Cast Away- A Review

We both had done the math. Kelly added it all up and... knew she had to let me go. I added it up, and knew that I had... lost her. 'cos I was never gonna get off that island. I was gonna die there, totally alone. I was gonna get sick, or get injured or something. The only choice I had, the only thing I could control was when, and how, and where it was going to happen. So... I made a rope and I went up to the summit, to hang myself. I had to test it, you know? Of course. You know me. And the weight of the log, snapped the limb of the tree, so I-I - , I couldn't even kill myself the way I wanted to. I had power over “nothing”. And that's when this feeling came over me like a warm blanket. I knew, somehow, that I had to stay alive. Somehow. I had to keep breathing. Even though there was no reason to hope. And all my logic said that I would never see this place again. So that's what I did. I stayed alive. I kept breathing. And one day my logic was proven all wrong because the tide came in, and gave me a sail. And now, here I am. I'm back. In Memphis, talking to you. I have ice in my glass... And I've lost her all over again. I'm so sad that I don't have Kelly. But I'm so grateful that she was with me on that island. And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring? Chuck Noland, Cast Away

The movie Cast Away is one of the foremost among the genre called survival movie, a genre in which the main plot surrounds around a hero/heroine who is in a struggle for survival. In the movie, the hero Chuck Noland is an employee in FedEx. He is in a relationship when the movie begins. The action turns into a new dimension when the hero’s plane crashed and he landed in a lonely island. After a gap of some years, he reaches back to his home town safely.

First and foremost, Cast Away is a survival movie. In this genre, the plot goes around a single individual, here Chuck Noland. Mostly, other characters are insignificant, or will get only very few roles. One classic example will be Daniel Defoe Robinson Crusoe. Though it cannot be considered as an essential feature, absence of strong female characters can also be seen in these kinds of movies. In Cast Away also, the heroine gets only little bit of importance. When the psychological struggle of the hero gets more focus, the same mental struggle of the heroine is limited to one or two scenes. In other words, the hero is one who faces a real challenge, and overcome all these hazards with a strong will power, which is rare or even beyond human abilities, the heroine is submissive and accepts the suggestions of the society and marries another man due to social pressure ( in this movie). Therefore, we can say that the movie is ‘his’ struggle rather than ‘hers.’

Is it possible for someone to survive in a lonely island without human contact and nothing to eat? The answer depends on how we see the world. A normal man would consider it impossible to live without the help of anyone. Some others feel that if we have a strong will power and the help of god, anything is possible. However, living alone in an island without any connection with the ‘real world’ is impossible, in my opinion. A person, who gets into a totally unfamiliar world, a lonely island or in any other foreign place, cannot easily adapt to the newer changes. He will always try to analyze and contrast this alien/dream world with his ‘real world’. For this, he needs something to connect with his real world, an image, a photo or anything, to constantly reminds him of his real world where he can go back at once. This totem is very much important for remaining sane in this other world. In the movie, the football which Noland names as Mr. Wilson becomes his true companion.

Mr. Wilson helps his to connect with the real world, but once the hero arrives to his home town safely, this totem is no longer relevant. That’s why Mr. Wilson disappears in the sea when the hero goes back.

The movie is significant in other respects also. As discussed earlier, the movie is about ‘his story’. It is the story of a man who overcomes all the difficulties but finally becomes victorious. In other words, “it is possible, or everything is possible” if we have a mind to achieve it. The movie is the celebration of individual success, a success no one can thwart.

Friday, 13th Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister

“Don't walk under any ladders, Don't break any mirrors, Don't spill any salt, And don't walk by any black cats. Happy Friday the 13th!”

On 13th Friday, 2013, the BJP Parliamentary Board has ‘unanimously’ declared Narendra Modi as their prime ministerial candidate. As the old guards became useless and most of the second-level leaders do not have mass support, Modi’s succession is easily predicted, and political observers were curious only to know when it will happen. However, what message this action gives to the people of India. One easy answer is Modi can lead India to the path of development, as he did in Gujarath ( as he did everything else in Gujarath, including the riot!). But we need to ask the disturbing question, how Modi’s concept of development is different from that of his counter-part, i.e., the Congress.

Evidently, he is not against multi-national corporations, wooing capital flow from the other countries, or anything like that. In other words, his idea of development is in no way different from that of his opponents. But, one difference maybe that he will be stricter in implementing the plans and programs. His dictatorial style won’t be suitable to a multi-cultural society like India.

Let us hope for the best!

"Drink Alcohol, Be Healthy!"

“Do you know the problem of the ‘liquor policy’ of our government?”One of my friends asked. I wondered, as if I just came from Mars. It never even came to my mind that the Kerala Govt does have a liquor policy, except the fact that it runs many liquor shops in Kerala to promote drinking; in the same way we promote art and literature (Do we promote art and literature?). I immediately surfed the Internet and found one PDF copy of the liquor policy of the govt. I didn’t know that our rulers are so humorous. One of the main attractions of the document is ‘the basic idea of the govt is not to promote drinking, but to decrease the use of liquor among the Keralites’. With that mission, the govt has formed a new corporation, named Kerala State Beverages Corporation. Of course, the aim of the corporation is not to sell coffee, tea, or soft drinks, but liquor. Hey, why you are saying so, ‘beverage’ means not tea and coffee, but alcohol drink, don’t you know that? An average Keralite would wonder? According to Merriam- Webster Dictionary, ‘beverage’ means ‘a drinkable liquid’. However, for Kerala Beverages Corporation and majority of the people of Kerala, it means only alcohol. You are so naïve in thinking all this. The govt is selling liquor to give quality alcohol to the public, thereby limiting the chances of selling methanol, and at the end the aim is to control drinking in the final stage, the people reason. Then, why the govt banned soft drinks like Coca Cola, Pepsi etc, but leave alcohol as such, you may ask. You are completely wrong my friend, we are banning these drinks to show that we are fighting against the MNCs.

However, I cannot find fault with the governmental system because we are living in a country where a religious document such as the Sama-Veda talked about different ways to make liquor. The govt is trying to revive the ancient civilization by forming an institution such as KSBC, and the people are just supporting that endeavor of the govt!





For further reading, see here and here.

Ummaachu- The Saga of a Brave Woman

Ummaachu by Uroob

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Ummaachu (Beloved) is a novel written by famous Malayalam writer Uroob (P.C. Kuttikrishnan). Uroob (1915 – 1979) was considered as one of the most important among the progressive writers in Kerala, along with Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, Thakazhi Shivashankara Pillai, Karoor Neelakanta Pillai, S.K. Pottekkatt, and Keshava Dev. As most writers of the period, his writings portrayed the life of the people of Kerala during the time of Independent Struggle, including the social, political and cultural dimensions. We can see the Kerala during the early period of 1950s, especially in a novel like Ummaachu.
Ummaachu is predominently a love story, or stories covering generations. In the first generation, the protagonist Ummaachu is in love with Mayan, who has no social status, income, and he is an orphan. Due to family pressure, she is forced to marry Beeran, another childhood friend of Ummaachu. Beeran is the only son of a wealthy man, so Ummaachu’s family cannot think otherwise, except but to marry off her with the wealthy scion. However, her mind already accepted Beeran, but as she is a woman who has no voice in the family, she marries Beeran. Beeran leaves the village soon after the marriage and became a wealthy man in Wayanad, Malabar. He comes back after a few years and meets Ummaachu. He finds that he still has a place in her heart, which makes him in an ecstatic mindset, and as a result, he kills Beeran at night. Later, he gets married with Ummaachu, and accepts Abdu, son of Beeran in Ummaachu, as his own son. He with the help of his close associate Chaappunni Nair, manages to build a happy home there, and he has two boys in Ummaachu, Marakkar and Hydrose. In his later life, in old age, he feels guilty over the murder of Beeran and commits suicide.
Another love story that can be seen in the novel is between Abdu, elder son of Ummaachu and Chinnammu, daughter of Chaappunni Nair. This narration shows the bold stand of the author as having an affair between a Muslim man and a Hindu woman even in literature can create a hostile reaction from the readers in a sensitive place such as Kerala, where even now the issue of “love jihad” spurs controversy. However, as the predominant concern of the novelist is the importance of strong relationships among human beings irrespective of caste, creed and religion, this twist is unavoidable. This in a way shows the nationalist concerns of the author, that of an India where human relationship is built based on human feelings and concerns rather than religion. This idea is further developed as Abdu became an active participant of Congress party and in the assertion of Chinnammu that “we are not against people”.

The novel further explores the life of people in Kerala during the 1950s. The inequalities and superstitions in the life of both Hindus and Muslims are shown in the work. It is a Kerala where inequalities in the name of caste can be seen, where women were being out casted, where polygamy was prevalent.

Apart from the nationalist concerns of the author, powerful critique of social injustice, the novelist also narrated the intricate mental struggle each character has gone through. Ummaachu at first is forced to marry a man whom she doesn’t love, and later she gets married with the man who killed her husband. This situation puts her in a difficult situation as a struggle goes on between Abdu, her son in the first marriage and her husband, Mayan. She cannot leave Abdu or Mayan. The condition of Abdu is also filled with emotional turmoil. He has to live with the man who killed his father, a Hamlet like situation. The same ‘to be or not to be’ question can be seen here. Due to the emotional trauma, Mayan commits suicide. Again, Ummaachu has to see the ‘cold war’ between her sons, Abdu on the one hand and Marakkar and Abdu on the other.

The language used to narrate the novel is also of greater importance. Any writer who wants to narrate the story of Muslim community in Kerala will face this challenge, the challenge of selecting the language, as the dialect used by the Muslim community in Kerala is in contrast with other regions, or communities. I am of the opinion that the linguistic difference is based on the geographical difference rather than religious. Any native Hindu in the Malabar area can understand the language of Muslims. However, we cannot neglect the fact that a variant of Malayalam known as “Mappila Malayalam” was prevalent in Malabar. Vaikkom Muhammad Basheer was one of the rare creed of writers who got immortality by being able to record the features of this language variant. Though Uroob used this style in the novel, the determining style is that of Standard Malayalam.

Overall, we can say that Ummachu is a saga (a narrative telling the adventures of a hero or a family) of a woman who determined to change her destiny by questioning the dogmas of the society.



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