Pushkar

Pushkar is just seventeen kilometres away from Ajmer in distance but in time it travels way back to Puran, Ramayan, Mahabharat and beyond. Its genesis is associated with Brahma. It has more temples and tourist lodges than perhaps homes.

My day in Pushkar started with a one hour pre-dawn trek to Savitri Temple which sits on the highest hill around Pushkar. First wife Savitri was not around and Brahma married his second wife Gayatri because he was in a hurry to perform a Yagna whose auspicious time was expiring and which could not have been performed in the absence of his wife. Savitri was furious and gave a Shrap (curse) to Brahma that he would not be worshipped anywhere else and left him and went and sat on top of the hill, where the Savitri temple stands today.

The view before sunrise from Savitri Temple was awesome. Barren hills form a ring around Pushkar. Then fifty two Ghats of white buildings with yellowish domes form a bowl around the famous Pushkar Lake. Sun rises and with one splash of a brush, paints everything in totally different colours.

Unfortunately for me, some Lake restoration work was under progress and there was hardly any water in what could have been a beautiful Pushkar Lake. The hills around also were barren and not mighty as if they had been stunted by the internecine wars Rajasthan had seen. I could see my own life in a huge mirror which lay before me. I felt like those hills, a bit stunted by my own numerous struggles. The moisture and the greenery was not to be seen around me. Brahma - Savitri, water less Pushkar Lake, barren hills presented my own picture and the picture of my society before me. The man stunted. The woman struggling to make her presence felt.

I longed to see and become the mighty hills of Garhwal. Those hills have the magnificence, expanse and ambition of the best of the men. They have the greenery, unceasing creativity, beauty and grace of the women. Suddenly I realised why, since time immemorial, some of the best of our talents, when they wanted to find themselves went to the Himalayas. I do not know whether they realised god there or not. However, in the magnificence and beauty of the Himalayas they must have realised what the best of men and women could become when they became magnificent, complete and one.

PAAN SINGH TOMAR

Paan Singh is the true story of a champion Jawan who wins laurels for the army in the steeplechase events. His life has none of the obstacles which he crosses with élan on the track. It is like a smooth flight of a bird. He is happy and contented in his professional success and is loved by his dusky wife. The story is beautiful – made more so by the flawless narration.

However this much of happiness does not last for long. Be it the screen or real life. His land in the village is encroached by the powerful neighbours. He takes early retirement and goes back home in an attempt to retain the ancestral land. This effort endangers his life and that of his family who are brutally attacked by the encroachers. He runs to the organs of the state for protection only to realise that protection of his life and property is none of their concerns. When faced with this barrier he jumps towards a ditch. Like steeplechase. Only this ditch does not have mud and water. It is a one way journey of revenge, murder and a following career of a dacoit run on the money earned from abductions. (Paan Singh would object saying he is a BAAGHI (rebel) and dacoits are only found in Parliament.)

The theme sounds familiar but is narrated with originality. Each frame of the movie is a work of art. Irfan Khan’s performance is as breathtaking as the murderous beauty of the ravines of Chambal. He metamorphoses from a Forrest Gump like awkward runner to a Gabbar Singh like dacoit with such ease which can come to only him. The depiction of his relationships with his wife, brother, son, coach and so on is enchanting. But what makes the movie a masterpiece is his relationship with the State. He is a jawan raring to lay down his life for the country in the 1965 war. He is not allowed to do so because his life as a champion sportsperson is a national treasure and needs to be preserved. However, when in village, the threat to his life and property would not bother the State. He does not exist when he is threatened or as long as he murders a few. The State becomes interested in him only when his criminality scales up across the districts and states and the number of abductions and murders committed by him are far too many and far too frequent making him a threat to the State. That is where the movie rises from being an individual’s story to the story of the Indian State in relation with the multitudes.

Modern democratic state exists in an eternal tension between the individuals’ basic rights of freedom and equality and the control of the State on the individual. The individual is an end in itself and parts of his liberty and freedom are ceded to the State only to ensure that those inalienable rights of the individual are protected. Indian State exists on the same theoretical foundations.

However, the practice is inverted. Indian State is an end in itself. It has to be preserved for its own sake. Its law and order machinery is effective only to that extent. Otherwise, what happens to the individual in the hinterland depends on his own luck. The State would have nothing to do with it except when the individual is to be used as a source of revenue generation for the State or for its officers. Paan Singh is far too simple to understand this and has too much energy. He has to be done in the by the state.  

3 Idiots

Whether the name Ranchoddas for Aamir in the movie is intended for humour or has some deeper meaning is difficult to say. Ranchod is a popular name for Shri Krishna in western India.

Shri Krishna is one of the biggest revolutionaries. Given wisdom is always questioned by him in the face of the truth as it unfolds from moment to moment. Ram obeys the old father in the grip of his youngest wife and goes to the forest though that order is wrong. Shri Krishna kills, without demur, his Mama and cousin Shishupal because they have deviated from the correct path and ensures that Pandav do the same when their turn comes. He advises the Gwalas and Gopis to take care of their cattle, farm and environment and ignore Indra. Mathura is attacked because of Shri Krishna being there. Shri Krishna, an accomplished warrior, does not follow the age old Dharma of warriors to fight and win or to become a martyr but not show ones back to the enemy. He shows his back to save Mathura and Gwalas from unnecessary violence and runs away to Dwarka where he establishes his Kingdom. That is why he is Ran-chod.

Aamir Khan has shown the courage to question the rules of the game. He refuses to go to the Mela of mediocrity, the fraudulent award ceremonies where same actresses dance the same numbers which they have already danced I don’t know how many times. Takhres got Amitabh waging his tail but Modi could not do the same to Aamir after Fana.

He started the trend of doing one movie at a time in the Nineties (though there are exceptions) when top stars of Eighties, Jitendra and Amitabh used to act in twenty craps at a time. The result is some really solid movies. Much more, than most other actors, in the last thirty years. He must be one of the rare actors to turn director when he was at the peak of his acting career and give the lead role to a ten year old.

Taare Zameen Par and 3 Idiots are well made movies. Good story, full of tension and drama, tight script and editing (with few exceptions) and refreshing humour. These two movies also make a statement about individuals being different in their ordinariness and thus being beautifully unique. One should be one's own self and do what he wants to. Express yourself and not others. They challenge the rut of trying to be at the top of the rat race. The product is good but not breath-taking. The movies make compromises on their most fundamental premise. They end up being about competition and the protagonists being on the top. They have two fundamental flaws. First, they end up in the same rat race they seek to challenge at the start. Second, and more silly is the statement that if you do your own thing you will be at the top of the race.

Chasing ones dreams is beautiful but dangerous. Failure is as probable as success. Dreamers in most cases are utterly alone.  But you don’t give yourself in to your dreams because you want to be on the top. You do so because you know that you have got this life to go after your dreams which is your truth and for nothing else. If you don’t live your dreams, the life is not worth living. Success and failure cease to matter and more pain gives you more depth.

Possibly that is the limit of Aamir. To explore the deeper joys and pathos of pursuing the dreams we will have to wait for someone else. Someone, who has more of the real Ranchod who inspires us to live our dreams.