Salvation lies within..!

If I were Doris day, I would have said,
A hundred times I watched it and then,
I watched it over again...
It seems as enchanting as ever every single time I watch it. and I know the feeling is shared by every movie freak.

The film was made by Frank Darabont starring Tim Robins and Morgan freeman in 1994 and no one could ever re-create the magic till today.. The blockbusters came and gone, highest growing records were set, movies rocked academy awards, walked on red carpet with glory, new era started but The shawshank redemption always remained at first place in every movie lover's heart and I am sure it will always be..

The funniest thing about this movie is, it didnt win any academy award though it was nominated in 7 categories and really didnt do very well in box office also. All those awards were won by, "Forrest gump"- one more classic piece. But the TV promotion in 1997 made this movie no 1 on IMDB and its still there even after 16 years.

Every scene is worth remembering, every dialogue is worth experiencing and every expression is worth appreciating. The work done by them is just out of the world.

Discussing the story is not at all my intention here, rather the way the movie has been directed, the plot, story line, climax and suspense become really secondary when compared to the philosophy, character building and message delivered in this film.

It is said that the creature can never be greater than the creator. But I think when extraordinary talent and dedication is blessed with all the positive forces in nature gives birth to such a piece, that it becomes difficult to put it in words, that the creature becomes greater than the creator..

After the film is over, we may forget everything... the dialogues, the story.. but no one can stop oneself from feeling the mesmerizing emotion of watching the masterpiece of all the time. The feeling is not of happiness, not grief, not pain and definitely not just great two and half hours.. It is something kinda satisfaction.. For me, its the driving force which keeps me moving on in life.

Andy- Andy Dufresne has become the part of my life. I never felt that it is a fiction character. He is real.. He must be... The best thing about the film is, its not filmy as it said, the prison is not a fairy tale world. The movie just takes you over as it goes on.. Every single dialogue by Stephen King has added million stars to the movie. And Tim and Freeman have lived every single line they deliver.

We become speechless when Andy says, "You know what the mexicans say about pacific? They say it has no memory, thats where I want to live rest of my life. A warm place with no memory.."

You actually start thinking about your own life, has this ruthless world taken the hope inside you? Made you live the way others want you to.. We realize this when Andy says, "They need to understand that there are places in this world which are not made out of stones. That there is something inside they cant get to, that they cant take it away from you, thats yours... Thats HOPE!" And you just pause the movie and again watch the scene when Andy says, "I think it comes to a simple choice then, Get busy living or get busy dying.."

Towards the end of the film we feel happy about Andy being out of the prison, though we cant help ourselves from feeling the emptiness in Red's mind and still the statement came from Red leaves us breathless.. "As Andy being gone, I have to remind myself that some birds arent meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright and when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice, but still the place you live in is that much more drab and empty when they are gone.."

Finally, Andy makes the change in Red, not by his words, not with speeches but with his actions.. with his attitude.. Red who has lost all his hope of new life, calls himself an institutionalized man, afraid of hoping.. Andy ignites the ray of hope in his mind, Red hopes to see the friend and shake his hand, He hopes the pacific is as blue as it has been in his dreams, He hopes....

And as they two meets on the background of dark blue pacific and long white sea shore, tears roll down from our eyes, picture becomes blur and the sentence keeps whirling in our mind... "Hope is a good thing.. May be best of the things.. And no good thing ever dies.."

Frida

Her life was not a tragedy but we cant say it as a happy ending either. She was indeed a feisty and courageous woman and had left her influence on 20th century, she paid a tremendeous value for it. Whenever I think of her, I strongly feel that "Unless you get something larger than life, You cant give justice to life.."

Frida... Frida Kahlo.. The mexican painter, a truely revolutionary and one of the influencial women of 20th century. I recently came across a movie 'Frida' starring Salma Hayek in main role directed by Julie Tymour and I watched that movie again and again for about 4 times. Though movie has some flaws and drawbacks due to limitation of being a movie, it cant get out of your mind easily. What makes us overlook all these flaws is the fascinating personality of Frida, her continuous struggel in various phases of her life.

I went through various critics and original information about Frida after watching the movie and I could find much more ineresting facts about her. Some critics has said that Frida's life is about the struggle between her career and personal life, but I dont think its like that. She is about her internal struggle, her struggle with her physical disabilities and her struggle with her insatisfactory married life. All this reflected through her paintings. And she justified her view as, "I paint self portraits because I am the person I know best."

She was a born fighter. Her life was full of unfortunate events. She had got polio at the age of 5, followed by a fatal accident when she was just 18, which broke almost every important bone of her body (BTW, this scene is shown really geniously in the movie) and her badluck didnt stop here, she had a great disapointment with her married life with the well known muralist of that time, Diego Rivera, as he could not be loyal to her and one of the greatest pain of her life of being unable to have a child.. I often wonder which of these struggles was the toughest for her? Well, I think the struggle between a common man and an artist within is the most painful struggle for any artist.

Not every matter of her life is covered perfectly in the movie, but Salma Hayek has succeded in showing the genuine intensity of her pain. Well.. though Diego-Frida was not a happy, satisfied couple, personally I think, they were made for each other couple. Though, Diego was not loyal to her, nobody could have understood Frida well than him.. In fact he was the one who noticed her talent very first time and encouraged her to continue painting. He was the one who always appreciated Frida for plus points of her work. It was Diego who had told her to paint just because you cant live without painting. You paint till you die.. This is one of the impressive sentence of the movie.

She had just one exihibition of her paintings in whole life and got popularity many years after her death. But this wont stop anyone from getting fascinated with her work and struggle. She has indeed set an example for everyone.

Hmmm.. well.. After writing this much I have realised that there is much more to tell about her, much more to know.. Many things which I am unable to put in words.. What more am I supposed to say about a woman who wrote, " I hope the exit is joyful and I hope never to return..!"

For Pixer

Hey... Have you guys gone through all 10 pixer movies? Well, three of them i.e. A bug's life, The incredibles and Finding nemo are still on my to watch list, I cant stop myself from writing something For Pixer..

Hmmm.. What made me actually write, are strange reactions I got from some people. Some people think animation is a children stuff and though others dont think the same but they find nothing much special in that. And after listening to all this, I started thinking what makes me go crazy for these movies? Well, I think innocence and purity are the most fascinating things for me. And Pixers are the creaters of these. Purely innocent characters.

Many of the times I have strongly felt that some animations come up with such fantastic expressions that no human artist can give.. More than this, expressing emotions through human or animal cartoons can be understood but how can someone even imagine to give such outstanding expressions with a robot? Its one of the memorable incident of my life when I saw 'Wall e'. The movie hardly has any dialogues but there is no music either for last few minutes and all the theatre had gone still.. filled with pin drop silence.. and as Wall e held Eva's hand each and every person present in that hall started clapping so spontaneously and it lasted for two minutes. All the atmosphere was filled with the same feeling. And its really a tough job to fascinate a mob.
Well... Having great technical team and hard work makes the story success but the most amazing thing about them is having people who actually dream those stories first... Who visualize these stories first in their minds. Without any exaggeration I would like to say that at certain point of their imagination those people must have touched the divinity.

I think the best kind of innocence in the world is the one which is untouched by fear. Only this innocence can see the beauty of any heart. Only this can communicate directly from heart to heart. And you can find such innocence in the eyes of Boo, Woody, Remy & Russel. That makes me go crazy for them.

Well... the worst thing about Pixer is the incompleteness that fills our mind after watching these movies. I never feel like coming out of the atmosphere of movie after finishing it. I just wish the story should go on and on and on... I can never forget how desperately I wanted to play with Woody and buzz after watching Toy story, How desperately I wanted to be with Sulley and Boo when I watched Monsters, inc., How happy was I when Wall e held Eva's hand and How strongly I wanted to hug Russel when I saw Up..

Hmmm.. My appreciation for Pixer is never ending. All these characters have become the part of my life. But this article can not finish without mentioning name of these four directors who dreamed about these movies very first. John Lessester, Brad Bird, Pete Docter and Andrew Stanton. Pixer's all 10 movies so precious because of them. Hats off to them. Hats off to every person working with pixer to make this world more beautiful. Hats off to every single artist who has gifted with the most precious power of bringing smile on other's face.

दिल ढूँढता है....

What do u think, who is the most influential person in my love life? Dont you be thinking he's my companion... Well, He is.. But more than him its the man having most romantic ideas in his life. The man without whome I had never came to know depth of love..The man who gave me assurance that "हमने देखा है दो तकदीरों को जुड़ते हुए.." The man who has written most romantic statement without being idialistic "तेरे बिना जिंदगी से कोई शिकवा तो नहीं तेरे बिना जिंदगी भी लेकिन जिंदगी तो नहीं.. "
Yess.. That man is "Gulzar saab". I am One of the crazy fans of his words. From my teenage till date he has the tremendeous influence on my ideas of romance, love and life. We always listen to many romantic songs. We do like to hear them again and agian too. But very few songs touch our heart, our soaul in such a way that we cant stop desiring that ideas in our lives. For me most of my closed songs are by Gulzar saab. I just become so helpless aginst the power of his words that I cant do anything but believing it.. dreaming it.. desiring it.. I havent gone much through his poetry as his songs. But whatever of his songs are there, they are part of my personality.
The magic of his songs started from movie Bandini.. "मोरा गोरा अंग लै ले..." and still going on. I am used to listen lots and lots of old songs and some of his lines have just penetrated my soul.
हमने देखि है इन आँखों की महकती खुशबू
हाथ से छूके इन्हें रिश्तो का इल्जाम ना दो...
सिर्फ एहसास है ये रूह से महसूस करो
प्यार को प्यार ही रहने दो कोई नाम न दो...
I think, I, same as everyone else, has very much fascination about the feelings beyond expressions. And these lines has stated the same.. सिर्फ एहसास है ये रूह से महसूस करो... Aaah.. Really some realtions can not bear the load of touch.
Well there are number of lines of Gulzar saab which are so special to me and every line is worth an article. I think his lines are special because though he has imagined the most romantic situations, we can never say that they are 100% imaginary. परवली की सर्दियों में जब धुप पड़ती हो तो इस निम्मे निम्मे ठण्ड और आग में मीर के सिवा और किसकी बात हो सकती है..? I had always wished that my love should come true in a way he stated. I remember very well that I was in 9th ( A perfect teenager you know.. :)) when 'Asoka' released and just a year after that 'Sathiya'. I had just went mad over his lines. "ढूँढा है ढूँढा है तुझे आकाश ऊपर तले.. शायद किसी नदियाँ पे चलता हुवा तू मिले..." And I was damn sure that Mujhe nadiya pe chalataa huwa koi mil hi jaayega. And more of it it was not just romanticism. I wanted to feel the extreme pain in love. "मेरे साथ जाए ना मेरी परछाई रे.." I actually wanted this to happen. I wanted to meet someone very badly who'll say
"तुम कहो तो रुके ...
तुम कहो तो चले ...
मुझको पहचानती है कहाँ मंजिले? "
And I had some strange ideas that actual love can not happen without such non practical passionate acts.. :D
Well all things didnt remain the same and I am no more teenager but I still go crazy with his words. And I always will.. The day I will feel nothing after listening to his songs may be the day I'll be no more. Though most of the things, feelings, ideas have changed, time cant change some of them. And I have such feelings for the great song of him "दिल ढूँढता है फिर वोही फुरसत के रात दिन.."
This song is actually meant to be the kaleidoscope of the lost love and the memories of good time they had together. But I have never felt to see this song in that way. I had heard this song first time when I was in 6th standard and I had gone just crazy.I dont know what I understood about this song that time or what actually I thought but whatever picture came into my mind just made me crazy. Its really a poignant poetry of loosing true love and one can feel like to go back and try to live those old beautiful moments again..
But for me its just a portrait of perfect romantic moments..
I dont have to explain anything about this song as all ideas in the song are self explaining. I am just trying to express my feelings when I listen to this song.

दिल ढूँढता है फिर वोही फुरसत के रात दिन
बैठे रहे तसव्वुर-ए-जाना किये हुए....
For me its the height of romanticism. It takes me to such a different level where there is no excitement in love. Its just peace. And I think it needs to cross the greatest level of romanticisam to feel peace with it.

जाडों की नर्म धुप और आँगन में लेटकर
आँखों पे खींचकर तेरे दामन के सायें को
औंधे पड़े रहे कभी करवट लिये हुए...
No couple can ever imagine about a more beautiful moment than this. And more than being a romantic song, its a perfect discription of human moods and changes in nature during every season. Have you guys ever noticed the natural change in mood and mentality during summer and winter? Winter nights are always so steady.. so still.. they just make me to go quite and feel the peace in the surrounding.

या गर्मियों की रात जो पुरवाईयाँ चले
ठंडी सफ़ेद चादरों में जागे देर तक
तारों को देखते रहे छत पर पड़े हुए...
And on the contrary, summer nights bring amusement with them. I dont know but somehow they are so energetic and you feel like having some long chats or fun with your companion or may be with you alone. (Well may be being a nocturnal I've liked this stanza more :D)

बर्फीली सर्दियों में किसी भी पहाड़ से
वादीं में गूंजती हुयी खामोशियाँ सुने
आँखों में भीगे भीगे से लम्हे लिये हुए....
The song has affected me so badly that whenever I see a valley or a mountain the first thought comes in my mind is this stanza. Have you ever tried to listen the voice of silence? The concept itself is so fascinating. And here Gulzar saab has stated about echo of silence. Well echo of silence cant be anything but silence itself.

I dont know what happens to me when I listen this song.. It sounds me happy when I am happy.. It sounds me sad when I am sad.. It sounds me peaceful when I am steady.. I just dont know. But these are the most magical words of my life. If ever I had to choose just one memory from my life and forget everything else, I'll choose this song....

FORREST GUMP

"Have you found Jesus yet, Gump?"
"I didnt know I was supposed to be looking for him, sir."
Aaaaaah.......
When I heard the sentence first time, I went blank.. Dont know for how much time. How can anyone live the life in a way it is supposed to be lived in true sense.? It lead me to the basic question of life.
Most of us are bound to a lifestyle in which we have accepted so much without thinking about them a lot. As if they are meant to be there. But are they really? And this question gave rise to the extreme internal chaos. What am I going to be with this? And the man only gave answer to the question .. "I am going to be ME.."
And its really hard to be you. Because many of the times we just dont know what we are. I mean we do things just because we know that they are done by everyone in this way only. Do we really know what had we done if we didnt have any prejudice?
Well, to live life without prejudice is impossible as what we are at every moment is the sum of our lives till that moment. But what if any life is just so pure?
And it is FORREST GUMP.
The movie released on 6th July 1994, starring Tom Hanks in lead role, based on a novel by Winston Groom..
The movie is about the boy named Forrest Gump, living alone with his mother having below average IQ as well as problem with leg spine due to which he had to wear leg braces. The movie shows the journey of his life and some accidental incedents which gave him direction to move towards next thing.
Well, I am not going to tell the story here. I am stating such few things which made Forrest an integral part of my life.
Every soul in this world has something so pure. Forrest is the reflection of that purity. Everyone can find Forrest within himself/ herself. Forrest posseses many good qualities without even knowing what he has and how very rare they are!
But the best thing about Forrest is his love for Jenny. He loved her throughout his life without saying much 'I love you'. He loved her for what she was without even knowing the greatness of that love, he cared for her without being possessive, he stood for her whenever needed and never ever compelled her to love him back. I think the ability to love and accept someone as he/she is, is the greatest thing one can do for someone. Its not possible without leaving your ego and which is the most difficult thing. Its really difficult to be simple.. Isnt it?
The movie is full of great scenes. His narration about his life, the few scenes between him and his mother which showed the unique way she had used to brought up Forrest. The scene of Forrest-Bubba friendship, the relation Forrest had with Lt. Dan, in miltry as well as after being shrimping boat partners, the scene showing his intemacy with Jenny..... etc etc... But for me the best scene in the movie is when Forrest comes to know that little Forrest is his son. The expression Tom Hanks has given while becoming unable to ask wheather he can go, talk to his son are just just incredible.
Well, finally when we think what we like the most about Forrest, we just get confused. Is it his honesty or his ability to love or his simplicity or his hard working nature or his fidelity or being what he is? For me, after the movie I didnt feel like falling in love with him, I didnt feel to be like him, neither I felt he is the greatest man. It was just a satisfaction of getting to know something extremely pure. You can never feel like disturbing its purity by describing it. What else can you say about a man believing death is the part of life and same time wishing if its not...
I was missing something untill I watched the movie. Now he has become a part of my life in such a way that not a single day passes without thinking about him. No wonder the movie won 6 academy awards including best actor, best director and best movie.
For me Forrest Gump is not just a movie or a story or a character. Its the poetry of love, duty, fight, achievement, living, growing, accepting. Its an epic.
Thats all I have to say about that... :)

Kahaani ke pichhe..

Sometimes, we read something, watch a movie or listen a song and over the period of time that becomes so integral part of our lives that we cant accept, they are imaginary. We just cant imagine our lives without them. This blog is about some such things which are really very close to my heart. Without them I would have been always incomplete..