Weekend musings - 09
The week with the virus, movies and thoughts
What if I told you that you can change one thing in your past?
Exciting? And what would it be? Just answer yourself.
In 2019, 28-year-old Kim Seo-Yeon goes back into the past and brings back her father who had died in an accident. How was she able to do? She communicated with Young-sook who lived in the same ancestral house of Kim Seo-Yeon in 1999. The communication device was a telephone. Both girls start talking via the telephone and start building a bond. They become good friends and Young-sook helps to save her dad and this changes the life of Kim Seo-Yeon.
The plot takes an unexpected turn - Kim Seo Yeon is happy with her family and Young-sook is living in hell. Now in return Kim Seo Yeon searches the internet and learns that Young-sook was killed by her mother during an exorcism. During the next phone call, Seo-Yeon warns Young-sook, who saves herself and kills her mother instead. Now freed, Young-sook becomes a serial killer.
Going forward Young-sook wants Kim Seo Yeon to help her so that she can trick the law. This is when things become tricky and Young-sook goes behind Kim Seo Yeon and her family.
This is the storyline of the South Korean thriller movie The Call streaming on Netflix. First thirty minutes you need to be patient enough. Post that you are destined for a bone-chilling revengeful ride between the two girls happening simultaneously in 2019 and 1999. As the story unfolds you find that Young-sook is a serial killer and she is behind destroying Kim Seo-Yeon’s life. She keeps doing till the end to change her past so that she can be free in the present.
Very rarely does a movie holds my attention as this one did. Besides, I stay away from time travel movies but this one just kept me awake. Storytelling, music and the acting by both the girls are brilliant. Especially the crazy character of Young-sook, initially you will love her but later when the true skin appears you will doubt your own judgement. Even the end will leave you thinking?
The movie is based on the 2011 British and Puerto Rican film The Caller. Give it a watch you won’t be disappointed.
The movie also sparks a question - Can you really change the past?
Was Kim Seo Yeon able to change her past or the past understood by her was false? Did her father die in a home or accident or a road accident?
In the book Sapiens, author Yuval Noah says -
“We study history not to know the future but to widen our horizons, to understand that our present situation is neither natural nor inevitable and that we consequently have many more possibilities before us than we can imagine.”
If the movie “The Call” was changing the past; Joji the Malayalam-language crime drama film streaming on Amazon Prime is all about changing things or rather killing people for a better future. Played by the brilliant Fahadh Faasil - Joji is an engineering dropout and considered a loser by his father who at the age of 70 controls everything from house to business.
Joji’s life changes when his father gets a stroke. Everyone in the family including Joji is waiting for his father to die. But things change and his father has a speedy recovery. This meant that Joji won’t be able to get hands-on the money and property. Thus starts a master plan to kill his father and eventually a few more to keep the secrets buried inside the ground.
The movie is a treat to watch for Fahadh fan’s like I am. I saw Fahadh for the first time in Kumbalangi Nights - while the movie has some interesting characters and parallel stories running but Fahadh will capture your attention by his mannerism, looks and subtle movements. He is not your six-pack, muscle popping, strong voice actor but he will scare you enough with his eyes.
If Fahadh was brilliant in Kumbalangi Nights, then you will be blown by his acting in Joji, his looks, talking style, the three-quarter pants in which he keeps loitering around. I wouldn’t have minded a few more hours of Joji just living his carefree life and suddenly getting up to kill the next person because he/she will spoil his future.
The movie is inspired by William Shakespeare's play Macbeth and shot extensively in Kottayam.
Coming back to our initial discussion about changing things in past. I have sat and answered this question and I don’t think I would like to change anything from my past. There was a time in my life when I was really desperate to change things in my past relationships. But my failures in life and relationships forced me to look into myself to find out what was wrong with me.
Today I consider that I am in my best shape be it mentally or physically. Even though one might think that I am disturbed especially after my last Weekend Musings but trust me:
“Some people live their entire life in filters and I don’t. Besides writing is my superpower to express my unfiltered feelings. Hate me or like me this is who I am and I don’t care.”
And this realisation wouldn’t have been possible if I change my past. So I really don’t want to change the past. In fact, I don’t want to bring my father back. Obviously, he is in a better place than our earth which is turning into a shit space with every passing day. But I think I have loved him more in his absence and keep him alive inside me.
Sometimes you love someone from day one even if you know it is not meant for you. Sometimes not achieving something is also special and lovely. Maybe that hope makes it more special. Maybe?
But if there is one thing that I would love to change the way I have acted when things didn’t turn out my way. I want to kill the drama that I created in my past. I know it isn’t possible but that would be the only thing that I wish to change.
However, I know that the past can’t be touched so I try to keep myself awake and try to be cautious in how I react to things in my present life.
Just as I did in the last seven days when the virus finally decided to visit me. I had the virus in my body for a week, I home quarantined myself and I am now itching to go back to my running and cycling.
At the end of last week, I realised that I had a fever and pain in my knee joints. The temperature was gone in two days but the weakness was there for another four days. I could smell the coffee but my hunger was dead. I was not able to talk for a longer duration with my mother. Sitting in Gurgaon she was worried that how I was managing things on my own.
But I call myself a privileged person - all I did for the next 7 days was sleep, wake up watch content and again go back to more sleep. I was surviving on fluids. Rest I was pretty okay being with myself.
And when I got bored Rumi would give me a call for an extensive chat and I had the luxury to sit and do Vipassana. In the last few months concentrating for more than 10 minutes has been a nightmare. But now whenever I feel I sit without even thinking how many minutes I am doing.
If today I can control the way how I react to things, sit in patience without getting excited then it is because of my continuous pursuit of doing Vipassana. I have achieved enough clarity on what I don’t want to do in life by Vipassana. However, I don’t wish to be a Buddha, I am good at being the evil guy and I still fuck up things. But just that I am in complete control in how I react to my present being.
Just like Smile alias Nelson Mandela the local barber of the village realises the power of his vote. He initially uses it to make himself happy but then when he realises the power of his vote and how he can bring change in his village, his life changes. The Tamil comedy-drama political satire is worth a watch for its story, the reality in which our villages still live and while we are building smart cities our villages are killing each other in name of caste and politics.
Yogi Babu and his smile both are a delight as the movie Mandela.
Before I leave you with your beautiful weekend, here is a poem from Mary Oliver on Love:
P.S. I am not discontinuing my Weekend Musings. Where else will I be able to share my super sexy life?