After three attempts I was finally able to see the complete movie – Slumdog Millionaire. The movie initially turned me off with its portrayal of stark reality but it turns out to be an incredible love story. This is the redeeming feature of the film apart from the rags to riches story. The first part appalls you – makes your hair stand on end. It is perhaps the reality of India but it nauseates – it is outrageous, it is frightening. Is this really happening in our country? Are the children going through such inhumane brutality? Is someone doing anything to save orphaned, street children or are they left uncared for to become victims of criminals/ underworld? The movie is a celebration of India’s sordidness.
Category: Movie Reviews
The 3 idiots
The Three Idiots – First Impression
The Three Idiots is a blast – breathlessly exhilarating. Hat’s off to Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and the cast. Amir Khan is a magician, a puppeteer. He holds the strings to people’s heart or let me say he puts his heart and soul in what he does. And it shows. After a long time I have come across a movie which I’d like to see again. Besides entertaining in a superb way, the movie playfully conveys a lot of messages – Be Optimistic; Trust your intuitions; Follow your heart; Do not succumb to pressure; Voice yourself; Education, Knowledge, Learning is more important than marks and degrees; Don’t run after success, it will run after you if you have the ability and most importantly Make others happy; Be kind and compassionate.
Well, do not get a wrong impression by this list. Go and watch the movie – it makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you think. You roll with laughter when Chattur gives the welcome speech on teacher’s day, you cry when the boys discover their attitude, you sit on the edge of the chair during the delivery and marvel when everything turns out well and you come out of the cinema hall thinking on a lot of matters.
All in all – The Three Idiots is a must watch – excellent, contemporary story, direction, cinematography, music and acting.
Parental Pressure
Recently I watched the film Chal Chalein. The film touches upon a very sensitive subject – parental pressure on kids to perform well in studies, to become doctors, engineers, administrative officers etc. The producer (Mahesh Padalkar) and the director (Ujjwal Singh) should be applauded for taking up this issue. It is indeed a very serious matter. Consciously or unconsciously parents are subjecting their children to inhuman hours of study. They are taking the fun out of their children’s lives.
It is not just grown up kids (9th to 12th standard) but very small children are going through this trauma of doing well, of excelling. In metropolitan cities, there is literally a mad rush. Parents want to admit their children in the best schools of the city. From the age of two and a half they start grooming them – sending them to special preparatory schools, making their tender hands write all kinds of scripts and numbers, making them cram alphabet, rhymes, and essays. They do not realize that by thus tutoring small children, they are killing creativity, curiosity, imagination and individuality. As it is life ahead is tough, competitive and it pains to see childhood thus wrangled.
Here we are starting a grading system for the 10th class but what about little children? Why should they be subjected to this kind of manipulation, just because their parents want good schools for their children? And why do schools have such stupid, stringent rules for admission? Instead of taking a written test of five or six years old (for which the child has been preparing for two years or more), can’t there be a simpler criterion for selection? I think this issue needs serious attention.