Shivaratri Sambhashane

"ಶಿವರಾತ್ರಿ ಈ ದಿನ.  ಉಪವಾಸ ಇದ್ದೀಯ?"
"ಇಲ್ಲ .  ಬೆಳಿಗ್ಗೇನೆ ಬೇಳೆ ದೋಸೆ ತಿಂದಾಯಿತು"
"ಓಹ್! ನಾನು ಇನ್ನೂ ಕೇವಲ ಹಣ್ಣಿನ ರಸ ಕುಡಿದೆ ಅಷ್ಟೇ ಇಲ್ಲಿಯವರೆಗೆ!"
"ಅದೇಕೆ ಉಪವಾಸವೇ?"
"ಹ್ಞು!"
"ಶಿವನನ್ನು ಒಲಿಸಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದು ಆಯಿತಲ್ಲ! ಇನ್ನೂ ಉಪವಾಸವೇಕೋ?"
"ಶಿವ ದೂರವಿದ್ದಾನೆ.  ಹತ್ತಿರ ಬರಲಿ ಎಂದು!"

Highway: Review

A celebrated director with a story he wanted to tell for a long time, a tantalizing title, a surprise yet interesting cast, the coming together of a successful production house and a commercial producer, a star composer – quite a few reasons for a movie aficionado to walked into the theatre/multiplex to watch ‘Highway’ that released yesterday.  I did too. 

Highway, starring Alia Bhatt and Randeep Hooda, and directed by Imtiaz Ali tells the tale of a strange relationship (‘Stockholm syndrome’?) between the abducted and the kidnapper as they travel from one hideout to another – unfolding their secrets and pent-up tales of trauma.

The movie kicks off in a hurry – Veera (Alia) who’s about to get married sneaking out of the house in the dead of the night for ‘some fresh air’ with her reluctant fiancé Vinay.  Much against his caution Veera insists he drive further and farther from the city.  At a gas station as Veera steps out even as Vinay implores her not to, gun shots are heard and in the blink of an eye, Veera is kidnapped by a gang led by Mahavir Bhati (Randeep Hooda).  Even as the gang realizes they've picked up someone they can't handle, Hooda refuses to let go of the prize catch.

Veera’s initial efforts to find ways to escape soon give way to her developing a liking for the entire road-trip – and her captors.  Even when provided with opportunities to return to her family and sanity, she stays put resolutely.  As the bond of trust and friendship slowly grows between the two, they share their agonies and seek acceptance and solace from the other.  Alia a victim of child sexual abuse at the hands of a family ‘uncle’ while Hooda’s mother was pimped by his father for lucrative contracts as he watched and cried. 

At the centre of the movie is a great idea.  It is brave of Imtiaz Ali to have chosen a ‘hatke’ story to make the movie. However, the script and direction fail to do any justice to it as situations and characters don’t seem to be fleshed out fully.  Many a moments bring unwitting laughter from the audience at inopportune/serious frames.  The biggest drawback of the movie its excruciatingly slow pace.  The road movie refuses to take off most times.  Mr Tripathi – a seemingly rich and powerful man and Alia’s father – is talked about in great fear by the gang but he doesn’t appear till the end.  Nor does one get to know much on what’s happening beyond the two lead characters.  And, Alia’s turn from the victim to the liberated is too abrupt and pat and hence extremely unconvincing.  The movie’s pace is also hampered by unnecessary songs – Rahman’s music is a great disappointment and offers nothing you’ve not heard before (and he must take a break from singing; he sounds almost besura).  When the folk songs of the Himachal/Manali play in the background the music perks up though.

What though saves the movie from being a complete disappointment are riveting performances by the lead pair.  Randeep Hooda as the ruffian abductor is great. His looks smoulder and his dialogues pack more than a punch but it’s an out-and-out Alia show.  Alia – though looks way too young for her part – is a revelation.  Her maturity and confidence in pulling off the role – including excellent dialogue delivery – are marvellous.  If she displays the same spunk and skills in her choices of roles, I’m certain she will shine brighter than many other stars in the days (and years) to come.

Few mainstream movies are made on child sexual abuse; nor have there been many roadies.  If only Imtiaz had sketched his scenes better and spent more time exploring characters and motives, we’d have had a great time on this ‘Highway’.  I felt waylaid though. 

Moonlight

ಸೇಂದಿ ಸವಿಯುವ ಬಾರಾ 

ದಾಸ್ವಾಳದೆಸಳಂಥ 

ಕಬ್ಬಿನ ರಸದಂಥ 

ಮತ್ತು ನೀಡುವ 

ಸುರ ಸಾರ 

ಗುಡ್ಡದ ಗುಡಿಯಾಗ 

ಹಾಡ್ಯಾಳ ಕೋಕಿಲ 

ರಾಗಾದ ಅಮಲಿಗೆ 

ತೂಗವ್ರೆ ಮಂದ್ಯೆಲ್ಲ 

ಹಾಕುತ್ತ ಹೆಜ್ಜೆ ತಾಳ 

ತುಂಬಿದ ತಿಂಗಳು 

ಕರೆದೈತೆ ಕೈ ಬೀಸಿ 

ತಣ್ಣನೆ ಗಾಳಿಯು 

ಸಣ್ಣಗೆ ನಡುಗಿಸಿ 

ಹೇಳೈತೆ ಕಿವಿಮಾತ 

ಸೇಂದಿ ಸವಿಯುವ ಬಾರಾ 

The Growing Culture of Hatred and Intolerance

The media - electronic, print and social - is full of crime news; rapes, murders, fights and lynching galore.  There are many you see expressing anguish over these incidents.  And, soon it's found we all have moved on to the next crime that has caught our morbid fancy.  The latest one in the series of gory incidents in the Capital is the mob-lynching of a young North-East boy, Nido Taniam from Arunachal Pradesh.  A life snuffed out even before it could fully blossom.  

When I was at school we had students from the North-East and Ladakh; initially they wouldn't mingle with others but sports ensured we all played together.  And, the mingling was largely hampered by the lack of common language to converse in than the difference in skin.  There was a huge Tibetan market too on the streets of Mysore thanks to the settlement of the Tibetan refugees in Bylakuppe.  Invariably I'd find myself at these markets along with my aunt looking for a good bargain.  It was always a pleasure to deal with them.  And, as a young teen I possibly hadn't yet realized that I was seriously drawn (both romantically and otherwise) to them.  I didn't also know of the derogatory words used to describe the people from the North-East until I went to Delhi in '98-'99 post selection into the Civil Services.  Nor did I know that they were treated differently, teased, mocked at and bullied.  I didn't understand it then - and I am clueless to this day regarding the reasons for this behaviour.  And, even though I wasn't a kid by then, it took a while to realize it was racism out there! 

This piece of writing is not just about the continued racism of us all Indians. I would like to go beyond and look at all behaviours of hate and intolerance that we seem to be exhibiting rather gleefully.  We are casteist and we think it is not a sin/crime to be discriminatory in the name of caste.  The majority of the upper caste people question the policy of reservation and lament on their 'stolen opportunities' but happily denigrate and discriminate the ones from the lower castes in various forms and by many means - in fact, the names of the lower castes are used as words of insult.  Women still are commodities and - at best - family heirlooms that need to be sold or protected and have no right or identity of their own.  The recent comments by an NCP politician and Member of Maharashtra Women's Commission, Asha Mirje are a reflection to the larger attitude of the society.  Minority-bashing is another pastime that we all indulge in - be it religious or otherwise.  Everyone jostles to line up and comment against the politics of appeasement and pseudo-secularism without bothering to check the facts on the social and economic progress made by these minorities.  Because of their religion they're always the suspect number one in crimes related to any kind of violence - and are routinely incarcerated; and the majority is always willing to justify such illegal detentions.  It's another story in the case of sexual minorities (hijras, transsexuals and homosexuals) where the religious minorities are up-in-arms against their very existence and have welcomed the unfortunate judgments of the SC upholding the validity of IPC Section 377.  This is the only instance which has brought together the opposing camps amongst religions that I know of.  One fails to understand how (and why) religion is the guiding force in the rights and liberties of humans!

And, whenever there's such human tragedy, the reactions that I see are as shocking.   Blaming the victims in cases of rape, over their lack of modesty in their choice of clothes, their stupidity for having gone out at an odd hour, or even labeling them as sex workers has been common.  Even in the case of sexual minorities, they are blamed for what they are.  "It is unnatural" and "It is against the religion and our culture" are common refrains from those opposed to lifting of Sec. 377.  In the case of communal riots, "They incited/started it" is the retort.  Shocking? Not to many though.  

There also is another group of people who are offended and outraged by such travesties.  And, they react with demands for exemplary punishments. "Death sentence to all rapists", "Public hanging", 'Castrate them!'', "Public trial by jury" and a surfeit of measures are volunteered as suggestions.  Pictures or cartoons of the kind of punishments that must be meted out to the rapists that are circulated over the net (and whatsapp) would make you both cringe and laugh.  We also exhibit a tendency to blame the politicians for all the ills without owning up the responsibility ourselves.  When someone reasons out that punishments alone may not work to change the system, we troll them and say "We need to bring in the fear factor which acts as a deterrent".  Like everyone reads the book of law before committing a crime! And, with this we exhibit hate and intolerance (albeit in a different form) and also reveal our irresponsibility.  As Gandhi famously said, 'An eye for an eye would make the entire world go blind'.  True, we need to suitably punish the perpetrators of all crimes against humanity but are torture a la Arab style or death sentences the solutions? We aren't trying to reduce human population this way, or are we?  And, then severe punishments prescribed for a host of crimes hasn't meant anything in a country with a slow-justice system.

There is a dire need to separate emotion from reason, religion from rights and morals from civil liberties.   Today's major requirement is to engage (almost) every human possible in ensuring the change and revolution of/in the society.  In its archaic morals, prejudices and belief systems.  This certainly cannot be accomplished by the State or its machinery.  This needs the involvement of everyone - you and I.  The ills in a country and society do not exist and thrive because of bad governance, politics and lack of resources/opportunities but because of public apathy or lip-service - what we find in abundance among us in India.  All words would be inadequate to describe the heinous murder of the young Nido in Delhi. My heart goes out to his parents, family, friends and the entire North-East people - for the discrimination and racism that they're subjected to both by the system and by the public. It feels as though we're abdicating every human value. Justice to Nido would be done not when the killers are brought to book but when the Indian society in general learns to respect, admire and embrace diversity. Until then, each of us must continue to feel guilty for the acts of intolerance. And, we are a long way from there.

To quote from a source (who said this on my facebook wall), "One cannot be liberal by halves - one cannot be liberal in politics and conservative in religion.  One cannot cultivate his intellect, enlarge his sphere of political rights and privileges and at the same time keep his heart closed and cramped.  The head and heart must go together".