Deer Hunter

The compulsion to write is one of the sweetest of compulsions, precisely because one does not put one's pen or ink to paper until and unless one really does have to! Sweet because until it takes concrete shape one does not know about the vagaries of the writing (and thinking) machine and the results are always worth a try! Writing is a process which evolves as one writes. So I also for once gave myself away to the charms of this enchanting enterprise! One needs to write on something. I thought why not I try to scribble something on Deer Hunter, the film I painstakingly watched the other day. Don't think that the word 'painstaking' has negative connotations. As they say 'Sweet are the uses of adversity', the effort was all worth it after the long stretch of three hours one spent on it. 'Three hours!' Imagine! In this short life span that we all have spending three hours watching a film isnt a bit too much? Just now I am thinking of the alternatives... What else could I have done with these three hours? I remember Rana telling our sir that she was a people person. Who could I have talked to? What could I have done gazing out of the window? But you know one thing that films teach us is that everything out there is worthy of our inspection and close scrutiny. In film everything is part of the plot. Every single element, part of the mise-en-scene, is there because the director wanted to convey something through it. Every gesture, every glance is loaded with meaning. So is in our life around. Alas! we scarcely notice it.And there begins our tragedy. Talking of glances, how handsomely does Robert De Niro looks at (can one say Ogles at?) Meryl Streep in the film! I was wondering why on earth I was not able to recognise Robert De Niro at first? It was impossible for me not to recognise Meryl Streep after I watched her in The French Lieutenant's Woman though sometimes I forget her name. I also remember listening to one of her convocation addresses. How beatifully she spoke on that day. But De Niro! The heart throb! The brute of a Man! How many times should one watch the Scorsese film in which he plays La Motta, the boxer to become an admirer for life. Raging Bull...yes that's the film. And now I realise that I have to watch Irishmen too! One can't let go of a Scorsese film by any means. Coming back to Deer Hunter, was it Vietnam or the dangerous game of Russian Roulette or the camaraderie between friends? what was it that won my heart by the end of the day? Vietnam brings back memories of the Napalm bomb and the American War Veterans. It was the combination of all these. But friends, I wont let go of any more details. My chores await me. And as I said (or thought) there is nothing more important than life...Even writing should take a back seat when life beckons... see you...love you all.