Tuesday, January 20, 2009

A perfect Sunday evening!

Watched a wonderful french movie called "The Bears" on NDTV Lumiere on sunday evening.

Its about a bear cub who is orphaned and how he befriends another adult bear and they try to face the wilderness hazards - which come in the form of hunters (men), their pack of dogs and lastly a puma attack.

The film was full of understated yet poignant moments - my personal favourite of course was the young cub looking at the reflection of the full moon in the water body at night and jumping into the reflection in the water as if trying to scare the moon away! There was absolutely no dialogue here and yet the scene lingers on in my mind ...

The way he emulates the adult bear he meets, his forlorn look when he finds the two adult bears mating, his sloppy manner of unsuccessfully chasing a frog, his quivering in fear when the hunters are nearby and how he forms an attachment to its captors, the hunters is all brought out in a beautiful manner.

While at one level, it was a movie about this bear cub and how it outwits the hunters in the company of an adult bear, I could feel another sub-text running through the movie. This was not just the usual wildlife movie or a movie on animals speaking to each other (like in the animated versions) but at a level relatable to human beings, subtly. Of untouched beauty and innocence of the young. Of dignity and compassion which each one of us has within.

The movie ends on a peaceful note with the young bear cuddling up to his friend/saviour - the adult bear as it snows outside the cave....

And then the quote appears : " The greatest thrill is not to kill but to let live."

A winter's sunday evening could not have been spent more perfectly!

PS: of course, Saucy Sardonix could n't 'bear' it at all! Talk of pauvre tastes in life! Huh!

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