MIND GAMES

What makes you sing? What makes you jive? What makes you go around the world? What makes you click a photograph? And the possibilities are endless.

Thinking of these possibilities, I came up with a question as to what makes a person act or react. I surmised that a person, place, thing or situation doesn’t always garner a reaction from all. And when it does, the reactions can be extensively and intensively different. An example would illustrate my point better. When a group of people listen to a song at the same time, the first instantly thinks about its raag, taal and pitch, the second delves into its rhyme and lyrics, the third begins to choreograph it in his mind and the fourth predicts its commercial appeal while the fifth only wonders what to cook for dinner tonight.  Isn’t it fascinating how our mind evolves in different dimensions and the same thing impresses different people so distinctly?

It is this variety in thought that makes life so interesting. A recent treasure hunt that I participated in accentuated this fact most humorously and concretely. The organizers couldn’t have ever imagined that their clues could have so many possible interpretations as the participants came out with.  For example, one of the clues to be solved in a particular area just mentioned “Father on the board”, now with that hint we had to actually find the signage “Appa Garden Street” (appa means father in the local language) which is put at the corner of the road but coincidentally there is a church in the same vicinity and some of our friends went around the church looking for a message of the ‘Father’ as in “Jesus” put up on some board. And others went further to find the ‘Father’ inside the church in the form of a ‘priest’. Isn’t it hilarious and contemplative at the same time? There were several such stories of my treasure hunt with the most imaginative interpretation of every clue. I am sure the organizers never thought that their clues would be source of such reflective fun.

Another thing that I found quite interesting about that day was that none of the interpretations were literally right or wrong, they were simply different. The organizers thought in one way while the participants thought in quite the other. Of course the interpretation as meant by the organizers would have helped to decipher the clue and win the treasure but we can’t judge the “interpretations” per se.

The same holds true between individuals, families and societies. We are all entitled to our own interpretation but asserting it as the verdict creates conflicts and rifts. Each thinks himself to be right and the other as follied, but in truth we are just different. To think differently is the beauty of the mind but to react differently is the test of the mind.

We live in a world of differences – pun intended, where Salman Rushdie’s book is acclaimed by one society but he is issued a fatwa for the same book by another society; where music is considered a path to God by one community yet it is labeled blasphemous by another; where Agent Vinod might run a marathon at the box office in one country but it is already banned in another.

You see, we have the right to our thoughts, but do we also have the right to wrong others’?

A movie that lingers...

BUM BUM BOLE. Do you know a film by that name? I wonder not. It didn’t have much matter to garner publicity or tabloid attention but surprisingly not even critics’ attention. It is a non-starrer, low budget movie but considering it non-descript would be gross injustice to a beautiful piece of cinema by the veteran Priyadarshan. A film that effervesces with warmth and delight throughout its span of a simple story line.

The synopsis can be put as a story about a brother and sister, whose family is undergoing financial crisis, and how they manage to go to school with one pair of shoes while hiding this fact from their parents. The child actors both Darsheel Safari and Ziah Vastani are so adorable in their roles and almost surreal with their expressions. Their depiction of a brother and sister makes you pleasantly melancholic of your own childhood. Those little secrets that still hang between you and your sibling, those silly fights and most importantly and funnily the intimidations and blackmails, ‘if you tell mummy this or if you don’t do this, I’ll open my mouth about that’.  How amusing and entertaining to grow up like that.

This movie also gently strokes the heart with its not-in-the-face loving relationship between the siblings.  “Pinu” the elder brother is set to do just about everything possible to buy “Rimzim” his sister a pair of shoes and those are the high points of the movie.  Well, I am no critic and doing no movie review but I personally felt that the emotional pitch and the sensitive yet comical nuances of this straightforward film drift you to the wonderful years and moments of sibling bonding. I wholeheartedly cherish the presence of my brothers in my life especially my elder brother who has been privy to a lot of stupid things in my life and a real bridge between my mom and me.  It just reminds me of the time that is left behind but the bond that remains…

Yeah with our population woes and the stress of raising even a single child these days, not many think of two. But candidly, I do. I feel a sibling enriches the life in a very different way. Your childhood gets scribbled with many more colours than the usual 12 crayons. A real kaleidoscopic growth process. When you sit back and reminisce those years you can’t help but savour them and smile. My memory bank is so prosperous and Bum Bum Bole makes you revisit it in time and innocence.

Another thing that stood out for me in the movie was that Pinu and Rimzim are far from having a perfect childhood but they are neither sad nor complaining about it. In fact they are naturally trying to overcome and reverse the condition. That kind of spontaneity is the extraordinariness of the movie’s direction and screenplay. But I guess the same holds true in our lives as well. An ordinary rut with difficult patches, but it’s the dialogues (internal and external) that we deliver in its course and the pace we choose to follow that determines the simple story as mere livable or enjoyable.

While spontaneous it is, Bum Bum Bole is no less realistic. Like any other child, the brother and sister feverishly long for all the fancy things around them especially the shoes.  The non-fulfillment of it undoubtedly disappoints them but it does not rob them of their courage or the basic human character of optimism. How I wish if we could retain the grace of a child, life would be simpler, more enjoyable and more beautiful to live.

Well, some works of art make you feel and think and this film made me do both. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Disclaimer:  After reading this, if you wish to watch it, it is aired pretty often on one of the Hindi movie channels, though I am not sure about the name. And if after watching it, you don’t have the same experience as I did, I am not responsible :).