by Abinash Palai Have you ever repeated something? Alphabet, semesters, those three words, weekdays? In a robotic world, repeat is the name of the assembly line. A conveyor belt, which processes such mechanisms at one end, and at the other end emerge clichés, habits, norms: the symptoms of the dystopia, the tumor which we misdiagnose as swelling, the warning signs we disregard, the disclaimers we don’t read
Here’s to people and art that surfaced, even though momentarily, in the sea of monotony. The hexagonal pegs for the round holes that didn’t fit but broke ground instead. The ones who braved this world to create new ones. The easy answers to “pick-the-odd-one-out” lists. The aberrations, the anomalies. A philosophical treatise by Mills and Boons, an Agatha Christie romantic novel, a Christopher Nolan Bhojpuri movie, a Radiohead rap, a porno with a great story. Things that stuck out like sore thumbs, or delightful weirdness. Here’s to Cliché Guevara, our new regular feature, the vigilante of Mundanetown, protecting the sanity of its citizens whenever the darkness of boredom has prevailed.
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by Luv Mehta Don Hertzfeldt has been a legend in film circles for a long time - he directs and animates every single frame of his various works, which is why most of them end up being short films released every couple of years or so. He’s probably most well known for Rejected, a short that became iconic on the Internet at the turn of the millenium, and World Of Tomorrow, that picked up multiple awards and an Academy Award nomination (with many claiming it was the absolute best movie of 2015). This isn’t about either of those movies. But then, the title of this article already clued you in to that fact. What I want to talk about, using these words in this article, is a collection of three short films, Everything Will Be OK, I’m So Proud Of You, and It’s Such A Beautiful Day, which are often packaged together into a single film sharing its name with the very last of those shorts. Because it may be one of the absolute best movies I’ve ever seen. Tall claim, I know. by Madhumati Chowdhury Increasingly this realization has dawned on me that we have voluntarily taken to being immune to the world around us. We expect a lot, and rightly so, but when none of it is met we look to make the best of what we have instead of trying to rise above the mundane and chart our own course and get what we desire. Yes, it is not always easy and making the best of any situation requires adaptability skills but it makes one complacent in their position and one should live life, not lead a merely passive existence. Quietly, as we mill around and about doing our job, boarding our transport, making small talk and forgetting to have conversations we fall into a rut that’s tough to see through and even more difficult to get out of. Being an “adult” in the terms that the word is defined, being productive, how ever you have taken to defining it, compromising on your dreams, takes a toll. What to do then? How to revive and rename the box of lost causes something that keeps it alive? How to be a resounding “YES” in a world that keeps saying “NO” every step of the way? The answers to all this and more can be found in a short film, and it it’ll only take you 35 minutes; presenting The Red Balloon. by Anuja Pal Released this month to positive reviews, ‘Blue Jay’ is one of those films that you must watch if you’re one for solitude and quiet conversations. by Smita Ganguli I've always thought it was interesting to see The Truman Show as a take on enforcing cultural norms. Truman wants to break free of the norms that he's been socialized with, with the idea that he merely 'wants to leave town,' not so radical, really. But it's different! And radical enough to be comically symbolic. by Harsh Vardhan On one of those lazy evenings, after I had just returned from an enervating train journey, and I didn’t want to do anything but lie down and watch something until I manage to burn my eyes and doze off to an everlasting sleep (you know what I mean), I stumbled onto Tamasha. Now, the reason why I went with Tamasha was pretty queer, although some of you might relate to it. I was browsing through my entertainment stack to look up for something that I could have watched, all while ceaselessly humming “Agar tum saath ho” from Tamasha. Now, I am sure most of you fathom the influence a song can have on your mind, and the impulsive spree it makes you go on. Long story short, I decided to watch Tamasha after all. by Smita Ganguli “For many years, until I wrote my first book, The Mechanical Bride, I adopted an extremely moralistic approach to all environmental technology. I loathed machinery, I abominated cities, I equated the Industrial Revolution with original sin and mass media with the Fall. In short, I rejected almost every element of modern life in favour of a Rousseauvian[sic] utopianism. But gradually I perceived how sterile and useless this attitude was, and I began to realize that the greatest artists of the 20th Century – Yeats, Pound, Joyce, Eliot – had discovered a totally different approach, based on the identity of the processes of cognition and creation. I realized that artistic creation is the playback of ordinary experience – from trash to treasures. I ceased being a moralist and became a student.” - Marshall McLuhan, Playboy Magazine, March 1969 by Vanya Lochan There are some films that touch us - both literally and figuratively. Sparsh (Touch) (1980), directed by Sai Paranjpye, is certainly one of them. This film, with Naseeruddin Shah as Anirudh Parmar, the principal of a blind school, and Shabana Azmi as Kavita Prasad, a widow who goes on to become a fundamental part of the school, deals with several issues, emotions and ‘sensations’ on various levels. |
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