Showing posts with label artistic expression. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artistic expression. Show all posts

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Creativity - Mother of Pain

Extraordinary creativity and Pain have almost always gone hand in hand. You know, the issue of Passion vs Practicality...because creative people almost always cannot follow the rules, or the norms or the ‘system’ – because if you are part of the system, then you are not a rebel, and if you’re not a rebel, then you are not creative, because being creative means you have to be a rebel of sorts. It doesn't mean you have to rebel (for the sake of it) to become creative. It’s something innate. Because rebels don’t know they are rebels. So obviously, when you don’t follow what you’re supposed to follow, you can’t sustain yourself easily in this world, traditionally-speaking. It’s a risk that true artists have to take, even at the cost of their future or maybe even their next work of art. But to think of it, it’s the starvation, the risk, the uncertainty, that insecurity, the pain – that artists feel and experience – are fodder for creativity and if I may dare say, genius. It’s like creativity and despair bounce off and feed off each other in this never-ending cycle. And it's really not a fault to be sucked in that cycle. Because as they say, it is by being who you are in a world that's constantly trying to fit you in its mold, is the most liberating. (Art work: Earthling)

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

An Artist's Rite of Passage

This has been said before and will be said again by many. But of course, I won't stop myself from saying it. Every artist that has gone against the grain, at many points in their lives, must cross certain difficult and excruciating phases, in order to move on to better and brighter things. When you think about it philosophically, it seems like just another epiphany, where we can go 'wow here's a truth of life'. But to actually undergo those phases and especially during those periods, is something inexplicable that can make you numb. Sometimes, the pleasure of doing something you really love against all odds comes with the extreme pain of it not realizing its original intention. Though there are bigger, better, brighter things coming along the way, sometimes you feel like you are in a vaccum. I think we are at such a crossroads, right now.

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Why, Mr. Kamal Hassan?


First of all, I never intended to write this. I know that in a few days our angst will subside and we will continue to live on with this issue comfortably tucked in the deep recesses of our memories, until one day, the same will come back and bite our collective asses in a much cruder form. So, with that in mind, and today’s impending Court decision on Vishwaroopam’s atrocious ban by the Tamil Nadu government, I decided to write it, in the form of questions for Mr. Kamal Hassan. Yes sir, you. In fact, 20 questions to be precise.
  1. Why did you remind us that we pretend to live in a democracy?
  2. Why do you have to be an artistic rebel in a country where socio-political art has been long dead?
  3. Why did you have to show us that our society's tails are curled up tightly between our ass-cracks?
  4. Why did you point out the wimps within us, who sit by as our toothless government does NOTHING, fucking nothing, as ‘cultural terrorists’ wreck havoc upon us?
  5. Why did you give yourself up over the last 50 years for cinema that doesn't let you do what you want to do?
  6. Why did you have to become the bait of our failed political system?
  7. Why did you unravel the vestigial nature of our Censor Board?
  8. Why did you make us realize us that we deserve the governments we elect, and the cinema we are ‘approved’ to make?
  9. Why did you make our artists realize that their country is no longer a haven for their angst or expression?
  10. Why did you remind us that our governments still continue to be held hostage by vote bank politics?
  11. Why are you thinking ahead of your time when, according to society, you should be towing the line, following conventions like sheep in a herd?
  12. Why are you trying to show your peers – in vain – that being an artist means having the balls to stick with their artistic conviction?
  13. Why have you made us realize that it now means nothing to be an artist in a country that once consecrated art in every form?
  14. Why have you reminded us, that tomorrow if we want to take a shit, we need to wait for approval from the thought-police of our society?
  15. Why did you have to prove to us again that this country can no longer be called secular?
  16. Why are you representing all that is seemingly progressive when the truth is so far removed from it?
  17. Why have you given us and our artists another ugly battle to fight?
  18. Why did you have to open up the hypocrisy of ‘shining, incredible’ India?
  19. Why did you reveal more than the tip of the iceberg floating right under the surface of our fucked-up excuse of a country?
  20. Why did you wake us up to the reality that anytime is a time for a revolution to happen?