Some Movies

Desperado

God, in some next life I want to look like him. :) Though I don't want to do crime like him, nor do I want long hair; I won't mind playing a guitar! I would also like to have a name like him. Gosh - Antonio Banderas! Can this be the name of a man? It sounds like the name of a novel! I would also like to have his voice and accent! But once you make me him, I won't like to grow old! Because all old people look the same!!! So, deal?

Gone Girl

I watched 'Gone Girl' (2014) recently. Performance wise I don't think this was anywhere actor Ben Affleck's best movies, though Rosamund Pike did a fair job. Its screenplay is based on was based on Gillian Flynn's 2012 novel of the same name.  The story is really interesting.

While experts catagorize this movie as a psychological thriller, I particularly notice its version of 'feminism'. Amy is shown as a psychopath killer, but if we take note of why she kills, it is not completely bad. Thousands of wives all over the world choose to live with criminal or double faced husbands - so why not a few husbands too end up living under the roof with a serial murderer? I am not justifying it at all, but this is just a point to note. If a woman does infidelty, she is considered evil and readily punished in harshest way; but when men do the same, they are seldom punished in the same manner. Ben Affleck's character Nick Dunne does it in the movie but does not appear like a "villian" at any moment. So the manner in which the movie turned up and ended was pretty surprising but understood. 

Nights in Rodanthe

A man's wife dies during operation although not due to the fault of the surgen. The surgen does not talk to him after the operation but asks the nurse to explain to him. He files a law suit against the doctor for negligience. The doctor goes to meet the man who is mourning. The man asks the doc, "do you know what color my wife's eyes were?" The doc does not rememeber. For the doctor, the patient was just a sick body; not a human being.

Monte Carlo

In this movie, there is a scene where the actress while moving around Paris always finds Eiffel Tower visible as she looked up. This scene was very similar to the one in Bollywood movie "Queen". Another resemblance was how one of the girl's lover kept searching for her throughout the length of the movie. 

Little Manhattan

After watching so much TV and movies; having read so many books and stories; it had to take this long to reach here? That is incredible! Can’t describe totally but I never expected this movie to be so great and heart touching… Little Manhattan! When they say “I hate you” to each other and then as soon as he puts the phone down – surge of emotions had to burst into tears! And when he sees her face and with every expression tries to make it “she loves me” or “she hates me” alternately – that was epic! And when she asked for a dance and he puts his head on her shoulder – that was as if the world stopped! That when he sums it up into “all we get are memories” – that is so heart touching… He keeps a plain face but every time he smiles and how his face lits up – that is the magic of pure happiness! They smile looking at each other – that is love… And this is the most romantic movie I have ever watched! 

Conversation about Religion, Cults and God

Friend: The more I see of organised religion and the devotional channels (all faiths), the emptier they appear. Faith is something between the man and his maker and what is the need of third party intervention (read religious leaders) in this?

Me: They guide those who need help and do not feel confident enough. Just like teachers help students learn mathematics which theoretically they could have learnt by reading books. I don't think they are doing any harm. If you don't need them, avoid them. That is all. But a lot of people need them, so let us not ridicule their needs.

Friend: U r very right. But when teachers motives r pure greed & false teachings .saints r really very few, others r katha watchk only

Me: Then let us take them as katha-wachaks only. I mean no one is forcing us to believe they are true saints. What I do is to listen and learn their "teachings" and I do not focus on the "teachers" in person... It helps most of the time. I don't have to become a follower in true sense or to start loving the speaker - I just enjoy their teachings which are mostly very good...

Friend: Rahul, have you ever watched these devotional channels seriously over a length of time?

Me: Whenever I watch a new channel for the first time, I love it for 2 days and then tire out. If I keep watching, I grow to hate them, so having learnt my pattern I discontinue and watch them only once or twice for 15 minutes in a week - then they sound fine. But I know that if I get bored the problem is not with them but with me.

Friend: As a rule, religious men and women are decent God fearing people. Men of religion, on the other hand, from times immemorial are the most conceited, corrupt and dishonest individuals.

Me: It is because "power corrupts". And it is so for all men with power and authority. We can't single out only godmen or godwomen. So let us realize the true cause of their corruption and let us accept that god or religion has nothing to do with it.

Friend: Agreed Rahul. I am a devout but strongly feel that religion is a deeply personal matter and not for display.

Me: But I don't agree that it is "so simply" between god and man - every man without training and initiation can't speak to God unless he is such an extraordinary soul - like the child prodigies. And not everyone is a child prodigy. So what we do need is religion and some initiation. Without it, when we are talking to God, what we are doing is just unburdening our emotional baggage. We may feel relief temporarily but it does not "really" help us rise spiritually. So I do need religious teachings and teachers only share. If I do not read or hear them, how do I learn new things? Books are fine but then there is so much in explanations! Half knowledge is worse than no knowledge some times.

Friend: If a literate person needs a medium -a guru- to seek the path to righteousness, he is not literate. Only a lesser learnt needs a medium. In our country nobody knows how many such persons thrive.

Me: Not so simple. Tell me, without going to school or without any teachers, how would I learn English to be able to read you? I would remain a baby and unless I learn a language I don't get its knowledge. Now the language in which scriptures are written are so deep. I thought I knew all but I read one explanation of a verse of Ramcharitmanas from a writer in a magazine from Ramakrishna mission - and then a whole new perspective, a whole new world opens for me. I would never know it no matter how much I talk to God or with my wife about Lord Ram because both of us are the same level spiritually. We need to talk to those who are better than us, in order to learn from them.

In religious books what I have read is that when one gets wisdom and some spiritual achievement, still his "ego" is his greatest enemy. So many great sages and learned people in history fell for this. They are so wise and enlightened but then ego makes them do weird stuff. Ego and power corrupts them. But we should not focus on their "corruption". We should focus on how much knowledgeable they were (and learn from them). Lord Ram sent Lakshmana to meet dying Ravana and to learn from him. Can we imagine this doing ourselves? Ram sending Lakshmana to learn from Ravana who was dying! If it were all "in the books" and if we were not to learn from wise men, why would he do that?

And btw, scary cults are coming even to India. Weird leaders of these cults being worshiped by their members as "God" himself; forget about "saints" and "gurus" which appear thing of the past. These cults are exclusive groups of brainwashed believers and their theories are illogical unscientific ones built upon existing religions' theories but giving it a twist. So I think antidote for fake religion is original religion. Like Dayananda said - return to the vedas. Otherwise India will also become like the world we see in Batman movies.

Disclaimer: Views expressed are personal.