Ahalya – A Haunting Masterpiece

3 actors, one renowned director, and someone who doesn’t understand a word of Bengali (me). That didn’t stop me for following every single scene of Ahalya. Sujoy Ghosh‘s epic thriller is something I wasn’t expecting to appreciate in the way I did. I’m no film expert. But every single minute of this masterpiece was keemti. I could not take my eyes off the 14 minutes of suspense for even a milisecond.

Ghosh’s way of modernising such an old tale of deceit and adultery is fascinating. This modern take makes you shiver and haunts you even after the it’s finished. 

It has everything you need in such a short span of time. It not only makes you appreciate the space the actors have to evoke such feelings but Ghosh’s directorial excellence to ensure that anyone watching, even with a language barrier, can appreciate it as much, if not more than someone who speaks fluent Bengali. 

My second blog on creativity has been dedicated to short films. I have explained how I have felt watching something stunning like Ahalya. Something that is historically Indian through and through but has a modern twist. Thank you Sujoy Ghosh for opening my mind to the beauty of short films. You don’t always need big box office numbers, elaborate special effects or three hours to evoke such feelings. Ahalya left me wanting to see more, though I knew it had everything in such a short space of time. A must watch! 

  

Longing to belong to the world of creativity

I kind of stopped thinking about being ‘creative’ a long time ago. Probably when I officially dropped my love of Art in college, as a subject mind. I don’t think you could ever stop being an ‘artist’. I couldn’t see it as a long term relationship. We had no future. It’s not you, it’s me. Actually, it was kind of you. What was I going to do with an Art degree? Researching rather than using a blank canvas always let me down. I wasting my time? Why am I thinking about this all now? On a blog? All these years later? Yes, I have started blogging. This happened by accident. I didn’t intend on starting a blog, especially about something like this. It all happened by accident. But I am going to use this as a platform to explore creativity to its fullest. A big thank you to you if you’ve not fallen asleep by now, but I think it’s really important for all of use to think about that inner creative soul that I’m sure is in all of us. Whether it’s to be on stage, to pick up an instrument, to use that blank canvas…we shouldn’t hide from it any longer. Unleash it, and make this world beautiful.I look a fashion designers and artists, actors and musicians sometimes with a longing to belong. But I can draw, I can make a blank piece of look colour and beautiful. I have an artistic ‘hunar’. A talent. With practice of henna inspired designs, I can now make them look like stunning prints. People don’t believe me when I say it’s all freehand; that I don’t think about it but I just start and I let my mind become as free as a bird. So, I AM creative. I have creativity in me. I have to just look at myself and be a bird. Fly. 
I had a childhood before technology infused my life. Facebook, Twitter, blogging, Instagram, etc etc – didn’t exist. We used to have an imagination. Pen and paper were important. Now creativity is measured by computers. Digital creativity is the ‘in thing’. But I live in a country that has so much historical and cultural creativity that I wonder why I haven’t appreciated it more. If I had gone and seen a play, spent every Friday in Vue, learnt the violin or graduated in Art, maybe I wouldn’t be so hesitant to belong. But to hell with that. Step by step, blog by blog, I’m going unleash the creative soul in me. (Cue Katy Perry’s Roar, oh oh oh, and Kangana Ranaut’s Queen, where she realises her own talents and strength through selling gol gappa, in Kolkata it’s called Puchka, in Mumbai it’s paani puri….).