One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

‘Bakwas end!’ was my first reaction just after the last scene of the movie and I hadn’t even gotten out of the chair. I saw it today at a local film festival and I admit I wouldn’t have seen it completely had I been watching it on DVD. But since I was seating in National Films Archive of India (Pune) I watched it through. And the movie got better after first 45 minutes or so. Brilliant performances by all crew members! But I didn’t like the end. Yes it is one of those movies (like Forrest Gump) which grows to a new height with every minute you spend thinking about it.

The more I thought about it, the more I appreciated it, but still I don’t like the sad end. I just don’t understand why the writer had to end the story about a high spirited man who despite of having all the ‘human flaws’ rebelled against an institution for the sake of the patients had to end this way, when the writer was the God of the story. Despite of having his chance to run away, he chooses to stay to support his friends, to help them with the issues which primarily have arisen because of lack of self confidence and emotional turmoil rather than mental illness and What does he get in return, death!

OK one can argue that the escape of the chief and its celebration by other patients can be looked upon as the victory of what McMurphy stood up for. But then the Hero (yes the H is capital, the Hero within us is as important as the God, isn’t it?) died. Doesn’t this subconsciously kill the Hero within us? The story brings us face to face with the reality that if you try be a rebel who dares to go beyond the confines of the ‘civilization’, death or defeat might be one of the (most likely) ends. Yes those after you might enjoy the fruits but you might not be there to enjoy that. Look at that silly McMurphy, he didn’t think before acting, just went with his natural instinct to support the underdog and look what happened to him, he died! Are you willing to go against the ‘society’ now? Are you willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?

Well most of us know this already, consciously or subconsciously, which is why we just try to exist within the society despite of the million flaws in the system. We also know that if we try to fight the system, there are very high chances of failure. And this strengthens the problem of lack of self confidence and unwillingness to change the things around us. Wouldn’t it be nice to know that not all revolutions fail! Some succeed and at the end of the war there are chances that you will be there to enjoy the fruits of the change and even if the chances are little, they are worth trying for!

Abhi Ho Sakata Hai – It can happen right now!

Abhi Ho Sakata Hai – It can happen right now!
-Osho Rajinish

Ok this post was meant to be totally something else, but it is going to be something totally different. It was going to be about the lines, ‘Abhi Ho Sakata Hai’. I read these lines in Osho’s discourse on Ashtavakra Gita. No I haven’t read the whole discourse. It’s comprises some 7-8 volumes (I am not sure, this was some 5-6 years ago.) I was trying to read the third (again, I think) volume. I abandoned the book midway, partly because of my impenitence with teachings which claim to help you with your spiritual self but, more importantly, because I felt I already had gotten the message: Abhi Ho Sakata Hai – It can happen right now!

Thought the message is about attaining Superconsciousness, I have found the message to be very useful in the efforts of attaining my relatively materialistic goals. It is more about the power of believing in your ability and having the resolve: from now onwards the aim of my every activity will be to attain that goal.

(Though I didn’t complete Osho’s discourse on Ashtavakra Gita I did maange to read another of his discourse titled ‘From Sex to Superconsciousness’. See what a great title can achieve! But let me tell you, the message is not about Sex at all. It is about Superconsciousness. The way I interpreted it was like: OK so you cannot conquer your sexual urges, then don’t try to suppress them. That way the only thing you will be doing is thinking more and more about sex. If you want sex, do it and then concentrate fully on more important things in life.)

Though it is very easy to understand the message - It can happen right now! -, why I (and most of us) fail to realize our goals and ambitions? It is because though I have my goals at the same time I have desires which lead me to the path which is contradictory to the path I must take to achieve my goals. And every time the desires win I fail to attain one of my goals. I understand perfectly well why I fell, yet I don’t succeed. Because to succeed one must not only understand but also act according to the understanding. Manage that and yes, It can happen right now!

But you said, “Ok this post was meant to be totally something else, but it is going to be something tonally different.” As long as I can see, the post is about what its title suggests.

Yes till this point the post was about what it was supposed to be. From this point forward it is different. (See sometimes the conflict between aim and desire can produce something worthwhile. That’s why life is so interesting.)

Just before writing this article, I was reading a post on Ram Gopal Varma’s blog. In this entry RGV tells us about Satyendra, one of his friends in collage who was a genius in philosophy. But RGV describes their last encounter as,


Years later when I was shooting for a film in his town, I tried to trace him as I came to know he left his home a few years earlier. I found him in a windowless room filled with all kinds of books. His eyes were filled with boredom which made me realize that he got saturated with knowledge and intelligence, and as a result there was no more excitement in his life


And while researching for this post I found the wikipedia entry on Osho. Till date I have known Osho only through his discourses on various topics. The breadth of his knowledge is awe-inspiring. And his message is clear and to the point. But after reading about the controversial parts of his life, I was astounded by the things which (he purports) were done by his supporters without his knowledge but by using his wealth and power.

I read about two great men in short span of an hour. First Satyendra who despite of his intelligence and knowledge failed to put it to any practical use in life. I agree, may be I am being a bit too harsh on Satyendra in my judgement. Actually it is totally wrong when one person declares other person unsuccessful. But for practical purposes of life one must assess and one must judge. And for me, knowledge gained but not used is waste of time. (I agree that in larger philosophical sense the previous statement is shallow. But I observe that this particular attitude has helped to solve many practical problems.)

And then there is Osho, who despite of being a sea of knowledge, had let such sorry things to come to pass. But I shall refrain from passing any judgment on Osho. I need to know a lot more about him before doing that. And I think I shall be reading a lot more about Osho. Another conflicting desire which may stop or at least hinder my attempts to reach my goals in life. But hey life is not a race to be won, or goal to be attained, it is about finding what life is. Right?

The day you realized and did nothing

Hello guys,

This is a special post! It’s the start of a new era!! It’s the beginning of a career of a genius!!! (Self proclaimed though!!!! And I bet you haven’t seen that many exclamation marks in one paragraph!!!!!)

Tushar has decided to publish one of his poems on my blog. So I am starting this new section on my blog titled, “Tushar’s Planet in Pritam’s Universe”. Let’s you get to read more of his brilliant (need I say self proclaimed again.) work here.

But seriously it’s a good read, my only grouch is that it doesn’t rhyme.

OK here is the poem:

The day you realized and did nothing

Oh how terrible be that cold cruel moment
when you realize that what you want shall never be yours
what you had, is lost and gone
and what you have become, you shall hate forevermore

beg and plead all you may
your heart shall know peace no more
take and steal all you want
what you hold shall never be yours

years shall pass and seasons turn
you shall grow and your heart shall burn
a cold calm shall cast a veil
over the desires that once prevailed

All you meet shall know you true
doubt and deny all you may
They shall see that you rue
The day you realized and did nothing.


--- Tushar

In Pursuit of Happiness: What I want from Life

Image Credit: Zen
What is art? Well art is many things to many people. That’s the essence of a piece of art. Art is open to interpretation of the person experiencing the art. What a person will experience from a piece of art will depend upon that particular person, his unique personality, the experiences he has had before in his life.

Ho ho, now isn’t that vague and uncertain. I being a programmer don’t really deal well with uncertainties. What I have to do is to find a common most occurring situation and then create a solution for that particular situation and then handle the exceptional occurrences to complete the solution. So for my little purpose of living this life I have accepted the following definition of art,

“Art is something which at the basic level satisfies physical and emotional senses but which also stimulates the intellectual thought.”

Ok if you are scratching your head about why I am propounding on the definition art in a post titled, ‘In Pursuit of Happiness: What I want from Life’ then your doubts aren’t entirely misplaced. And if your mental state is like- "bhais ki aakh" saala kuch bhi likhta – I won’t really blame you. [And no this post isn’t a retort at the people who miserably failed to understand my work of art. ;-) ]

The reason is because I have just read “The Hungry Tide” (Good Book, a review post is in the making. For me a real work of art.) by Amitav Ghosh. In the novel Amitav Ghosh has showed a lot of different characters who have different expectations, hopes and ambitions in life.

There is Piya who is a scientist. She is ready to devote prime 10-15 years of her life to do research on some rare species of dolphins found in the rivers of Sunderbans, even when she doesn’t know what will be the ultimate practical benefit of this research. She is ready to live the harsh solitary life in the jungles of Sundarban where there is good chance that she may become food of some tiger or crocodile.

There is Kanai a successful businessman in the translation services. He knows six languages. His ambition is more success, more luxury and more women.

There is Nirmal and Nilima. The idealist couple trying to help the poor people of Sundarbans. They among other things also run a trust hospital for the people if Sunderbans.

There is Moyna, Fokir’s (described below) wife, who despite of being a fisherman’s wife and her rural background is determined to get more education and become a nurse. She wants a better life for her family.

There is Kusum, Fokir’s mother. She has endured unthinkable grief and hardships, yet she is zestful and determined to live a full life.

And then there is Fokir. What Fokir wants? You don’t know. What he does? He is a fisherman by tread, who spends a lot of time on river in the vicinity of nature singing songs. Why he sacrifices his life for Piya? You don’t know. Is he in love with Piya. You don’t know for sure but it seems so.

Of all the above characters, Fokir puzzles me the most. There is a big unanswered WHY about him. In a novel (and in real life too) you can understand people by their ambition. Understand a person’s ambition and you will have him figured out. You can guess in advance how he will behave in a certain situation if you understand his ambition and his moral framework (though quite a few times the moral framework is conditioned by the ambition).

Fokir is a kind of person who knows how just to be. There is no why about his existence, there is just being and being content about it. The kind of man the traditional Hindu religion instructs us to be. The concept of ‘nirvana’. End of want, the complete bliss, the eternal happiness.

You: Ae, bakwas band kar, direct bol tera point kya hai?

The point is: the WHY of Pritam? If you know me for more than 2 days, you will understand that I am all about ambition. In many ways I am a lot like Kanai. (Except for more women part. Though it may be the natural man situation, I understand the meaning and importance of THE woman and I am searching for her.)

So if I am about ambition, what is the ambition? Happiness for me and my people. Ambitions means want and want negates the possibility of nirvana, the eternal happiness. So what’s the problem? Why am I running behind some ambition when there is eternal happiness to be obtained? Well, it’s not the want or ambition which brings the grief. It’s the failure to achieve the ambition. But you fail only when you give up hope and stop running. If there is hope, the failure is only momentarily; you can always get up and start running.

It’s not really the happiness but the pursuit of happiness that keeps me running. It’s the pursuit of happiness that keeps me alive.

Life has Infinite Capability to Fuck You, Anytime, Anywhere.

Life has Infinite Capability to Fuck You, Anytime, Anywhere.
पर का करे भाई, और कोई ओप्सन है?

ज़िन्दगी दिखाती है सपने और हम देखते है।
मंसूबो की रेत में बस किले बानाते है।

और ये कम्बखत जिंदगी कुछ सपने सच भी कर देती है।
आशाओं के ऊँचे ऊँचे मनोरे उभार देती है।

And then Life does IT to you. And it hurts like hell!

क्यो मीनिंग की तलाश में हम दर दर है भटकते?
क्यो देखते है हम ये सपने जो इतना दर्द है देते?
पर का करे भाई, और कोई ओप्सन है?

Oops! I did it again…. I wrote another poem. What has happened to me? Why I have started acting weird? I mean all this 'getting an inspiration and writing a poem about it' kind of stuff. Weird! It has never happened to me before. Am I under some alien virus attack or something? Okay, jokes apart this poem is actually inspired by the movie ‘Barah Aana’. I just watched it a few hours ago. And Right after watching the movie while coming back home, the first two lines came to me. The first line ‘Life has Infinite Capability to Fuck You, Anytime, Anywhere.’ is one of my favorite lines. I recited it and somehow I could hear Vijay Raaz saying, “पर का करे भाई, और कोई ओप्सन है?”

So you must be wondering, if the movie is capable of inspiring a poem, then it must be a very good movie. Well it is certainly a very well made movie. Performances are really good. Direction is really nice. Whether you will like it or not? I can’t really tell. It’s the kind of a movie one has to watch and decide for himself (or herself, I am not a chauvinist it’s just how English is).

So what do you think about the poem?

Ye Jindagi Ek Premgeet Hai!

ये जिंदगी एक प्रेमगीत है ।
माना अब गा रहा इसे पंकज उधास है ।
कभी ये जगजीत सिंग की मीठी ग़ज़ल हुआ कराती थी ।
जब उनकी किलकिलाहट से हमारी सुबह हुआ कराती थी ।

हां अब बिरह की काली रात चल रही है ।
मन के सागर में यादों की सैलाब चल रही है ।
शायद ये तांडव प्रेमगीत नही हो सकता
पर मौसम हमेशां ही तो बरबाद नही रहता ।

ढल जायेंगे जुदाई के बादल
और आसुओं की बारिश भी रुक जायेगी ।
बस वो मुस्कुरादे एक बार, हरियाली फिर लौट आएगी।
जिंदगी फिर से एक प्रेमगीत बन जायेगी |


OK, so that was it! My first poem on this blog! And yes please ignore the grammar. I can't really write Hindi that well.

This poem started from one of my friend's Gmail status line which I thought was really sad. But more than sad it was pessimistic. Yes luck matters and some really shitty things happen to us, but sometimes how you look at it is more important then how it is.

I believe in hope. Yes I am a hopeless romantic.

From the Deep and the Dark of the Human Mind: Gulaal

Sometimes writing something is compulsory. And writing about Gulaal is something I have to do right now. Right now I am sitting in my office. I have just returned from E-Square where I watched ‘Gulaal’. It is 10.59 pm and tons of work is pending but I can’t think of anything but Gulaal. So work will have to wait till tomorrow.

Now about Gulaal. First,

Warning: If you didn’t like Delhi 6, the chances are that you will find Gulaal mind-numbingly boring.

Another Warning: Gulaal uses very rough, rowdy, derogatory and offensive language. So if you are a traditionally raised Indian woman, or a middle-class parent who behaves as if he never used, or heard people using, such language then you won’t even be able to watch the movie.

A good review demands that you should give a rundown of the story without actually killing the reader’s curiosity about the movie. And I really hate this part. So please read the summery of the story of Gulaal here on this review published on PassionForCinema.com

When somebody writes a story or makes a movie he has certain objectives which he wants the story to fulfil. Most of the commercial films have only one objective, to entertain the people. Why, because we essentially go to watch a movie to be entertained. So as consumer our expectations about the product exactly match with that of the producer. So when a director succeeds in making an entertaining film, we get a blockbuster. Hence we have these films called masala films which aim at creating a perfectly entertaining concoction.

Now there is nothing wrong in wanting to entertain people. That’s the reason why the movie industry is a part of the lager entertainment industry. But there is a big problem when we look at movies as products of art. This ‘art’ part royally fucks with the simple definition of a movie as a vehicle to entertain people. Generally it is said that when you are experiencing a work of art, there are five levels to describe this experience.

1. Unsatisfactory
2. OK
3. Satisfactory
4. Entertaining
5. Meaningful

Now since it’s art, the experience depends upon the person itself. But generally for average people, when the director tries to be meaningful, he has to cut down on entertainment part. (Aamir Khan is one filmmaker who understands how to maintain this balance and yet create a blockbuster.)

And I sincerely believe that from an average moviegoer’s point of view Anurag Kashyap has failed to maintain the entertainment-meaning balance.

But for those who are ready to venture into darker parts of human soul to understand people and world better, this movie is an absolute treat. And apart from that the movie has very good cinematography and dialog.

One problem why the movie fails to entertain/satisfy (depending upon how you look at it) is lack of a traditional plot. For example the movie doesn’t have any Hero. Dilip Kumar Singh is the protagonist of the story, he is certainly not a Hero. One basic rule that a every beginning writer is instructed to follow is to make the protagonist likable. Here Anurag Kashyap is the least bothered about making the protagonist likable. In fact for me the character of Dilip Kumar Singh is the least liked one. He is weak, spineless, and easily gullible and he doesn’t really have much of aptitude. I can not even pity him.

It is really hard to keep the audience interested in the story if you lack a plot, because the curiosity of ‘What happens next’? is something that keeps the audience firmly riveted to the story. And plot makes it easier to keep up this curiosity. If you don’t have a plot then what is currently happening on the screen has to be so engrossing that it shouldn't give the user a chance to think about what happens the next. Also this makes it harder for the director to create a continuous flow out of the story. Anurag Kashyap has coped with these challenges very well, still for around half an hour before the interval, I found myself asking, why am I really watching this? Is it really heading anywhere? But fortunately after the interval I was again firmly involved in the story.

But if you stopped to look at it as traditional story and just looked at it as a series of interconnected character studies, it is really engrossing. What I got from the movie is that people are all about their aspirations. All our actions are governed by what we want, consciously and unconsciously. Our aspirations create meaning in our lives. If we want to understand how a person will behave in a certain situation, we must be able to understand his/her real aspirations.

And one more thing some aspirations can force us to make dreadful choices. So be careful about what you want!