Dark side of India

Indians are stricken by the disease of cynicism and negative thinking. They are all more materialistic, less idealistic, and even termed as prudent and practical. Lack of independent thinking and risk taking tendency has doomed us to the slave of western thinking till now. The colonial rule and dominance of one party over has produced more followers than leaders.

The lack of social entrepreneurs is more gray issue than any financial problem. Engineers can build the physical infrastructure of a nation, but someone needs to build and develop the institutions that nurture democracy. The government does not promote free thinking and scholarship in the social sciences. The present political structure is based on ignorance and irrational thinking.Even within a university environment, saying social or political things may be rife with problems from fellow students or administration.

All this talk is given in the seductive influence of Gulaal. Gulaal is a flawed masterpiece. I like the movie because of its connection with youths and university politics. The first half is an introduction of characters but second half is just manipulation of scenes together. I don't want to enrage the readers with synopsis of plot. But after Haasil, a movie has come depicting university politics in limelight with honesty. The depiction of caste system, university environment and puppet politics is beautifully presented here.

The unusual point about the movie:Films contains references of US war of Afghanistan, Iraq and 9/11 , Cynical comments of Indian Democracy are made by some characters & Piyush Mishra wears a locket of John Lennon. The soundtrack and lyrics are refreshingly good and flows smoothly as the movie progress. The lyrics remind me of Hindi poetry still unheard by majority of Hindi speaking people.

The movie content is good and directly associated with Hindi heartland of India. The cinema halls will remain empty and people from metro cities will not be able to associate with characters, hence a wide margin of revenue will cut off. Leave trade analyst and critics alone. Watch the movie for sheer performance of KK and superb performance of Abhimanyu Singh (do not panic, he is not a star kid)...

I have read atleast 10-15 reviews of the movie but the most balanced one is here. There is positive and good face of India but this experience was like discovering dark side of the moon. Celebrate the democracy with courtier culture and dynasticism. The talk of loyalty and nihilism in one same place is revolt to the Indian tradition, but independent thinking is budding in young Indian minds.