Author: Somnath Sinha

Professional banker, sports enthusiast. music lover, singer, writer and amateur film critic

Another ‘Spielberg’ Special –‘ The Post’

Good cinema draws people in droves specially from those acclaimed makers like ‘Steven Spielberg’ who gave us those gut-wrenching yet uplifting WW II docudramas of heroism and valour – ‘Schindler’s List’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Bridge of Spies’, a genre away from his forte for incredible sci-fi films and my all-time favourite on the triumph of humanism – ‘The Terminal’ !

In a slight departure, he comes up with a gripping political thriller that is inspired by the famous ‘Pentagon Papers’ saga of the long US-Vietnam war, it’s futility and untold sacrifice of innocent soldiers and citizens made at the altar of many diplomatic subterfuges and political ends of those in power ! What’s most interesting is the timeliness of the depiction of the need of independent press and its freedom to unearth the lies and rot in an un-transparent system, a subject that now rages in nations all over the world.

The film has all the ingredients of the ‘Spielberg’ class in creating the period-drama when courage, conviction and undeterred search for truth were the watchwords for journalism, news reporting and publishing. Added value for movie-buffs comes from stellar performances of a star-studded cast led by the incredible actress ‘Meryl Streep’ and ‘Spielberg’s’ favourite ‘Tom Hanks’, that superb actor of many of his classics !

There are many memorable lines in the film but not the least the last few : ‘..The press has to serve the governed, and not the governors !’ And ‘..Newspapers are the rough draft of history’ !

While there is a definite shift in our films towards meaningful cinema and relevant issues, when was the last time a great movie was made on the freedom of the press, possibly one comes to mind is ‘New Delhi Times’ with the late Shashi Kapoor, many years ago. Our superstars, bogged down with own fanciful images and outrageous titles like ‘King Khan’ and ‘Badshah’ can take a leaf out of the range of roles done by Tom Hanks over the years !

What’s the Good Reply

Once upon a time there was a TV show called ‘What’s the Good Word’ hosted by an elegant lady called Sabira Merchant which was all about how to use right words and responses appropriate to the occasion and situation.

Today, with the social media storm blasting the English language to bits and pieces, cryptic words and acronyms -‘Cool’, ‘Yeah’, ‘Wow’, ‘Luv ’, ‘LOL’ ‘YOLO’ and so on, are used to communicate eloquently (with emojis !) apart from the age-old ‘OK’ and ‘Thanks’ – everybody is also having loads of fun !

Traditionally, one-word answers have had their own place in society – a suitor asking for the lady’s hand in marriage must get the ‘Yes’ answer to ‘take the relationship to the next level’, after a long recital of vows by the priest, a man/woman is required to only say ‘I do’ to legalize the marital alliance and in a court of law, the oath to ‘speak truth and nothing but the truth’ needs the same ‘I do’ by a witness. While many competitive exams have confusing objective-type questions to be replied to either  ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ only, official mails and messages must be pointedly framed and kept short !

Barring above mandatory ones, should all our replies be cryptic to save time and our digital space ? Imagine the chagrin of the old-world, meaningful creators crafting words with thoughtfulness to capture a landmark event, an old memory or experience or to appreciate a good performance, getting a terse ‘Thanks’ or cold silence in return ! It sends a signal that to wade through the writer’s maze of thoughts is a frivolous waste of time, never mind the efforts and intentions behind all of it. That is, if that long text message deserves a reply at all, as there are unending lines of messages, pics and greetings crowding all the social media  queues ! Why not become trigger-happy, press the  ‘delete’ button and move on …

Even short replies can be effective, if they are sincerely conveyed with right words like ‘Great, will get back to you on this’, to be followed up later when more free. To be fair, a well-meaning piece/message of two paras deserves a couple of encouraging lines in response ( no reference here to trolls that immediately pop up these days !), but it’s free for all and no rules in place.

Acknowledging others through apt words is not losing one’s importance in time and space and responding to thoughtful messages, which come our way, with even a witty one-liner, is a sign of grace and style but are we now fast losing that art too ?