Insightful newsletter of Drishtikone: Issue #114 - Movies and National Interest; SSR's Deaths and India
Video - How does a parent's death impact us physically?
“End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise." ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings”
Art is not born from the heart. It is born in the very being, the ethos of a society. It resonates with the colors, the hues, the rhythms, and the mores of a people.
We have been under siege for so long that we have taken that to be our normal state. It is not.
Being independent and taking action that is purely in our interest is the birthright of every human being. The Indian Sages and Yogis went even further. They prepared the people for Moksha - complete liberation. Not even the bondage of our own actions or that of our ancestors. Not even our parents.
With such lofty goals, how did we slide into such default slavery setting as a general way of things is difficult to fathom. But the time to shed the bondage is now close.
Freedom is non-negotiable.
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art or performance?
When one saw the struggles and travails of Shambhu in Do Bigha Zameen, you became him. You were part of his life and could empathize with him and Parvati. Balraj Sahni had so much become Shambhu that when the entire movie finished, you didn’t even once feel like getting up and clapping your hands at his “great acting.” For you were made to believe that he could be none other than Shambhu the rickshaw puller. That Balraj Sahni hadn't plied rickshaw all his life was simply unthinkable. He was not acting, he was becoming the character.
That is the hallmark of great cinema. You don’t clap at the performance. You leave a part of you in the streets where the character performed. You cannot leave his house. He is part of your life.
When Balraj Sahni became Shambhu, your need to clap ended.
Cinema which is grand-standing and removed from the very ethos of society may make people clap, throw money, and hoot at the performance.
But at some level, cinema - and art in general - ceases to be a “performance.” It is us.
Cinema which is enduring and part of the intrinsic ethos of the land remains with us.
Music, writing, songs, folks are born out of the land and its people. Their struggles, their love, their battles, their triumphs. A heer or a Pandavani works on us because it carries the emotions that are embedded in our ethos for many millennia. They embedded in the DNA of society itself.
When you bring a change to art, you either seek to change society or are dishonest to your own art.
The latter type of people can only harm themselves and therefore are not a hazard to anyone else.
The former, however, can harm the society at large. And it all depends on what is their personal mojo.
movies and national interest - research into the history of collaboration
Who is seeking to alter the existing structures, mores and ways within a society is critical. For, if s/he is either delusional or evil or being used a proxy by the enemies of a society, then their changes - if backed by enough money and propaganda - can wreak havoc on everyone.
That is when one needs to question the intention of the people who are handling art which does not align with a society’s basic structure.
A nation’s power dynamics in global geopolitics is essential to how that nation’s society engages in the world. Movies and the Soft Power of a nation are inextricably linked!
If the art of a nation is aligned to the national objectives with respect to international relations, then that art will get an additional push in more places. However, even if art from a country is great and amazing but the power of that nation minimal in global affairs, the artists and their work from that nation will not get many opportunities.
The relationship between national interest, government geopolitical strategy, and the narratives in the art forms that emanate from that society is very critical.
These days Bollywood is at the center of a debate on how the artists have taken stands and created narratives in the movies which are often anti-India and even show hate for Hinduism and Hindus quite openly.
There are allegations and even indications, for example in the case of Aamir Khan’s meeting with Turkey’s Erdogan, that the Indian artists may actually not be averse to collaborating with forces that are antagonistic to India’s national interest.
But is this idea of national interest and alignment of movies and art with the nation’s geopolitical objectives mere jingoism?
We have explored the topic in our deeply researched article - Bollywood and Indian Soft Power – How and why are they linked?
enemy’s existential moment - Sushant Singh Rajput’s defining legacy!
In Sushant Singh Rajput’s case, a lot of things are happening behind the scenes. Here are some snapshots that will help us get our arms around things that we see and look strange.
Pakistan is now working overtime to thwart progress in this. And also many forces are now directly targeting those who are working to take the SSR case forward.
Now, Vibhor is a Supreme Court lawyer from the family of ex-Chief Justice and other prominent judiciary members. Many do not like his style of functioning and do not agree with him in many ways. But as a lawyer, he has a lot to lose if he is just making stuff up. More importantly, what he says in his breaking news tweets is corroborated by the news coverage by TimesNow and other channels as well.
Besides that, on September 1, Shehzad Poonawala made a similar comment about Rahul Shivshankar and TimesNow channel as well. Watch his warning.
What Vibhor is saying is not just an empty bluster. Pakistan is getting hyperactive because it might be seeing its greatest leverage - the Bollywood and drug mafia going under completely.
NIA has unearthed a credible threat against the Indian PM Narendra Modi.
The Sushant Singh Rajput in his death may be single-handedly responsible for the uprooting of the entire network of Breaking India that has been built for decades. In fact, the entire infrastructure that has worked against India is now in the line of attack on the back of just one man’s unnatural death and people’s love for him.
The most bizarre thing that I am found in Vibhor’s tweets was the involvement of Military intelligence. You may remember that Lt Col. Purohit was also a member of the Military Intelligence who had embedded himself into the Lashkar-e-Toiba network and had gotten wind of the entire 26/11. He was targeted by Maharashtra’s ATS, as was Sadhvi Pragya. Both were kept in custody and tortured for 8 years with any indictment.
To have a better appreciation of the link between the anti-India forces and the terror plans by Pakistan, please remember the following dates:
The government implicated and arrested Lt. Col. Purohit on November 15, 2008 and the Mumbai attack happened on November 26, 2008.
For more information, please read this detailed note: How the Congress Party Leadership Joined Forces with LeT and ISI to Betray India
So be aware - things will only get worse.
Now, we have entered the phase that will prove to be an existential crisis for the enemies of India.
And they are all showing up.
Like we had said after Kangana Ranaut’s 3rd interview with Republic TV, she had set the cat amongst the pigeons.
When she named some names, she was daring them to act. For, the moment they act, that “movement” will create clues and leads. Right to the top.
nota bene
Amazon to rescue Vodafone?: U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) may invest more than $4 billion for a stake in India’s Vodafone Idea Ltd (VODA.NS) (Source)
The Secretive Special Frontier Force: Saturday night’s operation on the south bank of Pangong Tso has brought into limelight the possible role of ‘Establishment 22’, a secret force also known as the Special Frontier Force (SFF) under the administrative control of the Cabinet Secretariat and the PMO. Senior Army officials acknowledged the presence of an SFF unit in eastern Ladakh but its interaction with the Army is minimal. Raised towards the end of the 1962 war, SFF’s commandos are drawn from Tibetan refugees settled in India. They were initially trained by the Intelligence Bureau, RAW, and CIA for covert operations behind enemy lines. In the first few decades after it was raised, the force was used to keep an eye on Chinese plans to deploy nuclear warheads. The SFF gained its nickname ‘Establishment 22’ after its founder chief Sujan Singh Uban, who commanded the 22nd Mountain Regiment in the British Indian Army during World War II in Europe. Headquartered in Chakrata (Uttarakhand), it comprises at least five battalions or about 5,000 commandos who are elite paratroopers trained in mountain warfare. (Source)
Maha-suicides: Every seventh suicide in the country last year took place in Maharashtra, which saw over a 5% increase to 18,916 deaths from 17,972 in 2018. The number of suicides rose 4.7% in Mumbai, which is placed fourth among cities with 1,229 cases, according to NCRB’s 2019 report on ‘Accidental Deaths & Suicides in India’. (Source)
Flood Prediction and Google: Google has announced that its flood prediction service would now cover entire India and parts of Bangladesh. The feature uses machine learning and identifies those areas which are vulnerable to floods and it would alert the users before the area gets flooded. The tool had been launched in Bihar’s Patna two years ago, and the giant says that they were working with the local government and slowly expanding it. It added that just when monsoon was about to arrive in June, they covered all the flood-prone areas in the country. This Google technology helps in disseminating the government alert to wider targeted users. The giant said that this translated to Google being able to help in protecting over 20 crore people living across 2.5 lakh square kilometers. This was over 20 times the coverage it had last year. So far, Google has sent 3 crore notifications to users in flood-hit areas. (Source)
how does a loved one’s death impact you physically?
The going of a loved one is one of the toughest situations in anyone’s life. Specially that of one’s parents. Beyond the emotional hit, there is a deeper and more profound impact that such death has on us. It is linked to our energies.
What is it? And how are we impacted? No one can better articulate it than Sadhguru himself. Please listen to him if you have had such an experience or share with someone who has had one.
My personal experience and advice: Do not let any attachments linger on with the person who has left. It can stop its ascendancy. Your urge to keep the dead “alive” and near you, will hurt, not help the person who has left the body. So, if you love someone who has died, just wish well and let him/her go.
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