Movie Review: Divergent

Veronica Roth, in her Divergent trilogy divided people into five factions – Abnegation – the selfless, Candour – the honest, Erudite always thirsty for knowledge, Amity who were the peacekeepers and last but not the least, Dauntless – the crazy parkour practitioners who leaped off trains and buildings like it was an everyday thing. She further created the Divergent species whose qualities were convocation of two or more of these factions. The whole story is about finding what Divergent actually means and why being one is dangerous.

Beatrice/Tris Prior (Shailene Woodley), initially from Abnegation, is finally sixteen and must give the aptitude test which would help her choose which faction she belonged to. Her aptitude test results are inconclusive and she is told that she is Divergent. Wanting freedom for everything, from looking at her reflection in the mirror to talking freely at the dinner table and wanting to be able to experience the thrill she saw on the dauntless children’s faces every day, her badass side makes her choose Dauntless at the Choosing ceremony. Looking at her parents for the last time, she walks away to her new home. At the dauntless quarters, they undergo an initiation process which has rank cut offs. The first stage is more about physical strength and tactics where the initiates learn hand to hand combat, throwing knives and handling a gun. The other two were about identifying and overcoming fears through terrifying life-like simulations.

Amongst striving to survive initiation, our heroine must also figure out what being Divergent signifies and why they are murdered, as well as save the Abnegation from an attack before it’s too late. Four (Theo James), is her instructor, and in spite of his having Lady Gaga’s poker face initially, Tris manages to break through his sluggish charm, and they soon build up some chemistry. Jeanine Matthews, head of the Erudite (played by Kate Winslet), keeps popping in and is the real villain. More like a machine, she sees everything she can’t handle as a problem, and is hell bent on eradicating the roots of the problem, not caring about what she has to do in that process.

The movie felt a bit rushed as important scenes weren’t given enough importance, but otherwise it was gripping. All the actors keep you hooked on, as you wait for what will happen next. You’ll always be rooting for Tris, whether she is shy and simple as she was in the beginning, or striking and bold like towards the end! 

Yup, it’s definitely a onetime watch.

Kanksha :)

I believe everyone in this world has tea spoons of all these qualities. Saying the truth requires courage, bringing peace requires sacrifice and selflessness, and hunting knowledge could be synonymous to figuring out the truth. Throughout the trilogy, Roth throws in challenges, betrayals and (regrettably) deaths, reminding us once again why forgiving people is important. It’s a pretty good trilogy and you should probably read the books before watching the movie!

Expressions

Some people have impassive expressions – their cold stony demeanor and inscrutable countenance gives nothing away. But most others do not. Looking at the expressions engraved on people’s faces, examining the soft nose-scrunching to the right, the slight tug of war with their cheeks and subtle movement of their eyebrows is something that all of us do at some or the other point. But I think the most important part is played by the eyes.

The eyes, I believe, are the giveaway for most people. They unveil an array of emotions. If you’re paying attention, you’ll be able to identify the tremble of sadness disguised by a laugh, or perhaps the mirage of a smile pirouetting the eyelashes. But the twinkling of one’s eyes, predominantly seen when a person is amused is the most puzzling and intriguing of them all.

In fact, I could pen down various instances from today itself. I, along with another 3000+ students who go to the same coaching class, had a six hour test today. I’m sure the number of hours implies how important it was. Needless to say, the difficulty level was Pluto high (or maybe we just weren’t prepared enough) so by the end of it, we were drained out. One of my friend kept saying “Hi” to people at the top of her voice (to kill boredom) which earned her a few amused looks, another friend had blocked the way of people to ask them to say that their paper was bad just so she could get solace from that. The expressions on their face were a mixture of “I get where you come from” + “Hahahahahha :)” + “Are you demented?” But maybe that’s just what I think. What wouldn’t I do to know what’s going on in people’s heads when they look amused! Some people find another person’s misery amusing (which is pretty sardonic if you ask me), most people are sick of the jokes I crack up with, in awe of the lame level and yet secretly fascinated at the same time. Looking at a baby playing with balloons is enlightening and listening to a kid talk about typically impractical things like acquiring secret powers and the moon being a stalker is nice and diverting entertainment. 

The reasons for being amused are as many as the amount of different musical tunes one can compose in this world – a number so high, that we can render it endless.

The last expression I’ll talk about today is shock. There are two kinds of people that exist in this world – the people who can complete sentences… If you are a part of the previous category, you’ll have no issues figuring out what I mean by “There are two kinds of shocks – good and...” I’m only talking about the pleasant ones here. I had one today myself, something that shouldn't have happened since I pride myself in being non-sexist. A friend of mine, who is a guy, invited ten of us for dinner and cooked pasta for us on his own. Agreed, making pasta is quite easy, but the fact that he created a spread was amazing. It’s also funny when I randomly find out about various boys who make simple food or modify it and hardly any girls being interested in the same. 

Stereotypes are finally wiping out, the change is bizarre,

Abki baar, Modi Sarkaar.

Kanksha :)

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Stars, clouds and the world

Have you ever seen the streetlights shut when an edge of blue regales in the sky at the strike of dawn or them click open at dusk when the sun's ship is gradually sinking, waiting for another twelve hours to come back like the black pearl had(I think the black pearl took more time, but you get the idea!)? 

I just did, and due to some reason, it was awesome. Sometimes, night doesn't feel like night. Especially if you stay just pretty much next to the main road. The light from street lamps and the occasional roar of bikes and cars when they're dancing with death don't really give you the 'feel' of peace and quiet.

But inspite of being in a city where smoke gently rises up when the moon comes up, and its more like a darker day at night, you do see stars. Maybe not as many as one would in any countryside, but they are overwhelmingly enough. Watching the stars at night, is quite an ego booster actually - after all, you've got billions of supernatural beings winking at you! Every constellation is like that secret message that everyone knows just because it is a secret. The other smooth patterns you see, which exist only for that night, or probably only as a figment of your imagination are the real "secret" ones. Only you can identify them.

Gazing at stars and clouds is really similar for the most part. Clouds are colourful. They have different shapes and their own seasonal style. Moving with the wind, they cross our field of vision and let their other brothers and sisters engage us in a guessing game of what they resemble. As a child, I've always wanted to sleep on a cloud or have a castle on top of them. I still remember how heartbroken I was when I found out it wasn't possible to. Curse the Giant of Jack and the Beanstalk who gave me ideas. Anyways, clouds are sensational. You can pass through them effortlessly, as if you are invisible. (Is that how being invisible feels like?)

Looking up at the sky, you realise how small and insignificant you are. At times, that's quite depressing, because at home on earth, you may mean the world for a few people. But at the same time, it adds to the mystery and makes you feel like you are a part of something big. As if this whole world is a program, where complicated functions have already been typed out and the programmer is watching everything run on its own marvellously, with pride. He's waiting for the grand finale, the last line perhaps, which says printf "Bye World!" and then return = 0. Perhaps we may actually see "Bye World!" printed in the sky before our bodies get disintegrated into ones and zeros all over again.

Or maybe it's not so elaborate and you'll see Zeus march down to Earth and confess Egyptian mythology is true.

The Real Imaginary

Dreams are out of the world. Literally. Sometimes, they tend to be simple normal stuff that could occur in normal life too. But I'm talking about the outrageous ones, ones that make you wake up and feel dizzy.

Its on rare occasions when I remember dreams, but when I do, I can recall every single detail, every conversation and event. It's insane. Many people put music on shuffe and switch songs if they don't feel like listening to them. In this case, our brain is the device playing music, the music resembles our thoughts and the "next" button doesn't exist. Our brain never stops working. You never stop thinking. Even when you are sleeping, your mind is plotting it's own story from whichever thoughts it can snatch away from the place you've kept them locked up till you sleep. It arranges these thoughts in no particular sequence and puts the puzzle pieces together in the way you least imagined possible. 

I had a very interesting dream once. I'm glad I had documented it, because I feel it enunciates the brilliance of the human brain. How the human brain can come up with something so far fetched is something I still haven't understood. The brain-stream went something like this. I was talking to my friend over the phone and went to sleep since I was sleepy. When I woke up, I was in the same place, but everything had changed. Things looked older and broken, bucketfulls of metal had corroded in plain air. Before I had enough time to absorb and take in what I saw, I heard gun shots, and the flapping of feathers soon over shadowed by the cry of anguish. A cry of humans as well as animals. A bit shaken, I went over to the balcony and saw a swagger of swans being hunt down. Humans were facing casulaties too, as these swans were monstrously big, with beaks as sharp as swords and golden eyes bulging out. My heart clenched. I wanted to put an end to the bloodbath. But suddenly common sense kicked in. How did swans manage to come here in the first place? How did buildings get replaced by a lake?  Why is everything so quiet? What happened to the traffic? Actually, scratch that, where the hell am I? Because even though this looks like my house, it can't be it. 

That is when a voice spoke to me, explaining how I had strolled by Father Future and how I was stuck here now. I actually pinched myself to figure out whether it was a dream or not. (Guess the pinching doesn't work!) But I still remember the ghostly figure of the voice. A translucent outline but a figure nonetheless, with pale wrinkled skin and a funky sense of fashion; unreasonably cheerful in nature, but reserved all the same. Her voice was husky with a tinge of amusement flickering. She slithered from place to place with movements like a lizard. It was scary, yet immensely fascinating. At first I was afraid of her, but later she became my only friend. 

It was as if whatever happened was real.The sadness of escaping the old world was real. The fear of finding the ghost of a house keeper and zombie-ish swans mind numbing....but the anxiety of discovering a new world beat everything. And that's what surprised me. Does my curiousity over power my thoughts so much, that my mind managed to accept jumping into a new era so fast? Would your brain have?

Kanksha :)

Thanks for reading! 

PS. There isn't anything I can do to make you believe that I really did get a dream like this. But don't you think it is too far fetched for me to think of anyways?