A visit to Somnath

There was a time in my childhood I would remember my GrandMa cribbing about not being able to complete Char Dham, Asht Vinayaka, Bara Jyotirlinga etc. I had tough time remembering all of them but once, I along with family went on Ashta Vinayaka darshan and Ganapati being my favourite God, I passionately by-hearted the temple places. Also during that trip, we visited Grishneshwar, a great temple of Ganapati's father and my counter for Jyotirlinga got initiated. Later during my college days, I had a chance to visit Omkareshwar. The temple on the hill, beside the giant Narmada river felt so auspicious that I felt humbled having incremented my Jyotirlinga visit count. Next time I heard about any other Jyotirlinga was during the floods in KedarNath. The temple which is considered to be one of the toughest pilgrimage proved its fame thus. But my counter has been quite static.

Recently fate played its turn and bought me to so called First Jyotirlinga. Again, I remember my grandmas talking to each other would always say that you would be able to take Darshan only if the God wants you to. I would always skeptically neglect the conversation, judging their innocence and faith system. But this yogayog was very unplanned and made me wonder whether there was some real argument in their statements then? Monday being a day of Shiva had an auspicious importance. When I saw the temple from the parking area, it was such a beautiful sight. The morning breeze of a typical seashore ran over my face. I could even taste a salty air. There were sea waves splashing on the rocky beach and beside lay the abode of Shiva in the yellow bricked structure having a huge base and its top soaring high in the sky. As the sun was rising from the opposite side, the first rays of sunlight were striking the saffron flag which was waving proudly on the top of the temple which had a golden peak. The gold was glittering in the bright sunlight contrasting the pale blue sky beyond it. It was such a powerful moment that I felt very grateful and proud of being a Hindu.

There I realized the importance of this temple, it is the first Jyotirlinga among-st the 12 sacred Jyotirlingas, but moreover it is the first Hindu shrine on the East most side of Indian Continent. I mean if anyone is coming through Sea route to India, this temple is the first point where the stranger will be introduced to Hindu Religion and culture. There also lies a pillar which has a Sanskrit engraving which says that a straight line from this point will take you to South Pole without any land in between. This temple, in past, represented the prosperity of Indian Society. That's why Muhammad Ghazni raided the temple again and again and destroyed the temple and Linga. The current temple is not the original one but is the replication of original by Sardar Vallab-bhai Patel. He took it very seriously to rebuild the temple to boost the moral of the then Indian society which was under British rule. Even though the temple was not inaugurated before his demise, his contributions are aptly acknowledged by building his statue in the premises. Still the dry history do not at any point reduce the awe in my mind when I was entering the temple. The inner hall of a temple was crowded in people in the wee hours. Yet the crowd was not excessive and I could rome around admiring the art work on the walls and roof. The Gabhara had a huge Shiva Linga decorated with flowers, gandhakshata, garlands and ornaments. And as the hands of clock hit 7.30 in the morning, the drummers started beating the drums and along with the whole worshipers started chanting the Aarti. I was also reciting the punch line in the Aarti and would murmur the stanzas. People were clapping their hands rhythmically complementing the drum-tone. I felt humbled at the feet of Lord Shiva whose life had been such a fascinating tale. With a gratitude in my eyes, I perform pradakshina to the deity and visited the small temples in the backyard.

While returning back to our car, I turned back once again and folded my hands to the almighty Shiva. Just like every other devotee, I came empty handed and returned with traquility in my mind and handful of laddus as a prasad.

Pink

So finally I watched 'Pink'. I know its too late to talk about the movie, because everything that could be said about movie has already been said, but like I said, I am very bad with keeping myself within trending things.

PLOT
The movie is based on a very sensitive topic. Whether girl had given a consent or not? With such topic, lot of metropolitan crowd could relate to story by someway or other. So, I had the hunch that it will be hit. But with such topic, comes the responsibility of handling it carefully. The director Anniruddha Roy Choudhary is good Bengali director and he did very good job with the whole film. What I particularly liked is a screenplay! Shoojit Sircar, Chaudhary and Ritesh Shah did the fantastic job of knitting the whole story. The movie starts at the end of a event which changes the life of all the characters. Audience at the start craves to find out what must have exactly happened, but through the narration and characters' conversations, we get to know about the 'Incident' in bits and pieces. As the story progresses, audience realize that movie now focuses on the aftermath than the actual Incident. At the end of the movie, when justice is served and credit starts rolling, audience is satisfied and happy, they show the actual 'Incident'. I find that screenplay technique extremely impressive. The last scene in the credit ends exactly where the movie begins. I love such editing styles. It resembles somewhat with the brilliant and legendary screenplay of movie 'Memento'. I know Nolantards will get hurt with this comparison but I am bit excited with such similarity of story telling.

The film-makers took lot of efforts to make sure that scenes look as real time, as they could be. Whether it be a cacophony of lawyers outside the Court or the coldness in Police Station. Even the scene where Police comes to the apartment of girls and people checking out from balcony looked very similar to how it all happens in real life. The court room drama was too good. The dialogues by Lawyers were carefully and wittily written. The whole court room was shown as realistic as it could be. It is not just a plot but all these things that make Pink a very appealing movie.

Only thing I did not understand was the significance of Deepak Sehgal's side story and its impact on his character building. I found the whole part quite diverting.

CAST and CHARACTER
The protagonist is played by Tapsee Pannu. I have never heard of her, but a quick googling shows that she had been in industry for quite some time now and is more active in south India. She did a good job portraying a metro girl who is Smart, bold and independent. She performed very good, specially in two scenes, one in court room monologue and other scene where she get a threatening call and she retaliates boldly and then suddenly feels fear and runs for home.

Other good cast is Kirti Kulhari who portrays Falak. She has a small side story for her character building and did a fantastic job. I had seen her previously in shaitan and I feel she is very underrated actress in Bollywood.

The movie is driven actually by Mr. Bacchan. Again at this age he shows us the tremendous talent in his acting. His character is given a mysterious touch by adding a abruptly stopped career and a dying wife. Adding to that his breathing mask, first half engulfs him in a mysterious sidetrack. His performance in court room is very charming. Even though the dialogues are witty, the actor adds icing on the cake through his dialogue delivery.

If the hero is grand, villian must also be equally grand. Specially when court room drama are concerned. Remember the court room drama in Damini where the great 'Amrish Puri' destroys the whole decency out of arguments. Piyush Mishra does exactly that job for the court room battle here. With his blinking eyes and mocking tone, he attacks the girls and agitates them. Even with a small time on screen, he contributes tremendously to the movie.

MUSIC
The music and background score by Shantanu Moitra and team adds the flavours of helplessness, depression, of hope throughout the scenes in movie and effective binds audience with the story. The poem by Tanveer Ghazi named 'Tu khud ki Khoj me nikal', narrated by Amitabh Bacchan when credit roles at the end of movie is also one masterpiece which people may have missed if they have hurried off the hall early. Do listen to it once.

Ok, now after all this postmortem of a movie, let me also share you an anecdote. As I was sitting on cushion seats of all the last row of PVR hall on a saturday evening, after spending a fourtune of money and ruining my monthly budget, I was looking forward to enjoy the courtroom drama in the Dolby digital 7.1 and what not high fundu technology offered by PVR, I was disturbed continously by the wailing noises of children across the length and breadth of a theatre. Every now and then infants where crying their hearts out. Small kids started playing at the empty space which was apparently just behind my back. I had to focus a lot of Mr.Bachhan's dialogues than the innocent and stupid questions of the kids to their parents. I would here plead to all the parents to keep your children either at home or have them tranquilized (just kidding! First option is the only option), because the next time I can afford a movie ticket in PVR will take almost a month time. Yes, I am talking about the payday. All service industry slaves must have understood that reference as it is the only day when a slave becomes a king.

Adios.