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Saturday, October 8, 2011

Samantar (meaning -Parallel)

Couple of days back, I saw a wonderful movie – Samantar, featuring Amol Palekar and Sharmila Tagore. The movie tries to seek parallel lives that got lost in a mere attempt of survival. Amol and Sharmila had a beautiful life together  once, which gets shattered due to unforeseen circumstances separating them forever. Although, they travel similarly, yet are completely oblivious of each others existence. Amol aka Kakasaheb a very successful businessman has achieved lot of respect and prosperity by virtue of hard work and sacrifice. Sharmila Tagore on the other hand lives a rather lonely life as a sculptor with her son. Both the characters are equally intense and virtually pull us into their emotions.

Kakasaheb intends to retire, from his job and from his lonely life after handing over his empire to his kin. He has totally different thoughts about life; life that he wants to end it with his own will. He thinks that “We have the right to choose to die as much as we have the right to live”. Ironically , knowing that Life and death cannot be alternative/ substitute to each other (जीवन अणि मृत्यु एकमेकांना पर्याय  कधीच असू शकत नाहीत. ते नेहेमीच समांतर चालतात ).

An Elephant’s lifecycle has been anthropomorphized in the story when it experiences the same feeling and tries to end his life by refraining from taking food and water till death. It moves away from the herd and starts a different journey, while other elephants notice his departure; no one tries to stop him as they know what this is all about. After a few days they visit the place where the elephant dies and start dumping the body. Their trumpeting cry clouds the skies.

A similar incident happened in Goa on 3rd Oct when a young couple decided to quit voluntarily.   http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Satisfied-with-life-couple-ends-life-in-Goa/articleshow/10272043.cms

Their suicide note reads: "whom it may concern", states, "We have lived a very eventful and happy life together. We've travelled the world, lived in different countries, made more money than we ever thought possible, and enjoyed spending as much of it as we could on things that brought us joy and satisfaction. We believe in the philosophy that our life belongs to us and only us, and we have the right to choose to die as much as we have the right to live."   

This is a strange incidence. Do we really have the right to choose to die as much as we have the right to live?. Life is a gift to us and death cannot be an option to life unless it is for a cause.







1 comment:

Preeti said...

sanket, you have been writing on various topics.. movies, experiences in life, corporate and intellectual stuff.. u do have the knack to jump topics with ease.. and as far as this article goes.. its still a dicey topic as to whether an individual can choose his own death or not.. even the government cant come to a consensus on this one.. i suggest we leave it to the afterlife..