On Movie Turning points and endings

So a few thoughts on movies and significant turning points and on ending strongly.

The song Tum Se Hi in Jab We Met. Till this song , the movie is a run of the mill Boy meets Girl and falls in love without realising it movie. However the song is what sets up the rest of the movie convincingly. When you see the song , you believe that Shahid Kapur's character does really love Kareena Kapoors character. The lyrics of the song fit perfectly with the picturisation. It also shows Shahid's character is willing to sacrifice his chance of happiness for Kareena's, without ever declaring his love. Beautifully sung, uplifting, great lyrics. This is what makes the movie.
You can see Kismat Konnection attempting the same thing , but not succeeding.

One of the things Hindi movies don't ever get right are endings. Perhaps storytellers and directors don't think the audience is mature enough, they feel that the audience must be spoon fed, not are they able to create open ended movies.

In Rocket Singh, towards the end the movie should end with Rocket Singh walking away from the antagonist. The antagonist has stated that he has lost the battle , but the war has begun and he will meet Rocket in the battle field. Rocket walking away with the paper in his hand would be the indication that he will meet him there. There really is no need to show the organisation formed along with the supporting characters.

In Hum Tum towards the end Saif Ali Khan states he believes life is long enough and he will meet Rani Mukherjee. That should be the end. There is no need to show her waiting for him

Rang De Basanti has a Khoon Chala song where the various protagonists life changes - the movie could end there. The people whose life had no purpose get a purpose. The communal character sees the problem in supporting communal policies and goes to aid his foe. The movie could end there instead of the filmi ending.

None of the proposed endings are satisfying to people who like to see a definite conclusion. But here's the thing - the endings would make you think about the characters, about what next. And that should be one of the goals of entertainment.

A humanist creed

Happiness is the only good.
The time to be happy is now.
The place to be happy is here.
The way to be happy is to make others so.
This creed is somewhat short , but it is long enough for this life, strong enough for this world.
If there is another world, when we get there we can make another creed

R.G. Ingersoll

Compare with any other creed.

On Gay Marriage

If the only thing I knew on this topic was that most (if not all) people opposed to gay marriage were religious, it would be sufficient for me to support gay marriage, but that's an ad hominem reason. So here goes.
Being allowed to marry obviously matters to gay people, not only for emotional reasons, but also for the rights that marriage automatically confers. Depriving the right to them, then does hurt gay people, whereas granting them the right hurts no one ( well except for those religious nuts who fell aggrieved when they are referred to as Party A and Party B instead of husband and wife). If we assume that in our lives we try to minimise hurt, then its clear we must support gay marriage.
Now that should convince most reasonable people, but religious nuts aren't exactly reasonable, and much energy and effort must be spent debating and refuting stupid stuff like(some strawmen , but hard to distinguish from real arguments , thanks to Poe's law)

• The traditional definition of marriage is a union between one man and one woman.

Now first this is a lie. Most cultures defined marriage as between one man and many women (and generally underage women). Women were traditionally treated as property and were sold. And if you go back far enough , you probably had no such thing as marriage. But even if it were true, that something is traditional doesn't make it right (slavery was traditional, sati was traditional, racism was traditional...)

• Gay people are recruiters!

Coming from religious people , this is a laugh. No baby is ever born religious or knows or cares about religion.

• The human race would end.

Uhh no.

• Being gay is a sin.

Only if you obsess about sex and sexual positions.

• My religion says this is a sin, I'm religious and so I must oppose gay marriage.

Well your religion also tells you to donate a good percentage of your money to charity, be a really nice person, don't judge anyone , love everyone, why don't you practise those first?

• God will punish us if we permit gay marriage. The world will end! Do you not know what happens in Sodom and Gomorrah???

Considering the number of truly evil people who exist in this world (a good percentage of them religious) about whom God has done absolutely nothing, this isn't really convincing. Also see above

• Our children will become gay.

Its quite possible, that even if you banned gay marriage, your children still might be gay. What are you going to do then? Are you going to abandon them? call them sinners? tell them how they are to burn in hell? or will you wish them happiness?

• I find it offensive to see gay people demonstrate their affection publicly

Close your eyes.

• People persecute us for our views on marriage

Uhh , straight people can get married any time, gay people can't. who is persecuting whom?

• Im religious , and I should be allowed to be a bigot.

Go see a psychiatrist

• Being gay is a choice

When did you choose to be straight? were you gay up till that time? And who cares whether its a genetic determination or whether its a choice?