Thank you Mr Ang Lee

I watched Brokeback Mountain yesterday and it's haunting me since then. I never thought I would feel so much pain and so much passion while watching a movie about two guys falling in love and carrying their feelings with them through their long journey. Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhall) have made me realize so clearly that there is nothing weird or queer about two guys falling in love, having sex and yearning for each other. It has completely changed my perception of homosexuals, so much so that I feel ashamed for ever laughing at a joke on gays. Ang Lee guides us through such a series of fine pure emotions it just makes it all look so normal. When Ennis speaks out for the first time and Jack tells him that, that's the most he's spoken since the ranch work started and Ennis tells him, that's the most he's spoken for a year we realize for the first time that these two open up to each other. He doesn't talk much to anyone else throughout the movie. Isn't that the first step towards any relationship?They feel a connection. Even later when we see a girl interested in Ennis and he gradually spurns her leading her to another man, she tells him that the new guy atleast talks to her and Ennis is not the least bit bothered. You see he just can't open up to anyone but Jack. The thing with homosexuality in 63 was that if they found out you are gay, you were most certainly dead. At this point I realized how cruel we are. We see a girl boy kiss and it's so beautiful and when it's two guys or two girls it's a topic for disgust and tasteless jokes. Midway through the movie as I felt my opinion changing I could also feel so strongly the pain they were going through. They could just accept that they were in love and try to find a way. Instead they try to lead normal lives get married and have kids but how do you fight a feeling so strong. And you see it explode in them when they meet so many years later and realize that they still have the flame burning. It's all done so beautifully and acted out so sensitively that I felt no awkwardness watching two guys passionately kiss. Straight or gay longing for that loved one remains the same. We cause most pain to the ones we love when we lie not to them but to ourselves. Ennis's wife finds about them and soon divorces him and Jack is so happy that now they can live in his ranch but when Ennis indirectly suggests to him that he has lot of other responsibilities and as Jack drives away we see him cry and it just wrenches your heart. How long can one wait? Towards the end when Ennis tells him again that he can't meet him until November Jack goes all wild and says I wish I knew how to quit you, and that for me was the line of the year. The thing about controversial movies like this one is that if badly made they can be the centre of ridicule for ages to come. But in the hands of Ang Lee I guess we see not just a movie but a masterpiece. He doesn't rush anything, be it the long shots of Brokeback Mountain or the scenes in which we slowly see Ennis and Jack get closer, nothing about the movie is a pretence. For a film that demands so much from its cast I thought Heath Ledger was an inspired choice. I mean such sensitivity and depth are the hallmarks of a genius actor and I am sure that if he chooses well he's on road to be a legend. Jake Gyllenhall was simply splendid, his character in the movie is one that gets hurt easily because he demands the most from life. Again and again he asks Ennis to come live with him knowing fully well how futile it is. But Ennis is what you take home with you, imagine living alone for the rest of your life in the hauntimg memory of that one true love. He maybe quiet in the movie but you feel his anguish, as he looks at Jack's shirt over his own bloodstained shirt at the end of the movie you can't help but think, this is a love that never gets old. As I said before Ang Lee has created pure magic, it's like watching poetry unfold.

And the Oscar goes to ...............CRASH

When I first heard of Crash and about it's huge cast (remember Jon Stewart's joke on Oscar night) I was worried that the material might be rushed and there wouldn't be enough time for the different issues related to racism namely political, crime, jobs and so on. When I watched the movie i realized how shallow my perception of racism was. The problem is not out there but in our minds. Prejudices are in our subconscious. When you watch Crash you see the DA's wife (Sandra Bullock)holding her husband's arm when she passes two black men, you see the gun shop owner not ready to sell the gun to the arab and in the most well written role of the movie you see the white cop(Matt Dillon) molesting the wife of a black TV serial director(Terrence Howard), reason:she is black. You see example after example of how a victim on one day becomes the victimizer on the other. You see how similar we are in our daily lives in terms of the problems we face and the insecurities we have. We see two cops, one white one black suffering everyday because their parents are in such great pain. We see how the studio boss asks the director to change the script because the black actor spoke proper English and that's not how blacks are supposed to speak. We see a mexican locksmith being humiliated by a white housewife and being accused of being a hoodlum only because he is mexican and has tatoos all over his body. It's a different story that this locksmith goes home and finds his own daughter hiding under her bed because she heard gunshots. We see the black car thief angry with everything that is white sometimes for no reason at all. We see the insecurity of the arab shopkeeper as he feels everyone is out to cheat him. All he wanted was some control over his life. But the most breathtaking scene of the movie for me was the car crash when the same cop who molested the lady has to save her the next day. Moments captured so brilliantly on camera. The movie itself completed for a budget of $6.5 million was a triumph for Don Cheadle who persuaded most of the stars to work for much lesser than their actual pay. The writer director Paul Haggis also wrote Million Dollar Baby makes a great point when he shows how life comes a full circle and how even the most broad minded can give in to prejudices as shown in the car shooting scene towards the end. There is just so much to see and feel in this movie but the most important part is the thinking that we do afterwards. Be it racism or casteism(in India) the prejudices are just so common among us, ingrained in us. We don't even notice them most of them. This is easily the best movie I have watched this year, yet to watch Brokeback Mountain but even if that turns out to be outstanding I would not grudge Crash the oscar it so truly deserves. Thumbs up ten times over.................