MEGALOMANIA

English League Football

Chelsea lost to Manchester United by 3 goals to nill. That scoreline is called an emphatic win. I knew that that set-piece will produce a goal and it did — I knew that then 2-nill down, and another set-piece just abt to be played — it is gonna add insult to injury. And it did. It was a well engineered goal that — one for which commentators say: ‘right from the training-groud’. That saddened me somewhat since I am not a United supporter and wanted Chelsea to win even when that would-a made things difficult for my fave club Liverpool who are at the top of the league table neck-to-neck with Chelsea.

Finding me in popular culture

O well, I talk with friends studying elsewhere and they all have the same things to say. Life is so bloody boring. There’s just no action. Which is why I identify so “bloody” much with the character portrayed by Robert de Niro in Martin Scorsesse’s classic, Taxi Driver. For the uninitiated it was a 70s breakthrough movie for both de Niro and Scorsesse and did to this pair and to Hollywood what Zanjeer did to AB, Bollywood and those part of the movie.

Travis is a character who ‘wants to got out and really do something’ — ‘I dont know — I have some crazy ideas in my mind’. I believe it is a film-noir in that it is a movie with subdued tones which suggest an idea or a thought bigger than the scenes of the movie — a vague suggestion to the viewer which pokes him in just the right areas. For eg., I observed Scorsesse showed the colour red in a full glare one too many times. The red traffic light, then again the blood. The movie understandably moves on a slow pace. Those suggestions are full-blown and chilling. I don’t think I have seen anything quite like Taxi Driver ever. It is on the list of AFI’s (american film institute) best 100 movies of all time

Then again, another character I identify with is Holden Caulfield from the cult novel, The catcher in the rye. Caulfield is a seventeen yr old boy who tells of his experiences an yr back when he was 16. Caulfield is a complex character who has an uncanny ability to understand ppl and well established social institutions. Most of what builds society he finds ‘phony’. As an introduction to the book you may read my popular poem Jane — quite a cult following it has among my readers, I really must add. O, what can I say? — ‘xcept thank ye all.

Caulfield, for all his observant and critical eye, is himself a classic procrastinator. Which makes him a tragic character (picked this tid-bit frm my memory of reading on him at wiki).

Holden thus runs from the society he detests, he smokes heavily and so has ‘very little wind’. He is an out-n-out rebel.

Now, the list of ppl which I find phony is topped by none other than our good ol’ King Khan. To really put it in the right perspective, I think he’s a more self-controlled and more subdued version of the character of the protagonist of the movie, Sunset Boulevard. The character of Norma Desmond ie. Now, go figure! The list in no particular order is followed by media persons like the famous but phony Miss Dutt.

Then again, — and this might sadden ppl — I identify with the character of Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire. Blanche is portrayed by the great English actress, Vivien Leigh. This movie is based on a Pulitzer prize winning play of the same name by Tennesse Williams. Well, let me just say that the play IS English Literature. Famous lines include: ‘I can’t stand a naked light-bulb anymore than a rude remark’. This line is explained when we see that Blanche is an aging woman who looks for love, assurance and support; she likes ‘magic’ and ‘has always depended on the kindness of strangers’. That is how euphemistically her … err… un-womanly character has been put by herself. Since I love the character so I will say no more, and certainly not word it.

The play/movie begins as Blanche comes to her sister’s town, takes ‘a streetcar named desire’ and comes to live with her sister at ‘Elsyian Fields’ which in Greek mythology is the abode of the dead. This post her social death which is supposed, and suggested in later conversations. She thus lives out the punishment that is due her in her ‘after-life’ [word not used in the play/movie]. Yeah, the play is quite tragic and glows blinding bright with morbid intensity. The play was presented in NYC and with exactly the same (prime) cast, the same director; the movie was made but with the character of Blanche portrayed by Leigh instead of one Jessica Tandy who played Blanche in the play. Now, I wouldn’t say that I identify with Blanche to a very absolute degree but yes, I would say that my heart goes out to her and to a great degree I understand her predicament. The movie sticks to the play close to a hundred percent. Even to the point of the actors following the ex-pressions that Williams (the author of the play) wrote within box brackets before certain lines.

After seeing the movie, I bought the play for Rs. 150 at a popular bookstore in Bangalore.

PS Here is a scene from de Niro’s Taxi Driver where he confesses to a friend abt his crazy ideas. Observe the man’s classic method acting.