Saturday, July 24, 2010

X- God and the movie ' Inception '.

"Have you seen god?" This question  was asked by my 13 year old cousin  to a highly known  orator cum  saint (?) who had come for lunch at  my relative's house. We all had sat down to eat and suddenly quietness descended on the hall and everybody looked to him for an answer. He thought for a while and then admitted that he had not seen god as yet. Before my cousin could ask the second question which might have embarrassed the saint further, one of the elders changed the subject.  

Amazing.. I thought. It was not because the saint was not able to answer but the boldness with which my cousin could ask such a simple yet perplexing question.  I felt like explaining to him that the oldest Texts of the Hindus, 'The vedas'  state that everything is the mind and that even the scientists are now suspecting that the universe might just be akin to a dream ( see past blogs ). But imagining him laughing at my explanation  made me shelve the idea. 

That is until now!! The answer is the movie ' Inception '. 

Leonardo in the Movie Inception
The central character in the movie, Leonardo Di Caprio ( 'Dom' ), has the amazing ability, by utilizing  some scientific apparatus, to get inside other people dreams while they are sleeping. He is then able to work through the dreams to access information, which being confidential in nature, the sub-conscious mind tries to  hide it in some vault or some secret place.

As dreams are creation of the mind, the physical laws begin to obey more and more of the person's will. Hence, to distinguish dreams from reality, Dom carries a small metal top ( called a totem ), which in a dream never stops spinning once started. 

He is one of the best in the business of stealing ideas and information from other people's mind. Due to his nature of work, he had lost his family and had to flee his country. He takes up a last job as he is promised his life back. 

The law of Gravity Conquered in this scene 
However this job is tricky and instead of stealing, he has to plant an idea in the mind of a person. For this, he has to go deeper and deeper into the sub conscious of the person. The only way to access deeper levels is to access another dream while already inside a dream. He goes three levels down in the sub conscious mind. What awaits them is ofcourse a secret. Suffice to say that as the sub conscious is the storehouse of all the good and the bad things, certain unexpected things happen to them. 

After completing the job, he finally returns home and spins the metal  top to check whether it is a dream or reality but is distracted by his kids. The movie ends showing the  top is still  spinning  leaving the question whether the world is real or a dream unresolved....

The ending continued to linger in my mind long after the movie was over. The movie is so believable and witty that some critics have said that it is one of the best movies this century!!!

Hmmm..........I am thinking of taking my curious cousin for this movie. Atleast after watching the movie, i do not imagine him laughing when i tell him that this reality is also a dream....:)

The Inception movie Trailer

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