Deny To Affirm

A recent re-watch of the 2006 movie “Stranger Than Fiction” was, well – a strange experience. The movie is self-referential and high on literary criticism - yet very engaging. The premise of the story is that Harold, a taxman suddenly starts to hear a voice-over reciting his life. And as it turns out, the narrator is a fiction author with writer’s block who nonetheless is famous for killing the main character in her books. Harold figures it all out along the way and meets the author in order to stop his “imminent death”. By the third act of the movie the author has finally devised a method of knocking off Harold – albeit with a “poetic” & “meaningful” death. After reading the draft - where Harold runs in front of a bus to save a young boy - Harold reconciles with his own death and accepts what is coming.

As I saw the movie, the constant thought I had in my mind was that this was a familiar tale - a man communicating with an omnipotent voice that finally convinced him to willingly accepting his own death for the “greater good”. In fact it is the most widely told tale in human history – the story of last days of Jesus. The part that conforms to this movie is of course that of Jesus’s dialogue with God, specifically - The Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. The theology of the conversation is the content of all Good Friday sermons. But at its crux is the acceptance by Jesus that his death was necessary for a higher purpose.

A graceful last act is not always afforded to people. Imagine other living things at the end of their lives and how they die. D H Lawrence in his poem “Self-Pity” once wrote –

I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
without ever having felt sorry for itself.

An alternate form of life (a more natural form of life perhaps!) is proposed here – not only unfettered by the wallow of self-pity, but also unbound by the sentimentality in getting to the very end of life. A lack of awareness of one’s mortality, as is the case for non-humans, may help here. People on the other hand are hyper-aware of their mortality. A large number of life choices are made with that knowledge. People do altruistic acts to make the pain of leaving the stage more bearable, maybe in the belief that they can rest in the knowledge that they played their “part”. Public service and any other forms of “helping out” maybe means of finding closure and meaning. In a sense people may not mind abiding by the maxim - “What would Jesus do?” when it comes to dying. Since what the Bible says Jesus did at the end is – accept the hand dealt and died in the service of mankind.

Another famous incident on the topic of altruistic suicide is that of British Captain Lawrence Oates during an unsuccessful expedition to the South Pole in 1912. Story goes that a gravely sick Captain Oates willfully walked out of the tent into a blizzard and to certain death in order for his team to have a better chance of survival – given their dwindling rations and them having to care for him. His understated famous last words were – “I am going out and may be some time”. To qualify it as simply courageous – seems to be doing a disservice to the act. The difference between the choice that Harold or Jesus faced and that Captain Oates made is that in the case of the Captain we do not have a record of the inner reasoning that went into such a momentous decision. 

 In December 2014, news carried the story of a Chinese woman Qiu Yuanyuan - who died by opting out of chemotherapy for treating her cancer in order to give her unborn child a chance to survive. Admittedly there is an element of vicarious living here for the cynical minded. But it is also true that this form of altruistic suicide is the most commonplace and relatable of all the other instances cited above. The notion of “greater good” that is normally seen as a valid justification is modified here into the hopes and possibilities that a child brings. Therefore in this act of denial of life, there is also affirmation of life.

Tributes to Qiu Yuanyuan

Links:
"Pregnant Chinese woman with cancer dies after refusing chemo to save son" - The Hindustan Times
"Antarctic mission: Who was Captain Lawrence Oates?" - BBC News 

The Purpose Of The Others

A few weeks ago during the ongoing US Presidential election campaign, President Barack Obama made a speech where he controversially used the words "You didn't build that" in reference to how individual wealth creation is dependent on social institutions and structures. The soundbites of the speech were relayed on the news networks and on the internet (below):

The immediate para of the "You didn't build that" part of the speech was:

"If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help.  There was a great teacher somewhere in your life.  Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive.  Somebody invested in roads and bridges.  If you’ve got a business -- you didn’t build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn’t get invented on its own.  Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."

-US President Barack Obama

Something about this speech felt familiar. Deja vu perhaps? Then the speech faded from memory.

 During this morning's journey to work, I heard words that brought this speech back to mind. I was listening to one of my brother's music CDs when an old telugu song came on. This song too talks of the futility of self-absorption and calls for the realization of the organic nature of human existence within the social framework. The song was from the telugu movie "Rudraveena" called "Chuttu Pakkala Choodara Chinnavada" ("Look Around Little One") written by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri. 

The last stanza of the song roughly translates to:

Every grain you eat, was produced by this community

The life in which you take pride, was shaped by this society

When the time comes to repay your debt, are you fleeing?

Will you burn the boat, after you've crossed the stream? 

 

 Both the song and the speech have a socialist tone. In the song this message is contrasted against a mystical and spiritual understanding of human existence. While the same message is used by Obama to counter an existential interpretation of free-market individualism. Put together, these interpretation have sought to project socialism as a beacon to refute both the atheistic & worldly as well as the religious & other-worldly interpretations of human existence.

 But in this effort to glorify socialism in poetry and prose, one aspect that remains unanswered is the extent to which collectivism is an end as opposed to it merely being the means. This element of vanity within socialism was captured by the comedian John Foster Hall in his often quoted pithy one-liner:

"We are all here on earth to help others; what on earth the others are here for, I don’t know"

- John Foster Hall

Links:

1. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/07/13/remarks-president-campaign-event-roanoke-virginia

2. http://www.lyricsintelugu.com/2010/07/rudraveena-lyrics-chuttu-pakkala.html

3. http://audensociety.org/vivianfoster.html

Energetic Panel

This morning moving solely on an impulse for Ghee Idlis served at Purna Tiffins in Krishna Nagar, we started from my place at 10 and made our way through Film Nagar. There we were hit in the face by a colossal hoarding placed strategically on the foot-overbridge opposite the Film Nagar Cultural Centre/Club (FNCC). It was a campaign billboard for the upcoming elections to the FNCC. If ever there was a way to make sure your constituents memorized your face (and the faces of everyone of your proposed "energetic panel" in the order of their importance/portrait size), this was it.



After getting our quota of idlis, we headed back to base. But the traffic began to clog at Jubilee Hills Checkpost and sure enough it was because of the most common cause of traffic jams in Hyderabad - one Mr. Harish Rao. The protesters were fired up and we were filled up - no contest. So we took detour after detour and in due time got back.

I guess the common thread between the two experiences was politics. The Film Nagar Society membership costs upwards of Rs. 25 Lakh and has a waiting period of over 10 years and therefore their members-only annual elections are literally and allegorically "above the road" on which common people commute. The street protests by the Telangana activists on the other hand was very much "on the road".

Though the real common thread of it all is my undying affection for good food. Again, both literally and allegorically.

Threat Perception

Today, on the roads I came across this evangelist's vehicle with a "for any prayer request" call sticker on its rear window. It also featured the following eerie verse from the bible (in upper case,bold and underlined in red!) :

"PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD"

With this disconcerting message stickered on the burly vehicle, it sort of felt like a direct threat to the safety and well being of fellow motorists and pedestrians who were to get in its way. And in the context, the prayer call request made more sense as one final opportunity to beg for mercy!

Thankfully I kept my distance and we parted ways without incident. Praise the Lord.

"Therefore thus will I do unto thee, O Israel: and because I will do this unto thee, prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. "
-Amos 4:12, Bible

Road Movie Links:
Duel: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_%281971_film%29
Death Proof: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_Proof
Joy Ride: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_Ride_%282001_film%29

Appropriation

Clint Eastwood's 2006 World War II movie "Flags of Our Fathers" is about the significance of the raising of the first and second foreign flags on Japanese soil in a thousand years and how history gets recorded and relayed to suit the narrative. The movie revolves around Joe Rosenthal's iconic photograph (below) of the raising of the second American flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima, Japan and its use as a propaganda tool to raise money for the war efforts. It also shows the moral conflict that the soldiers in the photograph face when they realize that they are assigned the role of national heroes for the simple task of raising a flag while the erectors of the first flag went unrecognized because there were no inspirational photographs to go along with that event.

In this context, the artwork on the walls of the Khairatabad flyover in Hyderabad stands out. These are works commissioned by the municipal corporation which include a series of hand-painted murals meant to kindle a certain patriotic fervor among the commuters while stuck in traffic. One of these murals, named "Great History" is suspiciously similar to the Iwo Jima picture except for one major difference - the flag is here is an Indian one. The artist either does not have an issue with being unoriginal or is a master of irony.

Links:
Review: Flags of Our Fathers - http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071129/REVIEWS/71129001/1023
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima

All Action

This is a photograph from today's Times of India (courtesy AFP, it says) and must be the most frequently used image of the incident that newspapers around the world went with. It depicts a Pakistani commando carrying away an injured victim of yesterday's Lahore mosque attack.

A uniformed man running with a gun in one hand and a whole person under the other while in the midst of a hostile situation - action movie posters need to catch up.


http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2010/05/29/massacre-as-70-die-and-2-000-held-hostage-in-pakistan-mosques-115875-22294051/

Anti-Constitutional Technologies

This evening in the Rajya Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition Mr. Arun Jaitley started a short duration discussion on the politically motivated telephone tapping scandal and the 2G spectrum auction related telephone tapping by the IT department. Other than cornering the government for big-brothering the system, Mr. Jaitley, an eminent lawyer also brought the usual civil liberties angle to the debate. But deviating from the expected 'sanctity of personal privacy' rhetoric, he hinted at an idea that certain technologies could make the constitutional protections irrelevant:

"... And you are now going in for a technology which has a complete mismatch to this entire constitutional scheme and guarantee. And the mismatch is, well I have got a technology which does not respect India's Constitution, which defies the entire constitutional protection that I have, and that technology, when it drives around the country is in a position to bug everybody else's telephone."
- Mr. Arun Jaitley, MP Rajya Sabha

I am sure the lawmakers can legislate on almost any subject, so if a technology gets out of hand they will find a way to limit and prohibit its usage, just as they do with Nuclear Energy. But what if a new technology comes along that can really make it a nightmare for anyone to regulate its usage - a suicide bomber scenario in technology regulation. At that point, the futility of the laws will be clear for all to see.


Now I don't know if Mr. Jaitley has seen The Dark Knight but the "too much power for anyone to have" premise that he alluded to is also seen in that film's climax. The movie version is a fictional cellphone sonar technology that can basically locate anyone in Gotham city. Batman's ally Lucius Fox raises similar apprehensions as Mr. Jaitley does, although for more philosophical and less political reasons. But in the movie as long as the good guy uses it, its all cool. So the question is if we see the Government of India as the good guy.

Links:
Rajya Sabha Proceedings, 29th April 2010 (Read from Pg 12 onwards): http://164.100.47.5/newdebate/219/29042010/16.00pmTo17.00pm.pdf
http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article417847.ece?homepage=true
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lobbyists-phone-tap-revives-2G-scam-row/articleshow/5870446.cms
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2008/07/bat_gadgets

The Eyes Have It

Today the only remaining form of visual art that is truly accessible to the general public is the movie poster. They are everywhere, in the cities they occupy all vertical surfaces within eyeshot, in the more rural areas they are seen up on those kaccha walls. Within the limits of a few square feet of space the poster has to convey an idea to the viewer that should tickle him into spending time and money on the movie - the job of designing these posters is as much a challenge as making the actual movies.

A recent poster that caught my eye was of Mahesh Manjerekar's City of Gold. The intended emotion of dispossessed anger that the filmmaker wants to convey comes through clearly in the posters.


The subject matter of the film is about the shutting down of the textile mills of Bombay in the 80s to make way for real estate developers to erect structures that form the current skyline of the city thus resulting in the destitution of mill workers. Incidentally the producers of the movie, DAR Motion Pictures are themselves into real estate development.

Links:
http://www.marchingants.net/home.htm
http://www.impawards.com/designers/marching_ants.html

Use of the Rule

"If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?" - Anton Chigurh from the film 'No Country for Old Men'

The above mentioned line is delivered by a philosophical, albeit psychopathic hitman before killing someone in the movie. Violence is a draw at the movies, people are always curious. Everything that has anything to do with conflict, be it mental or physical, arouses our interest. Scripts are written on the three act formula. Exposition, Confrontation and Resolution. The stress is inevitably on the confrontation.

While we all try to avoid conflict in our lives, all the while we are aware that smooth sailing is a relative concept - there will come a time to face up to circumstances where one might come up short. This abrasive nature of existence is not lost on our subconscious. Our search in stories of conflicts is a search for a prism through which to look for clues as to how to deal with such dire situations. In the heat of the moment, we hope that our learnings will help us find a way out.

What happens on reflex is common to all creatures, the responses that set us apart are the ones that are voluntary. Hence the stories that are retained and repeated by society are the ones which at their core are instruction manuals for behavior when faced with crisis. Ancient mythological epic adventures of every culture form a part of these tried and tested guidelines. A case in point - Bhagavad Gita.

The realization of the fact that inaction cannot be a valid response when faced with those crunch moments is the start point for the development of a crisis encountering mechanism by an individual. With a gameplan now in place to face any eventuality, one can go about life without hesitations and second thoughts as long as one keeps to the rules drawn up for survival.

But eventually the walls crumble and you sail towards your terminal confrontation knowing that the endgame is imminent. At that point of final settlement one last contention remains: "If the rule you followed brought you to this, of what use was the rule?"

Survival as Victory

Reading a bit of history this week, I came across an amazing story. Very apt for a big budget movie adaptation in the genre of Lawrence of Arabia. It is the story of the half-dead Dr. William Brydon of the British East India Company who in 1842 was the sole survivor out of a party of 16,000 during the 140 km retreat east from Kabul to Jalalabad in the first Anglo-Afghan war. There is war, intrigue, history, tragedy, endurance and in the end there is survival.

Here is Dr. William Brydon's first person account from the archives of The Times newspaper dated 7th April 1842 of the happenings of that week in January. The randomness of survival in such circumstances is a striking feature of his matter-of-fact report. A painting by Elizabeth Butler - "The Remnants of an Army" furthered the legend of the event and that of Afghanistan in those times (below).


For the nearest cinematic experience of similar times and occurrences, watch "The Man Who Would Be King" which is based on a short story by Rudyard Kipling who surely must have been aware of this tale.

More Info:

1. http://www.theestimate.com/public/100501_dossier.html
2. http://afpakwar.com/blog/2009/09/16/pictures-of-war-can-carry-more-moral-meaning-than-thousands-of-words/
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Brydon
4. http://www.britishbattles.com/first-afghan-war/kabul-gandamak.htm
5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbreakable_%28film%29

HR Nightmare: Ninja Assassin

In the urge to get a fill of movie violence, I made my way to "Ninja Assassin" recently. Blood hit the ceiling and walls regularly and the body count was high. Any semblance of logical coherence was neither expected nor delivered. But surprisingly there is a story (all be it unintentional) hiding behind all the limb-dicing and blood letting. And this story finds resonance with the most far removed profession from martial arts i.e. - human resource.

Premise
Raizo the protagonist and the namesake of the title, is a member of one of the deadly and ancient clan of Ninjas. Ninjas are the traditional Japanese professional assassins-for-hire. The whole of the story of "Ninja Assassins" is encompassed by the two words in the title - Raizo turns on the clan and starts assassinating Ninjas. Very straight-forward and no nonsense.

The HR interpretation
First, Raizo was kidnapped and brainwashed as a young child by the Ninja clan. As a strategy the kidnap and indoctrination method of external recruitment is extremely effective, the armed forces come very close to this in their cadet system although they don't exactly kidnap children. The possibility of dissent is almost eliminated and hence there is no challenge to the organization and methods until Raizo's rejection of his surrogate community in the film shows up the importance of self-identity for an employee. Also the lack of internal recruitment (like say - heredity) means that the ninjas deal with an unknown commodity each time they recruit.

Second, the training through discipline and punishment keep the trainee ninjas on a tight leash. We see that Raizo's love interest, Kiriko is not convinced by the direction of the training and rebels leading to her execution. After that Raizo develops a grudge against the system which inevitably leads to his departure from their fold. The lesson here is to not alienate trainees through unreasonable practices.

Next, the incentives and perks should be designed to provide motivation to the employees. The ninjas demand of 100 pounds of gold per hit should normally be a great inducement for them. But the movie shows the ninjas leading an almost ascetic life in the mountains where wealth seems to be of little consequence to their personalities. Although Raizo is informed time and again that he would take over from his master, the prospect of promotion is not a resource retaining incentive for Raizo and the clan fails to recognize this.

Finally, the non existence of an exit strategy is the main personnel issue within their system. The conflict between Raizo and the ninjas can be put down to the lack of a proper means of amicable severance where everybody lives. The bad blood between Raizo and the ninjas leads to Raizo ganging up with the enemies of the ninjas i.e. law enforcement, resulting in the climatic battle thus dooming the clan. Interpretation - Poaching is a major issue in ninja land too.

Extra Reading:

1. India's Ninja Version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thuggie
2. India's pride? Behram, World's Top Assassin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Most_prolific_murderers_by_number_of_victims

Ramayana and The Searchers

It is interesting to juxtapose stories from different cultures and times to observe the varying conclusions drawn from very similar circumstances. These conclusions serve as a mirror of the values held dear by the different cultures and help us understand how we view the same world from different places. Here is an exercise in this endeavor.

Ramayana
The ancient Indian epic by Valmiki is centered around the abduction of Rama's wife Sita by Ravana of Lanka. The word "Ramayana" mean Rama's Journey. It narrates the tale of Rama's search for his wife. In this search Rama is aided by his brother Lakshmana and disciple Hanuman. The posse set out to ascertain the abductor's identity and then make the journey to Lanka to confront and defeat Ravana. On rescuing Sita, Rama asks his wife to prove her chastity after which he accepts her.

The Searchers
The Searchers is a 1956 western movie starring John Wayne and directed by John Ford. The story is about Ethan Edwards whose young niece Debbie is abducted in a Comanche raid by Scar. Ethan then wanders the American West along with his kin Martin Pawley for years to find Debbie . On finding her, they kill Scar and after initially trying to kill the now Comanche-raised Debbie, Ethan has a change of heart and accepts her.

Commonalities
The common threads running through them are of violation, abduction, retribution and redemption. The stories are primarily told through the eyes of the wronged man and not the woman who was the target of the act. Both Ravana and Scar are seen as savages, one as a demon king of Lanka and other a wild Native-American Comanche chief. The abductor in both stories have a back story which explains their actions and project them in a new light of moral ambiguity. In a more primal sense, they depict an innate fear of dispossession. Finally towards the end, the main characters of Rama and Ethan are shown up to be less than impeccable and fighting demons of their own.

Contrasts
Given the similar situations encountered, the tales do diverge in many aspects. Sita never accepts her fate and believes that her husband will come to her rescue while Debbie is forced to live her new life as one of Scar's wives. Rama is portrayed as someone who can do no wrong yet on succeeding in his quest he doubts his wife. Rama's behavior though is regarded as somewhat understandable by both the characters in the story and the audience at large. Whereas in The Searchers, Ethan is an outlaw and the motives of Ethan's search turn from finding his niece to killing her within a few years with the realization that she must have turned more Comanche and less "civilized". His fellow searcher, Martin does not approve of Ethan's intentions and this disapproval is reflected by the audience. Therefore we see Ethan as a character more true to his beliefs irrespective of others' approval as opposed to Rama.

Another point of contrast is the climactic transformation. Rama has historically been seen as an avataar of God, hence all character flaws have been brushed aside. Throughout Ramayana, even when asking Sita to prove her chastity Rama does not doubt his own actions. Whereas Ethan with his sure intention of killing, when finally facing his now Comanche niece has a change of heart. Ethan goes from a man who is sure of his action to a man doing the right thing - an antithesis of Rama's Dharma.

Interesting Readings:

1. Review of The Searchers : http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20011125/REVIEWS08/111250301/1023
2. Read the Plot of The Searchers here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Searchers_%28film%29
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayana
5. "Epic Proportions" by Ethan Gidsdorf : Contemporary themes and interpretations of Epics

Tales of Heads

The Tirumala Venkateswara Temple at Tirupati, India is the richest and the most visited temple in the world. Devotees from far and wide make the pilgrimage and the folklore of the temple is well known throughout India. Although insignificant in comparison to its religious importance yet there is one other reason for temple town's fame - Tirupati is the world's largest producer of human hair, infact enough to make India the world's largest exporter of hair.

One of the traditions at the temple is the tonsuring of millions of devotees' heads as an offering to the Gods. The hair thus donated finds great value in the international market. The temple's trust - Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam is charged with the management of the shrine and consequently also auctioning the tonnes of hair to generate revenue for the temple.

The current accepted notion of beautiful hair is very close to the Indian variety. The average Indian woman's head is not accustomed to the cosmetic torture that the western woman puts herself through and hence the quality of the export is better. Therefore the hair goes into making hair extensions, wigs and other cosmetic products consumed in a culture very different from the producer's. Here is an example of harmonious trade among nations where everyone comes out a winner, well almost. Although there are no complaints about the trade practices but it escapes most of us that the business is based on a uniquely uneasy issue - beauty.

Both beauty and the beholder's eye are functions of culture. The dominant culture or race in a society dictates the standards of beauty which generally resemble their own physiology. Therefore in the US where African-American women are a minority in all respects, it becomes harder to sustain their idea of beauty against the onslaught of the establishment's ideas, especially regarding African hair. This is the subject of a recent movie/documentary by the acclaimed African-American comedian Chris Rock - "Good Hair", he even came down to Tiruapti to follow the fake hair trail to its origins.

While the devotees in Tirupati are oblivious to the role their hair plays in the psychological battle overseas, at home they are subject to a very similar barrage with regard to skin colour. The cosmetic industry in India has been steadily picking up on the idea of fairness of skin as a desirable trait and has been eating away at the minds of Indians for years in order to sell their products. The harm that such ideas do to a population is inexcusable and the effects of such campaigns on children are especially horrendous. Ultimately though such ideas only survive because of our tacit support no matter how harebrained they may seem.

Update - Chris Rock's visit to Tirupati:

Interesting Readings:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,536349,00.html
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/10/09/movies/09hair.html?scp=1&sq=good%20hair&st=cse
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/world/a-religious-tangle-over-the-hair-of-pious-hindus.html?pagewanted=all
http://seedofdevotion.blogspot.com/2008/12/liberation-at-21.html
http://www.godammit.com/2009/03/14/the-ethics-of-hair-extensions/

A New Man

In the news this week was the Tamil movie "Kanchivaram" for winning the Indian Government's National Award for the best film of the year. A thorough and in depth review of the movie and it's historic sources and significance can be found in this Frontline magazine article. The nature of communism and its origins in India are shown in the movie. But what is of greater interest is the message about Marxist ideals' uncomfortable existence in the Indian setting.


Tamil film : Kanchivaram

The criticism of an egalitarian utopian society is easily made on the grounds of feasibility or realism. These arguments have been supported and upheld in many states around the world over the past century. The almost ritualistic cycle of unrest - revolution - reform - decay - collapse are seen in various current and former red states. But the romanticism of true equality persists none the less. And although democratic values could in theory espouse these notions of parity, we see today that democracy rarely mixes with communism.

For some, the failure of Communism was inevitable owing to its dichotomy with Human Nature. The argument is that communist ideology is at loggerheads with the basic human instinct of self preservation and greed. But Leon Trotsky saw this contrast as a sign of the human race breaking away from its animal origins and taking the reigns of its destiny into its own hands - a response to the cognition of biological evolution.

The movie "Kanchivaram" deals with this very disconnect between our ideals and our human condition. In an anti-thesis for communism in the Indian context, poverty and customs are shown as as the trigger for the protagonist to abandon the greater cause for a narrower call of personal importance. Sacrifices are a luxury the poor cannot afford. And in showing this betrayal of doctrine, the film reveals that in contrast to the popular thought of poverty as a precondition for the establishment of communism, in India poverty in fact also moves the desperate away from communism.

The failure of the idyllic vision of a revolution leading its citizenry to evolve into greater beings has been aptly captured in the following soliloquy by a soviet officer in the 2001 movie "Enemy at the Gates" set in the Battle for Stalingrad.

"Man will always be man; there is no 'New Man'. We tried so hard to create a society that was equal where there will be nothing to envy your neighbor. But there is always something to envy – a smile, a friendship, something you don’t have and want to appropriate. In this world, even a soviet one, there will always be rich and poor: rich in gifts, poor in gifts – rich in love, poor in love."