Life of Pi - Film screening

 

Life of Pi is a 2012 adventure-drama film directed and produced by Ang Lee and written by David Magee. Based on Yann Martel's 2001 novel of the same name, it stars Suraj Sharma, Irrfan Khan, Rafe Spall, Tabu and Adil Hussain in lead roles. The storyline revolves around two survivors of a shipwreck. One is a sixteen-year-old Indian boy named Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) and the other is a ferocious Bengal tiger named Richard Parker that are on a lifeboat stranded in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days.

The film began development shortly after the release of the book and would see directors M. Night Shyamalan, Alfonso Cuarón and Jean-Pierre Jeunet involved at various stages before the hiring of Lee. Filming was split between India, Taiwan and Montreal in 2011, with Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) handling the visual effects work. The film had its worldwide premiere as the opening film of the 50th New York Film Festival at both the Walter Reade Theater and Alice Tully Hall in New York City on September 28, 2012. (Wikipedia)

Film screening of Life of pi – (Some notes)

 

Pre-viewing task:

• Go through the text
• Get some knowledge about Robinson Crusoe and Gulliver’s Travels
• Metafiction - (a Self-consciousness literary style in which the narrator or characters are aware that they are part of a work of fiction)

 

While viewing task:

• Observe the beginning scene
• Naming of Pi and Tiger (Swimming pool, Pi, hunter, ‘Thirsty’)
• Thirsty Pi (Curiosity regarding religion and spirituality)
• Discussion on ‘hidden lotus’
• Ocean as symbol (archetype – balance of life – regeneration)
• Scenes of Pi and Richard Parker (the struggle)
• An island (shape of a human – Day and night)
• The goodbye scene (giving up an addiction)
• Story within a story (Pi explains the journey to others)

 

Post-viewing task:

• Share your views (movie review)
• Which version of the story is more appealing?
• What is the significance of ‘Tiger’?
• What is the significance of ‘Island’?
• What is the difference between spirituality and religion and what is the significance of doubt in it?

The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon

 

 

This blog contains an overview of the Frantz Fanon’s most important book The Wretched of the Earth (1961)

The Wretched of the Earth (French: Les Damnés de la Terre) is a 1961 book by the psychiatrist Frantz Fanon, in which the author provides a psychological and psychiatric analysis of the dehumanizing effects of colonization upon the individual and the nation, and discusses the broader social, cultural, and political implications of establishing a social movement for the decolonization of a person and of a people. The French-language title derives from the opening lyrics of "The Internationale". (Wikipedia)

Here I have embedded a PowerPoint presentation containing an explanation of the text.

                        

Mrs. & Mr. Shameem - A Zee5 original

  Recently watched a Zee5 web-series Mrs. And Mr. Shameem. I got attracted by the title as well as the trailer. For the first time, I read ‘Mrs’ first and ‘Mr’ afterward, was not aware that it was taken as an irony may be.

   A Pakistani series, from the streets of Lahore, starring the megastar Saba Qamar, tells the love story of a man Shameem (Nauman Ijaz) who is ‘unfit’ in the definition of Macho man, or as society depicts ‘Mard’. Umaina (Saba) is a bold young girl, and in love with the man of her dreams, who impregnates her, and later betrays her. After facing all the hatred from society and her own family she ends up marrying his silent lover Shameem, who owns ‘Nazakat’ than the so-called ‘manly qualities’.

   I am not going to tell the story, but the discussion starts from here. The series may look a bit slow with twenty episodes, each one with 40-50 minutes but gives a voice to some great issues and breaks the stereotypes.

 1) ‘A definition of man’ and ‘Manly qualities’. For sure we can observe Shameem with the theory of Queer. As a student of literature, the first thing I found was the treatment of Shameem’s family towards him, and then society’s torture of him. The story tries to explore the real definition of man. What is more important for a man to be a man? The answer that this series gives is feelings, respect, and support towards his family and friends. A man doesn’t have to have the strength to fight and be protective all the time. It’s just about the capability to repair circumstances after the damage is done and support the family all the time.

Generally, we see elders of all the families are busy controlling the family members rather than supporting them.

2) Motherhood:   Motherhood is always seen as a boon to a woman. But the series shows that Umaina hates her infant and tries to kill him many times. This concept is applied in the story quite logically as she was suffering from postpartum depression which is also called baby blues. In this depression, a mother feels disgusted about the child and sometimes can kill the child too. This can be proved as something new to watch than the stereotypical image of a perfect mother who is always ready to sacrifice everything for the child.

The next character who falls in the category is, Shameem’s sister, she was eagerly craving to be a mother and was being criticized a lot by her husband as well as society. She passed half of her life in regret that she is unable to produce a child and also got involved with black magic but, later she came to know that the fault was in her husband. She broke the shackles of society and started hoping for a better life with Shameem and Umaina’s child Ali. Later on, her husband joined the hijra community and never returned to her. This can be a dramatic end, but the issue that the series raise is that women are still being judged if she doesn’t provide a child within two-three years of their marriage.

3) Child abuse:   There are two incidents of child abuse. First is the daughter of Shameem’s sister, who is being molested by the Maulana and then turned into a rebel. The second is the employ of Shameem, Toni, who was raped by his uncle in childhood and turned out a gay and also a patient of HIV. This reflects the major issue of child harassment with the traumas of childhood. By putting Maulana as a molester, the series has successfully entered into some dark corners of the world of religion.

4) HIV patients:   The last important issue is the treatment of HIV-positive people and the hidden sympathy of some noble people regarding them. Both Shameem and Umaina got an infection of the disease from Toni, as they were deeply in connection with him. Umaina has also lost her second child, a baby girl due to this disease and ill-treatment.

     After a long time, I have got inspired to write something about a web-series is because of its ‘men-centric’ approach and its connection with the LGBT community. As one can never call Shameem a transgender or gay, the series has a hidden slight reflection on the feminine hormones in males and can be called androgynous too (not in all sense – just for understanding). Shameem’s character makes him fall under a ‘Bechara’ as one of the victims. But he wins our hearts.

    Though the end is quite dramatic and the narrative is all about flashbacks, the series is a good watch, one who is fond of Urdu can enjoy the dialogues and especially watch it for the acting of Nauman Ijaz and you have the diva Saba Qamar already there as a bonus.

Here I’m sharing my favorite fragment from it:

The Transition period: 1760-1798

 

 

The Transition period: 1760-1798

 

Introduction-

The second half of the eighteenth century is known as a transitional period. The period has witnessed two totally different phases of creation. The writing style of literature was changing from classical to Romantic. During this age writers were rebelling towards classical way of writing and were turning towards romantic literature. The rise of Romantic poetry has started from this period. This rise of Romantic poetry is also called,

“The romantic reaction, against the classical domination”

The age was dominated by Dr. Semuel Johnson, and it is also known as “An Age of Johnson”. It is also called ‘The Age of Sensibilty’.

 

What is the meaning of ‘Transition’?

It was a ‘movement’ or ‘shift from one position to another’. This can also be called ‘someone or something moving’ from one place to other. Here, in this age, literature was having a transaction from classical to romantic.

In literature, the transition period is between Augustan period (classics) and Romantic period. Writers have started following new ideals in literature writing, which were totally different than classical approach of writing.

 

Background:

Transition period was the age of change. Things were constantly changing from classical to romantic. From a political point of view, the period was of George III, king of Hanover. His reign was of sixty years from 1760-1820. He was patriotic and was accepted by all.

The age was also having revolutions such as,

1776: American Revolution

1763: France-England war

1789: French Revolution

There were other revolutions also like in 1780, there was a transport revolution and after that new factories were established and people were working for fifteen to sixteen hours in factories.

 

Works

1764: Horace Walpole wrote the first gothic novel in English, called 'The castle of Otranto', a frightening story full of supernatural events set in medieval times. He transformed his home in Strawberry Hill in a gothic castle;

1765: Bishop Percy published a volume of ballads called 'Reliques of Ancient English poetry' which became very popular and made ballads truly popular

James MacPherson, a Scottish poet, translated from Gaelic in English a story wrote by Ossian about an unknown hero. MacPherson was so famous for his characteristic 'ossianic poetry'.

1777: Thomas Chatterton wrote 'Rowley poems', poems in pseudo-middle English (saying he had found them and that they were written by Rowley who didn't exist. Thomas Chatterton committed suicide at the age of 17 and so he is now considered as the example of the romantic poet not appreciated by the society)

Some Characteristics of poetry of pre-romantics

1. Decline of the heroic couplet and free use of the Pindaric ode in the works of Gray and Collins.
2. The revival of the ballad.
3. The descriptive and narrative poems began – e.g. The Deserted Village.
4. The rise of lyric. The intense simplicity of the lyric of Burns and Blake.

James Thomson’s the Seasons (1730) had presented nature herself at first hand, Thomson’s The Seasons was the first noteworthy poem of the romantic revival; and the poems and poets increased steadily in number and importance till, in the age of Wordsworth and Scott, the spirit of romanticism dominated English literature more completely than Classicism had ever done.

This Romantic Movement – Victor Hugo says,

“Liberalism in literature – is simply the expression of life as seen by imagination, rather than by prosaic “common-sense”, which was the central doctrine of English philosophy in the 18th century.”

There The word 'romantic' started to be use in England in the 17^th century with the meaning of unreal, extraordinary, fictitious, fabulous, imaginary, each of one deriving its meaning from the medieval romance

Here is the difference between the characteristics of classical and romantics.

Classical age	Romantic Age
Individualism	Role of poet
Imitation of the classics	Use of Emotion
Politics and social issues	Imagination and Nature
Satire and irony	Spiritual and supernatural
Empiricism	Ordinary subjects

 

Conclusion:

The period transition has observed drastic change in the ideology of literature writing and revolutions. The spirit of one age has transitioned into another one. Some writers have followed their will and observed nature and its beauty and reflected that onto their poetry. They also revolted against the neo-classical style of writing which was mere imitating the classical forms.

 

Long Day's Journey into Night - Eugene O'Neill

 

Long Day's Journey into Night is a play in four acts written by American playwright Eugene O'Neill in 1941–42, first published in 1956. The play is widely considered to be his magnum opus and one of the finest American plays of the 20th century. It premiered in Sweden in February 1956 and then opened on Broadway in November 1956, winning the Tony Award for Best Play.

O'Neill posthumously received the 1957 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Long Day's Journey into Night. The work concerns the Tyrone family, consisting of parents James and Mary and their sons Edmund and Jamie. The "Long Day" refers to the setting of the play, which takes place during one day. The play is semi-autobiographical. (Wikipedia)

         

         Long Day's Journey into Night from yeshab68

A Dance of the Forests - Wole Soyinka

 A Dance of the Forests is one of the most recognized of Wole Soyinka's plays. The play "was presented at the Nigerian Independence celebrations in 1960, it ... denigrated the glorious African past and warned Nigerians and all Africans that their energies henceforth should be spent trying to avoid repeating the mistakes that have already been made."^[1] At the time of its release, it was an iconoclastic work that angered many of the elite in Soyinka's native Nigeria. Politicians were particularly incensed at his prescient portrayal of post-colonial Nigerian politics as aimless and corrupt. Despite the deluge of criticism, the play remains an influential work. In it, Soyinka espouses a unique vision for a new Africa, one that is able to forge a new identity free from the influence of European imperialism.

A Dance of the Forests is regarded as Soyinka's theatrical debut and has been considered the most complex and difficult to understand of his plays.^[2][3] In it, Soyinka unveils the rotten aspects of the society and demonstrates that the past is no better than the present when it comes to the seamy side of life. He lays bare the fabric of the Nigerian society and warns people as they are on the brink of a new stage in their history: independence.

The play was published in London and New York in 1963 by Oxford University Press (Three Crowns Books).

(Wikipedia)

Here I am sharing the brief overview of the play with critical analysis:

        

        A dance of the forests from yeshab68

A Dance of The Forests - Wole Soyinka - Points

 

             

 Important points:

Ø Aroni introduces the play

Ø Dead man Dead Woman enters

Ø Asks help form Adenebi, Obaneji, Demoke and Rola

 

Ø Discussion (1) about current scenario and why these characters are there – Rola (happy with the condition) – Demoke (Famous totem) – Adenebi (Wants some peace)

Ø Murete tells about Deads and mortals to Aroni – Aroni went to search for them – Ogun is also searching Demoke – Agboreko is also searching everybody - Eshuoro is also searching mortals

Ø Discussion (2) Aroni planned to find out the guilty one (Demoke – Rola – Adenebi) - Adenebi is afraid of the act of Aroni as he was also involved

Ø Discussion (3) Obaneji and Adenebi about the lorries and fire – Revelation of past ( Political hypocrisy)

Ø Discussion (4) Death – How would you like to die? (Past deeds – Life to death – Becoming a reason for other’s death)

Ø Discussion (5) – Revelation of identity) (Rola – Demoke – Adenebi is afraid)

Ø Agboreko and Old man talk about the plan of Aroni

Ø Eshuoro complains about Forest head and deeds of human - Demoke

Ø All spirits enter and discusses about the human

Ø Forest head took all in past

Ø The story moves eight centuries ago – Court of Mata Kharibu – the whole story of injustice – Madame’s behaviour and making dead man eunuch.

Ø Eshuoro and Oremole arguments about Oremole and Demoke – Eshuoro left

Ø All spirits give speech about the condition of forest

Ø Woman enter with half-child – symbol of incompleteness – Not alive nor dead

Ø Questioner(Eshuoro) enters and asks Dead woman why she died – tries to ask Dead man something but Aroni arrives and reveals that he is Eshuoro

Ø Eshuoro tries to kill Demoke and Ogun saves him

Ø Old man asks Demoke what he learned from this?

The Joys of Motherhood - Buchi Emecheta

 

The Joys of Motherhood is a novel written by Buchi Emecheta. It was first published in London, UK, by Allison & Busby in 1979 and was reprinted in Heinemann's African Writers Series in 2008. The basis of the novel is the "necessity for a woman to be fertile, and above all to give birth to sons".^[1] It tells the tragic story of Nnu-Ego, daughter of Nwokocha Agbadi and Ona, who had a bad fate with childbearing. This novel explores the life of a Nigerian woman, Nnu Ego. Nnu's life centres on her children and through them, she gains the respect of her community. Traditional tribal values and customs begin to shift with increasing colonial presence and influence, pushing Ego to challenge accepted notions of "mother", "wife", and "woman". Through Nnu Ego's journey, Emecheta forces her readers to consider the dilemmas associated with adopting new ideas and practices against the inclination to cleave to tradition. In this novel, Emecheta reveals and celebrates the pleasures derived from fulfilling responsibilities related to family matters in child bearing, mothering, and nurturing activities among women. However, the author additionally highlights how the 'joys of motherhood' also include anxiety, obligation, and pain.

In the words of critic Marie Umeh, Emecheta "breaks the prevalent portraitures in African writing.... It must have been difficult to draw provocative images of African motherhood against the already existing literary models, especially on such a sensitive subject." (Wikipedia)

         

The Joys of motherhood from yeshab68

Petals of Blood - Ngugi Wa Thing'o

Petals of Blood is a novel written by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and first published in 1977. Set in Kenya just after independence, the story follows four characters – Munira, Abdulla, Wanja, and Karega – whose lives are intertwined due to the Mau Mau rebellion. In order to escape city life, each retreats to the small, pastoral village of Ilmorog. As the novel progresses, the characters deal with the repercussions of the Mau Mau rebellion as well as with a new, rapidly westernizing Kenya.

The novel largely deals with the scepticism of change after Kenya's independence from colonial rule, questioning to what extent free Kenya merely emulates, and subsequently perpetuates, the oppression found during its time as a colony. Other themes include the challenges of capitalism, politics, and the effects of westernization. Education, schools, and the Mau Mau rebellion are also used to unite the characters, who share a common history with one another. (Wikipedia)

Here I am sharing the brief overview of the novel with some critical analysis:

 

        

Petals of blood from yeshab68