Movie Review: INCEPTION: Mind Adventure...

Director Christopher Nolan has so often delved in to human psychology, the mind and its strange ways of working, as seen in his remarkable non-linear narration of Memento (2000), or the disturbing portrayal of the Joker in the Batman sequel, The Dark Knight (2008). In Inception, a science fiction cum crime genre film, he explores the world of dreams and comes up with mind-boggling, seat-grabbing stuff that keeps us thinking even hours after one exits the cinema hall.

Cobb (DiCaprio) leads a team of 'extractors' - professionals who steal information from other people within shared dreams. Then there is the seemingly impossible 'Inception', where you plant an idea in the subject's mind. An electronic control device that connects the extractors and the source, and a state of sedation makes this possible. More to it: if you die in a dream, you return to consciousness. More: In 'dream time' an hour is actually five minutes in 'real time'. There is more to it that the film will reveal.

The main plot: A businessman wants to stop a corporate rival's inevitable monopoly by performing Inception. The rival is terminally ill, nearing death, and has an young heir. The plan is to plant an idea in the heir's mind such that he breaks down his father's empire. Cobb, having experienced the disastrous results of an inception, hesitates. It is on the promise that he will be able to pass through immigration to finally reunite with his children that draws him to agree. He arranges a team for the operation, while fighting his own demons - his dead wife who keeps reappearing as his subconscious and putting the whole operation in to additional risk. Things are in place, the plan is initiated, but things go awry...

Riveting without been too confusing (needs a couple of views for 'complete' comprehension) with its science fiction literature, the film never lets you relax, immersing the audience in a web of imagination and subtle ambiguity. A stimulating experience for the senses, especially the eyes and the mind, (if not the heart), Inception is a must for all cinema lovers. Meanwhile, I have to book a ticket for another show of the film. As soon as my mind stops reeling.

The punch of punches        

A top keeps spinning and spinning and the screen blanks out. 

Day in Udaipur: The Artist's Village

Showcasing the mitigating effects of cow dung...

Still 2nd July, 2010 
 

Shilpgram is an artificial cultural village located about three kms from Udaipur. It has traditionally built mud houses from Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. We entered one, bending down through its little door and found the interior incredibly cool, the exterior walls caked with cow dung playing a mitigating part along with the straw thatched roof.

Then there were the artists – the Rajasthani folk singers awaiting an audience during the off-season period, their bodies moving to activity as we approached the dais. Then there was the sole magician, seated hunched and disinterested on a sturdy old chair, beside a table adorned with sparkling colours of his paraphernalia. We didn't look like the money-spilling kind, probably. The maker of bead necklaces, showcasing a certificate of making it to The Limca Book of Records. Another fabric maker displayed kurtas, salwars and other Indian attire in refreshing designs, attire which we often refer to as 'traditional'.

Yes, we spent a substantial time of the trip there, and almost on instigation by the artists, ended up buying things we probably would never have otherwise.