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Mowgli of This Jungle Book

January 21, 2022January 21, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

While looking out of my French Window in the City of London, it occurred to me that the struggle to make it in life has become so intense that this part of my whole has engulfed me with a strength that cannot be easily captured in images. But then I turn around and realise. However, the view outside made me see nothing but buildings, roads, and people on roads going towards buildings again. It was a jungle for me and for anyone struggling to carve a road ahead. The concrete jungle is all but a reality now not only in its physicality but also in its emotional, mental, and existential occurrence. Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ in 1894 has been an interesting piece of work for me. But it resonates deeper now when I am in my 40s and realise, I am free to interpret the title and characters according to my whims and fancies in my life’s reality. Now I understand that I am not the only one in this muddle. There are so many of you standing in this line with me. Sometimes you may not even be realising yourself, but I find myself in the same race with most of you. I may sound narcissist to many; it may sound false to quite a few but the truth is, the levels may differ, the intensity may vary, but the core remains the same. We are all searching for that piece of peace that seems to erode with the harsh winds of human fatigue and rationality. For me, and for most of us, the Jungle Book is a story that follows the journey of a wild child named Mowgli. A pack of wolves found him as a baby and was raised among them. However, he had his struggles to fit in and survive. The story follows how he was raised among wolves and survived through it all without any human connection. However, I am not here to find a perspective and take on white colonialism or characters representing the involved symbolism. What I want to concentrate on is my journey or anybody else’s as well, who is sailing in a similar boat. This life around all of us and outside our vision is a Story like Rudyard Kipling’s above mentioned Jungle Book, where like its main character, we too are that wild child, who is left alone to fare for his survival. In this life, we find our journey, our story, our jungle book!

Every morning when we wake up, you and I find ourselves in a forest of ambiguity. We try to clear our morning blur because for some it is just a puddle, for others, it is a marshy land. For few, it is a bridge to cross over, but for most, it is a journey across wonderland far and wide; crossing through deep rivers, dragging over deserts with their parched throats. All of us are in a desperate search of a mere glass of cold water to smoothen out our parched souls. As we grow in life, we move ahead on the paths that we have dug for ourselves and with age comes the understanding that in dreams begins our responsibilities! But the Mowgli in all of us is still that frightened little boy who is trying to make it every single day by keeping a brave face. Every day brings a new hurdle and by the end of each evening, he finds a solution to overcome that. He must survive because that is what he was made to learn. His pack taught him what needs to be done. But they have not held his hand and drilled in him how to reach the finish line. Just like Mowgli, all of us are afraid to cross over. The end of the tunnel is dark. None of us knows what dangers lie ahead. There may be many ‘Sher Khan(s)’ along the way, with accompanying conniving hyenas, to lure us to our tragic end. But if we will ponder more, we will never be able to take that leap of faith. There is always that hope that on the brighter side we may along the way, meet a couple of Bagheera(s). These will be our guides to bring us out of our troubles and may pull us by our neck to carry us safely across the barbed wires. The Baloo, Sher Khan, Kaa, King Louie and even the Hyenas inside each one of us need to agree with what the Mowgli said in Kipling’s story; ‘we be of one blood, ye and I’, The moment we realise that we come from one and shall go back to one, we might be able to cut through the thorns of this jungle safely. We can dream to roam free when our actions will speak louder than our words. A little push there, a subtle pull in several positive directions, is enough to emotionally gratify and physically satisfy our individual Mowgli(s) within.

The story of Rudyard Kipling may have a different focus while bringing Jungle Book to life; still, we as individuals can write our own stories. We may make errors along the way but if we are ready to be an editor for each other and proofread the written content in our lives, our Jungle Book will also have a happy ending. We are sure to gain the same freedom and respect that Mowgli felt in his craving to roam about freely, with a sense of belonging to the roots known to him. The concrete jungle outside our homes, visible through our windows is equal in enormity with the jungle within us. We need to get past our racial, religious, gender, social and economic differences to bridge the divide that is our own doing. The differences that we have created for our own and the gap that is wide enough for ourselves to stumble and fall in this never-ending pit. It needs to be pushed close with a consistent effort. We desperately need to recognise the entryway but even more, what is needed is to hold each other’s hands to take us through the dark forest to see that light at the exit. Our story – your and my Jungle book needs to reach its end as well. Our Mowgli(s) need to meet each other and live in this magnificent Jungle of our own making in harmony. We can bring out the Rudyard Kipling in each of us to write many more such wonderfully wild tales!

Films

Merging the Genders: Working Her Life in Films

January 12, 2022January 12, 2022
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

When we watch films of our choice, as consumers of that content, films lay their focus on our emotional gratification and gradual build-up of a lasting connection with the story, characters and the whole concept of filmmaking. So, when we see our kind in any role on screen, we automatically start resonating with them and the image they project. Though there has been a regular climb in the journey of representation of women and their role on screen, there is a lot left to be desired. From being underrepresented to becoming subordinate selves, they have travelled far and wide and have managed to reach a point where sometimes the whole film can revolve around their character. They have donned the role of independent career woman, with sparks of their own along with their already existing role of homemakers and supporters to male characters. Many times, they go as far as overpowering the male leads due to a well-rounded sketch of the character development.

If we focus upon the image projection of career women in film quite a few times we will see that the women at the top of striving to be a top need to imbibe the qualities of image conveniently projected by men. Be it a corporate character sketch or a media mogul or even a career striving assistant, we witness them be to give the idea to the audience those women need to forgo their sense of softness, emotions, and empathy to reach the top of the chain. They need to self-inculcate a sense of cut-throat competition to reach a set level of success. In a way, they need to become as many as possible to push their way upwards in man’s world. Their need to dress in a certain way that emits power and exclusivity is shown to be one of the key factors of their character development. They require to stay away from so-called feminine qualities since they make them seem weaker in their journey toward success.

But are these stereotypes crucial in role development? Does the audience need to identify with them? Would it help women in general and will they truly get emancipated? Is the identification of ‘self’ with the ‘other’ important or does building up of women characters close to the real-life need to increase in number? The transition of real to reel and vice versa need to be talked in seriousness because the message that these films impart perhaps unconsciously leave a lot of loopholes when the human population in general and women in particular start to believe the absolute necessity of being like the ones they see and identify themselves with on screen. While drawing a working woman character sketch we end up over masculinising them, we gradually lose the sensitive trail of the human race. We tend to forget and forgo the beliefs integral to humanitarian co-existence by painting everyone in one colour or by picking up one umbrella to save all from the outpour. In turn, we end up dehumanising the concept of success and power by common gendering the beautiful differences that make an individual unique.

The films may come and go, the characters may change with time, but what stays is the impression that is already made. The human mind is very strong, and a memory made in time stays back. The fluidity with which sometimes films dehumanise and degrade the qualities of love, affection, empathy, and sense of sympathy that is core to women and humanity, in general, is quite alarming to absorb. It leaves a big question mark about the intent towards the sense of women empowerment in society through media and technology. Are we creating stronger women or are we recreating the need for stereotypes that may have a feminine face but already existing and thriving personality of their male counterpart? A question that we as women need to ask ourselves and to those who create characters about our empowerment. Is there a need to merge genders unconsciously to show a working success of the female sex or do we desperately need to let it go with the flow…

Opinion Shack

Do we really need to ‘Man Up’- Feminism and…

December 6, 2021December 6, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

When I am feeling down or am at a low point in my emotional journey and I hear people tell me to ‘man up’, I frustratingly want to scream out that do I really need to? If I need to be successful or if I want to get what I need in life, do I really need to so-called, develop a spine, chin up and be a man? Do these cliched terms really hold weightage to be able to dive into a man’s world? I can still feel shifting of gears, winding of clock hands when I am sitting in a group and the word ‘feminist’ or concept of feminism arise! Out of nowhere there is a sense of scepticism when the conversation proceeds in that direction. I wonder why the word is made to be stayed aloof of. Why is it so that even after so much of social, developmental changes around, whenever we talk about feminism, the stereotypes start emerging? What exactly is feminism for us? What kind of people do we define as feminists? What kind of geographical boundaries do they define? What culture do they project and what identity do they have according to the rest? All these questions and many more have numerous answers and charge varied form of energies when talked upon. For many of us, the term till date is a topic to arise controversies and perhaps bake our own breads in the resulting heat. For others it a dangerous area where once one enters becomes vicious circle from where it is difficult to come out. Overall, a simple idea of mutual respect under the term has been converted into a topic of so many discussions and national and international chaos and controversies that the core has deviated over the period for most of the people venturing into the field. So, when someone call the other, feminist in today’s chaotic times, or when the other proclaim self to be a feminist, an unknown aura of distaste and sectionalising the person appears for the meaning of ‘feminism’ has been distorted for reasons known best to most of us. In fact, in present times, it becomes almost troublesome to explain or convers over the ideas of feminism without resulting in being judged as a person of prejudice or extreme negative feelings regarding people of any sexual orientation.

Where traditionally, the gender stereotypes used to explain men to be species of power, control, and masculinity, while women were the supporters, feminine, and carrier of femininity that shows their weakness and dependence for support from their male counterpart. With time these boundaries have softened to greater extent and women have made their existence shown and appreciated to a certain extent in the so called male dominant society. However, in doing so we may see them loosing to themselves only. They in a way win some but at the same time loose to self to a certain extent. Now I am not criticising any view, method, or context of feminism at hand because being a part of it I realise the difficulties face by each one of us at every small step. So, demeaning any method to gain equality in not my intent. However, I believe strongly in trying to make reach that invisible balance that may help our fight to gain equality and genuine respect for other sexes by normalising the term. There is a great need to generalise it for normal everyday life not to box or categorise feminism into any sort of elite theoretical idea if we need it to stay focussed and in focus of its initial aim.

One of the major reasons we end up being judged overusing the term feminist or feminism is because we tend to unconsciously masculinise the word and its essence. For instance, in order to be successful for a woman in “man’s world”, she has to be hard, objective border lining ruthlessness and not being emotional self. That is what we mostly see in media be it television, films, or views of all sexes in general. We associate the identity of feminists according to a particular physical appearance, psychological though process of being emotionless, mental capability of detaching with our core which is by nature soft, and caring. Often, we have been told or hinted that to break into the male dominant world or to be successful in life we as women need to in a way become them. And we readily, perhaps happily do so. But while doing the same we forget to realise that this is not the crux of feminism. The change of identity is not what we need to be a feminist. What we need is our acceptance as we are, with the package that we bring in to write our own success story and not to become some other successful being. We can wear whatever we like, look however we want, behave or feminine, emotional, empathetic self (without guilt), if we want and yet be flag-bearers of concept of feminism, loud and proud! We need not be a hardcore activist, although we need to respect those who are. Negative stereotypes that are built around those who radicalise the whole idea of feminism need to shatter with loud noise so that there is a clear picture for those who has up till now not realised the real reason and power of the word ‘feminism’. The gap between women or anyone who claim to be feminist and those who do not agree with the methods taken by the former need to lessen because the aim for all of us need to coincide and live harmoniously in co-existence with each other respectfully.

So, when we see a tough woman at a senior position in official capacity on or off-screen, we need not identify with it in real life to project our affirmation with feminism. We need to synthesize that this projection of a particular character in a certain behavioural capacity is just individualistic. We cannot generalise and normalise this generalization. We need to absorb the fact that losing our natural instincts or acquiring the characteristics that are not natural to use will not make us successful enough, strong enough or ‘man enough’. How about if we try to remember and believe that to be a feminist or a believer in feminism a woman does not really need to ‘man up’!

Films

Literary Supplements and Films

October 15, 2021October 18, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

The film Pride and Prejudice has a quiet humurous yet reflective dialogue that explains character of Elizabeth Bennet’s father in terms of his opinion and respect of her decisions and self-worth. He said, ” Your mother will never see you again if you do not marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you do.” The same dialogue in the film gave a very visual perspective of the written lines when we as audience watched the film. The character had so much of body and voice expressions as-well-as body language on screen, in the same film to assist the imaginative power during reading the novel. This definitely increase the interdependence and infuence capacity of the literature and cinema manifold. Viewers can identify with the script while being able to place themselves in the same position. Man has been a storyteller since the beginning. We have our inspirations to impart our thoughts, views, philosophies, beliefs, and opinions though various form of literature. But the moment we talk about use of literature in films, we attain an entry into the world of that is creatively so bifurcated that here the films become the text themselves. This line of thought has its own area of study where if one goes deep within, we will see that cinema borrows openly as well as subtly from the field of literature. Characters are built from the text consciously and many times subconsciously by film makers and actors give life to them with the aid of technology of film making for the productive consumption by the audience.

Cinema has been carrying art in its womb since its inception. Art, be it in any form has been a soul sibling of movies as it opens the doors for film makers to venture into the creative mind of writers. They have chance of entering make the audience at large see through their own point of view, the concepts and imagery that the authors have tried to pen down. Films have been able to spread the creative outlook even without literature however, if the latter enters in movie making arena than the view and genre take an altogether a different panoramic view. Even though literature and cinema are two separate aspects of art, still they carry equal weightage since their spread during 18^th-19^th and 20^th century respectively. They both can take viewers and readers and make them escape into a different world full of thought-provoking ideas and creativity.

The strong aspect that can make films take somewhat of a precedence over literary body is its capacity visualize and the character, situations, scenes, and the script. It has a greater reach towards creating a relation with the audience who can resonate with the moving images way better then literature because there is limitation with reading capacity of individuals too. Where literature has the power to carry its readers into the world of imagination while films have its own strength to be able to bring that imagination of words back to its viewers!

This literature and cinema both have a disconnect in their language majorly because of their difference in the platform. There is difference the occurrence of events due to the placement of time where a particular incident happened. In cinema there is the currency of that incident, many times even borrowing those from the literature where the acts have already occurred. Despite this disconnect literature is a strong supplement to these films because they most of the times become a base to the script, screenplay, and character sketch of these moving images with substance and content. These films may not be a replica of the books as far as its visual representation is concerned, but the kind of explanation and meaning that both these strong aspects of art portrays as they intermingle with each other, the resulting factor justifies the importance of each and clarifies literature to be a strong supplement to cinema!

Films

She Speaks…Female Voice in films

October 1, 2021October 2, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

When we ask questions like is there a separate view and voice of women writers, filmmakers? Can it be independent enough to be called as their own? Is there something called as ‘female voice’ in films? Kaja Silverman elaborates upon this concept. She say different connotations are constructed according to different level voices used in films of women. According to her, very few films have moved above and beyond the segregation of female voice denouncing the gender in them and moving away from female stereotypical aspect of their usage of voice. It is mostly a clear demarcation on the basis of created genres of women, like voice of mother, lover, wife, child, mistress, vamp and many more. According to her the voice of female in films is directly entwined with the way their physical image is projected on screen. It is almost like a suppressed and subdued language of women that is reflected in cinema.

Voice ia a way to create ones existance known. So when we ralk about voice of women in films, we nean their capacity to show that in whagt form do they exist in reality for films many times are reflection of reality and not figment of imagination. Their projection sometimes even close the gap between who the signifier is and what is being signifies through projection of female characterization. The voice of women in films encompasses their physical, emotional projection along with the pitch and tonality of their dialogue delivery.

Teressa de Lauretis stresses upon the idea of creating a contradictory image of females in films…Either they are the damsel in distress that need to be pitied upon or taken care of, or if otherwise they are the vamp and all that is negative in so call character sketch of independent , strong women. According to her one hardly sees an image creation of woman that is grey and there is almost no smooth transition between the two. The imaginary expectations bar is so high in the reel world that it becomes almost impossible to bridge the gap in order to touch the realms of reality. Also there is a need to create that specific ideal female character who is made worthy of respect and eligible to be called as woman only is she is made to realise her femininity by a male counterpart. At the end it is the male only who come to rescue her and bring an ideal woman out of a woman. This is an aspect of female voice that the director of filmaker many times projects as the personality trait of women in general that ends up having an identification in real life as well!

Whether its a damsel in distress, a sedcutress, or independently agressive go-getter; audience will understand through the movie medium, the kind of feminine voice the director is trying to portray on screen. For instance if a woman is strong, beautiful, cunning, sweet-natured, her voice needs to be reflecting that particular aspect of her personality or if a nagging character of woman is developed in films then her voice need to be high-pitched and irritating enough for the character to developed. This is another take supporting the physicality of the female voice in cinema. This makes the identification for the audience in understanding the plot easy. Howver on the downside, it ends up generalising and stereotyping them in real life. The pattern is set in such a way that manytimes its casts the similar impression of the personality in real life. This is how powerful the medium of cinema is!

Films

Films! What they Mean…

October 1, 2021October 2, 2021
by Sameera Khan Rehmani

Most of the formalists believe that film is construction of reality that is a mere figment of imagination. According to them film is an art that is abstract in nature. They think it can be compromised upon and is easy to be manipulated. However the realists argues that there is a very logical and calculative side to film. They are construction of realty but, the base of the construction is definitely real and can be proved. Also there is technical aspect of cinema has given it authenticity. The editing table, where the editors join the dots in such a manner so as to reflect the real as real. Their skill set as well as the development of existing ideas and ideologies all make it very real in understanding.

Hence the thoughts, ideas behind making a full-fledged film does not come from mere a random thought that comes in someone’s mind. It is in fact, a result of deep thought provoking concepts, theories where study of text is as important as execution of the concept. Thus making film study much deeper and interesting and an eyeopener for those who believe it to be a mere piece of random art form only for entertainment. It has a much deeper meaning and strength to it and the construction is as scientific as it is artistic for the audience to consume it as holistically as they need to and want to. Their is a deep connection between the macro as-well-as micro level of understanding of the genre. The emotions, images, physicality, psychology, structure and philosophy makes the study of meaning of cinema all the more alluring. The language,technicalities and the visuals are deeply essential to be understood in order to understand the crux of its core. The character sketch, theme, storyline, plots are all natural to the the meaning of films. The question of why a particular film is made is as important as that of how it it made for ‘why’ has the power to answer and satisfy the understanding of emotions, context and whole psychology behind comprehending the meaning of films.

Camera is powerful! But the the ideas behind have an altogether different power over the act of creating a strong outcome. But when we combine the two the result that we see has the capacity to blow our mind, for the take on meanings sometimes change 360 degrees! This brings us back to the possibility that Films are a power vault that can open the gates of human emotions and sometimes hace the capabitlity to change the course of human nature!