The Shawshank Redemption - Fear Can Hold You Prisoner, Hope Can Set You Free

Theme

The movie is a touching depiction of prison life. Andrew Dufresne, vice president in a big bank, has been convicted of the murder of his wife and her lover. He is innocent of the crime but in the face of strong circumstantial evidence is sentenced to two back to back life sentences in a high security prison - Shawshank. It is the end of life for him, at least the life that he has ever known. Like Andrew almost every other man in Shawshank knows that he is probably never going to see his friends, family and loved ones again. These people have no hope and they have no future. But life is such a beautiful phenomenon that even in the face of such a dreary, monotonous existence, they try to find a balance. To look at these people, one would hardly think that they are doomed – they joke, play, eat, chat – they live normal lives, or as normal a life as they can.

Andrew tries to make a difference in a variety of ways. He writes a letter to the state senate every week asking for funds for the prison library. After six years, they get tired and sends him some old books and two hundred dollars and plead him to stop writing those letters. Andrew then starts writing two letters every week. Eventually, he is able to build a large library with books, music records and other facilities for the prisoners. He teaches the prisoners and helps some of them pass High School. He even helps the guards fill their tax returns. The only thing he is probably trying to do is to make his life worthwhile.

Andrew makes friends with Ellis Boyd Redding (Red for short). He is a philosophical character and his monologues about prison life with the soft melancholy music playing in the background are touching as well as insightful – “When they put you in that cell and those bars slam home, that’s when you know its for real. Whole life blown away in the blink of an eye and nothing left but all the time in the world to think about it.” Brooks is an old man. He has been at Shawshank for fifty years and finally its time to go out to the outside world. Is Brooks happy at the prospect of freedom? As Red says “Brooks is institutionalized….In here he is an important man….Outside he is nothing….Just a used up con with arthritis in both hands….These Walls are funny. First you hate ‘em and then you get used to ‘em. Enough time passes and you get to depend on ‘em. That’s institutionalized……They send you here for life and that’s exactly what they take.” Simply beautiful.

The ending of the movie is a fantastic surprise and I wouldn’t want to take anything away from those who haven’t seen the film. A must see for those who appreciate meaningful cinema but certainly not for those who prefer fast paced and “happening” films.

Trivia

• The film was not very successful when it was released in theatres but later on through the home video market it became a huge hit.
• It has been voted as the second greatest movie ever made in Internet Movie Database’s Top 250 Films of all time after the Godfather.
• It was nominated for seven Oscars – Best Movie, Best Actor (Morgan Freeman), Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound. It failed to win even a single Oscar.
• It is based on Stephen King’s novella “Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption”

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We Will Overcome

I was a useless man. Eat, smoke, drink and sleep was all I did. The only thing I gave back to the world was my shit. And even that used to stink like hell.

I will never forget that day. The day when I found the purpose of my life - my raison d' etre. It was a sticky Ahmedabad afternoon. I was taking my post very-heavy-lunch nap, hapless and despondent with me and my 'tanhai', cursing my uneventful and wretched existence. And then it happened. Whether it was a dream or reality, I will never know. The only thing I can say is that it changed me forever. It was the stroke of divinity – my tryst with Bore Baba – the deity of Boriyat. I had only to look into his eyes and realize I had met my savior. He embraced me lovingly and cursed me (oh, how foolish I was then to mistake his blessings for a curse) to a jaded existence of boredom. He talked at length about the lost art of Boredom. Of how our ancient rishis unleashed the power of their minds, performed miracles with extraordinary ease simply because of their untiring dedication towards the practice of Boredom. He literally shed tears at the ignorance of our masses, their neglect and forsaken attitude towards the most exquisite creation of God.

There are only a handful of our brothers and sisters. People who have dedicated their entire lives to Baba’s cause. They include the likes of Sidney Sheldon, Ekta Kapoor and the unparalleled genius – Bappi Lahri (Readers will appreciate being a covert organization we cannot disclose our ranks) He gave me a mission, a reason to live. I did almost everything I could to establish myself in the highly refined art of boredom. I read annual balance sheets of public limited companies, read tomes on the social life of cockroaches and even tried my hand at calculus. Finally with the blessings of Baba when I was confident enough I brought myself to the excruciating task, my ultimate test - watch all the flicks of our very own Mithun Da (Aaaaah!). And now I have the opportunity to bring to fruition Baba's plans of universal boredom by writing the most abominable, crappy shit in this world and spread it far and wide with this Blog. We shall be mocked at and derided but one day – We Will Overcome

P.S. I pass considerably less smelly shit now.

Blessed with Bliss

Suppose you are craving to have a pizza since weeks and one fine evening to your surprise find yourself face to face confronted with a lip smacking large pizza. What do you do? Ofcourse you gorge it down in less than a minute. But it is not the same with all things in life. You crave for freedom and the moment you have it you have no idea what to do with it.

Mom is off to Vaishnao Devi leaving me behind for a week of Home Alone. You know you have an entire week ahead of you and nothing to do - just careless abandon. (You conveniently forget for the time being that XLRI's entrance test is barely a week away because studying would be a cardinal sin now) A fellow like me is especially pained at such occasions. One doesn't drink, smoke, do drugs etc. Alas, the chief mediums to celebrate freedom are beyond us! I immediately start messing around the house so that it better reflects my character. The newspapers are scattered about, books are to be found everywhere except the book shelves and dirty plates and utensils add aesthetic value to the sofa and bed as well as they can. Now that we have the place in some order we leave the confines of the house to explore the world beyond. First stop - Pratik's place. Fortunately Pratik is as "vella" (punjabi for people like yours truly who perpetually live in a state of careless abandon) as I am inspite of the fact that his GRE is only days away. We immediately decide to stick it out together like chewing gum and hair for the week – equal partners in everything we do. We return to my place and it’s around 11 pm. As true geeks we start of by installing Xandros Linux on my laptop. Till around mid night we tinker around with linux then and decide to go to sleep. We switch off the lights and purportedly go to sleep. But of course it was not to be so. Now Pratik like me is addicted to and is the foremost practitioner of senti-tp. It is a form of tp (time pass) in which a broad spectrum of issues like girls, love, career, iims, etc. - in fact everything under the sun about which couple of young guys can get sentimental about. At around 1:30 Pratik suggests that it would be a good idea to have a midnight snack and we settle for our favourite - maggi. With two packs of maggi in our stomachs and both of us hungry for some action the idea of sleeping is dismissed. We decide to see "Good Will Hunting" which continues till around 3:30. Both of us are so sleepy eyed that it seems prudent to finally call it a day.

Its around 11 am and my head funny and somewhat in the same condition in which people find theirs the day after a night of boozing around – aching and as heavy as a dumb bell. It leads me to conclude that hangovers are not caused by alcohol but by heavy overdoses of fun. We set out on my roaring Yamaha like two tigers on the prowl looking for breakfast. We start of with "bataka paua" but the fire is still burning inside. Cut to Anand dal-vada. With four hundred gms of hot steaming dal-vadas seeping with oil inside our bellies we are full but not out yet. Being the gourmands that we are we have cold-drinks and a packet of chips. Munching on chips and looking around at the crazy hordes of people scrambling around here and there, carrying the burdens of a dozen worries and I suddenly realize how kind life has been to us, those who live in a state of constant semi-hibernation.

King Kong - King Sized Entertainment

Peter Jackson, three time academy award winner, has once again proved why he is one of the most acclaimed directors of our times. The first time I heard of King Kong my first thought was why would someone like Jackson make a movie on this clichéd and unoriginal subject. Frankly, I didn't think much of it. But the day I saw a full sized close up of King Kong's face - those wild eyes, flaring nostrils, furrowed brows were ferocity personified and I knew I just had to see the beast in action.

The story has some strong characters - An unemployed small time stage actress Anna, a desperate, overly ambitious motion picture director Carl, a love stricken script writer Jack and above all the Beast himself. A majestic figure, the king of the jungle where he lives, the most ferocious creature, unchallenged in bravery and strength is magically transformed into a tame, harmless figure in the presence of a vulnerable Anna. These two aspects of King Kong's personality are beautifully captured in the scene where he is fighting with two giant godzilla type lizards while at the same time protecting Anna in his hands. The silent relationship forged between the two is sublimely crafted. And of course, in inimitable Jackson style the movie has some spectacular action scenes involving ingenious creatures like deadly cockroaches, potent lizards and slithering monsters with hundreds of tentacles.

In spite of a jaded story line the film is carried off by some brilliant performances and breathtaking direction.

First Post

Just checking. Look out for my post on "King Kong".