Vimarsh

‘Rashomon’ is one of the earliest films coming from an ingenious and one of the most brilliant directors in the history of cinema, Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa is considered to be the supreme and one of the most innovative milestones in the practice of film-making; he is not only an inspiration to Japanese cinema but also a guide to film-makers all over the world. ‘Rashomon’ was his twelfth film, and it was released in 1950. It is a Period Drama, known as Jidaigeki in Japanese. The film has two influences from the short-stories of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. The setting and the title of the film are based on the short-story ‘Rashomon’ and another short-story ‘In a Groove’ provides characters and the plot to the movie. The movie ‘Rashomon’ marks the entrance of Japanese Cinema on the platform of world cinema. The movie won several international awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (1951), and an Academy Honorary Award at the 24th Acade...

“Mahendra Singh: Honor is an important thing to me, even if we lose life. Sharma ji: Good Mahendra Babu. Honor is yours and life is of daughter!” Above two lines is a rough translation of the dialogue in Bihari accented Hindi from the 2010, National Award Winning movie Antardwand (meaning ‘Inner conflict’) by Sushil Rajpal. The film presents, first time in the history of Hindi Cinema, the issue of Groom-kidnapping in the state of Bihar. Mahendra Singh wants his daughter to get married to Madhukar Sahi’s only son Raghuveer. The daughter studies in college. Raghuveer also studies in Delhi, and he aspires to be an IAS/IPS officer for which he is giving exams. His girlfriend from Delhi, Siya, is pregnant. Madhukar Sahi wants Raghuveer to get married to the only daughter of his rich friend. Mahendra Singh approaches Madhukar Sahi for the marriage; he offers up to 10 lakh rupees for the marriage. But Madhukar Sahi insults him and asks him to leave his house. For Mahendra Sing...

“‘Smiling’ (Wittgenstein writes) is our name for an expression in a normal play of expressions’ (Zettel§527). Thus I would not be able to react to a fixed smile imprinted on a paralysed face as I do to the smile of someone who smiles at me in the ordinary course of affairs. A stranger in a bus drops his ticket. I pick it up and give it to him. He smiles as he thanks me. I smile back. ‘No wonder,’ says Wittgenstein, ‘we have this concept [of a smile] in these circumstances’ (ibid.). The significance of the smile, indeed its identity as a smile, is bound up with this background. Remove the background or alter it radically, freeze the smile so that it no longer varies with the circumstances, and you no longer have a smile . ”   (Dilham, 1999: 126) What if, the smile freezes? It doesn’t vary with the circumstances. Do we still call it a smile? Look at the character of Joker, from the Batman comics. He has a smile, a permanent smile. Scars through his lips, that made h...

“The protagonist in “Being John Malkovich” finds a secret door in his office that leads to John Malkovich’s head. He can see everything from Malkovich’s perspective, and given that the main character is also an expert puppeteer, he’s able to control poor John’s body after a few rounds of practice. This raises some questions: where does Malkovich’s conscience go when he’s being controlled by the puppeteer? How is this man able to see through the eyes of Malkovich without him noticing? Where does our conscience come from, and why are we able to control our bodies? ” Just see the questions in a different context, namely Politics. Where does Public’s conscience go when they’re being controlled by the puppeteer (political leaders)? How is this Political Leader able to see through the eyes of Public without them noticing? Where does our conscience come from? Why are we able to control our bodies? Do we have free will?   Yes, but our body could be invaded by other h...

Aag (Raj Kapoor, 1948) Daag ( Amiya Chakravarty , 1952) Jaagte Raho (Raj Kapoor, 1956) Mother India (Mehboob Khan, 1957) Pyaasa (Guru Dutt, 1957) Naya Daur (B. R. Chopra, 1957) Do Aankhe Barah Hath (V. Shantaram, 1957) Kaagaz Ke Phool (Guru Dutt, 1959) Navrang (V. Shnataram, 1959) Mughal-E-Azam (K. Asif, 1960) Sahib, Bibi aur Ghulam (Abrar Alvi, 1962) Upkaar (Manoj Kumar, 1967) Aadmi ( A Bhimsingh , 1968) Anand ( Hrishikesh Mukherjee , 1971) Shatranj Ke Khiladi ( Satyajit Ray , 1971) Mere Apne (Gulzar, 1971) Shor (Manoj Kumar, 1972) Sholay (Ramesh Sippy, 1975) Satyam Shivam Sundaram (Raj Kapoor, 1978) Gol maal (Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1979) Chasme Baddoor ( Sai Paranjpye , 1981) Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (Kundan Shah, 1983) Katha (Sai Paranjype, 1983) Holi (Ketan Mehta, 1984) Khamosh (Vidhu Vinod Chopda, 1985) Ek Ruka Huwa Fasila (Basu Chatterjee, 1986) Mirch Masala (Ketan Mehta, 1987) Thodasa Roomani Ho Jaye (Amol Pale...

૧. ૧૯૧૭-૧૮, પહેલા વિશ્વયુદ્ધની કારતુસોનાં ધડાકા સમ્યા નથી, લોહી થીજ્યું નથી. એના નાકમાંથી નીકળતા ઉચ્છવાસના કારણે ધૂળના રજકણો ઉડતા. લોહીનું ખાબોચિયું હવે લાલ રંગના કીચડમાં ફેરવાઈ રહ્યું હતું. એને રંજ હતો એ એના સ્વપ્નોને આકાર ન આપી શક્યો. આ સવાર કેટલાક સમુદાય માટે ખુશીઓ લઇ ને આવી છે. હવે, એ સમુદાય પોતાની ખુશીઓને કઈ રીતે ઉજવે છે એ તો ઈતિહાસ જ બતાવશે. પરંતુ લાશોની ઇંટોથી થયેલા ચણતરને લોહીની સિંચાઈ તો જોઇશે જ. આવા સંજોગોમાં એ જે માનવતાની વાત લઇ ને આવ્યો હતો, તેની વાત અને માનવતા મરણાસન છે. હું, એ આંગળી જેણે એને ગદ્દાર જાહેર કરી એના પર કારતુસ મોકલી હતી, હજી વિચારું છું કે શું આ કારતુસના પૈસા સાચી જગ્યાએ ઉપયોગમાં લેવાયા? જેને ગદ્દાર માન્યો, જેને દુશ્મન ગણ્યો, જેને અલગ ગણી ગોળીએ દીધો, એનું પણ લોહી તો લાલ જ નીકળ્યું. ૨. હથિયાર માણસના હાથ અને માનસ પ્રમાણે બદલાયા છે. શસ્ત્ર, અસ્ત્ર અને ઘણું બધું માણસની હિંસક વૃત્તિઓને સંતોષવા માટે બનાવવામાં આવ્યું. આદિમાનવે પોતાના ગુજરાન માટે શિકાર કરવાનું શરૂ કર્યું, અને શિકાર કરવા માટે પત્થર અને લાકડીઓ જોડી પ્રાથમિક ધોરણના હથિયાર તૈયાર કર્યા. આદિમા...