Breaking Bad

A movie was appearing on TV and its title was interesting, "Breaking Bad". I immediately liked the lead character Walter. I even liked his name.

Walter is a high school chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with a terminal disease. After coming to terms with the reality of his impending death, he decides to go rogue and start manufacturing and supplying addictive drugs to provide enough money for his family (wife and son)! Now, when the next phases of the complex plot start to unfold, with some pretty interesting events happening through it, I began to wonder about the rationale behind all this. 

The man is about to die, and he decides to enter the world of crime? Why? Not because of any inner calling or because of his nature (he used to be a good guy), but because he felt himself responsible for providing enough money and resources for his family even after he is dead! In the normal course of the world, if a person is about to die, he may turn to religion or do some noble things in the hope of making up for the lost time or opportunity. But this guy turns evil and starts collecting bad karma and sins! It seemed so illogical! 

I was convinced that the plot was absurd and that a man with so less time left would never start doing bad things; then after a while I saw a silver lining. The key to understand this was to look at it as "temptation". 

It is absolutely true that the better a person is, he faces more challenges in life. A characterless, principle-less and spineless person would never know what it is to face challenges and temptations and still be good. Perhaps since Walter was a good guy all through, due to some cruel fate, he was given the temptation to be evil near the end of his life, and he fell for it. This could be the only way it can be. 

At the same time, men's natural instinct to play the role of "provider" and to go any extent to succeed in the role has often done so much harm to them and their soul and many times it does not feel worth it. But "men will be men" and men's brain is wired to think and behave a manner and often they can't help it. 

It is a pity to see Walter plunge into more crimes and become a manufacturer of drugs which would certainly do so much harm to many young men and women. I also felt bad for such TV shows and films which try to show "human side" of drug dealers and other types of criminals, just in order to ensure commercial success of their production. Art without soul often becomes an "aimless arrow".    

- Rahul