THE COMEDY, THE DRAMA AND THE TRAGEDY

cerebral writing on art, cinema and culture, Feature Essay 2 Minutes

THE CIRCUS(1928)






Like a child, his diminutive stature and boundless agility restores humanity. Like a man without a cause scraping for bare minimum for daily sustenance, he looks at the world of hunger and poverty around him.

For the Tramp, life is an endless road, redeemed occasionally by one loaf of bread and tenuous friendships.

In this circus, comedic delights abound as the lodestar of motion pictures stumbles upon his natural penchant for entertaining myriads. He lives amongst opportunists. That’s the fleeting nature of fame.
For Chaplin, the trial by fire is a metaphorical odyssey of survival amidst belligerent human cruelty, levelled at him and others.

Monkeys, lions and donkeys are part of this menagerie while a tightrope walk is a literal test of making it through another day, to know that the next day’s meal can come if one succeeds against mortal danger and public judgements.

In the end, all the comedy is just another side of the forever flipping coin. The Tramp doesn’t despair. He ventures into the great beyond. The series of silent images comes to life for generations to come. Hope is the ultimate victor even if the legend or a whole culture slouches towards ethical retreads.





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DESTROYER (2018)

Like Lynne Ramsay’s YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE, this work goes into the dank, dark interiors of its middle-aged protagonist who witnesses, first-hand, the dangers associated with being a law-enforcer.

The interiority is sans too many words. The recounting of events is struck by a present that has indeterminately been led to a lack of closure. DESTROYER is also about the arterial network of crime that is almost unbearably offset by decades of infiltrating one’s psychological impulses. The leads pointing towards justice are incriminating but the pursuer grapples with the soul of a society where an undercover operation is far from a heroic act. It seeps within, settles in the gut.





Nicole Kidman, supported by a great ensemble cast, is raw and gritty, letting years of clawing through the mud and heat of Los Angeles blow away the slightest puff of artifice. Her detective here is on an existential journey through a man-made hellscape. The maternal concerns and that final tender moment with her daughter leads us to a turning point from her past as poignantly as towards that bright glow of light that informs her final image in her car.

Karyn Kusama’s deft handling of the subject matter surrenders itself to the realism of the setting and takes the glamourised valour out of the uniform. Her approach is towards a systemic spate of lawlessness that runs through the land. That land and this cop here have universal footprints.

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AD ASTRA(2019)





The very idea of outer space is unimaginable without the existential anticipation of how much we have truly learned as intelligent, sentient beings, earthbound that is. It is a fascinating enigma.

AD ASTRA takes that to heart with its two hour journey through familial terrain that literally encompasses the cosmos. It is one of contemplation, of man-made marvels and the power of the mind. It is also about the deeply felt reservoirs of unresolved grief that impacts a legacy.

The visuals and performances are apt here. The breadth of the visual appeal is always tied in with the technological seams that can unravel along with risks to mortality. 

ANNIHILATION, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, GRAVITY, ARRIVAL all have another worthy successor to a canon where science, reason and truth of one’s own individual worth become allies, in a more reflexive bid for empathy.



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Published by anawadhboyspanorama

I launch myself, with a searing, soaring passion for all domains verging on the writerly and creative with a beginner's appetite here and that's how I believe in adding meaning to each day. A lucky mascot of literature, cinema and culture, I come riding on spirited wings from the emblematic city of Lucknow where all those reside and thrive. My breeding ground and my mindscape all are committed to these three life forces. Cinema. Culture. Literature. But the biggest and all consuming parent to these is life that breeds them . There is the discovery that comes from expressing yourself, clear eyed and even mystical, when you come from a city like this. I am here to expand my worldviews, share my earliest inspirations and evolutions and go with the flow through the most accessible outlet there is : writing. Conventionally, my biography is that of a degree holder in English literature encompassing Undergraduate, Postgraduate and M Phil years and every possible experience of learning finer points of knowledge . I have already taken the plunge of creating a solid base for my works by publishing my poems and articles on the renowned worldwide community/ writing sanctuary Wattpad since 2015, a platform which is a miracle for anyone pursuing so much as a flash of wordplay and thoughts to spare. It has redefined my life and allows me to go strong. You can read my works there under the username MadMenWearingFedora / Prithvijeet. That is the springboard that catapulted me to a confident vocational revival. So here I am. Both originality and novelty are the key words to define this eternal student of life. So with the tip of the pen blessing my head and a new vigor, I welcome you all to my realm. AN AWADH BOY'S PANORAMA beckons.

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