Thought provoking films have always been an important feature of our Regional Cinema since the beginning and Hindi film-makers have also delivered many worth watching gems in this particular genre in the past (especially before the 90s). But even then, very rarely we have seen a film which comes up with a fine blend of both entertaining as well as enlightening moments in its beautifully executed narration, reaching out to the audience individually in more than one unique manner.
Writer-Actor-Director Rajat Kapoor’s ANKHON DEKHI is a perfect example of such rare, not to be missed precious cinema. And as suggested by its name, the film simply needs to be seen, felt and enjoyed at the earliest instead of just being read about, discussed or pre-judged by its various appreciative reviews written by different critics.Actually films like ANKHON DEKHI should not be ideally reviewed in the usual manner since they are certainly going to have many distinctive meanings or interpretations for different viewers (as per their own viewpoints), which in fact can easily be stated as the film’s real beauty too required to be kept intact. For instance where a few might enjoy it just as a light, feel-good comedy revolving around a lower middle class family, there for others it may turn out to be a highly transforming experience, giving them a new bright insight into their own struggling life, demanding many major changes.
So following the same thought, in the next paragraphs I am not going to talk about the film, but would be sharing a personal life experience of mine with a humble motive that perhaps this reference would inspire you enough to go for this timeless, genre free and life teaching film at the earliest, only to gain something ‘of the beyond’ from its truly insightful and realistic characterization portrayed brilliantly.
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It was the early quarter of the new millennium’s first year and I was just having a late morning nap alone in the house, after the last night’s show (since we used to perform as a musical group at night in those hard days). Suddenly my door got knocked by somebody like crazy with a loud thumping. I quickly got up, opened the door and it was one of my close neighborhood friends (a fairly well settled person having a small happy family) with a hugely tensed, sweaty face and trembling hands. Pushing me aside he just entered my room, picked up the water bottle, emptied it all in one go and then sat down on the sofa with his face in his hands saying nothing.
I asked him what happened……….., and he said, “I don’t know what happened, but it was really scary, I was not able to breathe properly so I first went to the doctor. His clinic was closed. I felt like drinking a lot of water and just had your house as the closest and therefore came here. I don’t know what was it……..I really don’t know!”
Giving him more water and a towel to wipe off the sweat, I tried to calm him down and then after a minute, requested him again to tell me what actually happened. Sitting silently for a few moments, he slowly opened up and then told me about his sudden scary yet pleasant experience honestly…………and in his words,
“I don’t know what it really was?………. but I was calmly driving my bike (he had the best bike among the whole group of friends in those years) and was thinking about my future plans to do in the next few months. Stopping at the red light I switched off the engine and suddenly these weird kind of thoughts started coming into my mind about myself and everyone around……..and it simply went on like crazy asking questions like,
Where I am going…….What am I doing……...Where all these people around are heading towards like some living dead bodies……… What are we all doing……..Just moving towards various directions only to earn some money………Am I also doing the same……..Just earning money…….nothing else! Soon my son would grow up, he will also start earning money…………then we will all die one day………..just after collecting some of it in the banks…….only for nothing!
So then why we have been sent into this selfish world……..Just to do a job, earn the living, get married, have kids and then die…………..Is it all just for this?..……….Why we are not talking of something else……….Why we are not stopping, Why all these people are not stopping…………Why the whole world is just moving like this since ages………….Why we all have been doing this for years…….Why we are not stopping………What we are heading towards………What????”
Stopping for a while, he continued…….!
“I don’t know brother, but having all these questions in my mind, I somehow felt at ease, extreme ease……great calmness…….peace….like never before. It felt good as if I had found something hugely precious. A moment to be lived forever…………..! But then all the vehicles behind me started honking loudly. I was simply not interested to break that peaceful experience at all. So in order to get out of the way, I quietly dragged the bike to a nearby bus-stand, parked it at a side and then just sat there all alone for the next 10 minutes looking towards the road without saying anything.
Still every single person I could see was madly moving towards something ……. but strangely I was not one of them now………..I felt totally aloof, detached and on my own!
Those few minutes were bliss, pure bliss and I was enjoying them a lot. Suddenly the mobile bell rang and the whole circle got broken. I felt as if I was coming back from a great ride, back to the world with everyone around. But gaining my normal senses again I somehow also started feeling frightened…….and became scared of whatever I was thinking a few moments before?
Had I gone mad……….Was this a kind of mental attack or was it a fit…..What was it?
Thinking about it in a scary mode I went to the doctor and since he was not there, I came to you feeling thirsty and now feeling quite better after sharing it all!”
Saying this he gathered himself again and stood up ready to leave. Understanding the state he was in, I wished to talk about this in details, wished to tell him something about the same, wished to share a lot more & wished to make him aware of a precious secret…………! But now he was simply out of it all and not interested any more.
So I left it right there, said goodbye after a loving hug…………….and he was gone.
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Since that day, we have been in regular touch, meeting every other day. But my dear friend never likes to talk about it again, he stops me whenever I try to and gets scared as if it was something wrong he had experienced. Something which may ruin his whole life going well…….with those silly kind of questions asked again…….something which should be simply avoided to remain normal.
Now returning to the experience he had…………., what really had happened that day to my friend, what was it? Had he gone mad for a while or was it a kind of mental seizure…..What it really was?
And a simple answer to these mysterious questions is that No he hadn’t got mad, it wasn’t a fit and not a mental seizure either to clear it all. In reality it was one of those divine blessed moments offered to him by the existence, as a golden chance to look inside himself, his remaining years of life with an introspective eye that whether he was moving on the right path heading towards an enlightening end or not. In other words, it was a blessed opportunity of self-realization showered upon him by the Supreme Power, a kind of sudden enlightenment of only a few moments or a mini SATORI as referred to in Buddhist (Zen) line of thought on spiritual enlightenment.
Now with reference to the film ANKHON DEKHI, those few precious moments of true awakening felt by my friend were exactly similar to what Sanjay Mishra as Bauji experiences in the film when he realizes the mistake that how quickly we tend to form wrong opinion about others by just listening to some vague rumours. How we go on believing so many things just like that without having seen them ever with our own eyes and How we keep on living a life based on all lies and fewer truths right till the end without even realizing it.Those few moments of self-realisation lived by my friend were also similar to the continuous meaningless talks of that young boy in ANKHON DEKHI who suddenly calms down when Bauji is lovingly holding his hands communicating through the speaking eyes.
But then………talking about this sudden little SATORI happening with my friend, Bauji or that young boy in the film, a very important point to be essentially understood here is that these are not the cases of any specially chosen or exclusively blessed persons we are referring to. And its not that these three characters had done something exceptionally good to receive such kind of direct signal from that Supreme Power as one might start assuming.
Because on the contrary, ‘the real secret’ is that such similar sudden enlightening moments come into the life of each and every person living on this earth unconditionally and the existence gives that invaluable chance to every single human being here to gain something from it, without any discrimination of origin, colour, status, education or class at least once and may be more than once too in all possibilities. So these little SATORIs do come into the life of you, me and everyone else without any exception. The divine existence showers those rare moments upon all of us equally without any preferences made and then it only depends upon the recipient that whether he or she is able to see it coming or not.
Sadly if truth is told then almost 99.9% of ‘we the receivers’, fail to realize it or simply refuse to acknowledge it due to our own inner scares and strong pre-conditioning of values, traditions and fanatically followed religions. The moment undoubtedly comes knocking at the door of every single person on this globe sooner or later, but either we are not aware, not interested or get scared to let any of those thought provoking questions enter our mind to disturb us further.
Hence as I see it, the most important spiritual message ANKHON DEKHI gives to its every individual viewer is that be aware, attentive and ready to receive such blessed moments in your life, since they have to come looking for you, today or tomorrow undeniably. And the only need is to try to hold on, meditate and use those rare enlightening flashes as a means to look into your own life once again with a new perspective of a change to make it much better and useful in the coming years. More so since we are all here not just to earn money, make big houses, have fat bank balances, raise a family and then die all of a sudden. We are all here for knowing ourselves as an individual identity, to self-realize our very existence and then break this vicious circle of life through such blessed little Satoris offered to us by the supreme power.
(Spolier Ahead)
That being said, there still remains one thing which we don’t have to learn from ANKHON DEKHI as it seems. To put it more honestly, though Rajat Kapoor shows the end of the movie in a more suggestive form, with not any clear revelations on Bauji’s own end. Still most of the viewers might take it as an enlightened life ended willfully, duly accepting all its beauty, gratitude and affection with a divine grace.
Now here it is to be remembered that Yes, each enlightening moment in one’s life when he or she realizes the laughable games being played around from ages in the name of LIFE……….is surely like a DEATH, like an ultimate end to all sufferings, ambitions and pains…….in only a second. Yet that doesn’t really indicate towards physically ending your life intentionally before its given time and doesn’t mean giving up like that committing a calm Suicide like A COWARD.
Yes in the spiritual world, Enlightenment is rightly considered equivalent to our worldly Death towards everything else. Still the phrase doesn’t actually mean that now there is nothing left in this world to be lived, enjoyed and cherished at all. Instead if a person can hold on to that one blessed moment of the showered enlightenment in his life (coming any second), can contemplate on it further and make it prolonged then he would probably be living the most enjoyable and satisfactory life in his remaining years, thanking the entire divine existence with his utmost love and that’s it.
Summing it all with many thanks to Rajat Kapoor (writer-actor-director), Manish Mundra (producer), Seema Mishra (Bauji’s wife), the entire supporting cast, music, background score & art department along with the emotionally touching & exceptionally terrific Sanjay Mishra as Bauji, I would like to strongly recommend ANKHON DEKHI to one and all as a rare meaningful achievement not to be missed.The film reminded me of myself in those crucial years when I was also condemned, ridiculed and made fun of by many due to my weird questions asked on almost everything around just like Bauji. And I suppose this similar situation comes in the life of every thinking mind in those years, when he or she starts reading or meeting the great masters of the past, who have been there, realized it and done that all. But then ………… as life progresses & teaches you further, all those aggressive questions silently pass away vanishing into the thin air of nothingness and you are just left there alone, looking at the existence with only one feeling of gratitude and nothing else………………..!
With a sincere wish that every reader of this honest write-up watches ANKHON DEKHI and many more movies like these like a true seeker, I would like to end here hoping that may you also find your own precious SATORI in those two meditative hours in the dark spent with Bauji. And may we all live a more contended, loving and thankful life in the future, forgetting this silly mad race for money, luxuries and power (to the extent they certainly deserve to be forgotten).
Rating : It’s literally a movie to be seen before you die.
Bobby Sing
HIS BLESSINGS
