The mise-en-scène of a melómano's day!

Aishwarya Ashok

Melomaniac/Melómano- A lover of music.

Seconds tick away…You just can’t tarry a bit, anymore. You need that little swash of music in your heart’s shore to carry on with the day. Bienvenido, my fellow melomaniac!

The feelings of a music lover are extremely delicate than you can ever think. For them, music is much more than hearing--it’s a matter of emotions that dive deep down in your heart, and get transported to your mind to create the so-called chimerical illusions. A music maniac like me lives the song, breathes the essence, taps to the beats, delves into harmonics and ruminates over the lyric. My own orchestral world is just created and I find myself teleported happily.

As a melómano, I need my dozes of music to function well for the day. Being my morning medicine, travel-time companion, healer of maudlin, music is such a protean thing that’s extant. My heart reaches out to music, the minute it feels lonely. My sleep seeks its arrival only if it receives a warm welcome from music. Music refills the enervated energy, peace and happiness of my soul.

Being a melomaniac, you just can’t resist from listening to songs. The urge to listen to your favorite song that very moment, the excitement when a new song gets released, the glow in your eyes when you discover something about music are all the telltale signs of your music madness. Music is much more than what I can express through words. A day went without listening to music is like the meal you’ve skipped, and you constantly get the feeling of incompleteness. A touch of sanctity, warmth of melody, the beats synonymous with your lub-dub, affection of tunes, the fondness of ragas--every form of music is so pristine and immaculate.

As a music aficionado, I find solace, bliss and satisfaction in one sole thing and that’s listening to, or rather, living with music. My world, my music.

The chronicles of typical Indian mass-entertainer movies

Most of the wood-suffixed movie industries have at least one film to boast off as a mass entertainer. These films always remain as a hodgepodge--romance, humor, melancholy, melodrama--name any genre, and it’ll be present in these movies. Most of them turn out to be commercially hit films, while a sizable chunk of the list flops big time. Such movies are binary--they’re either too good, or too bad and there’s no midway ranking.

Most of these films manage to lure the watchers either through a grandiose star cast, best-of-the-class music composers, jet-speed story line etc. But a typical anatomy of the so-called Indianized masala movies (as they’re popularly termed) is very simple--it just has a hackneyed script studded with predictable characters and at any point the plot never becomes irresolute.
The protagonist, antagonist, families and ties, cupid strikes, random stunts, handful of whims--this pretty much sums up any mass entertainer film. Where the change occurs between the films is how much of each type is being taken and what kind of priority is given to each of them.

It’s not surprising to see a happy-go-lucky hero whose only work, for a pre-decided epoch of the story, is to go around wooing ladies. Or rather, just show off his good-for-nothing skills, and goof around trying to be smart and savvy. Out of the blue, this guy turns responsible either after his family becomes impecunious due to huge debts, or the love of his life goads him to reach up to her societal status to marry her. Then he succeeds and becomes rich as all’s well with his life. Ludicrous I should say, when there’s such a clean sweep in one’s character within just few minutes of the plot--makes me think, “Are opportunities available always? If so, why are people like me stuck at the same place?!”

Time for some stunts, when the daring, adroit villain fights with our hero. Scenes like these are extravagantly shot and matched with background sounds so that people get to enjoy them. Sadly, these scenes turn into a travesty as most of the times it’s not one-on-one or one-on-many but one-on-zillion. The hero beats up troops of people, gets stabbings and gunshots and yet remains active as ever to perform his plot-demanded sequences.

The heroine sometimes becomes the superfluous character of the film. Either she’s the sanctimonious, naive, go-traditional type or the social, ultramodern, bedizened type. Whichever way it is, the heroines have a common thing--their brains are dormant and all they know is to act silly. Predestined for few musical numbers, a couple of romantic scenes paired with a few sober looks, the heroines are the additional fittings for most of the films.

Item songs, fast beat songs, songs shot in other countries...the list is endless. Most of the songs are shot with gaudy attires and grand sets. The musical album can make or break the august image a movie carries. Movies, especially mass entertainers, are exemplified based on the songs and it’s crisis of survival in the industry if the songs fail to become chartbusters.

Deaths and revenge plots. Ah! This is the favorite for these kind of films. The heroine is mostly given the prestigious job of dying early and a part of the movie revolves around how the hero with his sagacious and ulterior moves takes revenge for his love’s death. Gear up your heart as the reasons for revenge can vary from genuine ones to utter nonsense.

How can mass entertainers be without including whimsical and punch dialogues? The fiery, sassy lines that make you want to laugh insanely and the actual humor-mixed lines that make you want to bang your head against the hardest wall--yeah, sometimes these dialogues work in reverse.

Last but not the least, the happy endings. That’s like an icing on the cake for the commercial, mass-audience films. There may be uncountable characters waltzing their way throughout the movie. But finally, they all tend to interconnect and come together just as the seas meet the ocean. Die-hard enemies become cronies and the gloomy families suddenly resurrects to a happy ones. All your confusions and never ending questions about the confounding plot may remain unanswered, but these movies have climaxes that can convince you, at least for the time being.

With things being said, some mass entertainers have really managed to capture the audience’s hearts with a good mix of all elements and some have even annoyed people with it’s haphazard mix of characters and emotions.

Managing the Mysterious Melancholy

          Well, how can melancholy be mysterious? Actually, why can't it be? Okay, so how to obviate the risks of depression? Indeed mysterious happenings do occur with myriad interrogations.
 
           Depression, true to its meaning of suppressing or lowering something down, does the same with your feelings. Yeah, for a difference, it presses down your hopes and optimism making your heart conducive for a breakdown.Contrary to the actual meteorological context, depression makes your heart to become a low hope region and high blood pressure region. Finally, depression drops you in a station of despondency with no interconnecting transport for you to escape.

          But how do you thrive this melancholy and rise back? Can you just stay stagnant at the station? Don't you have to pick your strength and courage and run away from depressing moments? Being static should never be an option as it will hinder your limpid thoughts and put you into disinterestedness forever. One must put in the effort to swim across the pool of depression by doing bold strokes and laugh back at you doleful demons.

          Divert your thinking, channel your ideas and keep yourself busy to beat the depressing devil. Pour your heart out to someone close, do something that interests you and seek happiness in small things. Never let your feelings to become high tides but just keep them waltzing so that your heart feels light. Stay strong and strike a bong!

From seething to soothing!

   Well, it's not the rhyming set that I'm intending, through this title. The thought I want to deliver is far beyond that. It's almost human tendency to get upset over some incidents of everyday life. Well, to be precise,it's quotidian. But what's important, is the way we silently attack and weaken this negative force so that the impact on our life is very minimal. 

       

    There may be persons, moments, thoughts and actions that tend to spoil our day. They may still remain, no matter what. But do you have to give a damn to every single thing? Well, that's your choice.They may be the reason for your momentary frustration but there's always a healing at hand to curtail that pessimistic impact. 

     But did you know something? The events/people who ruin your day are not at danger. It's you, who respond to them,are at danger. Do you even realize that at the first place? Well, mostly it would be a "NO". We always say bad incidents, worst people, gloomy days. But have we ever pondered over the fact that even after they have made their impact, we still keep appending the "negative" term alongside each of those? So the problem is really with us. Why couldn't we tackle that negative agent with our positive antibodies? Don't worry, it's something really common to most of us. 

     It's not the disease that is detrimental , but it's the way you react. Have a confident approach and deal your medical sessions with a cool heart. There comes a difference now. It's not the excess salt in the food , that's the risk. It's the additional spice/vegetables you add to balance the taste, that matters. It's not the people who insult you, acting as spoilers. It's the option you choose. If you ignore them, you live in peace. 

     Convert every single harrowing incident of your life into a soul stirring one, but in a positive way. Your hobbies are excellent antibodies to attack the spoiling agents. They are your stress busters. Divert your mind, fill yourself with positive thoughts, calm your mind and brush the dust off your brain. Don't let anything ruin your day. 

    With this attitude, change anything in your life from seething to soothing! 

Kaleidoscope

        Why this topic out of all ? So am I going to go back to the bit of Physics that each of us would have learnt during our school days? Kaleidoscope is an instrument where three mirrors are set at 60 degrees ....blah blah . But hey wait! I'm not going to take this concept in a physics oriented way. So now , coming back to my first interrogation, as to why this topic - Because Life is a Kaleidoscope!

         I can validate this statement. Let me explain what I've to say. So what does this Kaleidoscope do? It has bits of glasses , bangles , colorful beads and other types of glittery accessories filled within a tube like structure. Now , take the kaleidoscope in your hand and rotate it. Keep doing this continuously. What do you see ? As you rotate it , light strikes on the surface of the tube like structure and the various fillers within this instrument reflect light and hence portray colorful patterns. Woah! Just a small construction with easily available materials . But how come we get different variants? Keep changing the position. Rotate and witness the beautiful patterns.

       You can ask me how this is coalesced with our lives. For each of us , our life is easily available. But the fact is that we do not use the full potential of life and hence it goes as waste. It is important to understand that life is vicissitudinous. Yeah , keep changing your patterns in life. Try something new and take up a new activity. Break what is called routine. Yes , routine is boring! Crazy is fun. Give your views , your activities , your habits, your mindset and finally yourself , a makeover. Have you understood now? Your life is a Kaleidoscope. The more you keep altering it , just like the positional change in the latter , you get more beautiful outcomes in life. Nice right ? :)

You're worth it!

                   

Caution:  The following is a story which is creative and not a real one. Enjoy and read fully to understand the thought delivered.

                At last the wait was over. It was time for the organs to confab and discuss about their functioning and well-being. The first few ones to engage in the conversation were - the heart, the lungs and the stomach. The blood was always a tête-à-tête companion for each of these organs and it also entered to listen to their conversation. The blood thought that this was yet another normal meet, but things were different much to the surprise of the blood. The heart started complaining that it was the only organ, despite being small in size did much of the work by regulating blood flow. It said that it was bored of being the only one to do the entire job and also sulked at being only about a fist's size. The heart wanted to take the function of the lungs, for it considered the lungs to perform the most easiest and superior job. Hearing this , the lungs got infuriated. It exclaimed that it had the most tiresome job of handling carbon-di-oxide and oxygen. It also wanted a role change, and this time a change with the stomach's function. The stomach on hearing this was happy for the fact that it no longer had to secrete acids to digest food, a boring mundane job. It was already planning to take up the heart's role and  was so excited to perform the lubb-dubb action. 

                  Having been hearing the conversation quietly, the blood didn't know how to respond. It tried to explain to the organs that each of them had importance and that each of them were unique to be compared. But all the talks were useless. The organs already took their decision to change roles and they were waiting for the consent of the blood. Now the blood was confused. It reached the brain to ask what should be done. The brain understood the complexity of the situation and told the blood that there was no other means than for the organs to realize their importance themselves. So it told the blood to accept this change , but on one condition- It should still flow only in the appropriate amounts into each organ as it earlier did , without any concern about the new role. When the blood conveyed the news to all its fellow unsatiated organs, all of them were overwhelmed. They did not care about the future consequences and all they wanted was to step in to the shoes of another organ, whose work they thought was superior and easier than their's. 

                 The day one of their new roles began. The blood flowed through the stomach ,in the same amount that it would flow to the heart earlier. The stomach could not handle this. It was just a fleshy organ with no valves, unlike a heart. It didn't know how to regulate the blood flow to it's fellow friends. There was only a single inlet and outlet for the stomach and it struggled very much. That moment, it felt lost. Yes, it wanted to return back to its original form. Meanwhile, blood saw that the lungs were incapable of secreting acids. It tried its level best, but it could not. It was connected to the wind pipe rather than food pipe. So all it could do was nothing but repent for its impetuous behavior. When blood flowed through the heart , the heart did not know how to perform for it could not convert the gases. It could not function like how the lungs would do and was clueless of how to obtain and send the gases. All the three organs could no longer retain their positions. They immediately called the blood and apologized for the blunder that they did. This time, each of the organs understood its worth and also realized that it was unique and that no other organ could imitate its role. The blood thanked the master brain for its timely help.

                     Well, the above story is just out of creation but to deliver a strong thought. I would like to juxtapose each of the heart, lungs and stomach to the people. Also I would like to compare the blood to the situations/experiences and the brain to the lives of people. Many a time, people forget to realize how important they are and they try to imitate others. In the process of becoming like others, they tend to loose themselves. When we forget to be ourselves , it is then that life would give us experiences/situations that make us understand our worth. It is then that we understand that we are unique and that no one can take over our ideas , our thoughts , our efforts and our being. It's high time that we realize the statement- "It's our differences that make us unique and beautiful".

Music Maketh Man

         Oh no! I don't intend to defame the adage by this title. Here I mean to explain how music forms an important part of our life. I am still a believer of - "Manners maketh man". And not only man , a woman too. It's high time for us to consider that it holds good for unisex. Same applies to my title. So I take into account the entire "Homo Sapiens" community by this title ( Sorry :P That was one bit of a hortatory effort for me to feel that I've not forgotten my basic biological studies undertaken back then at school . Homo Sapiens = Humans). This post is an opinion that I would like to share, infact something from my heart and yeah you're right I missed that word- "bottom of my heart".

          So what is common thing that unites a flowing waterfall and a nightingale? No , this is not a horrendous comparison. Think , there's something linking both. For those who have guessed it right , yes it's MUSIC. You can ask me as to how flowing water can create music. I'm perfectly fine with proper senses. But still why do I collate two things that has "nature" as a common backbone and say that a third party called music unites them? That's because I feel MUSIC is not just that song created by musicians and the orchestra. According to me , it is not only produced by the musical instruments but by every possible source in nature, greatly impacting on mankind. MUSIC is something that soothes the heart. It is that something which makes a person vivacious.

          Okay, why take nature?. Consider yourself , your own body. The fist-sized living organ, the heart itself banks on music for your own survival. Even the world's best musicians cannot match the beat and the tune that this plump little organ creates. Mind you , you are existing only because this tiny music maker is happy creating the best music - "lubb-dubb". Ah! So you yourself are a musician. Well,no, magician. You make music that is intangible. Musically-magical isn't it?. The whole world of music starts with us. What a bliss!

         Music is a companion. The best companion in times of happiness, joy, grief, pride and what not. It surrenders to us by cleaving itself into different genres. Different types , different sources , different listeners but one word- MUSIC. Music has the power to lift up any situation. It is so much instilled within us , into our blood. Those cries that we made as little babies , those tiny attempts that we took to be a part of a choir, the calm sound of gushing waterfall/river , the divine feeling of temple bells( the jingling bells too :P) , the blissful sound of birds , the bizarre resonance of conch shell , the thunderous clouds , that song we tried singing to impress our special one , all are MUSIC. 

      Personally music makes my day , my life , my existence and my everything. So yeah the above justifications makes me say "Music Maketh Man". Happy for those who accept this along with me. :)