Dont Hate Love, Dont Chain Freedom

Before you misunderstand me, let me get one thing straight. To hell with Valentine's Day. Its just another marketing strategy to mint money. Gift shop chains, hotel chains, music companies: they all just sell it. If I had a girlfriend, I wouldnt need this day to show her I loved her. A special day? How about her birthday or the day we first met? But nobody has the right to force people not to celebrate it. You cant beat up couples for it. Go ahead, burn cards, demonstrate against gift shops, show your resentment against the commercialization. But you cant impose your restrictions on the public. Personally, I dont like going to pubs & discs either. But I dont look down on people who do. Its a matter of choice. If its causing loss of morality, its their parents' problem. Who is this 'Sri Ram Sene' to decide? They look like a bunch of drug addicts themselves. And the Bajrang Dal have always been a bunch of class-A retards. But I was sorely disappointed with the Shiv Sena. It has always stood up for things that matter: for Maharashtra, for policemen vilified for killing terrorists, for poor farmers' rights. But not this. Come on, guys! An average middle-class youth otherwise supports you for your stand on other issues, if not the methods (but personally, I love the way you guys kick ass wherever deserved). You are only driving us away by impinging on our freedom. On a better note, the MNS had declared this as a non-issue. :-)

Looking back at 'The Dark Knight'

Sci-Fi & Action movies always excite me. But its a few particular directors that truly make me sit up & take notice say George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott etc. When 'Batman Begins' was released, I was skeptical. The previous franchise was a dud for the most part, the only saving grace was 'Batman Forever' with Val Kilmer( an amazing yet underrated actor) as Batman & awesome performances by Jim Carrey(my fav) & Tommy Lee Jones. I was particularly repulsed by the new franchise director Christopher Nolan when he took a few liberties with the basic Batman premise. Suddenly, the sleek Batmobile became the gigantic 'Tumbler'. But overall it was a good movie. Then came the sequel that changed it all. Nolan's attempt to make the movie & the characters as realistic as possible paid off. In the guise of a comic-based action movie, 'The Dark Knight' turned out to be a grim, intense, thought-provoking movie.The late Heath Ledger immortalized The Joker, a psychopathic, shrewd criminal mastermind. Christian Bale is perfect as the misunderstood, forever in pain  caped crusader. Aaron Eckhart brought out the contradiction in Two-Face. For me, two things about the movie have made me a truly crazy fan. First is undoubtedly the Joker. His mannerisms, his amazing dialogues.. outta this world. He truly has given us a "better class of criminal". The other is the very meaning of 'The Dark Knight'. Especially since how relevant it is to our world today. Can there truly be a perfectly good hero? Highly improbable, by our human standards. Batman is our hero. He falters, he is misunderstood. He has to take the tough choices that make people hate him. He has to remain the outcast, the criminal. 

So Christopher Nolan has now joined my list of favourite directors. More so, after watching his amazing, time-warped 'Memento'(the inspiration behind Ghajini). And 'The Dark Knight' has become another movie in my eclectic collection which  I watch & discuss a hundred times over, to the point of nauseating those around me.