A movie with perfect flaws: Ayalum Njanum Thammil

Ayalum Njanum Thammil

I have no idea what the above words mean. All I know is that it’s the name of a Malayalam movie. Nor do I understand the language as well. Yet, I do watch movies from other languages (thanks to sub-titles) because it’s nice to discover the good stuff what other languages offer.

This recent 2012 Prithviraj starrer caught my attention when I happened to watch it on a rainy evening. Where movies are made with heroes being depicted as perfect gentlemen, in this movie the hero is flawed and makes mistakes one can only imagine. It’s a story about how an MBBS student who cares nothing for other people learns the real value of his profession through a guide or let’s say, well-wisher.

In a couple of instances, when Prithviraj performs an operation on a child which eventually leads to death and in another instance, when he refuses to treat a child because he has been rebuked by the child’s father, it only makes you wonder if the director is making a fool out of the hero. It makes you wonder if the director didn't know what qualities the hero should possess. From decades, we have been worshiping heroes. We cannot tolerate the hero committing mistakes for he is assumed to be perfect in every way. Yet, the director Lal Jose goes beyond the usual movies and allows the hero to commit mistakes which every common man would do.

Though the story revolves mostly around Prithviraj about his experiences as a doctor, other characters have contributed to the story majorly. Pratap Pothen, who plays the role of a senior doctor guides the young Prithviraj when he decides to kick the profession and focus on his dissolving love life. At some point in life, we all yearn for a guide or a teacher or just some person who throws light into our path.

A beautiful movie made in the recent times, it displays the other side of doctors which we usually never look beyond. A story about love, compassion, teaching and realization clearly depicted.

You need courage to kill....

It seems to be the week of bad news. One of the highest rated bad news is always death. Death of any kind has always been the topic of discussion. First, the death of director Rituparna Ghosh, then the death of actor Abir Goswami followed by the apparent suicide of Jiah Khan.

Death, whether it is untimely or accidental or staged, turns down to just one emotion – sadness. Accidental untimely deaths come with a package of their own pain and sadness which becomes hard to accept. But when death is chosen, it becomes an altogether different scenario.

Yesterday, I glanced through the Times of India edition. First, I read the suicide of Jiah Khan who hanged herself at the age of 25 after suffering from trauma and depression. I read it first because it was a highlighted news, given that she was an actress.
The other two news articles that put me off were these:

Girl kills herself after mother scolds for breaking a mobile phone.

Teenage girl kills herself when refused to attend pal’s wedding.

These news articles made me wonder if the teenage of our generation are turning out to be a weaker pillar of the nation. Apparently, it seems that of all the options, suicide seems to be an easier outage for these children. And let me tell you this – while you need a certain amount of courage to achieve great heights in life, you need double the courage to actually kill yourself.

Looks like the teenagers as young as 12 or 14 seem to have the courage to kill themselves over a mobile phone or the refusal of not being able to attend pal’s wedding or an exam failure or a love proposal or just plain depression. Emotionally, these children are not stable as they lack acceptance to the situation. Yet, they had the necessary mental preparation to take their own lives.

They say its weakness to commit suicide because those who run away from problems are the cowards. I refuse to agree with this because I believe deep down, you need an extra nerve to actually pull the noose around your neck. For normal people, the very thought itself can send shivers. I shudder at the thought myself.

These children, who are courageous enough to kill themselves, if for a moment, had they thought about applying the same courage to the situation they faced, life would have turned out differently for them. It’s not just about having courage to do something big in life. But it’s about applying the courage in the proper direction.

The late gratitude

Very often we find that strangers help us in the most strangest way possible.  Most of the the times we are not able to pass our thanks to them because life changes every single day with people moving on as well. Which is why I think there should be no delay in thanking someone.

Three years ago, when I first sent out my first script to a dozen publishers, I got more rejections than expected.  But there was this one publisher who accepted my story but it never took off with him as he demanded a huge investment.  I had just started working so putting up front so much money was impossible. So I refused and forgot about him.

Today morning, when I browsed through a publishing website, I came across his profile which stated his experience.  Further down, the article stated that he had died a couple of years ago due to a cardiac arrest.

A complete stranger, he was the first person to actually let me know that my story was fit to be published. He instilled the faith in me which has helped me stir the stories of my heart into paper. 

As I learnt the news of his death after two years, I wished I had thanked him for that small encouragement that has changed my life.

I guess that's what life is - encounter with strangers who restore our faith and walk away blissfully unaware of thier act. I have resolved to send thanks to all those strangers who have touched my life because gratitude should never wait until death.

How the Internet killed her....

The world is made of two parts- the bright places where the sun is always shining of happiness, laughter, well-being and prosperity where most of us always want to live. The world is also made up of dark places where the demons are always there to catch you alive and beat you to despair and miseries making you pay to be at the wrong places at the wrong times. Apparently, it so happens that despite the bright places there are more dark corners in our world which are always lurking around the corner when we are not looking.

Amanda Todd, a teenage girl from Canada never supposed that a topless picture of her when shared with a man who claimed that she was pretty and beautiful on the other end of the world would stalk her making her life miserable. She was 12 when she first got introduced to the massive world of chatting where strangers open up easily without having to share the truth. When the man asked for a flash of her, she posed for him without a second thought.

A year later, the man hunted down all her details and stalked her threatening to make the picture public if she didn’t flash again. When she didn't budge, he posed as a classmate on Facebook and shared the picture with all her friends who began to bully her by sending insensitive messages and calling her names. Amanda’s life turned miserable when she switched schools and cities to wipe away the past and yet it came following her like an eternal curse.

After a suicide attempt, she tried hard to live on anti-depressants to move on with her life despite the past hunting her down each time she decided to take a fresh start. Towards the end, unable to take it any longer she hanged herself to death in October 2012 at the age of 15. Before her death, she left a video on YouTube letting the world know about her misery. The video

Everybody makes mistakes. Some are admissible and some are corrected and some are hidden in the deepest corners of our heart. Yet, we often pay for our mistakes, sometimes heavily. Amanda Todd made a grave mistake for which she paid with her life at the age of 15 after seeing that world wanted her to die.

You can either blame Amanda Todd for being stupid enough to send a bare picture of herself to some stranger and then taking it too seriously to kill herself. You can also blame all those people out there who poked fun and enjoyed tormenting her by creating hate pages all over the internet and drove her to death. You can also blame the parents who don’t monitor what their children are doing in the virtual world on the internet as they are turning into evil and sinful monsters.

A death had occurred which will be forgotten with time and people will move on after being tired of the blame game. But let this incident be a warning to all those people out there making friends with strangers over the internet sharing intimate details. The internet is filled with darker places where people with malicious intentions are prowling all over waiting for their next victim. Let’s not allow the technology to kill us instead of serving us.

Unfamiliarity breeds conversations

Have you ever found yourself straying in a crowd or a party where you knew absolutely nobody? Have you ever ended up being in a place where there are a dozen faces around you have never seen before? This happens to most of us, let’s admit it. And most of the times, it’s really not a nice feeling to be in the company of strangers who have no idea about who you are. And if you’re lucky, really lucky, you might actually make new friends by getting to know the strangers.

Let me brief you about my recent experience at a birthday party where I knew nobody except my husband who was supposedly busy with his group of familiar people abandoning me like a lost animal. (Lol! Not that he didn’t care but he simply couldn’t stick around with all his friends pulling his side). Anyway, it so happened that twenty minutes passed after my arrival and I had found not a single soul to talk with. I stared, gaped, gawked, ogled, watched, scrutinized and examined at everything I could; the kids running around, the food being displayed, the ladies watching over the kids, the men cracking jokes and a few more ladies sitting like clueless aliens (Like me!)

Forty minutes passed. My vocal chords seemed to scream, I have to talk with somebody pleaseeeee. I noticed a young girl of twenty something to the right of me and an aunty (I’ll call her aunty cos she had a kid and she looked forty something) to my left. I didn’t know either of them; I had never seen either of them. In fact, I didn’t even know why they were there (for the cake of course). The point is, even though I didn’t know them, I did strike a conversation with them to pass the rest of the time until my husband gave the relief signal of leaving the place. I chattered, I ranted and I listened to them to the same.
It was a forgettable party which taught me a lesson about striking a conversation with strangers just to pass the time. Sometimes, you just can’t sit doing nothing when there is a frenzy going on around you. You just can’t walk away from the party even though you are bored to death. What should you do if you find yourself stuck in a place with strangers for a long time when you simply can’t stare into their faces forever?

a. Just find someone who is equally unoccupied and bored like you.
b. Talk and chatter all the while. If you are a talker, then talk about anything that comes up – the climate, the movies, the latest car, etc.
c. Remember, you don’t have to see them again. So go ahead and share your darkest secret if you want to and if it will help you pass the time.
d. Age no bar, don’t look for people of your age which will only minimize your chances of being around a chatty person.

If you can think of any more ideas to kill time at a place with unknown people, do write below..

Freshly pressed entertainment: Jolly LLB

Very rarely does a movie makes us think. In fact, movies that are thought provoking have become extinct. Once in a while, once in a blue moon, some director happens to strike gold and ends up making a movie that really charms the audience.

Jolly LLB, a Subhash Kapoor movie has opened up the floors for good movies to set footprints in the cinema industry. The mix of comedy and drama on different levels has raised the bar of cinema to a higher level. Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani, who portray the character of lawyers, have clearly depicted the various aspects and faces of a lawyer. Honesty and greed go hand in hand but what remains towards the end wins depending on what one chooses.

Arshad Warsi’s intense performance of how a man can change his life and the life of others by following his dream with indomitable courage sets the movie’s pace. The corrupt lawyer, Boman Irani plays the role of a greedy lawyer who believes that he can win any case with money and can change the angle of any situation to his favor. Arshad’s love interest played by Amrita Rao is a short but strong role where she delivers a brilliant show.

The court room humor adds an icing to the cake which will make you tumble in laughter at regular intervals. A well-crafted movie with well written dialogues is what Jolly LLB delivers. An entertainer with the message that courage and truth triumphs no matter how powerful the negative allies work to win their way. Jolly LLB is one of the recent movies with finest dialogues and storyline that ends with a strong note that nothing is impossible.

Threat to God’s form

One simply doesn't like to read the newspapers these days. After all, what’s so good in the papers anyway? The news items only make us worry and curl into our houses until we forget and move on. One such news item that caught my attention was the recent Delhi murders in which two siblings aged 5 and 7 were killed by their maternal uncle who was aged 22.

Now here is the case described by the media: The siblings were picked up from school by their maternal uncle. How the school authorities let his happen is beyond anybody’s knowledge. The uncle and his friends locked their mother inside her house preventing her to reach the school. After kidnapping the children, the uncle made a ransom call for 30 lakhs.

The parents, however, approached the police who traced the kidnappers through their cell phone records. Meanwhile, the kidnappers started getting itsy when the children wailed and asked for their parents. For some reason, this ticked them off and they decided to kill the children and dump their bodies.

The police have nabbed the uncle and his friends who have confessed to the crime. The case is solved which has now left a trail of sadness for the parents who lost their children to some madman for a few lakh rupees. I am not sure if sadness can be compared with any other form of sadness when it involves the loss of a person. Is the loss of a child deeper than the loss of a husband or a father? I guess loss is a loss no matter what.

They say that children are a form of God who stroll on earth spreading their innocence and happiness. When such a living being is snatched away, it is not only a loss for the parents but this is the loss for the entire human kind.

With such incidents happening, one has to become extremely cautious when it comes to dealing with children because not all places of the world are safer anymore.