Alternate Dreams

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Alternate Dreams

“A race not free to dream has lost its’ future before its’ present!!”

As an eternal optimist, I am habitual of counting seven rainbows when there is none, on a moonless night. No surprises what irks me the most happens to be the spate of alternate and realistic endings that have become a staple of every movie industry, or is about to. Why this obsession with negativity?

Ok! Why this obsession with criticizing, some of you might ask. The rude ones’ might even go the whole nine yards and try to pull out my beard even before my hair has popped out of the follicles. What issue do I have with dreams and what the heck has it got to do with how a movie ends?

Well, let me put it after I have put this;

“Alternate and Realistic endings irreparably damage the moral fabric of the society and poison its’ psychological health!!”

Now that makes it two halves of one circle!

And here is how I get down and dirty with both, with due protection, off-course!

One of the movies I recently watched was “The Real Steel”, a decent movie, captivating visuals, honest acting and crap ending.

Given the fact that one of three main protagonists of the movie was a child, and the story trudges along from a child’s perspective, who wants his father to redeem himself, the movies falter, ne, flatters to deceive in the end.

Let me put it this way;

“What possible harm would have happened to the whole wide world if the movie had ended with Atom actually knocking the reigning champion out and claiming an outright victory?”

But no, the ending had to be realistic! Atom had to give a close contest yet loose on points, claiming moral victory. Do kids actually understand the concept of moral victories? What happened to the good old fairy tales and godmothers? Is this what we want to teach our kids; that dream big as long as it is within the limits and confines of your real world?

Can our kids not even dream big now?

And it is not just about kids, it’s about grown-ups like you and me!

Each one of us is living a struggle of our own. We all know the travesties of life and the prickly thorns it dishes up every day. Each one of us is fighting our own little battle and there are days when we all are up-beat and days when we are down-browed. At the end of it all, if we spent a few bucks of our hard earned money to go and watch a piece meant to entertain us, we do so to get away from those harsh truths of ours. We want to be taken to a land where dreams are big and achievable. We all know what suffering is and no decent human being wants to see another of his kind suffer what he or she themselves have, or just plainly suffer for any reason. When we go and watch cinema we want to see those who look like ourselves, living lives that may or may not be like ours, struggle to succeed. We want to see them overcome their suffering and achieve their dreams and aspirations because the thought of their contentment gives us a pleasure that alleviates our own sufferings even if momentarily. It gives us peace, even if temporary. Our lives become easier.

What is the point of going and watching a movie with an intention to forget our own travails only to step out with our mind burning with questions that concern someone who doesn’t even exist? When we are already trouble with the question “What will happen of this thing I am in”, why should we be burdened with a red-herring, “What if he or she had done this”? We want to forget our own sorrows or enhance our own happiness. Why should our spirits be dampened by the plight of something fictional as in, “So sad. Shouldn’t have happened like that!”

Have we even lost our freedom to dream happy things? We always knew dreams are only dreams, but they made us happy. Have we lost our rights to be happy even in our dreams?

Are you going to tell your child a story, “Once upon a time, there was a very handsome Prince and a very beautiful Princess. You were their ordinary servant”? Doesn’t this story sound realistic?

Are you going to tell your kid to dream of a rainbow but in black and white because he cannot afford to buy his own color television out of his pocket money?

Such realistic endings are akin to a Master Chef from a grand hotel serving you with the biggest and the best cake you have ever seen, on your very own birthday, covered with the sweetest icing, and the reddest cherry on top. And then the Chef brings out a live turkey and makes it poop on top of your cherry since the cake is complimentary from the hotel. Now isn’t it realistic? You are getting it for free! Just toss the cherry away!

Compromising with reality generally means giving up your ambitions, desires and dreams. You are inadvertently accepting defeat and giving up your fight for a better future. You are losing your future in present. Such realistic endings are slowly weakening the inner strength and will of individuals to fight as they are becoming more and more susceptible to the notion, “That’s fine! It happens like this only!” Such realistic endings are harmful for the future of human society as they slowly and slowly weaken the psychological strength of humans who day by day become more accustomed to ordinary people losing out on their dreams just because real life is harsh.

Such realistic endings are killing our dreams.

If you can’t even succeed in your dreams, how will you succeed in your real life?

Movies are an escape from real life as they tell stories of unreal people. If we can’t even dream of imaginary people wining their battles, how do we expect to win our own battles?

So do I make the first statement clear?

Now coming to the second statement, let’s take the example of a movie that came out a few summers back, “500 days of summer”; average movie with a pathetic ending and nothing to write home about, except that it had an alternate ending. Infact it was the ending which made the movie pathetic.

Tell me which one of us or our friends haven’t fallen in love with a complete looser and characterless of a person in our lives, only to realize our mistake later (Irrespective of the fact the relation consummated or not)? Which one of us doesn’t know there are chicks who are bad and boys who are no different either? Which one of us doesn’t know of users, publicity mongers, controversy seekers and cheap-stakes?

Now what difference would it have made if the movie had ended with the girl finally accepting her mistake and returning to the guy? We don’t need a movie to tell us, “That’s fine! It happens!” We already know that! For GOD sake we all live in the real world. But instead what the movie does is it justifies the actions of the girl in a way. It makes a statement that it is alright to play with one man, sleep with another and then marry another. It makes it alright to forget about one relationship and go for another without improving yourself or trying to figure out what went wrong.

Look at our society today. How many relationships, including marriages are lasting today? Why did they last in case of our parents and grand-parents generations?

Well, the simple answer is, during the times of our parents and grand-parents, if something used to go wrong in someone’s relationship, everybody including friends and families from both sides used to get involved with advice derived from personal experiences and they used to help the couple thaw out the offending straws in the roof of the relationship before the leak deteriorated into a collapse. But what happens now days?

The moment a relationship gets in trouble friends from either side start interfering to aggravate the situation, telling both sides that the best alternative is to get out of the relationship and finding someone new who is better. Infact I sometimes wonder if people actually enjoy the sight of the collapse of someone else’s relationship, as if they actually want it to collapse and their sympathies with either side are only a show-off. I don’t think they even seriously try to provide a sound advice that might help spot what went wrong from either side, leave alone the sound advice to fix what everybody actually knows has gone wrong.

Now add to this mix stories like the one of the movie mentioned above. What do such movies promote if not promiscuity, infidelity (“Up in the Air”), loose sexual behavior etc. Are such movies promoting the interests of the society? Are they developing or inculcating right moral values among the younger generation? Are they teaching the kids of the society they are feeding on as to how to effectively manage their relationships and be a better partner?

So do I make my second statement clear as well?

Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss,

Amanpreet Singh Rai

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