It’s those small moments that add up as we inch towards our new day, new destinies and new experiences. Remember when we spoke of sonder? We also revisited it recently in a video with traffic blur. The bulk of our lives are those simple moments. While living in the ordinary and mundane, this is missed. Often it is rediscovered in the quietude of our every-day.
“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us strength; the bright sunshine on a cold day; and a cool breeze when the day is warm.”
This is an addition to our moving images archive. This is a mashup of some visuals at Chennai airport. The airport shuttle bus helped to get those crispy pan shots. I did some color corrections as well. I liked the bright colors of the aircraft’s ground services vehicles.
“And like no other sculpture in the history of art, the dead engine and dead airframe come to life at the touch of a human hand, and join their life with the pilot’s own.”
sonder n. “The realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk.”
While returning from work, I recollected “sonder” when I gazed at the traffic blur. So, this would be sort of a moving image version of the earlier post. Traffic time-lapses are one of my favourite ones to capture. It figurately connotes the dynamism of life.
When we go somewhere, between all the rush and the hustle and bustle are those sweet little moments in time that’d be chiseled in our memories. I and Netta traveled to Al’ Ain and Ghubaiba (old city of Dubai) and I thought to extract some memorable frames into a short moving picture.
Music by Canadian Singer Dawud Wharnsby.
“The Remnants We carry small membranes of memories Within us As do trees, flowers, stones, All life force around us
Fragments of memories Engraved in chips of iron, copper, silver… Interlaced in the workings of men Intertwined into the streets, buildings The networks around us
Pathways between ages Each carrying their Remnants of the past”
― Maria Lehtman, The Dreaming Doors: Through the Soul Gateways
Few days back, I happened to watch Ambili. This is not a formal review of the movie per se, but my thoughts on the overall craft. At the end of this post, I shall share a link wherein you can delve into a much detailed comprehensive review. Ambili a beautiful, gently crafted story of compassion that I really enjoyed watching. I’m an ardent admirer of the director’s previous work Guppy, which was a well-made movie that walked through different stories and beautifully wove them through an ingenious screenplay that was nothing short of pure genius. I was impressed with the passion and zeal in that movie and the art and the overall way of making that film and have been eagerly waiting for Ambili right from the time it got announced.
Guileless like a child and ever so full of life, Ambili is beloved by everyone in his village. The story traces Ambili’s outlook towards life and of challenges others surrounding him that face him on an everyday basis.
It embraces a beautiful, subtle way of communicating compassion, love and caring through a magical blend of music and stellar visuals. The movie is set at Kattappana, a lush green place in Idukki district, Kerala. Ambili, in the movie, is a joyous, guileless character and through subtle events, the story unfolds the reservoir of love and affection packed inside him. Regardless of opportunists and other hatred towards him from people at his village, he transfigures them into an aura of unconditional love. He is full of affection and selfless compassion towards his childhood friends Teena and her brother Bobby. After few happenings that demonstrate his affection, the story takes the byway of a road movie, wherein Bobby, who is a cyclist champ and decides to go on a solo trip on a cycle from Kerala to Kashmir, where they met during their childhood. Ambili accompanies him and we’re treated with beautiful visuals and instances of unconditional affection and caring. I’m not delving into the details much, should you plan to watch this anytime soon.
The background music is gracefully composed, the flute being predominant and hugely complements the emotional nuances in different scenes of the movie. And the way story unfolds along with the nicely woven musical interludes is so well blended that it makes you walk out with a tear or two. The music in the film is highly commendable and some of the songs of the movie would be in my playlist for quite a long time.
Some frames of the movie reminded me of Children of Heaven, The Color of Paradise and some other Persian movies known for their amazing visuals and moving art. If you’d like to read a more all-inclusive detailed and comprehensive review, I suggest this page.
This movie is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I got in love with this flick and yes, aradhike is playing in the background as I write : )
