Tuesday 3 March 2015

My introduction to Spanish Film

All About My Mother:
I find this movie one of the best works of Pedro Almodovar.  Spanish Cinema has always attracted me, but this Spanish-French tragic-comedy has redefined the meaning of melodramatic cinema.  Melodrama as a genre has always been criticised by scholars for excessive use of emotionality but this movie challenges that perception depicting how we can be sentimental to things without being overtly emotional. I love this movie not because of its capability with issues like organ donation, AIDS, homosexuality (lesbian), transsexualism, and existentialism but its power to accommodate them around a single narrative and at the same time maintain the specificity and sentimentality of each. Thus when it argue in favour of transsexuality and demand us to accept it, at the very same moment it questions its violent aspect. In character of Lola, it criticises the dominant and masculine dimension of transsexuality In the process, it unravels different aspects of women’s cosmology and celebrates motherhood as the most courageous, special and transformative part of it. So whether it is a question of organ donation of your loved one immediately after their death, or serving AIDS patient while being a victim of it, accepting the violent aspect of transsexuality, courage that motherhood gives you to overpower these binaries and adverse situations.
In the film, Almodovar uses cinema as a source of cinema. He brilliantly uses films like ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ and ‘All About Eve’, and unapologetically contextualises his inspiration in this film while simultaneously decontextualizes the source by weaving it to the issue of tragic instances of stardom. The way this film comments upon trauma related with success, trauma related with being innocent and the ethical in this non ethical world, is brilliant. There is a line in the movie where Huma Rosa ( who represents Bette Davis) says that “ Success has no test no smell, and when you get used of it is like it didn’t exist”. In single line we just got a critique of feminism who celebrates successful women only and converts success also as a painful achievement.
 This film also establishes the fact that death of someone’s near and dear one can bring extreme pain, sorrow, loneliness but despite this tragedy, this utter loss, if you believe in life’s existentiality, you can counter these feelings by associating yourself with others, not on the basis of charity but on the ground of being simultaneous subjects of pain. In that process, the films explores the world of women based on strong female bonding, based on love - a pure love that transcends the trajectory of desire.  And last but not the least, The way this film took us to the subaltern spaces of Barcelona specifically when we see red-light area of Barcelona, a grave as a site of reunion it seems that film is intended to bring these outskirts into the imagination of people in a subtly political manner. I think nothing could be made more brilliant and strong queerly feminist cinema than this and at the sometime film. In terms of performance I must say it is one of the best Ciecela Roth film.         

  


All About My Mother:
I find this movie one of the best works of Pedro Almodovar.  Spanish Cinema has always attracted me, but this Spanish-French tragic-comedy has redefined the meaning of melodramatic cinema.  Melodrama as a genre has always been criticised by scholars for excessive use of emotionality but this movie challenges that perception depicting how we can be sentimental to things without being overtly emotional. I love this movie not because of its capability with issues like organ donation, AIDS, homosexuality (lesbian), transsexualism, and existentialism but its power to accommodate them around a single narrative and at the same time maintain the specificity and sentimentality of each. Thus when it argue in favour of transsexuality and demand us to accept it, at the very same moment it questions its violent aspect. In character of Lola, it criticises the dominant and masculine dimension of transsexuality In the process, it unravels different aspects of women’s cosmology and celebrates motherhood as the most courageous, special and transformative part of it. So whether it is a question of organ donation of your loved one immediately after their death, or serving AIDS patient while being a victim of it, accepting the violent aspect of transsexuality, courage that motherhood gives you to overpower these binaries and adverse situations.
In the film, Almodovar uses cinema as a source of cinema. He brilliantly uses films like ‘A Street Car Named Desire’ and ‘All About Eve’, and unapologetically contextualises his inspiration in this film while simultaneously decontextualizes the source by weaving it to the issue of tragic instances of stardom. The way this film comments upon trauma related with success, trauma related with being innocent and the ethical in this non ethical world, is brilliant. There is a line in the movie where Huma Rosa ( who represents Bette Davis) says that “ Success has no test no smell, and when you get used of it is like it didn’t exist”. In single line we just got a critique of feminism who celebrates successful women only and converts success also as a painful achievement.
 This film also establishes the fact that death of someone’s near and dear one can bring extreme pain, sorrow, loneliness but despite this tragedy, this utter loss, if you believe in life’s existentiality, you can counter these feelings by associating yourself with others, not on the basis of charity but on the ground of being simultaneous subjects of pain. In that process, the films explores the world of women based on strong female bonding, based on love - a pure love that transcends the trajectory of desire.  And last but not the least, The way this film took us to the subaltern spaces of Barcelona specifically when we see red-light area of Barcelona, a grave as a site of reunion it seems that film is intended to bring these outskirts into the imagination of people in a subtly political manner. I think nothing could be made more brilliant and strong queerly feminist cinema than this and at the sometime film. In terms of performance I must say it is one of the best Ciecela Roth film.         

  


Thursday 14 April 2011

tumne kaha tha

तुमने कहा था
करनी ही  होगी सत्य की पड़ताल.
उस सत्य की जो अनिर्मित है ,
उस सत्य की जो अनिश्चित है ,
उस सत्य की जिसमे संसार निहित है ,
या फिर उस सत्य की जिससे जग निर्मित है,
तुमने कहा था करनी ही होगी सत्य की पड़ताल.
मैंने भी माना करनी ही होगी सत्य की पड़ताल 

सत्य जो तुम्हारी लेखनी में है ,
सत्य जो तुम्हारी शक्ति में है ,  
सत्य जो उस अशांति में है जो इस शक्ति का स्रोत है ,
यह वही सत्य है जिसने आसक्ति और अनासक्ति के बीच की सीमाए धुंधली कर  दी है,
हां यह सत्य है की इस सत्य पर  मेरा संदेह है     
मगर संदेह हमेशा से असत्य  है फिर उसका क्या
मगर संदेह हमेशा से असंतोष  है फिर उसका क्या 
संदेह तो छनिक है , शाश्वत है तो बस मेरे और तुम्हारे बीच  का सत्य   
वह सत्य जिसमे किसी के जीवन खोने का भय है ,
वह सत्य जिसमे भरोसे के टूटने का भय है 
मगर भय तो छनिक है ,शाश्वत है तो मेरे तुम्हारे बीच का सत्य ,
तुम्हारी अशांति की निरंतरता में मेरी शांति को स्थिरता मिल जाने का सत्य