The Requiem Or the Dream ?
“What man of you, having an hundred sheep
if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety
and nine in the wilderness, and go after that
which is lost, until he find it?”
Luke 15:4
Whether it’s Paulo Coelho’s “The Alchemist” or “The Zahir“, the recurrent dream, the pursuit of a goal has been a winner’s story through and through. Innumerable references can be cited whether in motion pictures or in published fiction where the protagonist sets out to fulfill his dream, follows his passion, puts everything on the chopping line. What happens in the end though, basically depends on the nature and bent of mind of the author/director.
For example, some one like Nagesh Kukunoor in Dor or Iqbal would always go by Coelho’s proverbial – “When You truely want something the entire universe conspires FOR you” story. Farhan Akhtar’s protagonists would one day touch their dreams too, be it in Lakshya, Dil Chahta Hai or Rock On.
Remember Shawshank Redemption? “Dear Red, hope is not that bad a thing, In fact it might be the best of things.”
However, not only in movies, but even in real life, it’s arguable as to whether it’s a gift or a curse to be driven by “the dream”. Consider “Revolutionary Road” or “Requiem for a dream”, what happens to the
protagonists is due to the simple and basic fact that they always pursued a state in which they wanted to be. They pursued a state of happiness, they wanted to reach somewhere, wanted to achieve something.
Their means to their dreams, the conviction and the details of their way may have been all flawed, but the other constant and the bigger constant in all of their stories have been the fact that they didn’t live in the present. They lived for a future. We all know that we should live in the present. But unfortunately, most of the times,we either live in the past, carry it with us, remain under the baggage or we are too busy planning for the future. We have plan-A, and then anxiety what if plan-A doesn’t work, then we have plan-B and then even more anxiety.
Requiem for a Dream
“Requiem For a Dream” is a definitive movie for more than one reason. Be it addiction, be it wanting to be somebody, be it the escapism of high, it is a definitive work of honesty and analysis. Even the content aside, the scene conceptions, the background music, the narrative, the psychedelia, it’s all ground breaking. But what it doesn’t say is also as important as what it says. The same can be said about “The Revolutionary Road” too and may be even “American Beauty” to some extent.
On one hand of the spectrum, You have movies like “Motor Cycle Diaries” where the desire is not to accept things as they
are, the desire is to make the things as they ought to be. That was the central theme in Ayn Rand’s works as well, “Not to accept things as they are, but to want them as they ought to be”. Ironic how Objectivism and individualism are supposedly so anti communist. But probably, there are just a few words between the lines of the masters which we have to read for ourselves.
Santosh Sivan’s highly stylized “Asoka” is a film that I love. It’s a film where cinematography is poetry at its lucid best. But more importantly, it also says those few words which others mostly don’t. The DVD that I bought of Asoka, there was a quotation by Aristotle on the cover – “Only the dead seen the end of war”. But for me, the real quotation was in the screen play. Sivan says through the voice of the Buddhist Monk to masquerading Asoka – “What does an emperor win? Wealth, prosperity? Your destiny is far more grand than that of an emperor. Your destiny is the destiny of that traveler who finishes his journey.”
The journey and the travel. They are the real things.
I still remember a few beautiful nights back in college. Those days, we used to sit together in a third floor hostel room well past midnight. The starry sky and cross ventilation with the door and the big window opposite to it both ajar. No lights, only the lights from the stars. There was this friend of mine who used to play guitar. We used to listen to his guitar and the sound of the wind. I used to feel the happiest sitting there. Nothing clearly visible, the light of the stars,
the gushing wind and sound of the guitar. But almost four years to the date, I realize, there was also this one other thing, which was probably the deepest of them all, it was the cross ventilation. Life’s like that, the cross ventilation. Nothing’s going to stay, things would flow in and they’d go out. If you just let it be just that, cross ventilation, life would just flow. No clinging on to, no owning.
For a generation that believes in the peaks, peaks of happiness, the high and instant gratification, where mundane is death, “A Requiem for a dream” is a very important piece of cinema. More so, in the US. But also, at the same time, I feel whether it’s Ray’s “Pather Pachali”, Sen’s “Ek din Pratidin” , Rhitwik Ghatak’s “Titas Ekti nadir naam” or poems of
Jibanananda Das, there is infinite beauty and joy in every day, every living moment. The hyper highs just desensitize us from the beauty of that mildness.
It’s not in chasing dreams, it’s in living the dreams where the true feeling of fulfillment lies. The dream can be lived from the moment one chooses to. The most underrated old cliche is “Happiness is an attitude”. J.D.Salinger chose Holden to want to be the “Catcher in the Rye“.Long live the old cliche, the requiem can wait.
Motor Cycle Diaries
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Remember “Forrest Gump”? “Dear Red, hope is not that bad a thing, In fact it might be the best of things.”
- You got the year right, but the movie wrong. Shawshank Redemption.
thanks for this awesome post!
Very nice,Subhasish…”For a generation that believes in the peaks, peaks of happiness, the high and instant gratification, where mundane is death”—–So true…
Hey Magik, Thanks. Love reading your posts too.
Tanul, thanks for pointing out. I’ll correct it.
Good post.. Its interesting how you interpreted Revolutionary Road. I always saw it as what happens when you COMPROMISE on your dreams and choose an easy life because you are afraid of failure.
Oh my my.. here comes a nice post with genuine intention.. nice and worthy mention of books.. movies.. d hollies ..d bollies and the bong !! I like Anurag Kashyap just for his chase-d-dream attitude.. i see some flaws in his movie making.. but i am all for his attitude.. he make movies where he seems to say.. “u like my movie.. thanks”.. “u dont like.. i care a damn”.. his movie can take year(Gulal), subjected to restrictions(paanch), experiment the risky path(Dev D) or fall flat on face (no Smoking) .. he keeps the spirit high !!
FR and AT, Thanks. FR, in Revolutionary Road, I thought Leonardo’s character lacked conviction in his dream. He really didn’t know what he wanted. He had a vague idea about what he wanted. I felt his character was “phony”, looking for romanticizing a dream rather than really try and achieve it. I thought they had a disaster because his wife had tremendous faith in the dream while he had none.
My whole point is, instead of living for you know, that One Day, let’s live one day at a time and live that one day beautifully. There’s a beautiful poem by Jibanananda which if I translate the beginning, would be something like
“Only love for one day, death thereafter…”
Awesome post!!!!
Everything in life is so transient… TODAY is already a thing of past TOMORROW…
“whether it’s a gift or a curse to be driven by ‘the dream’” …. the answer to this can be found only if we successfully read the few words between the lines of the masters.
Though most of us dnt succeed but those who do can proudly say “me , myself and my dreams lived happily ever after”.
Thanks a ton man for this wonderful post.
Gaurang and Shatik, thanks.
@Subhasish, There are somethings which are timeless. This post of yours can pass any test of time. I would like to thank you for putting the “Saransh” of life. So deep yet simple.
Thanks once again for such a wonderful post.
@Gaurang, I agree with you.
Excellent!! thanks for the article.
Hey,
Nice post I wonder how I missed it before. Hope this gets to you. Thanks for the post again.