Some reflections on a few episodes - Page 3

Originally posted by: whynot

I do not disagree with what you are saying... as i have said in my post as well, their relationship with Capt. Rajveer is great.... but there is no reason for their suddenly being mean to Abhi. They can love Raj while still being nice to Abhimanyu.

I agree with you too Shvetal .... and thanks for your beautiful analysis ...👏👏

Originally posted by: whynot

Hi spian... you asked for this, ab bhugto 😆 😆
While i agree with you that there are many narratives that question army regulations (my fav film version is A Few Good Men while in lit it has to be Catch-22), i do not think this is happening in Left Right Left... in many ways what is happening in Left Right Left is more adolescent.... friendship, love, identity, discovering your own identity, jealousy etc. I'm not saying that these narratives are less real or less painful but i do not think that the story is questioning the army the way Arms and the Man and Catch-22 did.

Hey Shevs I havent said that LRL does that. I know Arms & the Man and Catch 22 are great works by the authors. what I implied was there are limitations by virtue of systems/procedures in Army and sometimes these are illogical.

2ndly, sweetheart, in my post i did not make any claims for the 'real Gaurav'... when i said real life, i meant me and people like me.... and yes i keep forgetting that i should not take everything back to Samay! 😊

Tum shabdo ke maayajaal mein phaas rahi ho!😆

To come back to the two texts you mention, even their criticism of the army has more layers to it.
Arms and the Man/Bluntshcli: Shaw knew the pulse of his audience well and was at the same time engaged with social issues.... thus while criticising the army, Arms and the man is also a popular comedy of its time.... what i mean is it is as much a romantic comedy as a criticism of war. Bluntschli is not ideologically anti-war, he is not even an anti-hero, he is the hero.... he may be comic.... he may mock conventional notions of courage and carry choclate in his pockets instead of ammunition, but the focus of the play is on him from scene one.... the audience, like the heroine (i've forgotten her name, Romana was it?), discovers Bluntschli through the course of the play and respond to him... he is the one whose lines they laugh at, he is the one they want the heroine with, he is the one they learn to laugh at the war with, though neither he nor they can escape the war.. whereas Abhimanyu is ideologically anti-violence.... and now he is questioning everything his life has been so far and turning his back on it.... which i think makes him different from Bluntschli.

well Bluntschli does believe in avoiding wars and conflict - he runs away from war to survive and doesnt contest Raina's beliefs/opinions but defends his. He believes in being alive and practical aspect. I wish instead of showing an absurd charac the Lrl makers can model Abhi's charac on Bluntschli😳 ....I for one would love that.

Catch-22: I still have to make up my mind whether to forgive you or not for comparing this classic to Left Right Left. 😉 😆.... Catch-22 is written in the Absurd tradition.... its a crazy, mad book.... and it does not question only war or army regulations.... it also questions concepts like society, bravery, nationhood, sanity..... what is a nation?.... why does one kill others or kill oneself for the sake of it? what makes it ok, legal and even brave to go on killing people at one point of time in history because the government wants you to while the same thing done by a person not in uniform is homicide and punishable by law? what is sane? what is insane? if a soldier goes mad after killing so many people, who is responsible for that lapse of sanity?.... if someone fakes insanity to avoid killing people, is that ethically a better choice to make?.... what is war?... who takes the decision to fight it? and who are the people who live that decision out?.... who profits from it monetarily?.... what is the self and how much can a sensitive self take of the continuous horrors of war before it loses its sense of reality?
These are some of the questions that Catch-22 asks.... and it asks them crazily, using black humour, because that is the only way Yossarian can understand the world around him, make some sense of it....
Left Right Left.... even to mention it after such a text is sacrilege.... all i'll say is that it is not doing any of the above things.

Quoting "Catch-22 is a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning.... "Catch-22" is a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic of which, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions."

Why I mentioned was just becoz I was reminded Catch -22 from the absurd scenes shown😆 . Vaguely relating Doc Daneeka=Naveen 😆 and Milo Mindbender-Nair😆 and thoroughly enjoyed Ex-PFC Wintergreen. I wont relate others you can make your ownlist😆

But its nice to know that people still read books 😊

yes books are nice but I read these when once upon a time😆 I was in school so.....😉

Originally posted by: spian

Hey Shevs I havent said that LRL does that. I know Arms & the Man and Catch 22 are great works by the authors. what I implied was there are limitations by virtue of systems/procedures in Army and sometimes these are illogical.

Hi there. I was thinking about this conversation between you and me and came back to it precisely because i realised that my very enthusiastic posts might have given the impression that i think that Catch 22 and Arms and the Man are 'great works' by 'great authors' whereas lrl is just a tv show therefore not worthy of comparison..... and it is an impression that i never wanted to give at all..... i think this entire idea of greatness is a relative one... and that a lot of prejudices decide what is considered great and what not.... as someone who enjoys indian television as much as Homer, i would never consider one form of art superior or inferior to another.... they are different, thats it. However, when i love something, be it a film, a book or music, i just cannot stop talking about it 😊.... which is why i'm on this forum, i guess 😊....

So yesterday i just went on and on about these two texts, one a play and one a novel.... and a play is closer to a serial than a novel in certain ways.... and i guess some of my irritation with lrl showed in the way i talked about it.... but that was irritation with what is happening in lrl right now.... its was definitely not 'how can you compare a serial to a book'.... if i truly thought popular, everyday culture was not worthy of respect, i would not spend all my time, effort and enegry in watching it and discussing it!! 😊

Tum shabdo ke maayajaal mein phaas rahi ho!😆

Sweetie shabdon ke nahi simple absent mindedness ke 😆.... i read my post again... i had meant to write 'if i had to choose between Samay and Abhimanyu, i would choose Abhimanyu any day'.... galti se Gaurav likh diya.... a slip of the finger, a slip of mind and definitely a Freudian slip 😆 😆

well Bluntschli does believe in avoiding wars and conflict - he runs away from war to survive and doesnt contest Raina's beliefs/opinions but defends his. He believes in being alive and practical aspect. I wish instead of showing an absurd charac the Lrl makers can model Abhi's charac on Bluntschli😳 ....I for one would love that.

Yes Bluntschli's first choice is survival.... and i love him for that. Yes i would enjoy seeing Bluntschli in Abhimanyu but I do not think the lrl makers will do that however.... for one, they do not have a war in the show.... and Arms and the Man is situation driven.... so the authors would have to show a similar situation to create similar effect and similar character.

Quoting "Catch-22 is a general critique of bureaucratic operation and reasoning.... "Catch-22" is a military rule, the self-contradictory circular logic of which, for example, prevents anyone from avoiding combat missions."

Why I mentioned was just becoz I was reminded Catch -22 from the absurd scenes shown😆 . Vaguely relating Doc Daneeka=Naveen 😆 and Milo Mindbender-Nair😆 and thoroughly enjoyed Ex-PFC Wintergreen. I wont relate others you can make your ownlist😆

Ok.... your list is completely crazy... just like the book 😆 😆.... tum bilkul paagal ho gayi ho!!! 😆 😆

Yes books are nice but I read these when once upon a time😆 I was in school so.....😉

Hmmmm.... so ma'am has been out of school for a long time?!! Just kidding.... you must have been a child prodigy to have read Catch-22 in school 😊

Originally posted by: gulrani

I agree with you too Shvetal .... and thanks for your beautiful analysis ...👏👏

See, dont i keep saying 'great minds think alike'!.... but dont thank me for the analysis dear.... i do it because i enjoy doing it.... thats it. So its all for myself ultimately 😊

Originally posted by: amail1601

Lovely analysis!!!!! 👏 👏 👏 You've summed up everything really perfectly... 👏


I agree, Gaurav is one of the best actors...and his intense performances are really superb 😊 😊 😊 ...

Thank you so much... summing up things in unbearably long posts seems to come naturally to me 😆 😆

And of course it goes without saying that also agree with your statement about Gaurav 😊

Originally posted by: amail1601

You're welcome 😊 , and congrats...you became a Dazzler 😊 😊 😊

Oh thank you.... i had not seen that until you pointed it out 😊

Achcha, matlab ab jo bhi mujhse baat karega usse sunglasses pehenne padenge 😆 😆

Amail, whats your name?