Blindness

Based on Jose Saramago’s novel of the same name, this tale of loss of vision is an allegory on the themes of faith, trust and deception. It’s an obscure, complicated but uncompromising and powerful narrative; a provocative comment on repression and policing, on degradation and social breakdown and on the innate human spirit and resilience. Blindness is, moreover, about dictatorship and totalitarianism. The alternate world of the blind, much like the world outside, is all about the survival of the fittest, where the strong lord over the powerless. So you have the enigmatic villain, King of Ward 3 (Bernal), who controls the distribution of food and asks for favours in return—material as well as brutally sexual. The redemption too comes from within, as the doctor’s wife draws together some inmates to form a family of sorts, trying to bring in a semblance of order in the surrounding chaos. The film ends with the inmates breaking loose from the prison after a fire. One by one they regain their sight; things come back a full circle and yet you know they would have changed irrevocably.

Moodily shot, the film manages to communicate the sense of deep-rooted paranoia and anxiety to its audience, the moments of claustrophobia on screen reach out and smother viewers; the cruelty and violence jolts. It’s cinema in a most tactile form, not palatable for all but stimulating nonetheless.

High Fives

Bollywood

1. Ghajini
2. Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
3. Jumbo (Animation)
4. Dostana
5. Oye Lucky Lucky Oye

Hollywood

1. Marley & Me
2. Bedtime Stories
3. Benjamin Button
4. Valkyrie
5. Yes Man

Rock

1. Dark Horse (Nickelback)
2. Twilight (Soundtrack)
3. David Cook (David Cook)
4. Black Ice (AC/DC)
5. Folie A Deux (Fall Out Boy)

Courtesy: Film Information