Movie : Grey
Director : Ferrari Xavi
Jaime Lannister (a popular character in Game of Thrones ) once asked an extremely fascinating question. A question that has been plaguing the mind of every thinker for generations. He asks :
” If there are gods, why is the world so full of pain and injustice?…”
The question remains without a concrete answers. However there are a myriad perspectives offering various, sometimes contrasting colours to the question.
The title of the movie suggests a similar trajectory. One that is frequently treaded upon yet one , we know very little about. Grey is the zone where we are condemned to exist. The curse resides within the limitations of knowledge. The nightmare is in rigidity. It is in the binaries of right and wrong. It is in the elusive nature of truth.
The story is about a man who finds it exceedingly difficult to deal with a loss. A loss which is devastating to say the least. Evidently the lack of steadfastness among the figures in power in the quest for justice, makes him impatient. Therefore he decides to take an extreme step. A step that leads to the grave. He was aware of the consequences. However, he couldn’t find an alternative that could satiate his urge for revenge. He felt like he was facing a proverbial cul-de-sac.
Grey is a meditative, philosophical journey that resembles a visual Socratic dialogue. An enquiry into the various facets of justice and injustice, order and chaos, violence and peace, truth and falsehood. It initially presents us with a psyche which is deliriously determined, too ossified, too confined in its own meanings.
The movie has a plethora of themes. As we can hear various reports about violent murders, we see a man looking away from rationality. He refuses to look in the mirror. Something he is afraid might reveal the truth to him. He is looking at a picture of the special person he has lost. The reason being concrete enough for him to reek havoc inside a building minutes later. He is reminiscent of events from the past with the person he has lost, made evident by the presence of a book titled memories on the table beside him.
The eerie and unsettling song in the background acts as a perpetual harbinger of chaos , somewhat similar to Alev Lenz’s song in Hated in the nation (Black Mirror). It lures one into an abyss of darkness.
The speech by Malcolm X (where he talks about revolution and the necessity of bloodshed in specific cases) somewhere indicates the inclination of the character on the screen.
The script is impeccably written. The central character has shades that are abhorrent and somewhere it leaves a little place for remorse and pity. It invokes an certain sense of intensity, a suspence before the occurence of the gory inevitable. It has more questions to be asked than the presence of concrete answers. It is a tale of despair and also of countless reflections.
We are left with the all important question. Do we take an eye in return for the loss of one or let things pass? Do we pay heed to the need of the hour and destroy or create to stop the eternal act of annihilation?
