The Martian (2015)

The Martian is a Hollywood movie directed by Ridley Scott, released in 2015. It tells us the story of a Mars Mission where an astronaut Mark Watney is left by mistake as their shuttle suddenly heads towards their next destination following a storm in Mars, assuming Mark to be dead in that incident.

The film shows us the various ways by which the lone survivor passes his days, how he makes arrangements for his daily life, how he starts a video log to communicate with earth, to tell them that he is alive and later to tell them about his daily life, how he repairs an old machine (i.e.- the robotic spacecraft- Pathfinder) to communicate with Earth. After a few days, people from Earth and the space shuttle which left him by mistake try to save him. Then we see how in spite of facing many difficulties, he travels to the place from where the shuttle would come to pick him up. Watney has shown tremendous courage, strength of mind and indomitable spirit in dealing with the day to day problems. It gives us the motivation how to lead a life in a complete adverse situation, with constant struggle going on, we do not see him getting depressed ever; for any problem, everytime he comes up with a solution. Truly inspirational!!! Living alone in a planet for 560 Solar Days of Mars!

The scene where all the potatoes grown by Mark as well as the farm gets burnt down was so miserable! Still Mark survives that and carries on.

The original novel by the same name, written by Andy Weir, itself was successful and Ridley Scott's direction does justice to it. The whole film mainly rests on Matt Damon, who is one of my favourite actors :). There are many more famous actors like Jessica Chastain, Sean Bean, Jeef Daniels- all have done wonderful work.

I also loved the red coloured Nature of Mars as shown in the film, it is another main reason for me to like the film. In Wikipedia, we can see the shooting has been done in Wadi Rum in Jordan. It is an experience to watch it on big screen!

Aparichit ('Anniyan' in Tamil- 2005)

Aparichit is the name of the Hindi dubbed version of original Tamil film- Anniyan made in 2005. It is directed by eminent director Shankar, who has also directed many famous movies such as- Gentleman, Indian, Nayak, Shivaji The Boss, Enthiran (Robot).

Aparichit is the story of Ramanuj who is a simple peace loving person. The corruption and wrong practices prevalent in the society make him frustrated and he starts having personality disorder. Gradually he develops two more personalities- one to punish the wrong doers and the other to become an a charming and fashionable person so that his lady love feels attracted to him.

The film deals mainly with irresponsible and self centred behaviour by public in general. I liked the theme of the film, i.e.- protesting against the wrong, trying to make it right.

Ramanuj's persona named Aparichit, which is there to punish the corrupt persons is very fierce, he follows the procedures narrated in the Gadura Puraan to punish the offenders, which are very cruel. I feel these parts were included in the film to show the irritation and frustration of Ramanuj about wrong deeds. Any normal person would be in shock or afraid even to think of doing such ruthless deeds.

Main theme of the film is very appreciable. It makes us aware of the wrong doings which take place around us constantly and thus we gradually become somewhat tolerant about it. Here Ramanuj protested against this attitude. Stress has been given on performing one's duty sincerely. Only then, the society can run smoothly, we can have peace, life can flourish without any fear.

Ramanuj's sister's death at a very young age due to the negligence of Electricity Board was really sad, the viewers can feel the impact of it. It is no surprise that Ramanuj was deeply affected by the incident. We can say that it is this painful experience which lagrgely shaped his character for the future (i.e.- assuming the role of Aparichit).

Overall, it is a film with a message, even if we do not support all the steps taken by Ramanuj, the Director Shankar deserves praise for bringing such a relevant topic of social reform through this film :).

Celebrating D L Roy's Birthday- 19.7.18

Today is the birthday of the famous writer and poet Dwijendra Lal Roy. The plays, songs, poems written by him are very rich in content. 

In the morning I was very happy to find programmes on his birthday in two Bengali channels- DD Bangla and Aakash Aath. 

DD Bangla had Abhijit Das as the guest who sang D L Roy's songs and the anchor was Debaleena.

In Aakash Aath the guests were -  Satinath Mukhopadhyay who read out some pieces from D L Roy's writings, the songs were presented by Riddhi Bandyopadhyay and Debjit Bandyopadhyay, anchoring was done by Munmun.

I loved both the programmes and got immersed in the songs of D L Roy.

The songs which I heard today were-

Amra emni eseh bheshe jaai
Aaji eshechhi
Bela boye jaaye
Shukher kotha bolo na ar
Chaahi otripto noyone
Dhon dhaanyo pushpe bhora
Oi mohashindhur opaar theke
Bongo amar jononi amar

- The last song made me emotional, in such a wonderful way it evokes our love for the country through its lyrics!
(Along with it, I was also remembering Sabitabrata Dutta's patrotic songs which used to be aired in DD Bangla, the sincere emotions in his voice always conveyed the respect for our country as well as they evoked the motivation in the hearts of the listener.)


Mr Satinath Mukhopadhyay read out some pieces from the writings of D L Roy:- 
~ The first was Antigonas talking to his mother, asking about the name of his father, from the play Chandragupta. 
~ The next was Shahjahaan talking to his daughter Jahanara while in prison, as he receives the news of Aurangzeb's coronation to the throne of Delhi, from the play- Shahjahaan.
- Both were powerful scenes.




#  Some more of my favourite songs of D L Roy which I keep on listening in my music system are :-

Patitoddhaarini ange
Esho praan shokha esho praan e
Ghana tamashabrita ambar dharani
Tumi je he praaner bondhu
Bhitore haanshichhe mukhora
Heshe nao dudin boi to noy
Amra nehat gorib


#  Here I am also sharing some songs of D L Roy by famous Krishna Chatterjee , one of my very very favourite artist-

Enjoy :)