Sunday, August 24, 2008

Feel proud to be a human

Most of the time looking and aspiring for better things in life, we forget to appreciate and relish the very fact that we are humans and the life is to be enjoyed. A film preaching this very simple but usually ignored message is "The Shawshank redemption". Now, this is a very old movie but I may look crazy to be writing about this now. But the fact is that I watched it only recently and that it left such a mark on my mind that I can write about it even after another 30 years . Now to get to the movie, it is one of the most under-rated movie according to me. And I read somewhere that it didn't make money and to everyone's surprise it didn't win even a single oscar. Though it does not contain any earth defying stunts and a complex narrative, it is a film with a true heart in its right place. It is the story of hope and freedom. It is the story of celebrating the very fact that inspite of all our problems in life, we are human and that itself is worthy of celebration.

The protagoinst of the story is Andy, who is convicted of double murder, which he claims he has not done, and hence, he is subjected to 2 life sentences in shawshank prison. Now, shawshank prison is portrayed as one of the toughest and worst place to be in. And the prison inmates have lost all their hope about life, some even fear about going out. But Andy comes in as a fresh air. He , with his skill with his bank and money matters starts helping inmates and also prison guard and also warden in the meantime getting a lot of favors for the inmates like a very good library. Mid way through the movie he find proof for his innocence, but then when that proof is also lost forever , he still shows a lot of compassion in recovering from the situation. His character is a benchmark in taking positives from the toughest situations in life and then moving on with life with a smile. What happens to Andy and some of his friends marks the rest of the story culminating in a brilliant climax.

The movie is marked with remarkable script,dialogues and acting. The narration by Morgan Freeman is simply awesome. All characters live their part. Though the pace of the movie is really slow, by the time it gets over you end up yearning for more. And each time I see the movie, I derive out a different meaning out of it, probably a different message it wants to convey. And at the end of each such viewing, one thing is for sure, I feel energized to take up the challenges in life. In fact, this is the best movie I have seen yet. Like they say in the movie , Remember hope is a good thing, in fact..the best of things... I will be hoping that you like this blog and keep visiting this page of mine again and again.

5 comments:

  1. hi Nattu,

    I was shocked to read your review that you have stated that this movie is under-rated. This is the number 1 movie of all time. Please check this: http://www.imdb.com/chart/top . I loved this movie. It is a very good movie. It might not have got what it deserved in the name of Oscar or Revenue. But the number 1 place is more than enough as to prove the quality of the movie. The climax will make me have goose flesh, the quality I expect from a movie.

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Amudhan

    I agree it is number 1 according to many people and imdb site also, but one expects to make money out of movies or at least some sort of recognition in terms of awards. It was really disheartening that this movie won none , going by the quality of movies which win oscars.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yes I agree... Some good movies go without any notice. IMO Troy and YouGotMail are movies that should be in IMDB top 250. They were not. Troy deserves to have an oscar, IMO. But it didn't. But at least we could be happy and rest that they are very good movies.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hello Natraj:

    Thank you for registering with blogoxy. We bring new readers to your blog!


    Signup is a 3-step process.
    Last step involves putting the button on the blog. This is essential to connect to the blogoxy network.

    Please follow these steps to finish the process:
    1. Login to blogoxy using your username/password
    2. Go to member > widget
    3. Choose Blogspot
    4. Copy the button/widget code and follow the instructions to put it on your blog.

    Please contact me via email or via my blog at: http://blogoxy.com/blog if you have any questions.


    We appreciate your feedback. This helps us bring more traffic to your blog.

    Best Regards:
    ~blogoxy admin team

    ReplyDelete
  5. allo amudhan... ilamaran here. ;)

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.