orange-baba i think you're going overboard with the idea of nazi imagery. i think even if it was intended to be overtly nazi, it fit the bill perfectly. it was obvious the idea was not to have the viewers enjoy the photoplay but rather cringe.
I have no doubt that it fits artistically - as I said above, what I objected to was the trivialization of a
real-life genocide in order to make an artistic impact. Kashyap knows perfectly well that drawing on the visuals of a real-life atrocity will send a shiver down the audience's spine, that's why he did it. But it would have been far kinder to those affected by the Holocaust for him to have used a more generalized vision of Hell. That way he could have had his "smoke and ash" metaphor without insulting specific people.
it didn't celebrate the torture instead just the opposite.
I don't recall stating that Kashyap "celebrated" the Holocaust, I merely said that he trivialized it. Jokey references to Schindler's List, Hitler arm-in-arm with Baba Bengali - it comes across as Kashyap winking at the audience and saying "Aren't I clever?" Not the right way to deal with the systematic destruction of millions of human beings, if you ask me.
thank god there's a director willing to make a movie like this - and such great execution - the visual imagery was simply world class. now that's what i feel cinema should be.
Until the "Ash Tray" sequence, I would have agreed 100% with you. Had this been a mediocre movie, I wouldn't feel so angry that he misfired with that one tasteless sequence. Up until the Ash Tray sequence, I was considering pressing the DVD on my like-minded friends and saying "Look at this amazing film!" Needless to say, AFTER the "Ash Tray" sequence I knew I'd do no such thing.
oh, and orange-baba if all you gathered from the scene was that they were a bunch of people with a smoking problem.. ahem... plz watch the movie again, perhaps pick up hints from the various fora. the movie is a puzzle, is meant to puzzle, enjoy it.
I know it's a puzzle - which is why the insertion of the Holocaust visual really doesn't work. The victims in Baba Bengali's factory voluntarily placed themselves into Baba Bengali's hands and are being punished for their weakness, conformity, whatever. But how - HOW? - could Kashyap have used the Holocaust as a visual when we all know perfectly well that the victims of the Nazi atrocities did
not volunteer to be there? The parallel is faulty, insulting to Holocaust victims and actually makes me more angry the more I think about it.
Make no mistake, the film comes close to being a masterpiece. But I am not willing to overlook such an insensitive, tasteless scene.
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