Yesterday my long-long pending childhood
wish was fulfilled, thanks to the new 3D technology. Jurassic park was re-released
in 3-D and I got opportunity to watch for the first time in my life and that
also on big tantalizing screen. My patience (resolute to not to watch it on
television ;) ) was amply rewarded, in short I loved it.
Jurassic park encouraged me to watch one of
the Bollywood iconic movie (of course on YouTube – Sholay, which topped in my big
unwatched famous Bollywood movies list.
Next few minutes I am going to bore you
with, which might look like a movie review, but it’s not. I just intend bore
you more by highlighting some of the problems in our society and Sholay is just
a facilitator, so no offence to Sholay fansJ.
My observation started from the scene where
Sanjeev Kumar urf Thakur recounted his first encounter with jai and Biru. Scene
involved encounter between bundle of dacoits and trio of Jai, Beeru and
Thakur. One by one faceless dacoits were
fell through the bullet of our hero (though numbers never seemed to be dwindling),
my heart cried - hey stop it, atleast know the person before killing. How many
endless faceless persons are sacrificed just like that in between the war of
our hero and villain? Does anyone wonder what their life story is, of course
they are not just born to live invisible and die invisible. I have seen many war
movies, mostly from Hollywood. Huge army marching ahead at the order of king
and one by one being felled at the hand of opposition. It feels like that those
are army of wood men not a real human with flesh and pain. Hero is injured, and
then whole world is at pain to save him. But what about that dead faceless
soldier on the fields who has left his/her family behind in search of better
life for them.
My 2nd observation was, needless
to say, caricature of female character. I don’t want to elaborate much but it
was humiliating to watch as always. An ideal widow bahu of a comparatively progressive
Thakur living a completely black out or I say white out life, what do you want
to convey? Is this the image of perfect female? Any way since its 70s movie, it’s
pardonable. But I don’t think much has improved in our cinema world since 70s,
except for the technology, money power and fancy dresses.
The machoism was all rampant and it’s
impossible to imagine how many people and movies and in turn through those
movies again how many millions it has inspired in last 27 years. Any way I feel
like talking about these is completely moo point (If you are wondering what’s
moo then you have to refer Joey’s dictionary ;)).
The plain devil caricature of villain was
nothing but overwhelming. Of course you enjoy it in movie and your whole
conscious cries out to kill that bastard and nothing gives you more
satisfaction than gruesome end of that dare devil.
The plain portray of black and white poses
a social dilemma to our society, and movies are just exacerbating that. The depiction
of merciless killing gives moral authority to the person who wants to bring their
own version of justice and how many people are sacrificed at the altar of this
justice doesn't matter. I don’t know if this happen in real world or not but realization of even 0.01% of these movies is catastrophic for the civilization.
Gandhiji has always said that, don’t hate
the man but hate the wrongness in him, don’t kill the man but kill the devil
inside him. Our bapu knew that every man possesses both dark and bright side. For
some one bright side is more prominent and for someone this dark side is more
prominent. Killing a man would kill both side of his and world would gain
nothing out of it but killing the dark inside man would bring his/her bright
side to the world. Every person has a story, a history, a trail and its
necessary to traverse those trails to understand that person.
Any way coming to the point, I couldn't finish the movie as it was difficult to digest without killing the human inside
me. When a Dinosaur rips off the man without thinking anything it is
understandable, but when a man does the same thing, well no comment.
What’s the moral of the story?
I got to create my own version of Sholay.
Are you ready to watch? ;)
