In Search of the Secret - Faisal Kalim

It has been almost thirteen years (yes, yes I am positive about that unlucky number!) since I started my journey of self-actualization, beginning with probably “The Power of your Subconscious Mind” and continuing through to learning “The Secret” last week. I don’t know how much I have learned and how much I did grow in this period which has spanned maybe 1/6th portion of my life until now. Did I grow at all? How different would life have been if I did not know “The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success”, the power of my thoughts, the notion that the human body and mind combine to make a very effective psycho-cybernetic system or “The Secret”? Most of my friends do not know about it, neither my parents nor my grandparents and they are pretty ok, living successful, satisfied lives.

However I do know that there were times when these books and philosophies provided me with solace as well as exhilaration. And there were times when I tried so hard to understand things, to achieve calmness that I ended up more frustrated than before. Deepak Chopra told me that “all possibilities” exist in the gap between two thoughts and if you put your intentions into the gap, the universe will manifest them for you. I try to access the gap everyday. I don’t know whether I am successful, you see it is supposed to lie between two thoughts, the “no thought land” so technically speaking I may never be aware when and if ever I have made it into the gap ;-)

I may sound like a cynic, that’s because I am one; probably I have allowed myself to be rubbed non-stop by self-help literature and philosophies, probably because I abhor the commercialization of something that is actually lofty. Mediocre, dumbed down and derived stuff is being peddled as man’s gateway to nirvana. It may only be a matter of time before we start seeing several “secrets” and “laws” of success peddled on tele-shopping networks; and god forbid if Ekta Kapoor decides she’s had enough of numerology and does a Byrne/ Oprah and produces “Kkissmatt Mmuththiiiii Mein Le Llllo” and dozens follow suite. Indian mommies would stop cooking with the hope of manifesting food and creatively visualize a clean house. Brrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!

It makes me cynical and I feel justified in thinking that way. Maybe some good stuff is reaching more people that way, but no matter what, I believe dumbing down something makes it vulnerable to corruption. I think an individual should be ready for the truth, in the case of New Age Philosophies, the truth is being ‘readied’ for the masses… which does not speak well for its future.

I loiter in the grey areas of faith and no-faith; I would really like to be one of the faithful. But I like my teachers to treat me like a thinking human being in search of spiritual evolution; not just someone whose sole aim in life is to spend time in the couch with Alladin’s lamp.

Om Shanti Om - A Modern Classic

I can already see you smirking and sneering, dear reader. And if I am wrong, believe me, I will be very happy. Yes I do sincerely believe that the above-mentioned film is a modern classic, a milestone in Hindi cinema. I would have said Indian, but then I am not so well acquainted with the cinema of all regions of our country. I believe that I have already tapped a key too many around the bush and should cut to the chase, keeping in mind… the smirks… the sneers.

Om Shanti Om, brash, colorful, over-the-top, is everything I believe the makers intended it to be and in my opinion, one of the most intelligently written films of the recent times as well as in the past. The producers took a great risk by making a film whose enjoyment was to a large extent based on an extensive knowledge and reverence for the thoroughly kitschy and the so called B-grade cinema of the 70s and the 80s. Think about it, how many people in the prime target group of 15-25 years would have got all the in-jokes, the performances and the presentation of the story? Just think about its sources, Subhash Ghai’s Karz for the overall story, the Bimal Roy/ Ritwik Ghatak classic Madhumati and the genius Chetan Anand’s uncrowned classic Kudrat for the climax. And I have just mentioned some potential sources for the story line, the classics, to which this classic pays homage to. Then there are all those numerous set-pieces, from the king of all items songs, the howlarious and to some, irritating, Anna Rascala- Mind It!, the take-offs on the Sooraj Barjatya and the Rajshri classic ‘Maine Pyar Liya’, the archetypal sidekick pappu master and the feisty Indian mother, Govinda, Manoj Kumar among others. As if that was not enough we have cinema greats and even well known bloated egos like Subhash Ghai making fun of their tender spots (Mr. Ghai’s famous fascination with speaking the language of our former colonists, and his crippling inability to do so). It is refreshing to see such people actually making fun of really delicate issues concerning themselves. Arch rivals Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan hit their own weak spots with great gusto, an ability which I have found rare, especially among us Indians. The only spoilsport being a certain Mr. Manoj Kumar, who had his desperate fill of 15 minutes of fame, and revealed later that he would like to have Shah Rukh Khan in one of his films. LOL.

The only other film-maker who has been able to take his love for B-movies and turn it into highly satisfying and charged up pieces of art is Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and The Grindhouse. The international film community worships Taratino for his work, in the sense that he has really achieved something substantial. Sadly, I have largely found that a classic worthy of any respect in India is usually a movie which makes grand statements about the pathetic condition of humanity and similar themes. Believe me, it is a much more difficult task to write a movie with the inspirations of Om Shanti Om than farcical “Oh my lord! I am an intellectual” trash like ‘Black’. Farah Khan & Shah Rukh Khan are true artists because Om Shanti Om can only be made by true lovers of cinema. Unlike the likes of some high brow filmmakers whose movies almost carry the watermarks of their own mugs in every frame.

I think ‘Om Shanti Om’ deserves a label better than ‘commercial success’, which sounds so condescending. Several people say to me, Shah Rukh Khan knows what crap the public wants and he gives it to them. They forget how daringly different films he has gifted to Hindi cinema as a producer, from the far-ahead-of-its-time “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” to the wildly experimental and irreverent Asoka, to the misguided but again daringly different “Paheli” to the pre-cursor of “Om Shanti Om”- “Main Hoon Na”. Except for “Main Hoon Na,” which was critically panned, the rest have been big commercials failures… and why not, none of them were ‘safe films’ unlike say Mr. Perfectionist’s “Lagaan” and “Taare Zameen Par” which were designed for success and were comfortably predictable in an experimental garb.

If “Om Shanti Om” would have been a disaster, knives would have come out and people would have said “What did they think they were doing?” and much worse stuff. Look what happened to “Tashan” which attempted something similar - a take-off on the action cinema of the 70s and the 80s, an admirable effort/ intent but they came out of it horribly bruised, because paying homage to over the top movies is just no child’s play. “Om Shanti Om” delivered and it delivered big time. And it is much more than just a huge commercial success… and I hope it’s recognized that way.

I rest my case.