Exploring Neverland

Before The Rain - Movie Review

Posted by Shanky - 0 comments


When we think about time scientifically it is the unit used to specify rates like the rate of change of velocity is acceleration . Philosophically, I think it is circular. Circularity of time has many takers and nature is one of them. The repeating of seasons, day & night are all examples for cyclicity of time. We also observe cyclicity of time in the stages of man's life as depicted by Shakespeare in his seven stages of life which is also incidentally described in Sanskrit vedas (Remember the Rajnikanth song about stages in life?). But when I look at an hour glass, the past is so vast (the bottom of the glass) and future is so vast (the top, of course) while the present is a tiny narrow opening with constant change. It is like everything that happens in life is compressed to a single point in time that our human brains cannot comprehend and hence is expanded by us to experience and enunciate the happenings at that point of time. I know you are wondering why am I blabbering this in a movie review. I am not blabbering! This is what happened inside me, the argument that my mind was having with itself, pulling its hair, searching for more philosophies about time and existence. This is what you will be doing after watching this great movie - Before the Rain.

The film is in three parts - Words, Faces & Pictures. Each word perfectly describes each part with both subtle and in your "face" cues. Each part portrays a love story that is affected, either directly or indirectly, by the conflict happening in the Balkan region. Except for the second part, in which the story is based in London, the other two are shot in Macedonia. The Macedonian born director,  Milčo Mančevski, has done a master piece that is quite possibly one of the best movies that you never heard about! After watching the movie you might either dismiss it as a noob's directorial venture where he did not even pay heeds to editing or you might appreciate his delving deeper into the philosophy of time. One sentence "Time doesn't wait and the circle is not round", that is repeated in the movie either pictorially or verbally, is the corner stone of the movie which eliminates the doubt about the editing skills deployed in this one. 

This is one of those movies which ought to be seen with friends and later to be discussed over drinks. Many sites or so called movie buffs have discussed the genius of Nolan in Inception while a similar euphoria might be absent for this movie it has done well in international circuits. Everytime I have tried to watch this movie, which is thrice in the past week alone, I have discovered something that I had missed earlier that is obvious. When I tried to decipher the movie, with my brain that has been trained in linear thinking and sequential philiospohy of time in which one thing leads to the other, I laughed like a mad person. I won't analyse more about this movie or the cinematography or music. It will not do justice to this very well made movie to say the least. All I can say is that this movie will drive you nuts, will make you want to travel to the shores of Adriatic and make you wonder why are such movies not screened let alone made in India!?
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The Long Road Home

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This is a continuation from my travelogue about Kanchanaburi . 

After a great trip to Kanchanaburi, the paradise that is almost forgotten by tourists, it was time to pack the bags and hit the road home. Have you noticed that the start of the trip is always full of energy and it gets to zero towards the end. What took like 2 seconds to reach the destination from home seems like 2 years while returning!? Well, I guess we all feel that way. But this journey back from Kanchanaburi was as eventful and adrenaline pumping as my onward journey was and hence this day turned out to be an awesome one with good lot of experiences in itself. whoever said that the journey is as important as the destination was a genius!

A pleasant surprise awaited me when I boarded the bus at Kanchanaburi which will take me to Suphanburi. The bus was loaded with Dutch, Deutsche and Brit backpacking students (Of course all girls). I could not believe this! This is the perfect platform to complete Operation Good Indian. I am just disgusted or frustrated by the foreigners who think they know all about India and Indians and pass 'smart ass' judgements. I am seriously pissed! I have been browsing the Lonely planet's thorntree forum for sometime now and the kind of image that foreigners have of India(ns) is pathetic. I just kept to myself and my book till the conductor was asking them 5THB extra than the usual 45THB. Now is the time to be the good samaritan and make my country proud! I jumped in (albeit in a less than heroic way) and asked the conductor in my master class Thai about the extra he was demanding. He explained that these ladies are going to Singburi and not Suphanburi. I was confused and asked him if this bus goes till Singburi and he said yes (or so I thought). I then explained the 5THB difference to them and they were happy. After that two of the girls were chatting with me for a few minutes and everything was silent again. Mission Good Indian accomplished!

But this does not end here for us. As it happens, the bus did not go till Singburi and the conductor pocketed the extra 5THB per passenger in his pocket. His beer for the night has been sponsored by naive farangs. I was sure by now that the girls looked at me like I was accomplice to the whole sham. Shame on such people, be it Thais or Indians who make others look bad! But fate did not let me ponder too much on this, he had better plans. Once we alighted the bus we saw a deserted bus station and the tuk tuk guys literally all over us offering a ride to the best hotel. Yes, the last bus has left for the day and we are stranded in Suphanburi for the night! Though I knew that cheap taxi exists only in an utopian world, being the optimist I am I led the group (of me and the girls) inside the bus station to fend for taxi or any such alternative. Of course, it was exorbhitantly priced and we had to reject it. But the trouble was I was talking in broken Thai and the girls did not understand a bit. They only understood the outcome, which was that they cannot afford the taxi at that price. Here is a stranger who looks like he is helping but there is nothing coming out of his acts. Obviously anyone would be suspicious now and they had starting giving me the looks (Of course the nasty ones). 

I ignored those vile looks anyway and I had a bigger problem now. I am a guy and they are girls. Obviously the whole world will be ready to help them while people will be laughing at my problem. India Vs Rest of World is over and Boys Vs Girls has started in my mind! I come out of the bus station dejected, trying to flag down a car or something! Just then I saw a familiar face. But that guy was trying to hide or at least get out of my view. My heart was jumping with joy and doing reverse somersault. I blurted out pointing my finger at him - "Hey you! you are Taxi driver from Ang thong?! I know you". He just replied with a wide eyed shake of his head. This was my lucky break and I cannot let it go, so I persisted "I know you. You take to Karaoke". Now he identifies me, "Yeah! But no taxi. Taxi in Bangkok flood!" I muttered a few expletives at the flood this time and asked him "How you go Ang Thong?" Now to communicate to a Thai who "knows" English, you need to talk like them. It might be perceived as mocking but what the hell, it gets the job done better! So screw the grammar. Make it a lean sentence with only essential information so that his brain can process it quickly. It really helps!

Now, after this he agreed to call his friend who has a pickup truck and drop me at my colony doorstep. He is the guy who we used to hire when we felt like going to the Karaoke bars in Ang Thong for a weekend drink. So we have given him a lot of business and he better not mess with me :P We are to split the pickup truck cost, to which I happily agreed. Now, the girls were there all the time and have by now confirmed I am a total jerk who in the mask of helping them was trying to rip off money from them. Now that I cannot, I am just fleeing. So, after securing myself it was Mission Good Indian again. I asked my taxi driver "friend" if he has any more friends with pickup trucks to help these lovely ladies. He gave them some numbers and asked them to call. By that time our pick up truck had come. I guess the numbers had worked cause the two who chatted me in the bus were now smiling and waving. Dear Farangs/Phirangs, Indians are not bad. We stare at you because you are different just the same reason why you travel to India (and stare at her) because she is different. 

Falcon calling Mother - Operation Good Indian complete. Returning to base!
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Rishikesh - Near Death Experience

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Ganges and the Tents

After the eventful journey to Auli and awesome time skiing, we wanted a quiet time in Rishikesh. This quiet little town on the banks of ganges offers you solitude and activities as you want it. Its unique because nowhere in India you can choose what you want to do without locking yourself up in your room. But in Rishikesh, you get to be outdoors and still dictate terms about what you want to do which is a luxury in India. Rishikesh is a popular weekend getaway for the folks at my business school. We had contacted one of the rafting tour operators before we arrived and met him at his rafting office that afternoon. After brief introductions we were taken to the camp site, 7kms from the main city of Rishikesh and right at the banks of the mighty Ganges on which we were going to raft the next day. For the evening, we were to settle down in our tents and go on an easy hike to a nearby waterfall. The entry fee to the waterfall was INR 10 as we were Indian students :) The waterfall was amazing and we had a cool dip in the pristine water. I had a few more crawling moments while going up hill. I was like po from kung fu panda in this regard. But my amazing friends almost carried me to the top and simply refused to move ahead without me - *sniff sniff* ;)

Discussing Life, Sports and Such
We came back from the waterfall and had snacks waiting for us at the banks of the river. It was barbeque near the river and we were missing our rum & coke combo! With the cool breeze caressing our faces, playfully disheveling our hair and kissing on our cheeks, a fire was now started to help us brave the chill and the sound of the gushing river few feet away with only your friends and nature for company - this was paradise! After snacks and some more general talk about life, sports and such we had our dinner and reitred to our tents. These are very basic tents with no fan or A/C or attached bathroom but the very fact that it was right next to the river was more than enough for us boys. However, next morning we faced the first uncomfortable moment of such tents; there was no proper rest room and it was a sand pit in which you have to relieve yourself. All the pressure that was built was gone and our bowels made a timid retreat! But what is adventure without sand pits and cleaning with stones/leaves!? Also we did not want to raft with people farting all around. So we went through the motion. 

Between sand pit and breakfast we played soccer on the beach of Ganges and I gloriously sucked at it. But the real adventure began after breakfast, we were briefed by our guide for the day about the safety precautions. The only glitch being he came across like the "10 second" Tom from the movie 50 first dates. He briefed us for 5 minutes and suddenly in the middle of a sentence would go about securing the dry bag to the raft. Then continue for sometime and then go back adjusting the dry bag. This continued for at least 30 minutes by the end of which we were laughing our heads off thinking about the crazy guys we had met in this trip and he had no clue why. We were coupled with a few other friends from our college (a shocker for us, we would have preferred girls. But such is life!) . We started on our rafting and it was fairly simple with grade 2 and grade 3 rapids. The names of the rapids were fun too - washing machine, butter fly, double trouble etc. We started a little farther up from our camp and reached our camp for lunch. After lunch, our guide told us it will be easier than pre-lunch session as we just had lunch. But we all missed the naughty smile that accompanied the declaration. 

Cliff Jumping!
The next few of the rapids were easy, grade 2 and 2.5. Then we anchored off near a cliff where every raft seemed to be stopping by to  allow its patrons enjoy the exciting cliff jump. i am not sure about the height of the cliff but it was exhilarating! It was super fun and pure adrenaline pump! After cliff jumps and making fun about how the other guys were scared to death, we resumed our rafting. The next one was actually a grade 4, for which none of us was ready and were pretty laidback about it, and the raft partially capsized leaving everyone one my side of the raft smack at the eye of the rapid. 

One of my friend was lucky to have caught the safety rope and was immediately rescued. The soccer captain and I were a little farther away from the raft by now. He lost his paddle and I had to retrieve and hold on to my paddle and his paddle while being battered by the rapid. This was not easy at all and a lot of ganges water was swallowed in the process. Just then I look back and see that we are actually being propelled towards a cliff by the rapid and this just pressed panic button in me. The soccer captain was oblivious to it and was asking me to remain calm and just go with the flow! I shouted back and signalled the cliff to him which made him pee a little, I am sure, though he will not admit it. I missed the "T-rescue" move as well and was further drifted from the raft. Luckily they somehow managed to get to us and save both of us before we smashed into the cliff! I love adventure, water related especially as I am a strong swimmer, but this was too much for me as well. Rest of the rafting was pretty easy but still we were a little shaken by the previous rapid and were alert at all times. 

We passed Ram and Lakshman jhoola, the two suspension bridges that connects the town with the other side of the bank and reached Rishikesh. We got ourselves dried up and it was time to bid good bye to our guide and leave Rishikesh that night. We went into the city, had a cup of coffee and snacks before we booked our ticket to Delhi. We left our bags at the transport office and went to cross the Lakshman Jhoola and spend sometime watching the sun go down from the Ganges. We spent the evening at the banks reminising the entire trip and video recording each of our fun moments as video logs. Basically it was four guys in a serene environment having some guys time :) When it was time to leave, we finished our dinner at the famous chottiwala restaurant and left Rishikesh with some great memories.
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