Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Kaminey – Or the Art in Stammering.

So, I haven’t seen the current bollywood blockbuster ‘Kaminey’ but its all over the news that the hero of the hour Shahid Kapoor has done a great job in playing the part. He has a double role and the best part is that diction is not a prerequisite. One of his roles requires him to stammer and the other to lisp.

The problem with stammering is that it takes too long to say something and the problem with lisping is that one does not quite understand what the lisper is saying. So when one goes to watch Kaminey should one be prepared to sit for a very long movie (considering the time taken by the stammer to speak) or sit close to the speakers or to the screen to carefully hear the lisper speak or to read his lips? It seems that the time for this bollywood flick is the same as any other flick coming out from this side of the wood and no one seems to be complaining about the inarticulateness of the actor.

So one question is whether Shahid has really done justice to his roles of a lisper and a stammer? The other question is whether Indian audiences really appreciate good acting? Well, the fact that there are a quite a few acting awards instituted by different companies/magazines giving the same award to different actors shows that the Indian populace really have no idea of what good acting is (being an Indian I don’t know either). So answering the former question now, if the movie has a stammer and is of the same length then he hasn’t done justice to the art of stammering.

But, the good thing is that stammering has got into the mainstream. In flicks the character who stammered had the time he did because he needed that time to say the lines. The case of the stammering lawyer in ‘my cousin vinny’ is a case in point. The stammerers usually provided comic relief in bollywood flicks, just as a cross in the cleavage indicated the vamp turned sacrificial lamb.

So, even though Shahid was faking it, twice at that, he finds himself in the news, getting pats in the back and lugging trunks full of money to the bank. Which means that those who really stammer have a chance to get into the really big screen, directors are always looking for ‘naturals’ stammerers can raise their hands and stammer their way to the bank. Stammering and lisping may become the next big thing in the fashion and media bazaar and could even help relationships as one could spend more time ‘whispering sweet nothings’ and understanding them.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Ticking to Tock.

The way time has come to be measured has evolved over the ages. Actually the way we ‘look’ at time is not only a measure of technological advancement but also a measure of the distance between us and nature. From looking up at the sun, to having giant constructions whose shadow would indicate the hour, to having sand pass through fine apertures, all showed the silent progress of time. Until things turned mechanical then time began to tick and tock. But technology came full circle with the advent of the digital clock which is as silent as the passage of time.

But the question is what makes these instruments tick? Do they understand their relevance; do they know how much they have impacted our language? Do they want us to show our gratitude; if yes, how? If only they could tock! They would answer questions like whether they appreciate being used in terms like ‘sands of time’, whether they like to be linked to unknown people, tide for example - ‘time and tide wait for no man’. Or whether they like to be used as a threat ‘ - - - the clock is ticking’.

Strangely, time which denotes a passage is used for a beginning or an end – ‘its time to - -’, ‘its high time’. But what is worse is this instrument, its working and measure which has never asked anything of anyone, is extremely unassuming and whispers past us is being used to suggest future calamities and potential threats. A ‘population time bomb’, ‘AIDS time bomb’ or ‘xyz is a ticking time bomb’ all signify a potential future peril which has got nothing to do with time per say except for the fact that things could have been better if ‘we went back in time’ or ‘stopped the progress of time’. However, man in his ingenuity has been able to transform a potential threat into an instrument of death and destruction. A ‘time bomb’ uses an explosive that detonates ‘when the clock strikes - - -’ thus life which is a linear natural progression of time from birth to old age suddenly becomes a pawn in the unwilling hands of time. The phrase ‘when your time comes - -’ which is supposed to alleviate the suddenness of an incident or to give courage before an act gets a whole new meaning.

There is one clock that is quite undecided where it wants to go; the ‘doomsday clock’ has gone back and forth between 11.43 pm and 11.57 pm since its inception in 1947, the only instance where a clock can tick forward or backward depending on mans activities.