The journey: Highway

The lone bird seems to have finally found it's way through the darkness. It has found a way home. High above the hills...a small mud hut... warm hearth... and a place to call it's own.
The darkness has been dispersed by the first rays of the morning sun.

That is Highway!
The journey of a Princess who has forever been locked away in the highest tower of the Castle.
She had spent hours by her window. She would gaze with longing at the world outside. She could see the mountains rise high...watch the birds fly...see the streams flow...but never feel them. She could only imagine how it would be to be at one with nature. She had a dream...a hut atop a hill...a warm hearth...a place to call her own...a home. And then, she found it.

Her Prince did come and he did rescued her from the high tower. There was no horse. No shinning armour. No quality that she could see, judge and quantify. No hopes of a happily ever after.

Dragged away from the tower. Kidnapped. Terror was what she felt. The joy of freedom crept in much later. Beneath a star lit sky...the celestial diamonds glistened in her eyes. She realised her existence. Her life suddenly had more meaning.
She felt the joy that was there in her present state of captivity. She could run. She could go back and hide in the high tower, forever protected. But she felt a certain charm in the recklessness that freedom brought with it. She did not desire the security of the high tower. She was bewitched by the way life had unpredictably unfolded before her eyes. She was charmed by the dangers, they teased her. She welcomed the possibilities that life had to offer, they seemed to flirt with her.

A highway with cross-roads. Heart ruling over the mind. Reasons being overshadowed by longings and dreams.
The choices were made.

She loved the thrill. She was living out her dream. She did not desire the destination. Her longings were for the road...it was the journey of life...she craved the highway to never end. She did not want to stop. A little while longer...just a little bit more... and the road never ends...
Like a child, she was at play.

Dreams are not forever. The slumber has to end.
Choices are to be made.
Wakefulness is painful. The dream is so serene.

If we can dream, we can live it. We can run away from the high tower. We can be at peace.
We can feel the streams rushing down the mountains...feel the cool breeze...
We can touch the green grass...feel the dew drops on them...
We can be who we want to be.
We can be fearless. We are all we have for ourselves. We have nothing to lose.
It takes courage.

The highway is to be traveled till we reach ourselves. Till we learn to Live.

A beautiful painting by Imtiaz Ali. No beauty is flawless, as the moon can never be without its craters...
A poetry in motion...a musical journey through the hills, rivers and planes of Life...
The Highway is a modern day Fairytale of sorts.

Iti Mrinalini

All movies do not make me feel like writing about them...very few do. And Iti Mrinalini makes me want to....i dont know if my words can ever do this piece of art justice... but still...i wish to talk about it and so i will.
Should i write a review or should i just write about what i felt when i saw the movie?

so...i'll just combine the two, the review and my feelings on watching Iti Mrinalini.

The letter remained unfinished. The recapitulation of one's life with just hours left to live...leading to the ultimate realisation that in spite of how the life had been, it is your life. You may have not had the things you had wanted so dearly but you do have someone or something to live for... and the very realisation infuses in you the love for Life and makes you embrace Life...even at the darkest hour you know that you are very close to the dawn. BUT...you never know when Life may take away your chance to live. Uninvited, untimely...maybe just when you have grasped the true worth of your Life...you may have to stop living... you may have to leave...leaving the Letter...your Life, unfinished. ....Iti Mrinalini.

Iti Mrinalini is a riot of colours. The colours of human emotions. The beautiful cinematography gives Life to Mrinalini's reminiscence. Somak Mukherjee has brought the 60s and 70s era alive with his brilliant cinematography. His work deserves special mention...Mrinalini's life is incomplete without his cinematography. Somak gives Mrinalini's mind's eye it's sight.

The music gives the movie its Soul. Debajyoti Mishra's music has played along the lines of Mrinalini's life...recreating the phases that she went through. Sunil Gangopadhyay's poem Smritir Shohor has been beautifully used as the theme. The closer we come to Mrinalini the more relevant the lyrics become.

The strong story and powerful performances override the fact that the movie is slightly lengthy. Konkona plays the younger Mrinalini while her mother Aparna Sen plays the older Mrinalini. Young Mrinalini wants to live life. She has dreams...she has hope...and she has love. The older Mrinalini is broken. She is lost in the darkness of the Night. The pain, hurt and loss...the experiences of life is seen clearly in her eyes. That one night of insufferable anguish that ended in a dawn is the story of Mrinalini. Her life through her own eyes...hours from her death. A death that she had not planned...a death that stopped her midway...and as she fell...she was perhaps trying to embrace life in those early hours of dawn.

The film explores Love, in all its different forms. One that is lively, happy, carefree... one that's more domestic... the love of a mother...and then a kind of love that falls somewhere between friendship and love, and then...one resulting out of loneliness and seclusion.
It is the Love that has no expectations...no bondages...the love that frees you...it is that Love that we must look for and live for... it was this Love that ushered the dawn after the gloomy Night... two simple words that spoke of assurance, care and love "Ami aschi" ("I'm coming")...it were these words that made Minnie smile...a smile that was real, not a result of sad recollections but a genuine smile of hope and love.

The other actors, namely, Rajat Kapoor, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Koushik Sen, have all done a brilliant job by supporting Aparna Sen to create Mrinalini's world.

Mrinalini is more than a character...she is perhaps Life itself...
...and this movie "Iti Mrinalini" is about the unfinished story of Life...