AN IDEA IS THE MOST RESILIENT PARASITTE IN THE WORLD.........
The ominous rain clouds were thundering in the sky as me and sayan sped towards cinemax in savin’s kingdom….it was his 3rd time and my 1st time….wherever i went people had been ridiculing me when they heard i had not seen the movie yet…..so finally i chose to end that humiliation. As i stepped into the theatre i wondered what could be in the film that threw everyone into such a frenzy????????????????
1second into the movie and i knew one of the answers…..LEONARDO DE CAPRIO. Oh boy, i thought…..this is going to be really good!!!!!!!!!!!
Surprise surprise…….the theme was a novelty too…it was all about dream control and dream sharing! and just to think that dream designing could be done so easily like graphic designing. Equally intriguing is the fact that when you dream your subconscious is vulnerable to infiltrations from outside and even an idea can be implanted there and that this seed if properly planted can grow to cloud your conscious mind.
As i was watching the movie, it felt like our mind is a very complex and advanced computer which, inspite of its antivirus and anti spyware protections(read consciousness, ego, id and super ego) can become susceptible to experienced hackers who can introduce certain viruses that would eventually take control. And just think of this, dreaming is like lowering these defence mechanisms…..leaving oneself all the more unprotected.
Even for those who arent much into depths of things, this film is a visual treat….thanks to its spectacular special effects and’ technical brilliance….every scene is as breath taking as the prevoius and the next. Along with it, MR. NOLAN has assembled a star studded crew consisting of LEONARDO DE CAPRIO ( COBB),JOSEPH GORDON LEVITT( ARTHUR), ELLEN PAGE(ARIADNE), MARION COTILLARD( MAL) , CILAN MURPHY( ROBER FISCHER), and a few other who’s who of hollywood.
The acting is flawless….and leo gets better and better with the tick of the clock….as he makes a smooth transition from a ruthless dream stealer to a tormented hapless soul, haunted by his troubled past, a loving husband who never got over his wife’s death and lastly…a father who yearns to see his children’s faces to the last measure of desparation! I know what you are thinking, you think leo played the quintessential “good boy trapped in big bad world” role….i ll tell you, he played that and much more. And there is nothing wrong if you go with a formula that always works….at least for the ladies.
The film, as i gathered, has got a multi layered plot….the surface layer being an action packed climax. As the mysteries unfold and their mission becomes clearer……and they travel those unexplored depths of human mind that are better left untouched, leo struggles to keep his subconscious in control….sometimes bringing in a train and sometimes his dead wife. Simultaneously, they work in a team, travelling through many layers of dreams…..utilizing one emotional soft spot in Fischer’s mind…..his strained relationship with his father to spell doom for his company.
For this purpose they use a sedative which according to me will revolutionize the world of anaesthesia….but it has a major hitch…..if you die in that dream…..you dont wake up….. you go to a limbo….an infinite dreamspace…..to linger forever until someone comes for you.
But beneath this surface…runs a plot very thoughtful…almost spiritual, if you ask me. As worlds merge, the protagonist loses his sense of reality and dreams. The spinning top at the end of the movie asks the most fundamental question……”did he come back? or he didn’t,perhaps?” Now as i checked out on the internet, every person has got his own set of explanations for this….some easy…and some rather intricate……and here i give to you some of them if you are game enough…..
1. in the last scene…..the top is seen spinning no doubt…..but its manner of spin is rather wobbly… as compared to the smooth flawless perfect spin in his limbo. So i think it wudnt be too farfetched a conclusion that that the top would eventually stop spinning and this was his reality. it is again supported by the facts that he wasn’t wearing his wedding ring and the clotes that his children wore were a littkle different from what he saw in his dreams.
2. The top didn’t stop spinning and most probably he was still trapped in his limbo….may be he never got out of his limbo with Mal. may be in that dream too he had gone down multiple dream layers, and the train suicide only gave him a level up. May be Mal was right all the way…..so she committed suicide to wake up….while Cobb parasitized by the idea that the dream world was real…still wandered there, trapped inside his head.
3. Okay friends it is a little difficult to explain. so i will quote directly from IMDB……………………………..
Movie has two main themes: the first one is that the line between dreams and reality can be imperceptible from the perspective of an individual; the second that an idea can be a parasite which, once incepted, can take over one’s psyche. The ending simply reflects the fact that the idea that killed Mal has now taken over Cobb; he cannot discern whether he is now living in a dream or a reality, and we, the audience, witness that intimately. The gyro in the end falters, but we do not see whether it stops or not. Have we witnessed it stop, the movie would be essentially telling us “fear not, this is real and a happy end”. Had the shot ended with it spinning, the movie would affirm the other theory. However, the shot as-is wants to ensure us that we do not know and we cannot know, because Cobb doesn’t know anymore. The lack of definite answer IS the answer; for the rest of his life Cobb will wonder whether everything around him is real, and the audience is deliberately left with that same question hanging in their heads.
4. The 4th explanation is the spiritual one i was talking about…..We have often heard our elders mention the fact that life is not an empty dream…….but what if it was a dream, albeit not empty, but still a dream? Maybe death was the day of awakening in another world, in another existence that we truely belonged to? The fact that NOLAN reminds us throughout his movie that everything we see in a dream are just the projections of our own subconscious minds….seems to echo sacred texts of ancient wisdom….the bible, the quoran, the geeta……”EVERYTHING THAT YOU SEE AROUND YOURSELF IS A PROJECTION OF YOURSELF…..ITS NOT REAL……ALL IS MAYA…AND ETERNAL HUMAN WISDOM SEEKS TO BREAK THIS CYCLE OF MAYA AND UNITE WITH THE ALMIGHTY”. May be what we assume as reality is just a virtual reality of time and space limited by our own self projections???????? Maybe thats why the top keeps spinning? though it wobbles, still it comntinues to spin?
Okay thats enough for one day i suppose……now i have to rush for lunch….my stomach is suggesting that i should run or the chicken will be finished! Inception perhaps! who knows. But the real magician is MR. NOLAN who has really implanted this question so deep in my psyche that i haven’t studied for 3 full days.
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take care. BYE.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I actually thought Leo was crap. He can only be 2 characters, a romantic hero, or an intense romantic hero. He’s been in the EXACT same character in The Departed, Aviator, Catch Me If You Can, and now here. If there’s one thing I would change about the movie it would be good ol’ Leo.
To the writer: One suggestion, if you use capitals and correct punctuation it just makes the reading experience more pleasurable, and I’m guessing, that is your intention when you write. Of course, i could be wrong.
Guys , I regret if your reading experience has been very unpleasurable and my writing has been substandard……i shall withdraw it soon….. thanks for the pointers….and as for the capital letters, I missed some of them as I was in quite a hurry…..and i am not very adept at dealing with computers very fast……would not have missed them if I had slowed down.
As for Leonardo…….he hardly played a romantic hero in the film aviator……he rather played an eccentric but intensely passionate character, with an immense love for aeroplanes and stuff, and an insatiable, almost hysterical thirst for perfection. It also portrayed him as being somewhat of a cassanova….which is very natural for men of such intellect as they are naturally restless and never satisfied with the same thing for a long time….
What shone through the film was not romance but fiery passion!
As for catch me if you can, that too was hardly a romantic movie……i think he portrayed a successful but internally troubled and extremely intelligent and talented conman who finally becomes a government ally.
What you are saying is akin to saying Johnny depp can only play madman and freaks!! Of course I may be wrong……
First of all Nippons in depth analysis was marred by the comment before mine
after reading such detailed description of the meanings especially maya leaves me intrigued even more
certainly christopher nolan has made a masterpiece
leonardo was brilliant and absolutely no question abt it
i certainly advice ppl to watch the shutter island
ppl having doubts will be reassured again
i think an Oscar for inception will shut ppl up.
okay abt my own feelings abt the revolving top
it was reality and it was falling down
alas it didn’t leaving a question a theory an idea in our mind
leaving us all mortals fighting over that theory
having an inception whether the hero of the film was in limbo or in life
suddenly the last spiritual answer is remarkable
all is dream and all is lost
death the ultimate realization
uff when was the last time we discussed so much abt a movie
i saw the movie with my gf
she didnt understand most of it
i also understand when many ppl dont like it
its simply bcz of lack of intellect
i dont curse them but i am sorry for them
its a marvelous masterpiece and understanding little of it is a pain itself
and as Sri Aurobindo says
“Pain is the signature of the ignorance attesting the secret God denied by life.”
Buddy, I am not nipon But i do admit that Nipon helped me a lot to find all those explanations…….thanks for your support and understanding.
Arre aniruddha, it wasn’t my analysis. Anyway thanks for your comment :)
@Adrita: I’m sorry I didn’t make myself clear when I said Leo can only play 2 characters: romantic hero and an intense something or the other. He doesn’t play these 2 together, but seperately. THe romantic hero in “ever gold” Titanic, Romeo and Juliet, etc. Of course, I agree, he was passionate in Aviator, etc, but in all these movies, he essentially plays the same character.
@Aniruddha: I have watched “Shutter Island.” Yup, I like the movie, but I’m still not a Leo fan, although he probably did better in that movie than in others. And I don’t think the Oscars are necessarily an accuraet validation of good acting. You know how they have this theme in the Oscars every year: gay issues, people of colour, last year it was women, and that biases the awards given out. THere has been a lot of contention about undeserving awards going out. So I don’t think Leo getting an Oscar for Inception will shut me, or others who think like me, up, at all.
Besides that minor point of contention, I agree with your understanding of the movie, pretty much.
Brownie points for admitting your girlfriend didn’t understand it. Most guys wouldn’t admit they were dating some dumb chick, but at least you’re honest.
Now people, not understanding a movie doesn’t make a girl dumb or stupid….. at least i don’t think so. Might be that many of our mothers and aunties wouldn’t be able to grasp it….I dont think we should call them dumb….and really the movie is a little difficult to follow for a majority of people…may be she will understand it better if she watches it a 2nd time.
As for the oscars, ya, awards can be misleading…..but then again it all depends on the judges….and everyone will have their own favourites.But though leo portrayed eccentric people in both the movies with an inner turmoil, the two characters were essentially different,one , a rather boyish conman….and another an extremely passionate aviator. they had their own different sets of troubles, subtly portrayed in both cases.
But as i said…..each one of us should have a different opinion…..and not necessarily every1 has to like Leo
Umm…then if someone doesn’t understand the movie, what does that make them?
(a) Distracted (she was making out in some dark corner street)
(b) Does not understand English
(c) Hung over/sleepy
(d) All of the above.
I suppose you’re right. She doesn’t have to be dumb.
“Every1″….seriously? Were you trying to be fast on the computer this time too? And there are only three periods in an ellipses (“…”).
Nope dear (or should i say no gracious madam in a more formal and pompous way….) I was not trying to be fast,…It was simply a side effect of random sms-ing habit which i picked up some years back. You remind me of the good old days when I would often be punished in school for writing dis, dat and da instead of this , that and the. After school nobody really seemed to mind….so I guess I fell back to my old bad habits…..
About this gf( oops sorry I mean girlfriend thing) may be she wasn’t interested enough or could not keep up with the fast paced non linear story telling. may be she would understand it the second time she watches it……not everybody is super duper smart…..but that doesn’t make them dumb at all…..today only I was reading something which I couldn’t even make head or tail of….in the first time……but after I read it the 4th time, it was as clear as water! After that when i went to class, i found out that I knew more of it than sir actually knew!!!!! I guess that doesn’t make me dumb too, does it?
@Aniruddha: come on buddy, she is your girlfriend, speak up for the poor girl once at least.
This dumb movie viewer thing has already been built up too much! Time we put a lid on this :)
First of all sorry adrita for mentioning nips name
it was a genuine mistake
secondly i think adrita and trina have some real issues
sought it out fellas for the good of bongbuzz at least
anyways my gf was sleepy after odd office hours
and i seriously dont need to defend her
underestimating ppl certainly not in my forte
but still do believe those who didnt like the movie
the movie with leo as its heart and soul the brain being nolan
didnt understand the movie
its one of a kind
maybe romantic ppl were not intrigued
maybe dumb ppl were not
but certainly commenting on ones lack of understanding is beyond manners
if oscar doesnt judge good movies then really i dont know what does
it still is the paramount of success
unless u like govinda
On the Oscar thing, the award has become total crap! I watch it only for the glamour and glitz!
I have done this on bongbuzz before and Nipon had to take the whole comment section out because it got so vicious, so I’m going to refrain from doing it this time. Have a good day fellas!
Makes good reading… don’t stop now. LOL
;)
@Aniruddha: I don’t think we have any issues dear, real or virtual. We hardly even know each other, the only thing I know about her is that she is a wonderful writer , in fact, I have read and reread many of her posts on bongbuzz even before I got the opportunity to write here. Its just arguing people, not having issues. Have a nice time people!!!!!!!!
I saw the film only once and planned to see it a thousand times over….
For about 15 days after I saw it, i asked 2 questions to people I met even before greeting them…’Ki re Inception dekhli?’ and ‘Tor ki mone hoy top ta ki theme gelo?’ Now for the first question,well, most of them answered in affirmative but the second question divided them in 2…and for the unsure,3 may be…
If I have to answer my second question I will choose the word ‘No’ because of a couple of reasons, which are, err, quite simple, selfish and emotional…Firstly because I want a sequel to this film and secondly because trapped in a limbo is a much more fun idea to me, somewhat tragic yes, but fun nonetheless(at least in film)!
As for the review it begins with an overcast sky but the rest of it is crystal clear. The language is lucid and the style is personal…with some indeliberate mistakes thrown in made it very warm and informal, like a friends’ website should be.
Like most. I have not been able to grasp the idea of the film in full and i bet Mr.Nolan never did either. He just kept the top spinning to make people watch the film several times, debate over the idea, think over it time and again and vote it a cult film at the end of it all…good strategy Mr.Nolan, both artistically and business-wise.
As for the acting, technicalities and etcetera I found everything pretty perfect…Intense ‘edge-of-the-seat’ kind of feeling persisted throughout the run-time and I thank God for the intermission, otherwise my rear would have hurt real bad at the end of all the action!
Let me come to Leonardo diCaprio now…well, I don’t like the chap. Even I feel he is too intense, even when he has to laugh like a clown! I don’t think he is versatile like say Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt or Tom Hanks. Thus he has to choose his films very carefully…all those dark, intense, intellectual, passionate, Martin Sorcese-esque films…I can’t remember if I ever saw a light, laugh-out-loud diCaprio movie (and if you saw any please do inform me).
I have to end this saga now…but thanks to Adrita for all the trouble she has taken to gift us this ‘most complete’ review of Inception. And a token of gratitude for surfing the net for those colourful well-imagined explanations to quote them here. And I too think the movie, at one level, was very spiritual and it kinda reminded me of Matrix on several occassions though the latter was much more futuristic and action-based.
Take care.
Thanks, Chandradeep…. I am grateful for your comment and support. I am trying to be more careful about the mistakes but sometimes when I am concentrating on the subject , they just slip out as I get engrossed. Keep reading!
It’s a GR8 movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!