When God Left Man

Since a few months I have been feeling a strange sense of Godlessness around me. It started the night I watched Percy Jackson and intensified when I watched Prince of Persia. Well, it might sound funny but I have always believed in Signs. I believe that once upon a time Man could actually read the will of the Gods through the Signs that were sent. And who can say whether Percy Jackson was not the Sign that heralded the beginning of the End.

Across the world Nature seems to be striking a balance. Legends have it when the weight of the Earth gets heavy The Titan adjusts it on his shoulders. Indian mythology goes a step further. It tells us when the weight of evil on earth gets beyond tolerance, Seshnaag shifts the Earth from one of his hoods to another and a new age begins on this Earth.

Do you remember Batman Begins? Do you remember the Secret Brotherhood who took it upon themselves to get rid of civilizations that had become corrupt beyond redemption? Today around me I sense the presence of that brotherhood.

The inner peace has been broken. No longer is there a sense of calm. There is an uneasiness that never leaves. The earth is parched waiting for the rains but this time it’s different. The wait is for deliverance.

And that’s why I am scared of Rajneeti. You’ll hear different reviews of Rajneeti. Some will love the way dynasty politics in India has been documented, some will rave about the reality of the first two hours of the movie, the intensity of Manoj Bajpai, the subtlety of Nana Patekar, the hidden shades of grey inside Ranvir while others might tell you that it reminds them of The Godfather and Mahabharata all mixed in one movie with mindless shoot outs in the last half an hour. All of them are true. In fact, if you would like a treatise on Indian Politics of the Heartland you might rather want to watch Gulal.

But Rajneeti points to a deeper flaw within humanity. It signals an era where honour is dead where something is rotten not only in the State of Denmark but in the whole world.

The day when the dividing lines between Shakuni and Krishna vanishes, that is the day we need to get worried. The reason Mahabharata is an epic is because within each character there was a strain of nobility which was unadulterated. Every character had his or her own flaws and that’s why Karn remains the Greatest Tragic Hero of all times. That’s the reason why Duryondhana was able to reach the heavens while all the Pandavas had to face their times in hell.

Where is the essence of Good in Rajneeti? Where is Hope? Where is the assurance of Krishna that He will come to deliver us? Rajneeti shows the triumph of greed over good, of ego over humanity, of manipulation over love, of power over honour.

I had to watch Shrek Forever After and the deal we have made with the Devil can only be broken by Love but then there is no longer any Love left in this World. Nightmares of Shutter Island fill our dreams and we try to live our life in a world created by a master director.

Mahaprasthan. – The last walk of Mankind is soon to begin.