It is a good insightful thought provoking analysis of the film. After watching Aamir, i kept on ruminating over the film. Like you, I kept on trying to think what disturbed me about the film. As much I agree with you that it is the silence of the Muslim community at large which disturbs the viewer, I feel that by taking such a view we are indeed operating within a stereotype, not one instated by the film, but one with which we come to watch the film. If we read the silence as one that is only indicative of the approval or connivance, such an interpretation bereft the film of its nuanced representation of the Muslim community, and their complex relationship not just with the self appointed leaders preaching them jihad, but with the Indian nation state at large. In fact I feel that the director credibly goes on to debunk this simplistic popular stereotyping of the Muslim community where they are either the extremists or the supporters of those who are.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Aamir..
A response to, "Why Aamir left me disturbed" by Saisuresh Sivaswamy at http://saisureshsivaswamy.rediffblogs.com/
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
A poem without a title
I toss and turn
But, all I smell is a burn
Is it the wind?
April has been the cruelest month
It hasn’t been too kind
But I still wonder
Will it ever leave me?
It drowns me
Sucks me up like a quagmire
My Mother says it is too much heat
Friends say it is too much thinking
He says it is all in your head
I say it is the chill
Too much crowding
Yet the silence
Too many people
Yet the loneliness
Too much wind
Yet the parchness
But I still wonder
Will it ever be?
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Intolerance for "noise"?
Having recently finished reading Vikram Seth's, A Suitable Boy i couldn't stop mulling over the comments from many of my friends over my 'accomplishment.' Yes, they do perceive it as a feat of sorts...reading so dedicatedly a tome weighing more than a pound and spanning to an extensive 1350 pages! But as i stop and think about their astonishment...i wonder if it stems more from a surprise that such a long novel...dotted with innumerable characters, their twined and intertwined ordinary stories, the not so related characters and their non heroic tales of friendships and enmities....not merely held my attention, but thoroughly delighted my senses! I wonder if in an age of bestsellers, those sleek tailor made linear tightly woven narratives, with the promise of a roller coaster ride...to be undertaken and finished while waiting for that A train or traveling on that M4 bus, or just waiting for that appointment with the dentist...have we come to inhabit a world that only appreciates everything that is to the point, and sees everything that is not, as "noise," an irritating noise? As people always hard pressed for time, as people always hard pressed to live life king size following the philosophy of work hard and play harder, as people always taught to prioritize, as people always conditioned to focus on the 'larger' issues of life.... have we forgotten what is it to live? Have we forgotten to appreciate life in its simplicity...a life as it is meant to be- full of chatter, meaningless twitter, rambling stories told over innumerable cups of tea, hoarse throats, sticky oil laced hands, and shared cigarettes? For me novels like Seth's, A Suitable Boy reminds me of that noise, that delightful relevant noise that fills in the background, reminding us of the greater, yet simple world around us....a world that essentially derives meaning from those mundane joys, and woes...a world full of ordinary people like Seth's characters...who become extraordinary, not because of heroic actions, but simply because they remember to live.!
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