"JOKER" MAY HAVE A SOLUTION TO MAKE IT A SANER AND PEACEFUL LIFE.

LIFE CAN BE CRUEL WHO KNOWS A

"JOKER" MAY HAVE A SOLUTION TO MAKE IT A SANER AND PEACEFUL LIFE.

By - Ali Peter John

The world may call me mad if I smile and say that life is not as beautiful as some of them believe, but life can also be very cruel at times, this is what I have experienced all along my life. I have still to have the courage to place my hand on my heart and swear that I have lived at least a few moments of a happy life. I don't want to be cruel to my readers by telling them or giving them proof about how life have ill-treated me down the years. There are times when the life in me also gets so real that I feel like annihilating all those who have been cruel to me and almost everyone who is living through troublesome, tormented and mentally and physically miserable lives because of the cruelty of others who take vicarious pleasure from being cruel to their fellow being.

Like every other day, I had to face the cruelty of mankind in different fields of life, starting from my family, to the men and women I had to deal with to live my everyday life. I had enough of these cruel scenes by the time it was 4:30 pm in the evening when my young friend Pranav Brara, an actor, a writer, playwright and a potential director in whom I see reason to be optimistic about the future, asked me to accompany him to see a film called "JOKER".

The last time I think I had seen a film about the life of a joker was when the showman Raj Kapoor made his autobiographical, “Mera Naam Joker” which I know had shaken me up but had also shocked me when it was declared as one of the biggest flops ever and almost destroyed the empire and the image of Raj Kapoor. I had very good reasons to see this Joker because I desperately needed some way of finding a clue to know how to get rid of the growing cruelty of humanity which was slowly killing me and I felt what will this joker would give me that it is no psychiatrists, saints and seers could give me.

I realised how old and almost helpless I had grown when I had to navigate myself to climb the escalators and staircases to reach the auditorium where joker was being screened. I once stumbled in such a serious way that I felt it was either the end of me or at least the damage of my head, face, back of my limbs. But I had the support of the young man, Pranav, who guided me through. I reached the auditorium when the national anthem was playing and I discovered how strong the Indian in me was when I stood through the playing of the National anthem even though I was in unbearable pain. The tri-color always had a tremendous emotional impact on me.

The film started and for the next two hours except for those endless ads shown by the multiplexes only to sell their samosas, popcorns and cola. I was taken away from this world by an actor called " Joaquin Phoenix" who refused to leave me because what he was saying and what he was forced to do was the way I have felt several times and I know anyone who sees this great actors performance and him telling the bitter truth about life and would say that this was only a story about a figment of the writer's imagination, would be lying and running away from the greatest truth about life.

It is so easy to turn your back towards another being and denying the basic emotional requirement needed by all human beings. In times that we live in we have got accustomed to technology, convenience, comfort, material pleasures but we have forgotten and neglected to cater to our true and " real" emotions that we all have gone beyond repair as we ourselves have denied the light that helps us heal and outgrow our miseries. I definitely can be sure that no other species can help our species and we ourselves will have to fight to keep the basic zeal to live a sane life.

Joker played by instead I would like to say "lived" by Joaquin Phoenix is one of the most gripping and outstanding performances that I have seen in my life. The world of Gotham City is a pure reflection of what dwells in the people who inhabit this city that the film explores through various other characters. Brilliant cinematography, sound design, lighting, make up and the sheer artistic commitment of the director "Todd Philips" is nothing short of pure cinematic magic. When I left the auditorium, I felt as if I was Alex flex" who not only give vent to his own feeling, my feeling, the feeling of several sections of society but the entire world with scenes sitting on a fiery tornado which can explode anytime and even when it does it will be the greatest calamities the world has ever seen, because when human feelings are set ablaze and "wronged and torn apart" certainly not the best of times for us, human beings to live in. I have never seen a film sending such a strong message in such a hard-hitting way and I hope our leaders, our holy men and women and every common man and woman see this film because I believe that this film teaches man more than any holy book, any philosophical treaties and the teachings of the greatest Mahatmas and Sevaks of society and country.

I don't know how long I will have to live in this cruel world of cruel people but I know that there will be men like Alex flex who will raise their voices against cruelty and inhumanity.

Joker came to me as a relief as I had planned but what a relief it turned out to be!

Before I entered the auditorium, I stumbled but when I was leaving I was standing erect with my faith in the future standing erect and willing to face any kind of cruelty.

AND BY THE WAY, WILL ANY OF OUR GREAT DIRECTORS HAS THE COURAGE TO DEAL WITH A SUBJECT LIKE THIS?

AND WHICH ACTOR CAN DARE TO PLAY THE ROLE OF THE "JOKER"?