Friday, June 21, 2013

Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World


Why do we need to experience a situation to feel its gravity or the pain associated with it? In this materialistic and mechanical life that we live today are we encountering decline of a beautiful emotion called empathy? (Empathy is the capacity to recognize emotions that are being experienced by another sentiment).

It is very easy to connect with empathetic people (and also easy to work in an environment where people are empathetic). Sharing any feeling with these sensitive minds guarantees complete understanding of the circumstances without having to give any lengthy justifications or being judged.

Reading fiction is rejuvenating, relaxing, entertaining, stimulates the right side of the brain and research shows that it helps increase empathy.

Haruki Murakami is considered to be a possible recipient of a Noble prize in Literature and is the author of this weird book 'Hard Boiled Wonderland And The End Of The World'. The writing is very simple though depicting a complex concept.

'Alice in wonderland' is one of the rare book which people interpret depending on the phase of life that they are in. Murakami's book gives a similar effect. It symbolizes various things our dreams, desires, choices, dilemmas and enigmatic correlation between subconscious and conscious mind.

I wonder why Hollywood film makers did not think of making a movie on this plot yet. I felt that the story got a little repetitive towards the end. Looking forward to read more books by Murakami. I give it 3.5/5.

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Sita sings the blues

If you were born in the era of Mahabharata (I mean B.R. Chopra's TV series) then you might be able to remember that maximum TV sets were sold during this time.
On Sunday mornings the roads would be vacant and my entire family would be glued to TV.

Nobody knows if Mahabharata happened as it is told today. If it didn’t occur in real and just happens to be a novel by Vyasa then what an astounding piece of imagination…!

We Indians love everything about it, it's fascinating story, fights, captivating magic, anguish, vengeance, covetousness, the supernatural, philosophy, odium, splendor, bravery, heroism.
The characters are intriguing, convoluted, haughty, kind, egoist, greedy, vindictive, enigmatic and all have shades of grey. 

I fell in love with Mahabharat once again when I read 'Palace of Illusions' - a book by Chithra Banerjee. It is based on the life of Draupadi.

I never found Ramayana as intriguing as Mahabharata, definitely not until I watched the short animation film 'Sita sings the blues'. It is based on the life of Sita. The animation is absolutely delightful and the storytelling is astonishingly original. To conceive a film like this is a wonder!

It is available on youtube.

PS: In case you happen to watch it then as they always say - try to be liberal and take art for what it is.