After taste of a cinematic metaphor Called Raavan:

the other day I saw an Indian movie, called Raavan, that has not so good reviews from the press but of course is one of NY times critics picks, for obvious commercial motives. I have always felt that the fluid cognitive intelligence is one of the most complex human phenomenon and I arrived at a derivation that was partly intuitive and partly logic driven, the muse or

The movie a rather metaphorical portrayal incited in me an intuition that is probably amateurish but sounded interesting to me:

It is a pity that no one appreciates that Mani Ratnam is an authentic artist and not a director. Actors, visuals, songs, screenplay are just strokes in his canvas and unlike many filmmakers he has never tried or shall never be limited by the grammar of cinema.

“Raavan" is not a visual spectacle but a layered metaphor with intangible scaffolding. It is especially unfortunate that senior artists like Senior Bachchan, Mr. Abhishek Bachchan’s father – the protagonist Beera, who supposedly as per the press did not do a good job at acting, fail to recognize that the artist i.e. the director intentionally manipulated screenplay, extracted a particular kind of performance from the Junior Bachchan and the rest and used these raw figments as strokes to paint a metaphor that is so eclectic, complex and yet beautiful. Hence just as any true film maker he exploited with guile and stealth the raw materials of the art of cinema i.e. acting, visual effects, acoustics, music, song sequences, human facial eloquence or the lack of it.

Even the resemblance to Ramayana, and perhaps certain parts of the life of a particular jungle brigand, I suspect, where created intentionally to further layer and affect the metaphor called "Raavan". I would seriously suggest people to watch “Iruvar” by the same artist and “the thin red line” by Terrence Mallick. The similarity of these works of arts is that, all the filmmaker is trying to do is paint a metaphor of a situation emotionally, geographically and politically convoluted and with unfathomable levels of sentimental and cultural ramifications.

Kindly do not try to analyze this work of art just try imbibing it as you would a single malt or a good cup of coffee, and instead of letting others know what it felt like just try savoring and ruminating the moment. This exercise I feel is so unique and the pleasure or the feel you derive after having had an acquaintance with art at its most raw, nude and crude form, leaves you affected deeply that even the average cinema enthusiast, who complaints “it was a big bore and that the screen play was not coherent” would not have been spared of this effect.

The preservation of the nascency of this feel, of the metaphor/simile of an interesting situation that would and should have first struck the filmmaker, long before the initiation of the shoot, should have involved extreme assertiveness and a staunch sense of artistic individuality, which is a rare commodity. Such entities, men women or non human beings should be preserved encouraged as their works are the ones that would result in the advancement of art, science, culture, society and hence finally in cognitive evolution. It is similar to the works of Kafka such a Metamorphosis that was released posthumously, which I feel created and probably affected and encouraged many a creative writers an encouragement and acceptance into popular literature resulting in the post modernist movement. Just as the concept of “new math” which originated in eastern Europe and probably lead to early identification of the so called dyslexic students like Einstein, but blatantly simple democracy has lead to the discouragement of such individuals who would probably be branded now as bipolar, or as people with ADHD and as misanthropes, medicated to work at a brain stem level to follow protocol, the so called building stones of the western capitalism and we shall keep manufacturing people with financial degrees, with least interest in basic economics, and basic mathematics and politicians, doctors, even scientists more savvy at following protocol and diplomacy and the so called professionalism.

These changes based on shallow logic and ego-dystonic political motives shall rather yield a population (I refer to the whole world here) who have devolved since the end of World War II and the cold war and we are stuck with presidents like Mr. W, ruling the most powerful country under the manipulative guidance of a person with misdirected cognitive ability and now a politically, diplomatically savvy president who lacks originality and exploited his racial origin while he had and has a typical Caucasian identity. I just feel that we now have a Karl rove as a president who is “Mr. Nice guy” and exploited the protocol based capitalistic society to achieve his goals, the

The protocol based western society needs a well-designed revamp not by politicians but by sensible economists. The Judiciary system should not dictate the way an economy functions. A streamlined educational system and a bureaucracy with economists and intellectuals making decisions rather than people who have been the so-called “specialized” in specific areas should be a norm. The advancement of technology in itself would make it easier for everyone to streamline the system so that more of the brain stem level tasks are done by machines and tasks involving complex analysis are done by humans, and not the other way around.