The year that was

A year that taught me more, gave me more and took away more than I had ever imagined! Unabashedly, I must confess the year belonged to the novel and all mighty Corona Virus - like a scripted play, a news item from a faraway land turned into a domestic threat and finally evolved into a game changer epidemic of the year!

And the epidemic brought about a change – a stunning change that kept me gaping and guessing in equal proportions…it changed the human in me, the employee in me, and alas the wonderstruck traveller in me as well! It broke into my notions of the “now”, of the “permanent” and of things that would never change..it toyed with my swinging emotions, my heart oscillating between hope and despair through the year….it exposed the fragility and brittleness of what I thought was “within our control” – all age-old concepts of domesticity, business, home and society thrown into the wind just like that!

But it also brought me closer to places, things et al that I ignored in the mechanics of daily living..a little pause that helped me observe..the buttony eyes of the tiny squirrel in the garden, the aroma of cashews melting into a sheet of ghee, the palette of the twilight sky, the silence of the village life..and countless phenomenon that just ground into powder as I zipped through from one routine to the other..

It also brought me closer to myself, my loves and my hates – the warmth of mother’s coffee and conversations, the good fortune of hot family meals, the endless chatter of a little woman that fills all the spaces in between..the falling in love over and over again with the numerous characters in my books..the ecstasy of thrillers that I devoured in my pyjamas and sprawling on the home couch – art, literature and movies all streaming into your home at your will and time..

It also brought me face-to-face with some sad truths- that I can never bake that ‘insta-worthy’ cake or a pizza that can earn a culinary star…some talents are best kept away from the precincts of your resume..the pointlessness of safekeeping your shoes – one for each ‘occasion’ when all you need is a pair of home slippers to float from home to office and back…the natural unruliness of your hair and that you could survive through a year without a single visit to the salon and yet look beautiful in your own way..

Yes the year turned me upside down but it also turned me inside out – shedding a few layers of skin that I had mistaken for a part of me – what is left for the new year is the pink and pure version – ready to glow, ready to add more and ready to face off the new year..

If only

 

If only…

If men were as good as their mothers thought them to be

If women were as good as the odes in their honour

If leaders were as good as their manifestos

If employees were as good as their resumes

If employers were as good as their websites

If families were as good as vacation brochures

If children were as good as in the commercials

If godmen were as good as the scriptures

If the food was as healthy as the wrapper claimed

If we remembered each favour just as we remembered each small folly

If we said every word that we spoke in our head

If humanity were as good as the history we write

If the year was as good as the resolution

If only..

 

Jallikattu– much more than a bull

 Jallikattu represents India at the Oscars and is a proud symbol of Malayalam moviedom and what it stands for ..authentic storytelling, realism and characters that have a soul beyond stardom and glamour.

While the plot simplistically put is about a group of villagers pursuing a wild bull run amok, the story and the undertones are much more than meets the ‘bullseye’..the portrayal and the symbolic irony of the beast in each human is raw and hits you hard as the story unfolds..it is a reality check for all that is happening around us..

Jallikattu is definitely a stunning audio visual narrative and the voices of the villagers, the forest and the violence that erupts is gripping to say the least. It also captures the misty beauty of the bridges, the trees and the village with elan and speaks a silent story of the forest, its creatures and the greed of the human. And then it traverses beyond the borders of beauty to the skin of humans and the little sparks that are enough to bring down humanity to its knees – a surreal comparison to the reality that splashes across our newspapers…All it needs is a bull to unite, divide and kill – a mischievous parable of the little things that spark outrage in our country.

The recognition also comes well justified for the efforts of the ensemble cast that put its soul into each character and they exude rawness and realism that blends beautifully into the story. A simple reminder that you do not need big names, flashy ‘item songs’ and exotic locations to make a good movie – a truthful story well said is perhaps enough?

The movie stays with you for a while and rakes up a thousand thoughts – of the helplessness of the bulls, the muscle of the powerful, the thoughtlessness of mobs, the focus on the tree rather than the forest, the methodical murder of forests and unsatiating greed of humans..

So no matter what happens at the Oscars, (is it our colonial past that we need the Oscars to finally ‘stamp’ a good movie?) Jallikattu has opened up the conversation of ‘Indian movie’ that goes beyond Bollywood, song-and-dance routines, pastel ‘ghagras’ and almost breaks open the path for more regional movies to have their time under the sun!