Flyaway Mind

It has been quite a while since I have been bored with the routine weekend hang outs. Two weeks back a friend invited me to the 'Tri-Continent Film Fest' at Bangalore. Though many people think it crazy, I absolutely love watching contemporary parallel movies & movies with a strong sense of direction. About 20 award winning movies were screened during those two days

Alliance Franchise, where the movies were screened, is an Indo French collaboration centre. It has a terrific ambience with a tranquil garden and aesthetically furnished interiors. Most of the crowd over there were social activists, media students & a surprising number of foreigners. Felt like being transposed to a different world inside Bangalore; where people sat in groups, sipping piping hot tea & discussing social issues.

Some movies succeeded in striking a chord deep within me. One such movie was ‘Hearts and Minds’- a 1974 academy award winning documentary on Vietnam war. It captures the most powerful images of a devastating war carried out by the US.

The US war planes whizzed past, carpet bombing the Vietnamese villages and ejecting toxic gases that resulted in massive killings. Many US war veterans & pilots when interviewed, initially told how they enjoyed bombings the targets; but later on many broke down seeing the devastating effects they created . One pilot commented how he felt as if he were playing video games, when the deadly bombs hit the target. In the national cemetery an elderly woman wails and tries to jump into her son’s grave to get buried; a child pathetically weeps and falls on his father’s grave.

The movie derived it’s name from US president President Lyndon B. Johnson’s notorious speech “The ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there." Glorious words used to cover up the senseless occupation of Vietnam.

US soldiers brutally harassed the civilians, set fire on their houses & dehumanized the Vietnamese prostitutes . The war footage shows children screaming and running in pandemonium. A little girl Kim Phouc, horribly burnt ran out screaming while the shells exploded against the back drop. This picture that appeared all over the world , pricked the conscience of the entire world .The movie succeded in putting forth a strong anti-war message.

There were a few other movies worth mentioning: John & Jane is an Indian movie on the woes of call centre employees, as they tries to cope up with the virtual world they live in. Shake Hands With The Devil looks through the eyes of Romeo Dallaire, the once UN Force Commander to Rwanda, when the country went through a heinous civil war & genocide. It’s the story of a nation abandoned by the world & even by UN who withdrew it’s peace keeping forces at a crucial time. Say Amen an Israeli movie, comically picturises how a gay man is being forced by his large conservative extended family to commit to the institution of marriage.

I think I have seen enough movies to last atleast a month. Cant take in any more!!!!

PS: I might not be politically correct here. These are just a chain of images drifting across my mind