Thursday, June 22, 2006

Finding Neverland

Movies are of 2 types. They are either meant to entertain you or move you. Unfortunately the ones made now are made in secret joint venture with the pharmaceutical companies to increase the sales of their headache pills. The only move possible is you move even before the ending credit rolls up. Today I found a movie that was an exception....a glorifying one. FINDING NEVERLAND.

For those who have never heard about this movie, this is in short about it. J M Barrie was a famous author whose play had flopped and panned as well. He finds himself in what is called as a writer’s block. He comes across a family of a widow and her 4 sons....the most interesting of them is PETER. Based on the adventures with the boys that Barrie has, he writes a play called PETER PAN, which is about a farie who would never age, and his chronicles.

I know what you are thinking. So what’s special in this movie? Imagination. Just turn back time and think what you imagined when you were a child. Didn’t we all imagine flying? A world without gravity, without any school, without the strict math’s teacher, without any homework. A world where plants have chocolates as flowers, where candies could grow on tress, where we could fly as high as we want and do what we like. What happened to that innocence?

The present generation of children seems to have been robbed of their innocence. I remember my friend telling me that one of his young relative once mentioned in the beach "hai…fan maadhiriyae kaathu varadu illa?". Pity that children are made to attend computer courses, play stupid video games and kick karate in vacations and not explore what lays around in this beautiful world. I have no doubt why we all starve for someone as J K Rowling to imagine for us as in Harry Potter.

But on the other side, when I happen to stroll by the shopping mall near my house, I smile to myself when I see children playing happily on their perambulators. I envy them as well, as I as a kid never had a perambulator and I wonder now I am too large to be carried in one at present. There was kid at this Disney toyshop that was running around picking everything he could and throwing it around. I could imagine how his father must have been so fit for his age. But isn’t it amazing the amount of energy we had as kids? I remember playing cricket from morning till evening in Gujarat at about 42 Degrees. The previous month I gulped 2 cold drinks and 2 buttermilk packets after just an hour of walk in the mottai veyyil of Chennai.

So tell me....what was your Neverland?

21 comments:

prithz said...

Wonderful post Harish!!! Simply loved reading it.. :)

The energy of small children is something i admire too... Its so cute to watch kids play, their elderly talk and imaginations... simply mind blowing... but, as u have mentioned, i guess they are being caught in the digital world far earlier than we were...

As for my Neverland - i would love to be in a house made of choclates and nuts, situated on a cloud, over which i can see a rainbow, whose each colour hold a flavour of ice cream!!! I will fly to my house in a carpet of flowers ;) romba alpa thanama sapadu patthiye solliteno??

Ramses said...

i dreamt of an ice cream shaped house, irony being, i detested ice creams...then and stil do.

interesting thoughts, Harish.

Ms Congeniality said...

Beautiful post :-).. I really love to see small children play and the innocent questions they throw.. u are right..nowadays they are robbed of such innocence..

Butterflies said...

hey i liked itso much nalla post!brach a paathu kids are saying fan kaathu...ht of comedy...partnership with head ache tab pharmaceutical ccompanies!keep rocking

Sangeeta Ananth said...

Lovely post!
And thanks for reading mine-I'm not a true blue Tam - but go the jist of your comments. :) My paintings are up. FYI.

Vidya said...

Thanks for dropping by my blog.

This is a very nice post. But here is the flip side to it. The world that was 10 years ago is not the same as it is now. So the kids obviously are exposed to different things than we were or our parents were !!
So if kids want to play with video games, thats fine. But not why not have hand held video games, take the kids out to the park. And biggity bang boom.. the video games are out and kids are playing out in the open. So both worlds are conquered (at least in a very small way ! )

Vidya

Sat said...

finding neverland...mmm...lovely movie isnt it?
johnny depp his awesome self...but tht kid takes all the credit...
and who told as kids we don't dream of flying...of course we do...at least i did....but then they taught me about something called gravity!

Ram said...

Nice narration friend

KC! said...

nice post! Childhood is something I am missing a lot! Evalo nalla irundhadhu theriyuma?

Ponnarasi Kothandaraman said...

Hi,
First time here.... Nice post. And true kids r not tht innocent now adays...
Wondering abt my neverland ;) Yethathu apdi thonuchunna will get back and comment :D

Sangeeta Ananth said...

Romba Thanks!
Some more are up.

చైతన్య said...

thats a very good post harish.

i too always admire the innocense of kids. i used to ask too many questions to my mom which she was not able to answer many times. i now wonder where had gone all that. we now hardly have any doubts even about the things that we are not at all aware of...

Ramya said...

nalla post paa...naan laam indha maadhiri enjoy pannadhe illa paa..namma oor makkallaam ore work oriented.adhaan naama ipdi irukkom.

Sangeeta Ananth said...

Thanks Harish. :)

Has to be me said...

Such a good n meaningful post! LOL @ fan! Innocence is the speciality of childhood. Sad that these days kids need to go thru the drill of hazar things due to competition n peer pressure.
In my neverland Im the princess & the world obeys my words!! :D

Vani Viswanathan said...

nice one... i'd written just about the same thing almost a year back.. when i saw the movie for the first time and simply loved it!

Harish said...

@Prithz
Thanks. Its fine. I didnt tell the saapadu stuff as it reflects in my size :-)

@Rams
You detest ice creams? Whoooooo

@Ms.Congeniality
Thanks. I remember that i was given my food in my mom's lap and looking at the moon. My cousin's kid requires a sofa and a TV with a Cartoon channel on. Times have changed.

Harish said...

@Shuba
Thanks Yaar. Hope to continue the same form :-)

@Sangeetha
Sorry. Must comment in English. Loved your paintings.

@Vidya
Sounds a nice idea to combine both worlds. But i donno how far it will work.

Harish said...

@Sat
Yup the kid was too good. Thats why Depp wanted him in Charlie and Choclate factory as well. Lol..everyone was taught of gravity when we dodnt want it to.

@ram
Thanks Pa

@Usha
Same here. All one needs to worry about is when will we get the food and when can we go to sleep. Ippo evalavu pirachanai..thollai.

Harish said...

@Ponnarasi
Waiting for you comments

@Chaitu
Remember reading somewhere "What a kid can ask even wise man cant answer." I once bugged my mom asking where will i go after i would die. Gosh..gave her a hard time.

@Ramya
COrrect thaan. We restrict childrens fantasies...which we shouldnt.

Harish said...

@has to be me
I will give you one advice. You dont need to go to Neverland for this. Just marry someone and there you are. Mission accomplished :-) (jus kidding..and i guess i am true here as well)

@Vani
After a long time eh?Yeah...i immediatly blogged about this after i saw the movie. Couldnt help it :-)