চাঁদের পাহাড়: চলচ্চিত্র আলোচনা

ছবিটা বেশ কিছুদিন আগে দেখা তাই মনে হয়না এরকম একটা রিভিউ কেউ কারো কাজে আসবে। তবু যখন আমার এক কলিগ বলল চাঁদের পাহাড় দেখব, মনে হলো এটা যখন সিনেমাটা দেখেছিলাম তখনই লেখা উচিত ছিল। একে এমপি তার ওপর আবার মহানায়ক, জানিনা লোকে কি বলবে। যাই হোক চাঁদের পাহাড় দেখে মনে অনেক প্রশ্ন জেগেছিল সেগুলোই এক এক করে লিখলাম।

১. আমি বিন্দুমাত্রও হোমোফোবিক নই কিন্তু সিনেমায় আলভারেজ আর শঙ্কর এমন হাত ধরাধরি, জড়াজড়ি করছিল সাবটাইটল না থাকলে ছবির থীমটা যে কি সেটা দূর্বোধ্য, মনে হচ্ছিল দুই পুরুষ প্রকৃতির মাঝে তাদের মধ্যের প্রেম উপলব্ধি করেছে।

২. কোন সিনেমা তার স্বাভাবিক ছন্দে যদি দেড় ঘন্টা লম্বা হয় তাকে টেনে হিঁচড়ে আড়াই ঘন্টা চালালে সিনেমার আকর্ষণ তেমন থাকেনা আর দর্শকদেরও মনে হতে শুরু করে কি কুক্ষণে টিকিট কেটেছিলাম। নাকি পরিচালক ভেবেছিলেন যেরকম সবাই খুঁজে খুঁজে সেই দোকানে যায় যেখানে রোল এ একটু বেশি আলু দেয়, সেরকম লোকে যদি আড়াই ঘন্টা সিনেমা না চলে বলবে ফ্লপ ?

৩. চলচ্চিত্রায়ন অসামান্য, তবে আফ্রিকা তার সমস্ত বিস্ময় এই ছবির একমাত্র পাওনা। বাকি সব বাকওয়াস।

৪. ভারত আইটির দেশ, হলিউডের অনেক সিনেমার স্পেশাল এফেক্টও এখন ভারতে হয়, তবু এই সিনেমার স্পেশাল এফেক্ট এরকম জোলো কেন বোঝা গেলনা। নাকি প্রযোজক মশাই শুটিং টিম কে আফ্রিকা পাঠিয়ে ই সব পায়সা খরচ করে ফেলেছিলেন? আগ্নেয়গিরির বিস্ফোরণ তো ষাটের দশকের মনে হচ্ছিল। এর চেয়ে তো ইদানিং অনেক বাংলা সিনেমায় অনেক ভালো স্পেশাল এফেক্ট আছে।

৫. প্যানপেনে মা আর হেঁপো বাবার অবতারণা কি কারণে দরকার হলো বোঝে গেলনা, যদিওবা মেনে নেওয়া গেল আফ্রিকা যাবার আগে শঙ্করের জীবনের কিছুটা দেখানোর জন্যে কিন্তু বাকি সময় মনে হচ্ছিল ছবি লম্বা করার খুব বিরক্তিকর পদ্ধতি।

৬. সিংহ শিকারের নতুন টেকনিক শেখা গেল. প্রথমে সিংহকে মাংস-টাংস দিয়ে লোভ দেখিয়ে ডাকতে হবে, তারপর সিংহ যখন শিরারীর দিকে তেড়ে আসবে তখন প্রানপনে উল্টো দিকে দৌড়তে হবে। যখন সিংহ প্রায় ধরে ফেলেছে তখন জেসন স্ট্যাথামের মত উড়ে গিয়ে উল্টো দিকে ঘুরে গুলি চালাতে হবে। সেই গুলি সিংহের মাথায় লাগবেই আর সে এক গুলিতেই কাবার হবে। জে.এ.হান্টার এর শিকারের গল্প মনে পরে গেল। তিনি নির্ঘাত কবরে নড়েচড়ে উঠতেন এই নতুন উপায়ের কথা শুনে। বললে হবে, আমাদের মহানায়ক বলে কথা, হান্টার তো কোন ছার।

৭. কোন কোন রহস্য যত অদৃশ্য রাখা যায় ততই রোমাঞ্চকর লাগে। এমিটিভিল হরর বা হিদেও নাকাতার রিঙ এ অপ্রাকৃত কিছু একদম শেষ অবধি দেখানো হয়নি। বিভুতিভুষনের শঙ্কর ও কিন্তু বইতে শুধু বুনিপের আওয়াজ আর তার পায়ের শব্দই শুনেছিল। ব্যাপারটাকে সিনেমাতেও সেই অবধিই সীমিত রাখলে ভালো হতো. বুনিপ বলে যা দেখানো হলো সেটা তো একটা ভুঁড়িঅলা প্যাঙ্গোলিন তার ওপর একটা ডাইনোসরের মাথা লাগানো। এমন হাস্যকর অনুকরণ এর একটাই ঘটনা মনে আছে, আবার যখের ধন সিরিয়ালটায় গরিলা সাজা লোকটা।

৮. যখন শঙ্কর আর আলভারেজ কোন এক বিখ্যাত লেক পার হচ্ছিল ওদের সাথে ছিল একটা ছোট ডিঙ্গি নৌকা, আর সীমিত খাবারদাবার। এদিকে যখন তাঁবু ফেলছিল সেই তাঁবু দেখলে তো রাজারাজড়াদেরও বিষম খাবার কথা. দেখে মনে হচ্ছিল কোনো আরব শেখ বনে শিকার করতে গেছে, দুজন উত্সাহী পরিব্রাজক নয় যারা তাদের সব সম্বল নিঃস্ব করে বেরিয়ে পড়েছে ভ্রমন করতে। দু দুটো ঢাউস ধবধবে সাদা তাঁবু বুনিপ তো বটেই জঙ্গলের আর যত জীবজন্তু ছিল সবার ই তো চলে আসার কথা মানুষ সার্কাস দেখতে।

৯. গুহা থেকে বেরিয়ে বুনিপ মারতে যাওয়া আর এক হাস্যকর ব্যাপার, সেই সিনেমা লম্বা করার চাল। অত সব কাঠকুটো কথা থেকে এলো, অত অত দড়িই বা কোথা থেকে এলো ফাঁদ বানানোর জন্যে তা চিন্তার বাইরে। দিকহারা, ক্ষিধেয় পাগল মানুষ অতক্ষণ ফাঁদ বানাতে কাটাল এটা সিনেমাতেই চলে।

যাক লিস্টি আর বাড়িয়ে কাজ নেই, একেই ফালতু সময় নষ্ট অনেক করেছি সিনেমাটা দেখতে বসেই।

A short story of a revelation

I had a bad dream last Sunday. I always try to find out the reason behind all dreams, but it was one of the rare occasions when I didn't find any. Here is what I saw:

I was standing on a foot over-bridge, which is unusually high. Standing beside me, was my daughter-about 12 years old. We stood there, static, with an ever-changing flux of people behind us and cars beneath. And we stood there like forever, as if the time had stopped, and nothing changed except the colourful haze of figures and patterns at the background. It was a sunny day, and there were no shadows, shades of light and darkness, everything appeared bare under the stark sunlight. Suddenly she appeared-it was a long take, and it seemed that she's been walking towards the bridge for years. Holding her hand was her daughter, she seemed younger than mine, but her figure seemed smaller. I looked at the the woman; though all I cud see clearly was her blue blouse and her long black skirt, her body seemed so known to me...and she walked towards us. Suddenly the colour of the sky took a reddish tint, and the halo covered the sky up to the farthest horizon. Everything came back to its normal pace-we saw people walking by, saw her crossing the road, crossing the tram tracks. We watched her more eagerly, for every step she took, she was a step closer to us. Just before she came just under the bridge, it appeared, that though the lateral distance was fathomed, our paths didn't meet because we were separated vertically. and then they were gone. We went back to the old eternia- stark daylight, hazy flux of people and cars.

When I woke up, the pain was almost physical. It was reminiscent of a broken family, a hope to get bring it together, and then the pang of an end to the hope. From the feelings it seemed that it was quite a long time since our family broke up. Perhaps it was the effect of a film I watched that evening that had a similar slow motion crossing, but why children? I don't know. But finally, I drew a conclusion, which has nothing to do with relationships but lines and planes. Apparently lines take any direction, but it's the planes that hold them. Whether two lines meet at a point, that depends on whether the planes meet. But so are human lives. We can only move along straight lines, but the planes that contain us, are our destiny...

Natur...natur

A friend told me once, that nature sustains me. I couldn't agree more to her statement. I think growing up alone, without siblings, without friends made me drawn towards nature. It was like being mesmerised, sometimes suffocated by the beauties of nature. Nature evoked a sense of awe within me.

Perhaps the tie began when my father started taking me to the bank of the river, and we watched the sunset, an occasional passage of a train over the bridge on the river - miles ahead. And he used to tell me that the train is going pass through the reserve forest of Bethuadahari, and I visualised deers, snakes, wild boars.

Then, when we moved to Calcutta, everything appeared so artificial. So, every Saturday we used to board bus no. 39 and go to Babughat, by the river Ganges. The Calcutta port was alive then, and I watched with wonders, huge ships those were going to cross seven seas. In the evening, when darkness fell, the ships used to blow the siren, and the flowing river twinkled with the lights from those ships.

As it is appearing, nature is the second nature to me, I'm not going to discuss in detail anymore. I rather want to put the focus from a new angle. Unlike most bengalis, I didn't get to travel different parts of India. Yet, I was able to cherish the beauties around me. Though they weren't diverse, but they were distinct. I still get lost when it rains on a gloomy evening, I still feel like gasping when everything turns golden after an afternoon shower and the whole city seems like a huge mirror reflecting the sunlight in all directions.

So, when I were to deliver a lecture in a training session about the most memorable day in my life, I could only think of a day related to nature. I'll share that experience later, but till then...Hail my tryst with nature!!

Was it apathy or lack of love??

I encountered a strange feeling today. In my last blog I wrote about the presentation concept. There was one person who shared the saddest moment of his life : it was when he lost his mother. He started off nicely, contrasting the day with India's 20-20 win etc, and then went into finer details. After a 5 minute stint, he broke off in tears, with trembling voice...etc

During this whole incident, I saw that people around me are very compassionate about that person, there was a lull inside the seminar hall. But well, I found it very unprofessional and disturbing. First, loss of his mother may be a sad moment for him, but it must also be very private. Why should one invoke and cry? Secondly, I felt like screaming at his face, "why are you mentioning this moment? Loss of your mother is an unavoidable fact. How can it be your saddest moment? Look at me, I have lost my mother, yet my saddest moment would be when I did not do well in the HS exams".

What's wrong with me? Why am I devoid of sentiments that most people possess? On the other hand, I'm a bundle of sentiments, I take things seriously quite often; get disturbed, dismayed, distracted; I even cry. So, why this bipolar disposition? Why am I so dispassionate about my mother? may be because it was too private and precious for me to dig the memories up, perhaps I was relieved that she went away, perhaps my life is so dependent on "Myself" that there is not much space for other persons that could affect me greatly...

Whats wrong with "I"? Perhaps "I" is the only problem. I dont know yet. May be one day I will...

Corporate Grooming

Today I spent a day packed with surprise. Last Friday I was told about a training programme about personal effectiveness, but no one had any air about what it was about. Until yesterday it appeared like just another seminar or training programme where one could enjoy a good buffet lunch and get to sleep. In fact it was designed for all segments of employees and strangely enough, I was kept in the juniors' what made me pretty dismayed. In fact I later found that there were 4 persons whom I have selected in a campus interview. So, that was pretty uncomfortable!!

Surprisingly enough, when I reached at the Hotel Lindsay, I had a hunch that it's going to be something else. I found that it's rather a personality grooming programme in a business environment. We started off with the introduction, most did it in a trembling voice and most had an interest in "watching cricket"!. Then the guide introduced himself, and it was surprising to know that he is a Mechanical engineer, a PG diploma holder in Hotel management, had been a professor in Oxford school in hotel management, did a diploma in entrepreneurship, did his MBA in HR and had been a HOD or HR dept in the same college....and he has been to 40 countries and speaks 9 languages!!!

He took us into the intricacies of business etiquettes like answering telephone calls to dressing up for formal business meetings. I found my ideas about dressing up fairly matched with the things he said in the class; though I never wear it! Then we went on to the business grooming and lots of -ics were there, kinesics, occulesics, and many more (eeeks!!!). Yet, I found those lessons invaluable and a must for a huge set-up like ours. The concepts of correct eye-contact, voice modulation, connecting to the crowd are really helpful in the long run. I was in fact devouring the details like a greedy monster because I knew, if I were to go to UK, these skills that are being considered as "soft-skills" will be rather "necessary skills".

Three most interesting events conducted on today's programme were business writing, dining etiquette and presentation skills. While I learnt many things about business communication and writing like emphasising on "you", making "I" factor invisible, communicating directly, avoiding negative words...I thought these were pretty commonplace concepts. It was very shocking to find out that only a few follow them. Then came the dinner etiquettes. Who could have imagined western dining could be so frustrating!! This fork, that plate, that goblet...ohh! Thank god we didnt practice the entire lunch in that manner. The last part of the programme was business presentation. That part was fabulous. It was time to exercise and implement all the tools we learnt throughout the day. The topic was "the happiest or saddest moment of my life". I related nature with Milan Kundera I'm reading now; it was a fine speech, complete 5 min long, but it only had some unwanted hand postures and characteristically I strayed a bit! Then we saw our videotaped presentations and pointed out our mistakes. That was fun, as I happened to be the most finiccky judge of the lot!!

Well, that's about it. It also made the employees of different divisions come together. All came to know that someone person went to Indian idol finals and had to come back for exams, someone is a national swimmer and tennis player and three years state champion, someone is a plurilingue (don't know the English), someone's IAS brother in law sent detectives to his college, someone wrote his phone no on a bus ticket and threw to the girl sitting opposite him in a bus and they are great friends now....but one last thing that emerged out of the videotapes, that we all have a round midriff!! Jokes apart, this was a great experience and it widened the path for business excellents...