Melkote

Drove to Melkote in a sudden burst of piety. It was heartening to see the lakes filled up. Nothing like a good monsoon. The view from the top, on a cloudy day with a light drizzle against your skin is to die for. 

Prejudice

The recent judgment on the Trayvon Martin case and the sad demise of Ilavarasan in TN, reinforced the feeling how similar we all are. It is ironic and tragic. Though the details of the two cases are very different, fundamentally there is the common element of how our preconceived notions dictate what is perceived as aggression and what is perceived as defense.

In the Trayvon case a young unarmed black boy of seventeen is allowed by the system to be perceived as the aggressor. In the Ilavarasan case a young man of the lower caste is perceived again to be the aggressor because he married a young woman of the upper caste. And the act of aggression on them is justified defense!

'They are out to get us, so let us get them before'.

In the TN case, I don't even want to get started on the women's lib angle. Nothing so clearly brings to relief the stark reality of how women are fundamentally considered to be possessions!

Mature democracy

As it happens from time to time, after a long gap, I was compelled to visit my blog and update. The reason - a remark by the Italian ambassador. In the context of the row about the marines who were allowed to go home and are now refusing to return, he remarked the two mature democracies would sort this out.

Mature democracies - ha, ha, ha - I laughed my head off, had to really wipe my tears. Hilarious comments if one knew what is really going on in the Italian politics and in Indian politics.

Brokeback Mountain

I have great respect for Ang Lee that I knew it was going to be difficult for me to not like Brokeback mountain. Not that I tried.

I was asked how I could forgive a movie where two men cheat on their wives. I think the answer
lies in the shot in which Ennis explains about the blokes who were killed, most likely by his father.
That fear that runs through him till the very end absolves the other issues.

Ang Lee has mastered the ability to show steady progression of things with clever framing of shots. The whole initial sequence depicts so beautifully the slow pace of life, the amount of time they both have in hand. And it also shows the two characters the taciturn Ennis gradually opening up and talking 'more than he had probably talked in a year'.

There is no melodrama even at the end when Heath comes to know of his lover's death, only immense sadness at the way things are.

Beautiful, beautiful movie.