PK movie review : A fantastic performance by Aamir Khan and Anuska Sharma

Thumbs down to the director of PK movie for releasing this movie ‘pk’ in 2014. I mean, don’t you understand that this movie is ahead of its times? Many religious people have not grown up to enjoy a movie as a ‘movie’ and they can’t withstand someone questioning their culture (that’s also from an alien!).
The movie tries hard to view our cultural belief from a scientific & philosophical viewpoint. Aamir Khan is at his usual best. Anuska Sharma has done a mind blowing performance. Sushant Singh Rajput did justice to his character. And a special last scene appearance by Ranvir Kapoor gives full marks to the star cast. But what about the plot? The film’s first half was good with partly comedy, partly questioning against religion. But the second half became monotonous.
My question to the story writer would be are all hindu priests bad and dishonest? Were  all ‘muni-rishis’ from ancient times fake in imagining God? Did they all take bribe from people? That can’t be true. Also, only hindu babas are frauds? Or the fraudulent practices exist in other religion’s religious gurus also? Also, I find it of a bad taste to utter a particular religion’s name (not hindu) in negative manner for several times. Also, I beg to differ about worshipping a Shiva Linga ( As in the film, it was shown a stone is put under a tree and people started worshipping it immediately perceiving it as Shiva Linga). It is said that God is there in every living and dead thing. I just take it in this way: God exists in every Good object. If people worship a black stone or a tree or a mountain as God, where is the harm in that? They are all part of a nature and everything that is beautiful & natural belongs to God.
I still liked the film because of its brilliant & funny ways of relating different cultures and religions. I also like it for Aamir Khan’s large-than-life role as an alien, ‘as God’s messenger’, as Jaggu’s lover and of course as ‘pk’. After watching the movie, the same question from a song’s line came in my mind, ‘hey bhagoyan, hai kaha re tu?’. If you are really there in every Good object, why can’t good things happen to good human being?  Why there are atrocities in this world?
Some more questions:
When Jaggu and Sarfraz just broke up due to misunderstanding why did not any of them try to contact the other one? We live in an era of mobile phones, Facebook, What’s App, Yahoo! and Gmail. Also, Jaggu and Sarpharosh could have known their temporary residence address. So, why?
Pk learnt the language of Bhojpuri. But he tried to propose to Jaggu by writing “I love you”. Where did he learn to write English? That is not clear to me.
Pk came from a planet that was advanced enough to make spaceship. But it was NOT advanced enough to make a tape-recorder’s battery?
But anyway, when you have gone to enjoy a movie, you may not be bothered about all these logic and all religious debates.
Love & the pk movie:
Aamir Khan ( or say, pk) is the ultimate guru who has taught us what a true love should be. Pk fell in love with Jaggu. Sarfraz was deeply in love with Jaggu. When pk found out about Jaggu’s past relationship, he did not try to suppress the truth. Because there is a greater joy of giving in love than snatching other’s love interest. And pk just did that. He spoke out about the truth. Because of his selfless attitude, Jaggu and Sarfraz finally met. In the end of the story, Sarfraz became the usual earthly lover who just got the girl. And pk became the UNIVERSAL lover who taught us the actual meaning of love. Yes, this is the  divine love. Aamir, thank you once again for an exceptionally brilliant role in movie pk.
The fact that I did not get tickets of Bomkesh Bakshi or Badshahi Aanti (Feluda) and then bought pk’s movie ticket, was not a wrong decision at all. I am, in pk’s term, I did not dial a ‘wrong number’ at all. Thank you God and pk, for helping me about the right choice.
May the religious harmony in India last long and the reel-life magic of Aamir Khan as well!

Stealing , Mahatma & Biswajit Ganguly

On 12th November, 2014, I was at Kaushani.  The purpose was pure travelling. I and my family were travelling under a conducted tour operated by a Kolkata based travel agency. We were staying at Hotel Sagar in Kaushani. During afternoon time, the tour manager told us that Gandhi Ashram was on a walking distance from where we were staying.
My mother and grandmother were too tired to visit the place. They took the choice for resting in the hotel. I, along with others, formed a small group. We slowly moved upward along the road to reach the Gandhi Ashram. It was a nice afternoon in the hilly region.
Our small group consisted of Mrs. Sahoo (the tour manager’s wife), two naughty-boy-type-men (named Pipul & Bubai) and a young lady (named Bonnya) along with her mother. Needless to say, I have changed their original names or surnames. I had my camera with me. On reaching the ashram, I was taking the images of flowers. Then Mrs. Sahoo remarked, “You see, Gandhi ji and other freedom fighters have made our country free from British rule. They were honest. But today’s leaders are pathetic! They are stealing our wealth and looting the country.” We all supported her speech.  We spent some quality time in the garden. It was the time of sunset and the Nanda devi peak was looking more beautiful than ever. I was also looking at the noble man’s statue.
While returning from the ashram, something mishap happened. Pipul pointed something at Bubai. They went towards a tree. It was an orange tree. I noticed that there was only one orange in that small tree. Pipul looked here and there. There was nobody watching them. Then Bubai picked that orange quickly from that tree and put that into his pocket. Pipul smiled at him and said, “Let’s move out from here.”
Another similar incident made me astonished! Mrs. Sahoo was asking like a baby girl that she wanted oranges from another big orange tree. In front me, Mrs. Sahoo and the  two other ladies persuaded one local man to pick 2-4 oranges for them. Perhaps, they bribed him. I was looking here and there and smiling all the time. One ashram’s person finally saw that the man was giving the oranges to the ladies and he called the local guy to scold him. He, however, did not call us for explanation.
Five minutes later, we were in front of our hotel, from where rest of the group members went downwards to explore the local market and I just came back to my hotel room. Somehow, my mood was off. Actually, when something bad happens in a group, first I get fun. But then a sense of repentance stings my heart and I feel very depressed. I went to the bed that night with a heavy heart.
Next morning (on 13th November), I woke up early. I told my mother & grandmother that I was going for a morning walk. First I went towards the local market. But I was not in peace. Something was dragging me towards the Gandhi ashram. So, slowly I started moving upwards and reached there in ten minutes from the local market. The morning was very peaceful. There were three men at a long distance from the Bapuji’s statue. They were not looking at me at all.

I took a deep breath. Then I began talking to the statue, “Bapuji, yesterday, something mishap happened at your garden. My fellow travelers stole oranges from ashram’s garden. No, I did not steal any. But I was present during their misdeed and I did not protest. Those who support the crime directly / indirectly, are also guilty. So, it’s my guilty feeling for which I have come here. Please forgive them. They are too immature to understand what it feels to steal something from a noble soul’s ashram. On behalf of all of them, I apologize. Please forgive us. Please forgive me.
Bapuji, I am not like you. I am more like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. If someone attacks me, I don’t and I can’t use your Ahimsa philosophy. I also attack the guy. But that does not mean that I disrespect you. I am not fully honest. But then no human being is. But I shall try to be like you. Bless me with you power. Whatever barrier comes in my way, I cross all of them and show my supremacy to the society, to the nation through my technical field and literature. Bless me that when I am back in Kolkata, I am blessed with your green energy and no red devil can stop me in achieving my goal. I may not come back here for a third time. So, goodbye. I promise to you that I’ll be different from others. And I’ll be different because my name is Biswajit Ganguly.”
I ended my speech. My eyes were full of tears. It felt like a burden was relieved from my shoulder. I saw the still statue of Bapuji. Beside his statue, there were the statues of three monkeys with these messages : don’t see bad things, don’t hear bad things and don’t speak bad things. Incidentally, just opposite to those statues, four real life monkeys were sitting. They were staring at me. Their ears were naturally open. And two of them were talking between each other.
Actually, when something good happens , everybody loves to listen, watch and speak about it. And like human beings, monkeys can’t be any exception to that. I felt like what I did just then, was good.  Yes, that was goooood!
I felt like a new man and slowing moved towards the hotel. Later in that day, I met Mrs. Sahoo. I asked her calmly, “So, how was yesterday’s oranges?”
She replied, “Oh, don’t tell me! Those fruits were sour. We did not like them at all.”
On hearing that, a smile came on my face. And the smile was neither bitter nor “sour”. It was sweet. Really sweet. Was Bapuji’s soul smiling also? I believe so.
This 100% true story could have ended here. But it didn’t. Nearly one month has passed. Something happened on last Sunday (14th December, 2014). On a recent arrest of a minister, Ms. Bonnya has mentioned him as Chor (thief) and made a Facebook post on that. I looked at the post and thought about the irony of the matter. People are good in forgetting their own misdeed and raising fingers at others. Don’t you agree?

[ The above writing has nothing to do with politics. ]

Chances for Argentina to win World Cup 2014

Blue / aquamarine Sky. And white clouds floating there.
Sometimes, when Argentina football team plays, I visualize the whole sky has come down on the ground. The sky reminds me about Argentina’s jersey.
Who am I? I am a Bengali and an Indian. Then why should love & support Argentina? Because Argentina loves and respects the art of football just like Bengali people do. Because Argentina and the whole of Latin America have economically middle class people who are very knowledgeable or skillful like, we Indians are. Because we love Maradona just like they do. Because we are also crazy about Lionel Messi as they are.
I know that India does not have proper infrastructure to play better football and make it to the final rounds of World Cup. So, during FIFA world cup, I look forward to the teams who have rich football culture. During world cup, city of Kolkata gets divided into several parts namely, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, etc. These countries will hardly know about our deep passion for their football culture. It may be an one-sided love from us. But after all, it is nothing but love.
So, I was talking about Argentina. Argentna’s win is my win. It is also a win of all the crazy Argentina supporters out there in Kolkata. There is just one game remaining for Argentina to win the world cup 2014. This one game is equivalent to 10 games for the Argentina team. Because the opponent team’s name is Germany. Playing with Germany has been a nightmare for Argentina. In the year of 1990, Maradona’s Argentina lost to Germany in the world cup final. In 2010, Germany crushed Argentina with a 4-0 victory. So, Argentina needs to seriously consider this Germany side which has defeated Brazil with a score line of 7-1 in the last game and Portugal with a 4-0 score! That is not a joke. That is shocking!
Argentina has been one man show in this world cup. That is Messi. Apart from that there are other names like, Sergio Agüero, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ángel di María, Marcos Rojo. But if we forget one goal each from di María and Higuaín, then they have only filled the quota system of 11 players. In the final, they will have to play extraordinary to nullify the attack of the German team. Germans are clever enough to block Messi to score a goal. So, while Messi will take their attention, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Gonzalo Higuaín and Ángel di María (if he is fit to play) have to score goals (yes, it is a must!) for their country. Argentine players have just one match to create history or get abolished from history.
The German side has great names in their team. Mesut Özil, Miroslav Klose, Thomas Müller, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Mario Götze are the players who can penetrate through the opponent defense at any point of time in the game. Argentine player Javier Mascherano will have great responsibility in handling the German attackers. The Argentine defense should remember that earlier 4-0 score and should play ultra-defensive football. They should believe that they are the better team and try to score goals from the counter-attack.
The Argentine side is having a goal-drought in this world cup. And it is raining goals for German side. If these trends get continued till the final, then Argentina will lose the game. But if Argentina gets good number of first-half goals in the match, then German side may choke. Argentina can take the revenge of the previous world cup loss and finish as the new world champion.
Argentina is saying that ‘el Dios’ is on their side. I also believe that God is on the side of Argentina. But to defeat a team like Germany, Messi and his fellow players should remember that God helps those who help themselves.
Best of luck for every player in Argentina national football team before playing the final of FIFA World Cup 2014. Even if they lose the game to Germany, Messi & Maradona will continue to be soccer heroes in my life.
One footnote: I have heard that Argentina will play in a Blue jersey in the final. But I prefer to see them in their Aquamarine-White jersey. I think that colour bears a good luck.