Banaras - Do you believe in mysticism?

Banaras (@PVR Hyderabad on 09th April) infuses life and meaning as it takes us right into the heart of the holy city Varanasi – the temples, River Banks, they make a splendid occasion for sights and sounds seldom heard in contemporary cinema. The movie creates a world of optical and spiritual salvation! This quest of fusing spirituality with romances does run into road-blocks at times, but then things, upon retrospect, start to make sense in the larger scheme of things.

Urmila displays a (already proven) penchant to get under the skin of the character.
Dimple startles, in her moment of reckoning with her screen daughter when the older woman must confess to a crime so terrible, it makes Lady Macbeth appear akin to Mother Teresa. Aakash Khurana as the psychiatrist, experiencing the mysticism of Varanasi, brings to light a character trying to downsize the very thing he came from and will fade into.

L C Singh, a professor of mysticism & existentialism at the BHU and a visiting faculty at Harvard, has penned down a script with such reverence to the penultimate question in everybody’s life… The question of existence and purpose…

The explanation of life/existence/Moksha has been dealt with singular tenacity and sensitivity. Perspectives of Science (Quantum Physics) and Spirituality have been revealed wonderfully in almost the same interlude. Reality and existence are questioned and left unanswered for the audience to ponder upon… The simple nature of truth (“Jo Saral Hai, Wohi Sach Hai”) feels astonishingly true as the film comes closer to the 2.5 hour mark.

By the end, I was unable to realize what had hit me. The hunger to understand existence/death/moksha has resurfaced! Am I living in a confused state of prudence? Why is it so difficult to comprehend the truth, if it is so simple? I had tried questioning the cycle of life and my being, before I was caught up in the vicious fight for survival in this materialistic society. Maybe, this is the time to throw away the bowlines and seek answers…

This well written and well directed movie gave me an opportunity to experience something that we rarely, if ever, do at the cinemas! Quite frankly, I do not know if the subject will work in today’s time; but it has the power to transform. I might have to keep watching it to unravel the layers there are to it. 95% people born in India are believers, and Banaras is for them!


Trivia:
Soham is the name of the protagonist in the movie, played by Ashmit Patel.
I realized that Soham is a Sanskrit word which means I am Him (Him referring to the omniscient Almighty)! All the living beings on this earth are said to be producing this sound of So and Ham while inhalation and the exhalation. The word thus claims that all living beings re-proclaim the fact every moment that they are God. It is said by the Hindu saints and gurus, that one can attain moksha, or mukti or Liberation, from the cycle of life and death by concentrating on the breath and mentally saying the word "so" when you inhale and the word "ham" (pronounced hum) when you exhale. By doing so, all evil is destroyed and one is believed to reach the position of ultimate power and a position equivalent to Gurus and Gods as per Hinduism.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_(Sanskrit)

Dear Diary:

Since my last post in Feb end, I have not written anything here… I apologize, but I hadn’t much to post; no point in taking this space back to breaking news era!

Not much has changed since the last post… Gayatri and Soumya have tied the nuptial knot; I could not attend the marriage due to training commitments… But the best part is – I am still alive! Narry, Bish and Mrinmoy attended the reception and bought back some ‘Ankhon Dekha Haal’ from Orissa.

On March 7th, I completed 5 years of existence in the Information technology Sector (..!.. Or should I say existed in chaos)… Not a very significant achievement but yes a truly vibrant journey… The ‘Thanks’ are due to Sam/Meena (CM), Prasad/Kini (Credence) and my dear friend Santosh.

Speaking about Santosh… I had been to Bombay from 29th Mar to 4th Apr, Sandhya (Santosh’s younger sis) was getting married. This time, I was single-minded about not missing this, as this could be the only time in years gone-by and years to come to catch up on old friends/acquaintances! I was dead right!

Met more than a dozen of my friends I had lost touch with… Apne friends kaho ya family friends… sabse mil liye… it was fun! Majority of the folks wanted to know ‘When am I getting married?!’ I wish I could answer them :)

The masti is still not over… Last weekend in Hyderabad has been fast and exciting; movies/pubbing/house-parties; you name it and I was in it ;) Let’s see how long the party goes on… I have my tickets booked for 16th April to Moscow! Tough times may be here soon…

The write-up on Khali-Bhali thoughts is still pending, but enough of footage… We had been to Shameerpet (Brindawan Resorts)… in Feb, with some simple biking added in and an overnight stay… The place rocks! Call it poor marketing or what, inspite of the place being good, we were the only guests in the resort on a Friday evening :) But this was blessing in disguise for us, we had all the resort to ourselves… We felt as if one of us owned this farm-house! Hehe…

So, at the end of this all, the IT Professional manages to balance remaining focused and letting go when required!