Lasting Rose

Showing posts with label Chennai Express. Show all posts

Memories of an autumn day assassination

No summer's high, no warm July, no harvest moon to light one tender August night. No autumn breeze, no falling leaves, not even time for birds to fly to southern skies.

So wrote Stevie Wonder about an ordinary day he sang three ordinary words which meant almost everything to a generation. It was on such an ordinary autumn day that a woman who touched the hearts of a whole generation for her courage was felled by assassins.

It is exactly thirty years since that day dawned in the life of many people as an ordinary day and set like an extra ordinary day they could never forget.

For me, it was a train journey which started as boring as any in an Indian train but grew very frightening towards the end and ended with a very unusual and uncomfortable experience of having to be pulled home by another human being. That is what stand out as the background of the events of that tragic day for me.

It was because, the train which departed early morning on that day had all but one stop and there was nothing called a mobile phone. The news of an assassination at last trickled down towards the afternoon when the train pulled up at an unusual stop, waiting for clearance to proceed to the destination as massive disturbances started to occur all over India.

Not knowing what happened or if it was only a rumour, the immediate concern was getting home safe and the shock and the sinking feeling had to wait till watching the news being flashed on the TV screen of a neighbour.

Events that caused immense shock to the whole world has occurred before and after like the assassination of President Kennedy and the 9/11. Days everyone remembers what they were up to when they heard the news. The cold blooded murder of Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi however was unique and different.

Though President Kennedy was assassinated at the height of his popularity as bold leader of the cold war era, the world was only on the verge of media revolution and less connected for the news to dissipate. Time lapse perhaps diffused the shock though the angst and agony of the aftershock of an entirely unexpected and bold assassination and the immediate events which followed undoubtedly shook the conscience of the free world. No doubt the assassination of the young president Kennedy has left a indelible mark on everyone’s memory.

In contrast, Mrs Gandhi’s murder did not come as a surprise, at least to those who were aware of the Indian politics. But when it came, it came down like a ton of hot metal on India’s conscience and a world at large which couldn’t believe such a tragedy could strike India and the Gandhi name twice.

It didn’t go down to the bottom of every heart with the force of the bullets which ripped her body but as a deep strike of knife which pierced the deepest affection and admiration for a leader who willingly sacrificed herself for what was right for the integrity and unity of the nation.

Unlike President Kennedy Indira Gandhi was not at the height of her political career. Mrs Gandhi could have run away from it all. She was warned. She knew it was coming. She could have the protection she wanted to avoid it.

Yet she was a leader who somehow knew that it will not be her political legacy and achievement but her courage and valour as a woman which will be the most precious gift she could leave for the nation and the world, which will make them to hold her close to their heart.

The nation heard with apprehension and discomfort when she spoke on the eve of her death about her premonition but couldn’t fathom her courage of conviction about what she will be dying for till that actually happened.

Nobody knows how many attempts have been made to shoot me; lathis have been used to beat me. They have attacked me in every possible manner. I do not care whether I live or die. I have lived a long life and I am proud that I spent the whole of my life in the service of my people. I am only proud of this and nothing else. I shall continue to serve until my last breath and when I die, I can say, that every drop of my blood will invigorate India and strengthen it.

Indira Gandhi will be remembered not as woman who wanted to build a dynasty and leave it behind but as someone who spoke out those words loud and clear for the world to hear, fully aware of the approaching death before her.

Naturally, you need to have a feel of what women are made of to appreciate the greatness of Indira Gandhi.

Friday, October 31, 2014

Posted by Unknown

Tag : #lastingrose, assassination, Chennai Express, India, Indira Gandhi

Why Chennai Express of Sha Rukh Khan is an amazing sine qua non for a course on world cinema

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It is almost a year since Chennai Express, a record breaking Indian blockbuster of the king of Bollywood, Sha Rukh Khan, was released. This Indian flick may have a few surprise lessons for students of the movie craft.

It is one of those rare events on the silver screen, which provides a lot of insight to anyone seriously considering to master the craft of cinema and how to press the right buttons to enter the hearts of millions.

Bollywood films routinely become blockbusters with record collections at the box office, thanks to a captive audience looking out for a pass-time and burdened with a deficit of IQ and excess of money in their pockets both in India and abroad.

Chennai Express which got only sub zero marks from film critics, but managed to add a record number of zeros to its box office collection, however, is different and something of a a mystery of the Indian silver screen.

No one really knows how and when the ‘rail cars’ of Chennai Express, with such complexity that they could all have hardly come alive in a single brain, came together.

If Chennai Express was a typical director’s film it might have been a Rohit Shetty film. It is actually a unique flick, with a lot more deeper and serious facets to it than a film director’s work of entertainment. Many of those can be attributed to its hero, the Indian movie star and entrepreneur, Sha Rukh Khan.

A rail car named desire.

It is clearly the enormous desire of Sha Rukh Khan to make more money by investing wisely in a sure-fire formula which compelled him to venture out to make a film with Rohit Shetty, who is a young Indian director with a string of blockbusters under his belt. Rohit had cracked what the modern Indian audience wanted and was ready to to pour oil on any desire which made good commercial sense. The result could hardly be anything but explosive. Chennai Express, a deceptively dangerous theme, was the product of bold commercial vision of Khan, as suicidal as it is genius.

A script no one will touch

With the fire of desire in its gut, the express train of Sha Rukh and Rohit Shetty could have gone in any direction, but it took a southern turn with its script writer Subhash, son of a veteran southern film director, connected with the leaders of linguistic strife in India before independence.

It was no surprise that his script came with a genesis of an impossible dream of unity and harmony between southern and northern India, which broke down with the departure of the British and was aggravated by the linguistic division of India after independence.

From Helen of Troy to Gone with the wind, regional human conflict had been the backdrop of great classics, depicted truthfully and presented to audiences who can discern life from entertainment.

However, it would be utterly irresponsible to ignore consequences of chauvinism, even if it is in mere movie entertainment, in the 21st century India more divided and ignitable than ever.

The script of Chennai express, dealing with the love of a northern man to a southern belle was explosive any day, novel yet fraught with danger of massive protests and national grief if not a civil war, with the risk of negative stereotyping of south Indians. Though the script has a strong message of the power of love to unite everyone, almost impossible to deliver today as it was nearly a century back, the great Khan was audacious enough to grab it because he saw a divine touch of great commercial success.

The divine touch

What actually created the spark of creation of Chennai Express was a touch almost divine as the one in the Creation of Adam of Michel Angelo. It was the final touch of Khan’s own blockbuster Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, still running in Mumbai after two decades, as the longest running flick.

Khan has instantly recognised that the feel of goodness where he left off in DDLJ is his ticket for Chennai Express which had the pulling power to drag millions of Indian hearts along with him in to it. It not only sealed the script of the movie but also the soft corner he has managed to sneak in to in millions of hearts worldwide.