What have you seen lately ...

I consider myself a well hardened cynical sort of a person, but over the course of past week, I managed to see not one but two movies, which nearly moved me to tears ( there were actual tears in one instance only …) .

Brokeback Mountain. Set in breathtaking locales (mostly Canadian Rockies), It is a story to two men and a strange relationship. Love stories don't move me so anymore because the obstacles to love seem so artificial. Religion, color, caste, marriage, duty all of these have oft been explored and in this day and age, it is so hard to believe that someone would give up all consuming love because of them. But this was slightly different, in that set in the early 60s -70s when a different sexual orientation was equated with being 'queer', the fear of ostracism was fear for your life. The portrayal of the way the relationship starts and what it becomes, is amazing in its credibility and subtlety. As it progresses, it is painful to watch the toll the relationship takes. If you can't fix it you gotta stand it... so says Ennis, and stand it, he does, as stoically as only a cowboy could. And Jack, the rodeo cowboy, full of life... you see life slowly seep out of him as the secrecy and elusiveness of the relationship take its toll on him, I wish I knew how to quit you...

Rang De Basanti. The story of generation born in free India. This has been a somewhat common phenomenon in Hindi movies in the past decade.
Maachis comes to mind as the first movie where a bunch of young men and women find themselves caught up in something far beyond their meter. Dil Chahta Hai, ended up being a coming of age movie while Swades focused on the 'what have you done for your country lately' sentiment, albeit from the NRI standpoint. Lakshaya was perhaps the most direct of them all.
This generation does not have a purpose, it does not have a belief system. They are mostly culturally and religiously agnostic people cut adrift in the society. They hate the system, the corruption, the ostentation... and yet they feel helpless when it comes to doing something about it....partly because they lack role models and partly because the job is so huge they can't fathom starting it. Rang De Basanti carries the story a bit farther. It is an extreme story. But the amazing part is how real the portrayal is.
No mushy-unbelievable melodrama. You see these young people transforming. Doing things they used to think were completely and utterly over the top. The testament to the movie was the stuffed movie hall in which I saw the movie. Usually smart alec-y comments abound from my co- movie-watchers, for the buffoons watching the movies are just as incredulous of things like purpose, belief in something beyond themselves. The first half was all laughter and fun (with the high point being the blue-eyed blond Gwyneth Paltrow look-alike letting out a full fledged Hindi epithet 'ma-ki -'... oh the thunderous applause!). The second half the pace changes, there is blood and gore and the crowd of some 400 viewer is carried thru the journey of transformation, not a single cackle. Maybe the change wasn't just in the movie....