Natarang!!

I divide the post in two parts: A regular review and what I felt personally after watching the movie.... because there's something I took home from the movie...

'Natarang' makes me feel proud of the fact that I understand Marathi, the language of laavani, the language with enchanting maadhurya ('Sweetness' does not have the 'maadhurya' which its Marathi synonym 'maadhurya' does). The movie sweeps you off your feet as it takes you along on a journey of a mad artist.

'Natarang' belongs to Atul Kulkarni throughout. You see him as the passionate farm-help.. and just then you seethe transformation in the body language of the character; then you see him helpless, happy. I simply cannot stop applauding for him!

Other actors like Kishor Kadam, Sonalee and the actress who plays Guna's wife play characters that are different layers of this story... or perhaps different sides. The music of the film wows you with some amazing numbers - 'Khel mandala' is a beautiful slow track while 'Vaajle ki baara' and 'Apsara aali' are some amazingly picturized and sounding laavanis.

The story is an amazingly entertaining ride. However, the climax looks abrupt and feels like a forceful happy ending. The snapshots of lavani artistes as the end credits roll are superb - their eyes look empty, almost hungry.

The movie is a must-watch. The DVD/VCD will surely be a collector's delight.

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With his eyebrows neatly shaped, Guna sits wearing a white kurta and pyjama with a notebook in his hand. He is writing the script of his new play, a play where he will, yet again, portray the lead dancer's effeminate sidekick, the naachya. Guna says, "Pratyek manasaat ek baai aste. Ani pratyek baait ek maanus." (There is a man in every woman and a woman in every man.) He goes silent. But then, through his eyes, you hear him screaming. Screaming with helplessness. He is a man in every sense. A man who stuck on to his passion for tamasha (A Maharashtrian folk art), a man who was man enough to play a naachya. You see the man who sits with pride in the slender feminine body. You see the grit in his eyes - the determination to do everything that his passion demands.

Even if it means ripping his self-respect off.

You hear him scream at the thought.

And then you wonder if it was him. Or if it was you yourself who screamed... Almost horror-struck to see the strength that passion generates in a person...

Sway or stay

Sway or stay... two words which differ in only one letter. This letter makes a lot of difference...

When you stay, you are calm and composed. You are in an equilibrium like a pendulum that is still under its own weight.

When you sway, you move under a force. A force that is beyond your control (Newton calls it external.).

The goal of 'sway' is to 'stay'. (A pendulum that 'sway's to and fro finally comes to a 'stay'.)

'Sway' and 'stay' define many things in the world.

'Sway' and 'stay' are two states of mind... The force that makes your mind 'sway' are the temptations, frustrations and the pressures....

'Sway' and 'stay' are two states of any decision or activity... It is only after the initial changes that the decision converges to a 'stay'.

'Sway' and 'stay' are also two phases of a relationship which one hopes moves from 'sway' to 'stay'.

'Sway' and 'stay' also define the cycles of life and death... The cycles in which the soul 'sways' towards the eternal solitude - the 'stay'.

Sway and stay have no identity without each other. They collectively define the universal process of stabilization...

Differences

We are all different. The differences may start with the God we believe in, the socio-economic background we come from and go upto the choices and the preferences that we decide to make in life.Why is then so much hatred and hostility towards a person just because he does not practice your religion? Or does not come from your community/region? Or does not like things that you like? Why the glaring eyes at the squint-eyed person just because he doesn't look like the more common people around? Why the animosity towards a student just because he seems to be showing no progress in his studies?Why do we love equations and balance-sheets so much that we forget the Entity that is greater than all of us and that cannot be equated to anything else?We all are so obsessed with equality that we cannot respect the differences between us.

Silence of oneself

I close my eyes. It's the same darkness again. The darkness that seems to prove to me the presence of an infinitely deep world within me.I sense the vibrations in my body. The vibrations whose existence I know of without a doubt but whose location I would never be able to pinpoint. I sense the vibrations travelling from my brain to my shoulders and then coming back to my voice-box.I hear the sound of an 'Om' - a sound that resonates through my brain, a sound that slightly escapes through the thin slits of my eyelids. The sound is like the steam that takes along with it all that was impure and foreign leaves my body.The sound of the Om wanes off and I hear nothing. I have no thoughts, no feelings.I am at peace. I hear silence. Silence of myself filling up my ears and my mind...

Ten things to do before I die

This is a question which is generally answered by celebrities, but what the heck, this is my blog and these are the ten things I want to do before I die:
1. Meet Ekta Kapoor some day. Tell her that Indian morals and entertainment is not about three najayaz bachhas per serial and two deaths per twenty episodes.
2. Walk down the ramp in a fashion show. I am a clumsy fellow and my towel keeps falling atleast once a week after bath.
3. Wear my clothes inside out for a day. And read a book upside down that day.
4. Make a sculpture - of a wild boar with the head of a horse and tail of a stingray barb. Wonder where the boar would be? That's art my dear.
5. Dance naked with a group of gorillas. Do I hear you saying 'birds of same feather...'?
6. For a day, Watch 'Mughal-e-azam' three times back-to-back.
7. Live the first day of my school again. That's when the worldly ambitions, the struggle and the dejection started.
8. Meet the brains behind terrorism - train blasts to manned attacks. And see if they have a heart too.
9. Thank the mothers of the world. For they rule.
10. and for a day, I want to be myself. Because no one else will.

Day 5 contd::

I happened to read 'Mahashweta' by Sudha Murthy. The book tells the tale of Anupama whose beauty wins over her poor background and she marries a doctor from a rich background. Things are happy until one day she notices a white mark on her knee. She later gets diagnosed with leukoderma. The mother-in-law sends her back to her father's house while Anupama's husband is away. Anupama moves to Mumbai, combats the condition and becomes a lecturer at a college. She presents a play 'Mahashweta' before an audience that includes her doctor husband as well.The story traces Anupama's life the way it takes turns when she is no longer how beautiful she used to be and how one fateful disease strips her of her dignity, joy and dreams.Every Anupama will undergo a Mahashweta phase - the phase when people will cease to love you for what you look like and when the time would come to get people who will love you for what you are. The period to find people who will not be mirrors who constantly remind you of the changes you need. The phase to find an identity beyond the exteriors.An Anupama is what the rich doctor noticed, dated, married and denounced as the beauty seemed to get affected.A Mahashweta with all the white marks over her body, was what the world noticed for the confidence of achievement that glowed on her face... m glad to be one such...

Day 5

How often do you start your sentence with "But I've heard that...", "People generally believe..." or "My mom/wife says so."?It is surprising that we always have to quote someone else for our own beliefs. If your parent asked you not to do something and if you are convinced that you shouldn't, why can't you simply say, "I feel I don't want to do it", or even better, "I don't want to do it."Why can't we own our thoughts? Why do they need to be referenced to someone else? Why is it that 'What's in a name' wouldn't have been popular if the name 'Shakespeare' wouldn't be associated with it? When I say "people say that...", am I not trying to convince myself that what I am believing in is correct?Let's own our thoughts and let's assert them.Once we accept our thoughts, we'll accept our deeds and their outcome - all of which primarily emerge from our thoughts and our beliefs.It is acceptance that makes way for peace and harmony.