The first thing that came to my mind as the credits rolled on the movie ‘Aamir’ was ‘When? Oh when will my beloved Kannada movie makers make films like these? When will they get their money hungry heads out of their ignorant behinds with meaningless overcooked clichés and start making cinema that people can actually relate with?’

I had heard a lot about this movie. But somehow, never got around to seeing it. And what a time to watch it too! After having seen an interesting version of Mumbai in ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, here was yet another version of watching Mumbai bare itself unashamedly. What got me even more curious was that the whole crew of ‘Aamir’ was practically unknown and given the rave reviews it had been getting, I decided to take a chance. And boy! Am I glad I did!

‘Aamir’ is a story of Dr. Aamir Ali who returns from London to his home in Mumbai only to find that someone has kidnapped his entire family. All he has are clues given by an unknown face and cellular phone cues that take him to a mirage of places that are simmering with lower middle class Muslims. He finds himself face to face with a society he had never seen before yet all the time doing what he is being told in order to save his family. At the end of the day he finds himself sitting on a bus with a suitcase that he has been told contains a bomb. He is then told to get off the bus at the next traffic light leaving the suitcase behind.

This is as far as I want to tell you since the final few minutes of the movie are a revelation. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I was completely taken aback by it or wasn’t expecting it to happen, but the conviction with which a normal regular common man steps from those shadows of cowardice and attempts to personify his name ‘Aamir’ – a leader – was what I found most endearing. For a first time director, Raj Kumar Gupta surely treads a risky path as he tackles a burning issue in India head on. He enforces the ideologies that are so often taken for granted and makes the protagonist finally attempt the perfect antithesis of terror and a terrorist.

I must say, it was quite a show. The movie albeit, is slow in parts and could have used some faster reactions from the leading man and some chop offs here and there, but these are trivialities when compared to the message the movie attempts to send across. I recommend everyone to watch ‘Aamir’, as such ‘in the face’ almost surreal seeming plots very rarely make for a good viewing.

Looking forward to Kannada movie makers take a leaf from such cinema and attempt something which finally addresses some real issues.

..ShaKri..

Maybe it’s the fact that I tend to associate every philosophical discourse to something I can actually relate with. Or maybe it is just that I am so bored sometimes, that I start to notice the weirdest connections in the most unlikely places. Maybe it’s both. I can’t say for sure. But as I sat at that diner today gorging on that vegetarian pizza something struck me as very odd. Now before I go on, some background here. I, about once a month, visit this ‘all you can eat’ pizzeria on my way to the Indian groceries in the city. While the food is good and comes at a standard price, there is one little oddity that always has me pondering. Ordinarily if I were to go to a regular restaurant and order a pizza, then I see myself lapping up every single slice of a large pizza without any leftovers along with a large coke! Why is this odd? Because, in this earlier mentioned ‘all you can eat’ diner I find myself struggling to go past six small slices! I have tested it each time and somehow, the mind refuses to acknowledge that in a different circumstance, I can easily down 10 slices without a problem as long as I can see them all at once.

This got me thinking. Is it because there is no limit to how much I can eat – ergo meaning, ‘no goal’ – that I find myself stopping at six? And in other cases when there is 10 slices, I have a goal to meet? And hence I manage to eat them all? I don’t know. Come to think of it, the same is true with other things too. Imagine having to go to a mall or a bazaar without any goal in mind. Chances are you will spend a few hours there and end up buying nothing important. Same case, if you go with maybe a list of things to look at, then you find yourself not only buying the stuff you need but also in good time! How about shopping at a supermarket when you go there without a list? Don’t you always buy 10 more things you never thought you would? And don’t you find yourself bringing it home and wondering ‘God…why did I buy this?’ and never using it ever?

I don’t know. Maybe all this means nothing. But today as I left the diner having devoured six small slices and feeling very full, I wondered if next time I should try putting 10 slices at once on the plate instead of having to eat three at a time. But then…maybe that won’t look too good, would it? So I guess then it’s settled. Goals do matter regardless of its purpose. Even if it means just ‘lunch’. What do you think?

..ShaKri..