“fruity", "dry" or "clear"? I don't know. All I know is, certain red wines give me a headache every time. I don't have an acquired taste for wine. I argue back, shit is also an acquired taste if you feed yourself enough of it.
I refuse to demonstrate the herd behaviour, yet to my own dismay, would regurgitate some old borrowed, and much re-cycled words every time I take a sip... close my deluded eyes and whisper under my breath, "mmm … simply out of the world!!!"
I prefer the bitterness of dark chocolates though... over caramel cadburys. No fudge, no pink and yellow sprinkles, or crispy crème doughnuts… give me that pure unadulterated bitterness any day... with a tinge of hidden sweetness... that would promise to melt in 3 secs straight.
Imagine the deepest crevice of the Pacific… where no spec of light ever reaches, and the sound, taste or smell is unfamiliar, incomprehensible and/or nonexistent to our natural senses. ‘Pitch’ does not even come close to describing this black, because it has joined hands with the unknown and the silent. Imagination becomes a foe when two of the five friendly senses cease to cooperate. And our lonely sixth sense has no other choice but to surrender to the only plausible and possible impulse that is fear.
I admit I could not sit through more than 15 minutes of this (highly) “critically-acclaimed”, “one-of-a-kind”, a “milestone” of a movie called Black. It made me wonder about the meaning of black and its affinity to silence (or the lack of it, in this case). How silent is silence in the world of a child who cannot see, hear or speak? How comfortable is silence to a child whose sight and hearing have abandoned him? Or how friendly or fearful is silence for a child to whom the mystery of language has not been revealed? Tragically, this movie outright refuses to acknowledge the omnipresence of silence that engulfs the subject matter.
Based loosely (or rather set tightly) on the life of Helen Keller, here is a child burdened with triple disabilities of blindness, deafness and a severe speech impediment. The all-knowing, ever-perceptive teacher (played by the demi-God of Indian movie history, AB Baby “the one who does no wrong”) takes the child under his wing as an experimentation to his methodical teaching.
The initial 15 minutes of high volume noise pollution was incurred by 15 minutes of high intensity melodrama and verbal diarrhoea between characters at play. I was amazed at the lack of logic behind all the rage, impatience and frustration of the teacher. His infuriated tirade at the child is often associated with vigorous shaking of the child out of her wits (borderline physical abuse?) as he lectures her on the virtues of table manners. The poor kid cannot even hear! (For the ignorant newbie to this genre, “high level of shrieking and noise-making is imperative for “BOND”-ing between characters in “desi” movies.)
While the rest of the audience ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ at the teacher’s dedication, and supposed wisdom, I tweedle my thumbs some more, and wonder if the intention behind all that noise and violence is highly noble. Did the director underestimate viewers’ intelligence to grasp the context, and thus felt the need to spell it all out (a raw insult not to be taken kindly)? Or has silence become a moot point (‘moo’ to some, ‘mute’ to others) in conversations and has lost its golden glory? I dearly hope it’s the first.Admirably Black is true to its nature... hue and saturation… in the desolation, austerity, and skepticism of the affluent bourgeois family of the Victorian era… or in the monochromatic language of cinematography… beautiful, yet sombre. Yet there is more to blackness than the director wanted us to believe. One needs to fathom both the beauty and the dread of silence that encapsulates black, and understand how to connect with silence and make it less fearful.
Pleased with my analysis, I get up and turn the TV off to find solace in the darkness of the screen and the sudden quietness it ensured. Yes, black and silence can be synonymous. So, here’s a riddle… if black is silent, and silence is golden, then how golden is Black?
while still on the subject (May 19 post by toski), guess who's the biggest, most revered passive- aggressor in the history of all passive- aggressors in subcontinental celluloid and literature? It's our very own Devdaas, hands down.
Look at 1900, Bengali literature... ... Manipulative, egotistical, vindictive, cowering, spineless males confronted by their strong, aggressive, conscientious, down-to-earth female counterparts. Think of the females, a Mejodidi (Sharatchandra), a Shorbojoya (panther panchali, Bibhutibhushan), a Charulata (Tagore) or a Binodini (Chokher Bali, Tagore), only to name a few... take stands, put their feet down for love, for dignity, for whatever, even at the risk of losing their all and becoming an outright pariah. These apparent emotional wrecks, have evidently shown far more integrity, emotionally or otherwise.Fast forward to the 21st century celluloid..... All the glory of modernization / westernization couldn't do much for the spines of our subcontinental males. The hapless hero still wins the love, sympathy & applause of the audience. He is a true successor of Devdaas. Example, Dilwale Dulhania..., KKKK (do you really care what that stands for?), or Kuch kuch... (only to name a few). Seriously, how can you resist those big, teary, sad, beaten-down puppy eyes??? He makes big empty promises, gets beaten up black and blue, exploits the dadima, emotionally blackmails the teen sister-in-law, sits at your feet with a lovelorn, dazed look, and keeps clawing at your leg so you'd give him some more doggie biscuits. And the girl/or her family eventually goes "enough!! You will get what you want ... now stop crying !!" And once again, it's the victory of "True Love", a la manipulation & passive-aggression!!!
all I can say is .... get over it people, its been over 100 years... !!! And now if you'll excuse me, I need to go to my bedroom, and stick another needle up my doll's behind.
July 2002... the last time I learnt something new, when my now-ex, very matter of factly told me “there are 15 shades of grey between the black and white polarities of human personality” (Till now I have succeeded figuring out only 7). Absolute "black & white", "right & wrong", "good & evil" don’t exist. These are clever myths my mother invented to punish me with while I was growing up. It was easy you see. Who has the patience to appease an 8-year-old’s constant “whys” and “hows”?
Eons later, once again I subject myself to the same idiosyncrasies watching a period movie called Asoka. And once again, I witness the same impatience. The director, without my consent, force-fed me what I have already learnt (and later rejected) in my high school of unoriginal thoughts. The Absolute saintly Asoka, and his Absolute devilish counterpart, the Bad Asoka. No wait, since he is the hero we all are supposed to empathize with, he is “the weird, psycho guy, driven by love and betrayal”.
Trouble is, I was eager to feast on an intriguing, hardcore historical documentation on the most remarkable, eccentric, and most powerful emperor of India, Asoka, with all his predatory foreign policies, and puritanical streaks. But, instead, I got stuck with the journey of dharm-asoka to psycho-asoka and back and forth… all for his love for this woman (And, she is not even real!). Well, who again has the time and patience to study the grey shades of human nature and understand what drives them on? It’s the absolut vodka, which when prepared, has nothing absolute about it. Pick a flavor, stir and strain into a chilled champagne glass, top up with apple peel garnish, and serve in style… … whatever looks and feels good, by ongoing trend. And thus, all through out the movie, our hero skips and jumps from absolute psychodom to absolute sainthood … flirting with our moral faculties... and something inside me dies a natural death.
because they are loyal, full of gratitude, shock-proof (once the initial 2 secs revelation is over), and constantly guilt-ridden.
Reveal their true identity only when they choose to marry the girl you don't approve of. Whoever told you adoption was a risky bargain for wealthy, aristocratic, stiff upper-lipped, "desi" families like yours was totally insane. Afterall, you have given him love, food and shelter. Drive your son to the verge of abusing prescription drugs by admonishing him how his ultra-english upbringing was not good enough to turn his blood to the perfect shade of blue you wanted. Hereditary.. schmereditary. He will come around... because he is, after all, the most grateful and loyal of all creatures.
... the movie lovers and the dreamers.
... all the needy, clingy, hormonal sugar-cravers with their secret stash of tissues and tubs of vanilla in the freezer...
... all the bettys, archies and veronica-wanna-bes alongwith their good-old riverdale high...
... yes, i know. You need a shoulder to cry-on because you need love, and wish you had dealt with all your childhood issues already. Or yes, you didn't get that girl in highschool because you had serious self-esteem issues, and a bad acne break-out didn't help much.
... don't we all.
Name one person who doesn't have a secret dream to flaunt his new GAP hoodie (PRADA who?) and turn heads in that sleek chic red thunderbird (environment-friendly doors a must-have) on the first day of college (coed) ... come to think of it, I literally had that fantasy when I was 14.
... yes, we would all love to settle abroad... london, america, italy, who cares... as long as it is somewhere in the west, because .... well, don't tell anyone, but we are all kind of secretly fascinated with the idea of living in the west. But, offcourse, we love our countries to death, I mean don't get me wrong!
... yes, this website is a tribute to all of us who love karan johar movies, because he is one of us, and we all think he is the best thing that had ever happened next to frozen pizzas.
“fruity", "dry" or "clear"? I don't know. All I know is, certain red wines give me a headache every time. I don't have an acquired taste for wine. I argue back, shit is also an acquired taste if you feed yourself enough of it.
