Finally saw MNIK ... after all the hype and Shiv Sena agitations... To top it all, a day before I got to watch it, I read some nasty comments about the movie on FB, and was seriously disheartened ... Was it all hype? Did Karan Johar reduce all the issues the promos had been screaming out for a month about ... to a frothy, bubble gummy romance?
Thankfully, I wasn't disappointed! The movie was about people who say what they mean and mean what they say ( Asperger's syndrome makes it pretty much impossible to be a hypocrite). The message wasn't anything unusual or unheard of ... There are 2 kinds of people in the world ... Good and Bad ... there isn't a third kind. But the way they portrayed it was truly soul stirring ... and SO relevant in today's world!
Rizwan Khan, the protagonist, is endearing ... and played convincingly by Shah Rukh... This is only the 2nd movie of his, where I forgot the King ... and remembered his character (The first being Chak De). To see such purity of being, such sincerity and genuineness, was indeed refreshing! I can't stress enough on the genuineness bit ... Having spent 19 months in the corporate world ... and having experienced first hand how every darn word can have 10 different meanings for 10 different people ... my soul got actually charged up during the movie I think ... Anyhow ... I'm digressing..
Frankly, I don't see why the triumph of the human soul against all odds is considered bull shit by people today... When they say "be practical" ... Do they mean that shut your 5 senses and follow the herd without asking questions? Why do the same people think that movies like "Ishqiya" and "Omkara" are practical and reflect "reality" ...
Maybe it's because everyone's "reality" is actually different ... Dawood's reality is drugs, Osama's is terror, mine is a world where people are awesome .. (which is why when a jackass turns up in my life ... it kills me ... he/she ruins my "reality"!)..
But at the end of it, no matter how our perceptions differ, the essential truths/values remain the same world over. Reality becomes no more than a debate between a person wearing rose-coloured glasses vs other colours! All we have to do is clean out our specs, remember that we are human beings ... and live life as honestly as possible, upholding the values that truly matter...
Only then will our realities overlap ... till then I can't really point a finger at you and vice versa ... our perceptions are too clouded for that...
