MNIK : A Movie, A Message

My Name is Khan and I am not a Terrorist.
The movie is not just a movie, it is a message for the whole world. It is not meant for Americans or white people, it is not directed towards one group, but it is for every person, every nation and every religion. It is a world issue camouflaged in a movie.
I will term it as a brave movie, it is a movie which needs guts and conviction to be told. Karan Johar has matured from being a romantic director to something too serious. His last venture, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna may haven’t topped the box office collection, but it is his best movie after MNIK. ShahRukh Khan has given his career best performance and you will recognize him only as Rizvan Khan in the movie.
It deals with two issues. One is, our perception that every muslim is a terrorist. Second, for those people who are deteriorating the position of common Muslims by their belligerent nature. The film tells us, that it is time that we stop classifying people on the name of religion, but just good and bad. There is no religion in the world, which promotes killing and terrorism. Every war has personal motives of few people. They influence young minds by giving them wrong interpretations of religion and making them believe that their deeds will seek them a place in heaven. Or I should say, their hatred grows so much that they forget which is the path of God. And this thing is not only for one religion or one cast, it happens everywhere irrespective of religion. We have examples in our daily life. Bombings in India, Pakistan, America shows that bombs knows no religion and terrorists belong to no castes.
My name is Khan touched me deeply. It has all the instances of everything I said above, told beautifully. It is a must watch movie for the whole world, including all religions. It is a movie to kill the perception that every Muslim is terrorist. It is time we focus on mankind, providing them love and friendship, because that is the most important thing required as of now. Judge people by their deeds and not on their caste and creed. Atlast, we are all human beings living together in a society, trying to be happier every second of our life.
(P.S – I don’t know whether ShahRukh Khan and Karan Johar will receive award for this because it is too early in 2010 and a lot of movies yet to hit the screens, but I surely feel that this movie will receive the RamNath Goenka Screen Award)

Dan Brown - The Lost Symbol ?

Dan Brown is a master plotter. And each of his creations is just better than before. Many people may find his novels a bit boring, considering his long explicable facts of history, somewhat veiled from the everyday life. No matter people still feel The Da Vinci code is far better than his Angels and Demons. One thing I am assured of. Dan Brown wont spare you until you reach the last page of the book.
After reading his three books, two bestsellers and one fast reaching the feat, few things are crystal clear of Dan Brown. First, he researches a lot. Every book of his has some secret societies, institutes and buildings. Second, he has a well riveted storyline which moves at a commendable pace with twists and turns amid all his facts. Sometimes, I myself don’t comprehend whether he wants to tell a story or fascination of a secret society.
Now, let me come to the main point of my lecture above. I completed the fifth book of Dan Brown, THE LOST SYMBOL today. The book is yet about yet another mystery, The Mason, a society not many people are aware of including me. I shouldn’t call myself worthy of knowing world secrets because I opened the gates of my knowledge pretty late in my life, but I am always awestruck reading his books. Also, the new concept here was Noetic Science. I don’t know whether any of you would believe me but I have unconsciously felt the miracle of our minds in our daily life.
I never believed in God, but yes, I believed in a force very much in me which is secretly working. I always felt that God is within us. Noetic Science is a new technology which is trying to intersect two parallels, Science and Religion and just trying to pull the human being of its predicament. I always believe that our mind can do wonders if we use it properly. If working of 0.2-0.5% can create the earth as we see it today, what will happen if all the 100% comes to force. Clearly, human being is yet to unveil his own true powers.
I don’t know whether I would be able to know the enigma of human mind or understand its powers, but as of now, I am very excited of reading more and increasing my knowledge. The LOST SYMBOL has definitely inoculated a seed in me to read the Bible and other books of religions, and see if what written in the last pages of the Dan Brown’s novel has some real grounds or not.

P.S: Any of you readers of this blog, if you know books which relate to noetic science, or The power of mind, please do suggest.

An Ageless Character

Very recently, I have been surrounded by words of appreciations for Aamir Khan from all parts, be it newspaper, magazine, critics, friends and my parents. His movie, 3 Idiots has broken all time records of Hindi Cinema. Everybody is applauding his character of a 20 year old boy. I always love his performance, but when asked about my favorite actor, I always choose Shahrukh Khan. But at this moment, I couldn’t restrict myself from writing about the all-age actor, Aamir Khan.
I hardly remember earlier movies of Aamir Khan. He was just another actor for me before Lagaan. I do remember some of his movies, which I liked the most. Sarfarosh, Ghulam, Ishq to name a few. But in current Bollywood, he is a raging moolah. His past six out of eight films were runaway hits, some of them even breaking records becoming the highest grosser. And most of the time, Aamir Khan’s movie is breaking the record of another Aamir Khan’s movie. What makes him the Midas touch of films?
I was watching a tata sky advertisement of Aamir Khan, in which he is the husband of Gul Panag and introducing us with the advantages of Tata Sky Plus. Then I remembered a few more advertisements by the same actor but in totally different and unrecognizable getups.
1. An gray beard Sardar, fed up with Tata Sky.
2. Husbandfrom one part and Wife from the other part, introducing Tata Sky.
3. A Nepali offering a couple with Coca-Cola.
4. A whole family, with each member played by Aamir Khan, in a Coca-Cola advertisement.
These are some of my memorable ads of Aamir Khan. Maybe, there are some more, but the above four really left a mark in my memory. All these advertisement are different from one another. And what fits Aamir in all of them is his meticulous effort in each one of them. He makes the character so real that it is hard to believe that you are actually watching Aamir Khan in the role of a sardar or a middle-aged auntiji.
What really attracted me about Aamir Khan is the huge age differences between him and his roles and the diversity in each of them. If we take a look at some of his last fewblockbuster movies.
1. 3 Idiots – A 18-20 year old student studying Engineering.
2. Ghajini – An amnesia patient in search of his lover’s murderer.
3. Taare Zameen Par - A teacher and also, the director of the film.
4. Fanaa – A terrorist
5. Rang De Basanti - A 25 year old spoilt lad but immense guts.
6. Mangal Pandey – Historical figure
7. Dil Chahta Hai – An aimless young guy (perhaps my all time favorite)
8. Lagaan – A villager in pre-independence time.
Lately, he has chose all different and diverse roles, and in none of them, age is being a factor for him. Whether it’s DJ, who doesn’t care about his country but can die for his friends, or an amnesia patient with a physique difficult to achieve in the age of 43 when your metabolic rate has slowed down. And the most important and the latest one, a boy full of chirpiness and gaiety, Rancho, played by an actor more than twice than the age of the character. Not even once, I felt that Aamir has grown old to fit in such kind of roles. I was watching Rancho and his naughty innocent expressions found in every college boy.
I am not trying to epitomize Aamir Khan, what I am merely trying to imply is that Aamir is god-gifted. His acting has really broken all barriers of age, and has shifted the focus on square one, perfect acting.
I never think that I will ever say Aamir Khan is my favorite actor, since I am used to write ShahRukh Khan’s name in every slambook I fill, but I would always remember that the actor with great abilities will always amuse people worldwide with just pure acting, may be every year till earth lives.

Paranormal Activity

Oren Peli, the director of the film wouldn’t have thought that it would be a blockbuster hit all around the world. And he has proved that it is not necessary to scare people with makeup and scars. Sounds are enough to keep a person on his toe.
A couple, living in the suburb tends to hear noises in the house at night. The husband buys a video camera to shoot the night activities while they sleep. And then, as the camera rolls in the night, the fears increase day by day and the movie gets scarier. Not many special effects, even the camera was not a film camera. But Oren Peli has proved a point. That is we fear what we can’t apprehend and sometimes it gets on our head. Fear stems from the brain, and if we keep on thinking of it, our fear increases.
This was the first horror movie I watched on screen. And even if I slept all nights after that unlike my friend, I couldn’t wipe out the fear of going in the dark alone at night till later days.
And my piece of advice which is the most important. The movie has three alternate ending, the actual one visible in the screen only. So, try to watch on-screen only. And if you are watching at home, please wait for the original dvdrips to arrive and watch it in a dark room. Surely, you will get scared.

Ayn Rand - The Fountainhead

It’s a big novel. Atleast for me. The maximum pages I am accustomed of range from 300-400 with a font size of 11. The Fountainhead is a book of 700 pages and with a font size of 8, and yes, it is in its centennial edition. I heard about this book in a radio show and learnt that it is a classic written in 1943. I was getting used to reading novels and immediately searched for the book. Bought it in August in a book fair, but didn’t read it. My brother saw the book and laughed impudently. Once my semester exams were over, I started to read the book all over again and made it my forte to complete the book. It took me 44 hours divided in 12 days to complete the book.
I started to read the book and found it complex enough. I understand philosophies much easily and finely than any other counterpart of my age. But Ayn Rand’s philosophy took time to apprehend. It deals with the sheer complexities of human being, the urge of power, the urge to be the greatest, rule the world. And if you think, I mean literally, think again.
Ayn Rand dealt with the dark emotions of the human being. She has given the perfect description of every character. She has introduced so petite twists in the tale that they are unimaginative although evident. I found it difficult sometimes to keep up with the book, because even if different, Ayn Rand is bit too verbose. But I think that’s because she wanted to present her thoughts in detail. I think I am a little young to understand all the emotions, because I have never surfaced any of them myself, but I am sure I will read the book some years later, and I am sure it will be more than just abstruse at that time.