - the main protagonist played near to perfection, there his her parasitic boyfriend(Prashant), her only considerate customer(Nasiruddin Shah), and character of parlor owner(Pooja Swarup) and local Kannad don(Gulshan) which deserve special mention for the layers they bring to the movie.

      Every that movie which makes you think about the character and not the actor, has the ability to engage you, and exactly that happens here. Along with Kalki's strong performance, background score and realistic cinematography takes this movie a level up. Sometimes you feel like the things are going on as our real life does, and we are there just as a spectator, from an angle which Rajeev Ravi chooses for us. The movie, being primarily framed in tight places like single apartment, station and rickshaw, also play major roles in it.

     Though from Anurag, we always expect something very real and brought from the darkest part of the society, we always expect it to be something that we know about and can relate. Here Anurag goes a step farther and brings out, according to me, though not the best, the most dark and disturbing of his movies. Though at times the story gets predictable and seems like what new he can bring, the ending will keep you shocked and silent for a long time as you will start, if not redefining but rechecking, the world and the people you thought you know.