cliché | ˈklēˌ sh ā |

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a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought : the old cliché “one man's meat is another man's poison.”


What we see & feel...
Cliche is the word which most of the film makers has to come across in their career. It is a word most of the film makers hate to hear about their works. Yet most of them repeat it without even the basic knowledge.
Yesterday I had a wonderful close encounter with the word Cliche. I wont be talking about the incident. I want to write down few words which I inferred about cliche when I sat back and thought about it in one if my breaks. Our life is the biggest cliche isn't it. We wake up everyday, do all the daily deeds, we eat, work, defecate, sleep and does this same cycle everyday. This remains the same till the end of our lives. This is the most interesting part. We never get bored by doing it daily. So why is it that the film lovers hate when it comes on celluloid. Its funny, because most of the critics say that the films which we do must be closer to lives. If so, then why do we think the other way when we analyze them. I feel that the above statement wont make sense for many of the readers. Thus I thought of a solid positive point for talking about cliches further own and I stuck up with the following.


Stereotyping...
Stereotyping is a common word which every media studies and ethics emphasize on avoiding. This might be because of the reason that stereotypes can always lead us to very worse cliches which everyone are tired of watching. Now consider the real life. The majority of people around us are inspired by these stereotypes. The only two section of society who actually act opposite to their general stereotypes are College Professors & Psychiatrists. Majority of Policemen, school teachers, house wives and all carry heavy impact of these stereotypes. That is the funny part, yet they don't like to be portrayed like that. The ethical heads still feel that stereotyping gives a lot of wrong information about society. I feel that stereotypes change the society (even they shape the society). So stereotypes should not be avoided, they should be used in a different way (a better way). This is because, the stereotypes are the gifted cliches.

My co-filmmakers always say that they hate cliches. They say that they need to make more realistic films. Yet many of them are to know that we are making films in a society where the difference between real life & cliches are lighter than a hairline.

Love,
Sivaram Mony

My Up and Down Travel to Kanpur

After I finished college, it was my first travel to the North of India. The trip was awesome but I felt like sharing the up and down travel to everyone.

The travel up...

This was first time I had an adventurous journey alone to the north. I had to reach Delhi by 2pm and had my connection Shatabdhi by 4pm to Kanpur. Just like every other time my Train 'Kerala Express' got late by 2hrs when we crossed bhopal. I was confused what to do. Thus i managed to get down at Jhansi and decided to go via road to Kanpur. There began my adventure. New place, New people; I just canceled my ticket from Jhansi and went to the nearest bus stand in an autorikshaw. Just like they do to others I was forced and even threatened by many locals to hire a taxi from Jhansi to Kanpur (but i slipped through the crowd). Somehow I managed to enter a bus. Even they came inside the bus asking me to travel in a taxi. I got a friend sitting next to me. An ex-airforce man who helped me to know about the things happening around. To my surprise, an old man sat next to me with a fully loaded double barrel gun. Its like that it seems there. Everyone will be carrying a gun (it is a matter of self esteem rather than self protection for them). I had a tremendous journey through the villages of UP in an ordinary bus with the localite s. The journey was so nice that the bus got punctured twice and the second time I had to switch to another vehicles. On the way I saw a full village under water as it was flooding there. The kids were swimming across the water in filled tyre tubes. They were swimming towards there home when their parents sat across on the main road looking at their loved ones. The last visual I remember bout the journey was the writings on the second local bus I travelled. In the first line, it was written 'Dhoomrapan Mana Hai' meant 'No smoking' and the second line was 'Bhare hue bandookon ko mat lekar aayiye' which requested the passengers not to bring loaded guns into the bus.

I would post you about my return journey soon. That was a good experience as I got accidently into Patna-Delhi Rajadhani.

Love,

Sivaram Mony