DEATH – Why do we respond the way we do?

Death - it means different things to different people. And it is based on our experience (with death) which in turn mostly drives our awareness.

People have different experiences with death. Young people, who may not have seen death happening around them, in their close family and friend circle. When death happens to someone close to them, they mostly react with disbelief. "How can something like this happen?” How could it happen to them.

Whereas people who have had already experienced death in their close circle and have already gone through the pain of losing someone close to them, death comes more of as grief than disbelief. These people mostly have accepted death as a reality of life. Now it does not come as a complete revelation to them but more as something painful - (which they understand a bit more now) – since it has happened to someone close.

As this experience of death grows, it normally leads to more awareness. Awareness about Life and Death. People realize that as life is real so is death. And in some sense more real. Since for many people life many not really happen fully, but death happens - fully, completely.
Though it may not be certain when it will happen - but happen it will for sure - for anyone and everyone. This is the prime truth of life. That one day, howsoever strongly one may be bound to the earthly things, one has to depart and leave everything behind. Once this realisation grows in a person, so does his or her awareness.

And when awareness grows completely, one will no more grief death. He or she will accept it as they accepts life. Reaching such a stage is the culmination of realisation. One can be called a realised being. But very few reach such a stage. Most of us are only partially there. And there is a huge spectrum in ones awareness of death - between reacting to death with "disbelief" and reacting to it with "acceptance". And based on this awareness, does our response to death happen.

Also a very important aspect which plays a role on this awareness about death is also the recency of any past event of death. Sometimes our awareness is inversely proportional to the time that has lapsed between out last experience to an event of death.
This is due to a very strong human trait (I call it - back to life) which helps us to forget the “ultimate reality” and makes us believe that the life happening around is the “only reality” and makes us indulge fully in it. Some people even talk highly of this trait and claim that without this trait all of us would take to vairagya.

This can be well explained by the concept of 'smashaan vairagya' and how most of us sometimes experience it. [Vairagya is a Sanskrit word, meaning the opposite of ragya. And ragya means color or passion of life. So Vairagya means no passion towards life or a colorless life]. Some of us would have observed this after attending a cremation or burial, we start questioning life, “What is it all about and what is the purpose of us trying to work hard towards a secure future, when in reality this is where we all have to reach”. This is called as smashaan vairagya, since this kind of vairagya remains with us only for a few minutes till we walk out of the place – or till we start our car and make that phone call to the world outside – our spouse, work, friends, etc, and our “back to life” trait takes over.

Now this “back to life” trait also plays a big role in our awareness – not just to death but to our overall levels of awareness. And with respect to death, depending on how much the “back to life” trait is strong in us, will determine our response to death.

That according me explains why we see different people responding differently to death, when it happens around them.

Here are some of the quotes that I have read about death and liked:

• "It is amazing to see, how people continue to ignore death, as it may never happen to them".

• "We begin to die as soon as we are born, and the end is linked to the beginning." - Marcus Manilius

• "Death is stranger to and feared by Fools; To wise men, "death" is a friend and welcomed"

• "Fools delay spiritual culture for they forget nearness to death; Wise men cultivate themselves every minute for they remember it"

• "The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk of accident for someone who's dead." - Albert Einstein
  

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

MOVIE REVIEW FIRAAQ

FIRAAQ - Communal Pornography
(This review got published in Filmfare and won the award for the Best Review).

I have been contemplating to write the review of FIRAAQ since quite some time now, but then I did want to promote the move, even by writing about it. However after reading a news article today in the Economic Times, I was motivated to write.

In its promotion, Firaaq claims to be “A work of fiction based on thousand true stories”. However today, the SIT (Special Investigation Team) of the Supreme Court of India has dismissed many of the cases as false stories. SIT says witnesses were tutored to give evidence about imaginary incidents, which have been doctored by activists like Teesta Setalvad. (Ref Economic Times, Delhi Edition 14th April 2009 “Setalvad in dock for ‘cooking up killings’”),

I am not a Narendra Modi supporter nor am I here to dispute the so called facts depicted in Firaaq. I was personally deeply hurt by what happened in Gujarat during Godra and post-Godra riots. Not because Hindus were killed or Muslims were killed. My pain was more, if i quote Nassarudin Shan from Firaaq itself, “Mujhay gham is baat ka hai, ki Insaan Insaan kau maar raha hai” (I am pained by the fact that a Human is killing another Human).

Nandita Das is a fine actor and even a very nice director. Firaaq is actually a very well directed movie. However the activist in her overshadows the director.

Firaaq is a completely biased version of the Godhra riots, painting almost all Hindus and all the Police force with the same brush. It projects all Muslims as victims and conveys the message the being a Muslim in Gujarat (and probably anywhere in India) is a crime.

I am not contesting what Firaaq had depicted is true or false. And that is not what hurt me. Even if it was true, what one has to consider is the motive behind such a movie and the display of gory details.

When a movie is made, it leaves a message for the people to assimilate in their consciousness. What message does Firaaq leave? In the current times of hostile environment in our country, far from leaving a message of possibility of peace, mutual respect and amicable future, Firaaq leaves all wounds open. It leaves Muslims with the feeling that they have been discriminated, challenged, killed, raped and are unwelcome anywhere. At the same time, it leaves Hindus with the feeling that it is not over yet. Muslims will get back to them, the revenge is pending and don’t ever trust them.

What kind of a message is this!

While some critics had called the much acclaimed “Slumdog Millionaire” as “poverty pornography”, I think FIRAAQ is social and communal pornography.

Ms Das, has tried to make a Schindler’s list about Gujarat.
But we are not taking about the German Holocaust of 1940es in 1990es, when once can afford to make a Schindler’s list, show gross and gory images and leave a message for people to think and contemplate - how savage men can get and we all need to be vary of this.
Firaaq has come in 2009 about a riot which happened in 2002, which is still very fresh in people’s minds. It does not evoke consciousness amongst masses - it evokes fear and revenge. It evokes vulnerability. Can we afford to evoke these feelings?

Firaaq is very well acted and very well directed movie. It has some of the finest performances by Deepti Naval as the helpless women who can not come to terms with the brutality around. Naseer is great as usual, as an eternal believer in love and peace. Sanjay Suri has played the role of a confused urban Muslim with finesse. Shahana Goswami continues to inspire with her acting. After Rock-On, this is one more brilliant performance from her.

All in all, Firaaq is a great movie in terms of acting and direction. However when a movie is made on such a serious subject, the director needs to keep in view the message he or she wants to portray and be sensitive to various point of views people would have about the subject.
Nandita has to lean that she would need to separate the activist in her from the director in her. Else she would not be able to do justice to either.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

Movie Review DEV D

A dark, bold, revolutionary love story.

There are three main aspects about Dev D that come out very strongly. -1, its path breaking screenplay, characterization and picturisation -2, its depiction of human character and -3, its direction.

Path Breaking Movie: Every once in a while comes a movie, which redefines the benchmark of various aspects of movie making.
Sholay in the 70’s redefined the Hero of Hindi movies, who wears Denim jeans, drives motorcycles and has a casual attitude and a casual lingo. All this in the magnificent 75mm frame. “Janbaaz” in 80’s redefined the boldness in the movies and the limits of love making between the hero and the heroine, that could be shown on-screen. It also had some mindblowing music and introduced the concept of foreign artists and English songs. Year 2002 saw “Kaante” redefining the language used in the movies. It introduced the concept of Item Numbers and stretched the acceptable limits of vulgarity, in the Hindi mainstream movies.

DEV D brings in a new limit of the language used by the characters, and the depiction of human behavior, sexual or other wise, which can be shown on screen. Most importantly it redefines the feminism in Hindi movies. The boldness of its two women protagonists, the acceptance and depiction of their sexuality and their assertion and clarity about what they want and how they think. DEV D is by far the most advanced "women’s lib" movies made by Hindi cinema. DEV D scores not just because of the shock value of the stuff that it shows, but because of a lot of substance that is there in every frame of the movie.

DEV D also introduces the concept of OST (Original Sound track) in a completely new avatar. The music is a cocktail of different genres. It is difficult to even call it a music album. It is romantic at times, at times folk, at times trashy and at time just noise – an amazing concoction.

Depiction of human character: DEV D is a movie that explores all possible shades of human character. It hammers in the point that there are no good people or bad people. People have a very grey shade to their character. In fact it depicts not one, but hundreds of shades of grey.
Our hero, Devdas – is he a hero? – is so much into self destruction, full of ego, male chauvinism, alcohol, drugs, womanizing … self centered – even after crushing innocent people to death under his car or the death of his father does not move him. He seems to be completely remorse less. At the same time he loves Paro so passionately, that you can feel his grief of getting separated from her. He romances with Chanda that you enjoy and smile with him.
Then there is Chanda, who moves from being an innocent 16 year old teenager to a suave commercial sex worker, who know how to manipulate her clients. And when you start thinking that is her, she displays her youthfulness, shows the pain she has inside and falls in love completely all over again.
At the end, one can not pick up who is the good and who is bad. They are all just so human.

Direction : DEV D is Anurag Kashyap’s canvas. He has shown his genius as a movie director. The hallmark of DEV D is its subtlety.
Unlike many Hindi movies, which keep on explaining every situation till even the dumbest of the dumb gets it, a lots of complex situations in DEV D have been depicted so subtly that you sometimes need to be an ardent movie watcher to have observed all the nuances.
The editing of DEV D is really jazzy giving it an international / new-world feel.
Anurag Kashyap also scores is his ability to extract performances from people, who don’t have a proven track record in acting.
By far this is Abhay Deol’s best performance so far. Even better than the great job he did in “Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye”. However, the performances by new actresses Mahi Gill and Kalki Koechlin are completely mind blowing. They stand out. Both of them have done an amazing justice to their characters. They are the new bold, sexy, brainy brigade in Hindi cinema.

All in all, even though DEV D can not be called an entertainer, it keeps the audience engrossed – actually shocked. Though it tends to drag in between, overall it is gripping and will be remembered for a long time as a path breaking movie in Hindi cinema.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.

Movie Review Ghajini

I am keeping this review very small, since my friend Sameer has already written a very nice review of it. (http://sameertikoo.blogspot.com).

As my friend has written Ghajini is a convoluted love story.
However i dont think the screenplay or the narrative of the movie is weak. It is the story itself which has altogether NO substance.

For me Ghajini is a very ordinary movie and its success is mainly due to the following three reasons :

-1. Aamir Khan's very suave performance.
He looks really cool as Sanjay Singhania. He dances like a young boy and romances like a charmer! He even shows a lot of penchant, while he kills.

-2. A very well paced script which does not let the movie drag.
Even though it is reminicent of skull breaking movies like Shiva and other Chiranjeevi movies, it never drags and keeps the audiances awake.

-3. And most importantly, since it is an Aamir Khan movie, people are sacred to openly call it an ordinary, since they don't want to sound stupid because "how can Aamir Khan movie be ordinary!"
Plus an amazing amount of publicity done for crores of rupees it has collected in record time, is ing enough for people to believe that it might actually be a good movie.

All in all, Ghajini, is a very ordinary paisa wasool, no brainer movie, far far below the standards, Aamir Khan has set for himself.

Ameet Mattoo
New Delhi.