We, the fools.

Ignorance is Bliss.

There might be spoilers ahead for 'The Darjeeling Limited' so you might want to refrain yourself from reading further after the first three paragraphs.

I know a lot of you are pissed about a number of posts regarding 'October' but I couldn't find a more suitable movie to initiate this discussion.

I had restricted myself from writing any reviews for 'October' believing that expressing feeling via mere words is a polluted form of communication (also evident in the film). I wasn't reading any reviews too because of the very same reason but my optimism drove me to go on and read reviews of few critics that I sometimes look up to. The only takeaway for me was how each and every one of them reduced this heartfelt film to a piece of furniture in a living room. They were judging it by the factors that were way below the film's standard and therefore they could not connect with the film. I know most of them have been to a film school and learned the craft but what if something like October comes in that takes it a level further and we are still looking at it through our myopic lenses.

This makes me wonder if 'Ignorance is indeed bliss' especially in this case where we are ignoring the essence of the film as well as the need to draw the line between something like October that is artistic and 'A Death in the Gunj' that is well crafted. Someone suggested me to watch a film twice - the first time to feel it and then to understand why you felt the way you did.

Adding to the above discussion, I also feel our habit of over analysing with a blurry unidimensional vision has been mocked by a few filmmakers. Take an example of 'The Darjeeling Limited'. They carry luggage with their father's name inscribed on it which was symbolic of the baggage that they carried after their father's death. A point that most of the viewers completely missed, until the last train scene because of (probably) our habit of look for something great in a film. I laughed out loud during that scene because I felt that is where Anderson mocked all of the viewers for competing to be erudite. Ditto for when I was watching 'Mulholland Drive'. The film in itself was opened to multiple interpretations (that is what art is) but I felt the director knew people will go crazy looking for just a single explanation of what was happening. Reading its Wikipedia page just confirmed my theory.