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Mauritius: dharam - a path of growth
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L'Express (Port Louis)
OPINION
4 April 2008
Posted to the web 4 April 2008
Shakuntala Hawoldar
Port Louis
Pankaj Kapoor and Supriya Pathak in the film which questions knowledge without wisdom, which venerates the past without the light of intelligence.
Watch this film! This is a film that takes you to yourself! You think you know you are so knowledgeable. Think again! You think the past is sacrosanct and cannot be altered. Wrong again! This is a film, which talks about growth, about intentionality and purity of motive. This is a film which questions knowledge without wisdom, which venerates the past without the light of intelligence.
«Husband veneration» and common sense
The priest so ably enacted by Pankaj Kapoor trembles before the choices before him and the camera captures every nuance of his thoughts - rebellious, untameable thoughts but the sea of humanity overcomes every scruple. Rites and rituals have to serve Man and Man on his altar is colourless like water, wild as the undiscriminating wind of compassion that sweeps the present clean of its dead leaves and empty husks of Dogma and rigidity. There is a oneness that binds blood to blood, heart to heart and the priest surrenders to the larger God, to the Shiva who does not know the Muslim from the Hindu.
Who can bring these transformations? The Director's tour de force is the entry of a child innocent - translucent and vulnerable. Should the human being be saved from himself? These words Hindu, Muslim, Christian and Jew are invented by man to suit his own greed. Swords will drop when the larger truth shines because criminals, murderers, the pseudo and the real finally serve the same God.
The message is not new, you'll argue... the thoughts are as old as the hills. Fine!.. how will those thoughts travel space and time to reach you. The 'you' is normally so well surrounded by time-servers like 'duplicity', 'cunning', and 'stupidity'. This angry froth needs to be understood, contained and confronted with raw courage of not just brain power - but heart to withstand, will to suffer and strength to face repression and fragmentation.
This film's message does not wow the amazing grit of the actress Supriya Pathak who lives the fearful and the feared battle of right and wrong. How she combines her Pati-Vrata or "husband veneration" with common sense and happy cunning of the embattled survivor is a feat to be admired. The priest has to walk in his pounds of flesh while his spirit walks forth to conquer new realms where he takes not just his family - but - all and sundry, miscellaneous groundlings and growlings from the street and from the holes of horror.
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Please go and watch this film. It has a message for Bush, for Bin Laden and for everyone of us!
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