Saturday, July 28, 2007

The OSIAN Film Festival - Movie in Review (TIME)

Of all the recent weekends, this was one where i managed to drag myself outside my house, got my lazy bum into the car and drove off to Siri Fort, where the Osian Film Festival for Asian and Arab movies was on. Today was the penultimate day and one of my old college pals suggested we get together. It had been long since we last met, so I acquiesced to his wishes.

After a couple of wrong detours on my way to the auditorium, i finally managed to reach the place well on time, located the ticket booking counter, and got the 3 tickets i needed from an over-the-counter-side-line rather than the main queue. The movie we had decided on watching was "Time" - a Korean movie directed by Kim Ki Duk.

While i waited my for equally slow-bro pal and his friend to join me, i contemplated my decision on not wearing the traditional kurta-jeans combo to the film festival. I kind of felt the odd one out in my T-s. But i thought my common sense had prevailed. It was too hot and sultry to wear a kurta, whatever be the occasion. It was also too hot to be sporting a Rastafarian hairdo but none-the-less, there were guys with just that. Looked like a typical DU atmosphere - kurtas, jeans, jholas, wraparounds, junk jewelery and beads. Add to that a few foreigners and the kolhapuri chappals - and the deal was complete.

Well, about "time" i got to the movie in review here !!

Love Against the Passage of Time is the movie's theme.

/* Spoiler Starts */

Time is the story of 2 people - See-hee and Ji-woo. After two years of romantic relationship, our male protagonist Ji-Woo realizes that his love for See-hee is not the same as before. See-hee feels that Ji-Woo cannot bear to look at her face day in and day out. Over a tumultuous day, See-hee just disappears, and breaks all contact with Ji-woo. He is left to brood the loss and misses See-hee every day. He still loves her even after what she did to him.

As time passes, it is now 6 months since that fateful day when See-hee had disappeared. Ji-woo, on a visit to the sculpture island, the place he frequented with his ex-girlfriend, meets a girl named Seh-hee, and is struck by the uncanny similarity of the name. She is a waitress at the coffee house he regularly visits. They strike up a relationship, only for Ji-Woo to be thoroughly confused when Seh-hee asks him the question - "What would you do if See-hee returns back?". Ji-woo replies he doesn't know.

As the two fall in a comforting happiness, Ji-woo gets a letter from See-hee wanting to come back. Ji-woo is torn by the love he could not forget and leaves Seh-hee for his old flame, after a huge argument. Ji-woo decides to meet See-hee, who comes wearing a mask on her face. The mask itself is a picture of her. Ji-woo is confused and asks for an explanation. He realizes that See-hee and Seh-hee are one and the same. Since See-hee found his love to be waning and he wanting to look at other girls, she underwent a plastic surgery on her good looking face, and got a totally different look.

Ji-woo is stunned hearing this and is aghast at what See-hee had done. He tells her that love was what he has inside him, not her exterior looks. He walks of from her and himself disappears. He goes to the same plastic surgeon and gets himself a makeover as well. He asks See-hee to wait for him for 6 months the way he did and then come back to find him at the place where he used to pursue his hobby of shooting pics.

As more time passes by (in the movie as well as in the hall), See-hee starts approaching every man she sees in hope of finding Ji-woo. She gets mislead every time, and starts losing her mental stability. One day she thinks she sees the man who could be Ji-Woo and follows him. The faceless guy starts running from her, and in the process ends up under a car. See-hee goes insane thinking she ended up killing Ji-Woo. She enters the plastic surgeons office and asks one final time to be grafted. The movie ends with a shot of countless unknown people walking in the street, with See-hee dissolved somewhere in this obscurity, her new identity hidden and unknown to us. The landmark in the Sculpture Park, where Ji-Woo and See-hee used to spend time, is now under the ocean that surrounds it.

/* Spoiler Ends */

Time could not win over love ...

Since i found my above narration to be pretty lame and direct, i'd rather quote something here from the movie's director, and the amazing sculpture shown in the movie



DIRECTOR'S COMMENT

"It is an instinctive desire to seek for novelties.
It is human to endure the passage of time.
It is love to find novelties among repeating routines.
It is life to realize that nothing lasts forever in the passage of time.

Here are lovers crazy about each other.
But after their long relationship, it isn't love that has decayed, it is their throbbing hearts, their chemistry, their passion and their yearning.
I am posing a question to them. An absurd one."


Overall, the movie could be labeled as "interesting". Not a great class apart thing, but it highlights the concept that obsession (in this case with plastic surgery and the look good factor, as is so common in Korea these days) can lead to disastrous outcomes, and that relationships are not as fragile as some might make them out to be, and vice versa. Looks like a leaf or two out of the Eternal Sunshine types, but no where close to the masterpiece.

My first movie at a film festival, i'd probably rate it at 6.5 on a scale of 10, for some humor in the early stages, a 'different' concept and and even different portrayal of that concept. I could probably notch it up to 7 actually. The movie was dark, in terms of the story and the ending, and that is something i personally like. So looking forward to seeing more obscurities in the near future, or should i say, in Time.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

A Days of Firsts !!

Today was just one of those days where everything happens for the first time ...


  • I drove my car from home to office (a distance of about 75 odd minutes) and then back home as well - all by myself - a feeling of real ecstasy and adrenaline rush - if not for me then for the guys whom i brushed past by :)
  • I called up a dear old friend saat samundar paar and talked to her on the phone after 2 years (it was her bday, but no excuses) - it was delightful to hear each others voices after such a hiatus - reminiscent of the good old times
  • I watched the cult classic Mithun starrer Gunda with all audio titles in place - last time around i had only caught the video - i was simply stunned by this thunderstrike of a movie - hope to God to give the masses sense enough to appreciate it. The movie is at concept level - a true work of art. I wished for the first time that i get a chance to watch more of such entertaining cinema.
  • For the first time on the new project phase there was no call with the client.
  • I (my team as well) finished all my work well before delivery time.
  • My boss and I had a marathon heart to heart for the first time in two years where lots of feel good things were discussed, but i am still clueless to the actual issue of why I had gone to him in the first place.
  • I managed to find a place to stay all by my own enterprising efforts and information gathering.
  • I am writing a post with all bullet points for the first time. I am also writing this post without editing it.
  • Finally, I am tired and sleeping before 12am for the fist time in weeks ...

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Tryst with Peanuts ...

I have gone 'nuts' over this last week. And simply because of peanuts in my life - both literally and metaphorically.

Monday began with me taking the hardest decision of my life yet - withdrawing my name from the B-school roles, with some finally feeling a relief, and making quick money (Yes, there had been bets over me joining or not to the order of a few K i have heard). I also got to hear an earful from a few others who felt that for 'peanuts' i could have graduated from one of the better mba colleges in India. The ROI would have been amazing given the minuscule fee structure.

The same day there came the devastation - the organizational cost cutting plan which reduced our bonuses to peanuts and increased our salary to Peanuts (please do note that the change in capitalization of 'P' here is discretionary and can be reversed any #$%@ day I want). Reminds me of the Dilbert strip a co-employee circulated in the happening of this event.




And as if that was not enough, i succumbed to my allergy to actual salted peanuts and got my larynx in a bloated state, the consequence of which was high fever, body ache, throat infection et al.

I am still recuperating from all this peanut sickness, and i doubt that, though the physical pain will subside, mental scares will ever get healed.
The only good thing i feel now is by going back and listening to Coleridge and Beck and Pope !!! In the advent of this, i added yet another video clip to the post of the Rime of the Ancient Mariner below, with the recital of some verses. Enjoy it.

And to the one who said that the B-school fees was peanuts, i say, go check my bonus - thats peanuts, the fees refund i got was a 7 course meal compared to that ...

Peanutting off
Perky P

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Poetic Musings - Eloise to Abelard

07 July 2007

Continuing from where i left off the previous post, here's the 2nd part to my poetic musings. This time it's the romantic love ballad by Alexander Pope - "Eloise to Abelard". I came across this obscure and unheard of poetry while watching the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a movie which kind of brought me down to my knees in terms of the theme and performance and music. But its not about ESotSM that i am here to write - its about the poem from which the title line has been borrowed, and a paragraph of which Mary Svevo recites to the doctor ...


" How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray'r accepted, and each wish resign'd "


Probably only after the powerful dialogue delivery by Kirsten Dunst and the background images of Jim Carey - Kate Winslet fading into Beck's Everybody's Gotta Learn Sometime do i realize that i must find the source to these amazingly beautiful and serene lines. And thus i read through another ballad about eternal love.



The story of Eloise and Abelard is similar to that of Romeo and Juliet to an extent. Need i say more. Boy loves girl, girl loves boy, families dont like either, lots of blood spilt.
Not really this way, but Abelard was one of the famous tutors of his age, and Eloise was his student. The love between them developed but Eloise's family were not ready to accept that, and had Abelard castrated. Both Eloise and Abelard entered into clerical service, where once again, Eloise's love for Abelard grew strong, and what followed was a series of letters exchanged between Eloise and Abelard.

The ballad speaks about this condoned love between the two fateful lovers. The archaic wordings lend it an odd mystery and charm that probably normal English would not have justified. The poetry is beautiful, and like all beautiful poetry, it is rhyming. Now that would sound very odd to many people. Why is this lunatic comparing good poetry with ryhmes !
Simply because i feel that to express your thoughts in rhyming poetry, where the correct words need to inter-weave, is an art in itself. Simple thoughts well laid out would constitute a prose, not poetry.

The difference between the two ballads i read - Rime earlier and Eloise now (apart from the rhyming scheme abcb v/s aabb respectively) - is that while Rime incites pity via horror and terror, Eloise incites the same via love and sorrow. One is the reminiscence of eternal darkness, the other of unconditional love. Coleridge stimulates the deepest fears plaguing the mind, Pope touches the inner sanctums of the heart. Coleridge is more easier to understand in first reading than Pope, though that does not take away the joy of reading 'Eloise to Abelard' to try and grasp the real meaning and the ballad's beauty. Some lines 'sound' so good, it sometimes becomes irrelevant to even understand what they mean.

As before, i quote here the lines i liked the most from this mega-scribe. Rest is for the reader to sift and explore and enjoy.

" In these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heav'nly-pensive contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing melancholy reigns;
What means this tumult in a vestal's veins?
Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat?
Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat?
Yet, yet I love! — From Abelard it came,
And Eloisa yet must kiss the name."


" Relentless walls! whose darksome round contains
Repentant sighs, and voluntary pains:
Ye rugged rocks! which holy knees have worn;
Ye grots and caverns shagg'd with horrid thorn!
Shrines! where their vigils pale-ey'd virgins keep,
And pitying saints, whose statues learn to weep!
Though cold like you, unmov'd, and silent grown,
I have not yet forgot myself to stone.
All is not Heav'n's while Abelard has part,
Still rebel nature holds out half my heart;
Nor pray'rs nor fasts its stubborn pulse restrain,
Nor tears, for ages, taught to flow in vain."


" Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief;
Ah, more than share it! give me all thy grief. "


" No happier task these faded eyes pursue;
To read and weep is all they now can do."


" Canst thou forget what tears that moment fell,
When, warm in youth, I bade the world farewell?
As with cold lips I kiss'd the sacred veil,
The shrines all trembl'd, and the lamps grew pale: "


" Yet here for ever, ever must I stay;
Sad proof how well a lover can obey!
Death, only death, can break the lasting chain;
And here, ev'n then, shall my cold dust remain,"


I could have written so much more of these beautiful verses here. But that would defeat the purpose. Lines that i write here are significant to me, and me only. It is for the audience mesmerized to unravel the poetry in its entirety and decipher the meaning of lines that stand true for them. I for mine still have a long way to go doing that. I sign off with the last verse that rings so true, i can but visualize Eloise and Abelard, not as the characters they are, but as me penning these lines.

" Condemn'd whole years in absence to deplore,
And image charms he must behold no more;
Such if there be, who loves so long, so well;
Let him our sad, our tender story tell;
The well-sung woes will soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint 'em, who shall feel 'em most. "


Here, at last, i understand !
And So be it ...

Monday, July 02, 2007

Poetic Musings - The Rime ...

July 02, 2007

In a mood swing today, that generally happens when i am not working and hence my brain is at its creatively worst, i decided to surf through famous ballads from yonder years, and read through two amzingly interesting pieces of poetry.

The first was Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The last rememberence i have of this megascribe was some very long exceprt in my English class 10 syllabus that spaced out over 3-4 pages (pretty huge by standards then for a poem, when the mind of an average Joe schoolkid was barely mugging up 2-3 paragraphs).

Today i read the entire seven parts of the poem, and realized that back then we had gone through just two !!
I feel a little hard done now, seeing that the charm of the poem lies in reading it completely, and more importantly, understanding each and every line with its obscure connotation. The way Coleridge lays out bare the horror of crimes the human society indulges in and the casual attitude with which it behaves towards such an outrage, really chills my bones. Given that some of the passages were written by Coleridge under the influence of opium, it is not far from the feeling and mysticism that he must have felt while induced in a pyschedlic state, especially the passages that describe the fiendish passing away of the sailors and the whispers of the lost souls across the ocean.

It is difficult to elaborate the devilry in my modest words. The subtle interplay of archaic wordings and the amazing Mariner centric poem, that so cleverly invloves the other sailors, the listner, the wedding entourage, even the albatross, and yet so easily does not draw the focus away from the protagonist (or rather should i say the antagonist) throughout the entire poetry. The journey, the pain and the suffering, the joy of forgiving and being forgiven, the penance, and finally the salvation - it is indeed a ballad - complete.

I leave it up to the curious reader to explore this on his own. All i can do is mention a few lines from the poetry which impressed upon me the most and helped me trace the contour of the darkest thoughts in Coleridge's mind.


"Water, water, every where,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, every where,
Nor any drop to drink."


"And some in dreams assured were
Of the spirit that plagued us so:
Nine fathom deep he had followed us
From the land of mist and snow."


"An orphan's curse would drag to Hell
A spirit from on high;
But oh! more horrible than that
Is a curse in a dead man's eye!
Seven days, seven nights, I saw that curse,
And yet I could not die."

And finally the lines that i heard in this video below which made me revisit the poem ...



"Forthwith this frame of mine was wrenched
With a woeful agony,
Which forced me to begin my tale;
And then it left me free.

Since then, at an uncertain hour,
That agony returns;
And till my ghastly tale is told,
This heart within me burns.

I pass, like night, from land to land;
I have strange power of speech;
That moment that his face I see,
I know the man that must hear me:
To him my tale I teach."


I shall continue my poetic musings in my next post
Cheers !!