Siddhartha

Siddhartha is a novel by Hermann Hesse ... a enlightened German novelist !!

I wouldn't like to summarize my reaction to Siddhartha in a single post .. what i ll do instead is give you guys a paragraph from the movie 'Apocalypse Now ' .

I bet when u r done reading the gist of the passage you will have a more or less clear view of how much i respect both the author and his work :)

" And I remember...I...I...I cried...
I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn't know what I
wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want
to forget. And then I realized...like I was shot...Like I was shot with a
diamond...a diamond bullet right through my forehead...And I thought:
My God...the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect,
genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. without feeling...without passion...
without judgement...without judgement. Because it's judgement that
defeats us. "

Am off now to practise the attributes Siddhartha keeps as the bench mark for human progress .. to try TO THINK , TO WAIT & TO FAST !!

TAXI DRIVER

"On every street in every city, there's a nobody who dreams of being a somebody".

This is the line that blew me away the first time I saw the poster .. of a man pushed to the brink of losing his sanity .. of De Niro in one of the most powerful individual performances ever .. of the ' TAXI DRIVER ' !!

The movie is not about love, lust , war or any of the so very exciting things so gloriously depicted on the silver screen ... What it's about is delving deep into the recesses of the mind of Travis Bickle a.k.a the TAXI DRIVER , experiencing the agony that he feels, the helplessness that he encounters, his valiant attempt at theatrical heroics and finally the ebbing of the violent rage in his mind .... its about " a lonely forgotten man desperate to prove that he's alive" .

Travis is a veteran of the Vietnam war who comes back to his homeland to witness the degradation that has seeped into every corner of American society ... the whores , punks , niggers and all the scum of the earth destroying the fabric of society .. at which Travis feels an immense disgust and fervently prays for a rain which will clean the earth and wash away the filth permeating the air.

A few poignant shots give us an impression of a straight but confused mind unable to find reason in a society where hypocrisy and perversion has become the currency to trade and retain the edge .... Travis's failed attempts to make the woman he loves, feel it ... as also his job interview as a cabbie which reveals a lot about his psyche and how the feels lost and impotent ... about not being able to sleep nights ... and the agony he feels when he sees a young girl ( Jodie Foster) and learns that she is a prostitute ...

Travis is so disturbed by the happenings that he decides to take matters into his own hands .. He plans to strike a killer blow at the 'King' , the presidential candidate for the US , so that all the kings men would not be able to save him and thus move the state machinery into action !! Thus he embarks on an audacious plan to assassinate the leading presidential candidate , Palantine , and strike a stinging blow to society and shake it to consciousness . He also develops a friendship with the teenage prostitute and tries to talk sense into her as to how she is being used and that she belongs with her parents and should have a normal life as a schoolgirl should have , but to no avail .

The climax is very stirring .. wherein , Travis, having failed in his mission of assassinating Palantine , embarks on a new ideal of rescuing the girl from the clutches of her pimp . He reaches the apartment where he shoots the pimp and the customer to death , getting shot in the neck himself .. sitting on the sofa with an empty gun , soaked in his own blood and mimicking getting shot to the temple with his fingers dripping blood while police officers cautiously make their way into the apartment ... The next day's newspapers brand Travis a hero , for having rescued the girl and a voice over of a letter from the girls father thanking Travisfor all that he has done in reuniting their daughter with them.

All in all , a must watch for all De-Niro / Scorsese fans .. i would safely rate it around 8 for the story .. 10 for the acting and direction !! So go watch it :)