Movie : Boy Scientist
Directors : Susan Lim, Samudra Kajal Saikia
The story revolves around the life of a scientist who is both imaginative and dexterous. He is a genius of sorts. He meets the girl of his dreams in an otherwise sterile realm of flasks and beakers. They appear to be quite different from one another. One full of the excitable, juvenile curiosity, the other , a calmer individual , perhaps hardened by the experiences of life. One who is holding onto a fragile thread and the other who stands solid mostly against all odds. Their world of ideas and imaginations is a Quantum Physics Lab. A place where they learn a plethora of things about themselves as well. The boy , in the face of countless trepidations, decides to store an image of hers (a cloned face of the girl he has fallen in love with) inside a beaker. Something that makes me elude the fear of losing her someday.
The concept is quite an unique one where intimate human inclinations appear against the backdrop of rational technological domains. It connects the animate with the inanimate. The movie suggests an alternative abode for fragile human emotions with the aid of revolutionary scientific possibilities.
The movie touches upon the existence of a communication gap between human beings in a technologically driven world which is at times a little too indifferent. A distance that is created between individuals for a number of reasons. Therefore words and sentences are lost in the ravages of time. A symbolic glass wall (appearing a number of times in the movie) prevents them from moving ahead metaphorically.
The movie asks a serious and profound question. The question oscillating around the realms of possibilities and impossibility.
Would it be possible for a person to hold onto the active presence of a loved one through their images?
The presence of several frames of glass and mirrors indicate a number of barriers that act as strangleholds in the myriad pursuits of man. They also suggest a sense of alienation that has crept in man away from the abundance of nature and into the lap of simulations.
The potent presence of an innovatively written song must be appreciated. The story is impeccably told through the song sans any complications. The trope of storytelling using animation is increasingly becoming an enticing proposition with the certainty of finding success. The movements include a plethora of emotions like glee, gloom, dejection and hope.
The recurring line “I am just a boy scientist fool ” suggests a bleak predicament. Perhaps the destiny of man still rested in the dubious volition of the beyond.
