As I set to watch the movie which had captured millions of people this season, they say 'Dreams unlimited', well when 'Dreams become a part of reality?" or may be "REALITY?" huh! I was believed to literally prepare myself before i could step into cinema hall, I read loads of pages before I could sense "Inception"
'You dream! and then Dream to reality' stuck me hard, the line in the film which said "Never construct a dream out of your own memories" actually had invoked in me a bigger dream, as I wrapped the film and rose to go home filled in a deep surprise and with an pinch of feeling that went something like "What the f@(&##?", "How is it possible to think of such a script or a story line" for a moment I thought I was 'Dreaming' to have been sitting in a cinema hall and watching a nerve breaking film such as this.
My head was constantly cogitating on the story line and then it stuck me! was it completely new? 'Dreaming is not new' which the film makers also knew I suppose but the whole concept of planting an idea in the sub-conscious mind is not so new to us, just go back down the memory lane and you will find your grandmother telling stories on indian mythology where ideas were formulated only through dreams!
Ramanujacharya dreamt the fact that he had to settle down in melukote for years to drive the whole "Shree-vaishnava" philosophy down south, There is an interesting legend associated with the birth of Adi Shankaracharya. It is believed that, Lord Shiva appeared in the dreams of Sankara's parents and asked them to make a choice, whether they want to have a mediocre child who lives a long life or a precocious child who would not survive for a longer period of time. Thus, they mutually decided to go in for the second option. Later, a son was born to them, who was named Shankara.
Stories doesn't end here, it is believed in my family that my great grand father actually met few villagers in his dream who persuaded him to take up the job of 'offering pooja' to the village deity which inturn happened to be a dream, not that I had to build this one. Indian Mythology is perhaps driven by dreams and planting ideas in dreams with every second king and sage getting dreams and ideas planted.
Kamsa, the great daemon himself predicted his death by the dreams that he got, where he dreamt of his nephew killing him; stories never end here, as I tried to churn out more logical meaning to the the whole concept of 'Inception" I was beginning to realize that "Inception" is strongly related to our 'Indian Mythology' only that the centuries ago we did not have a camera to capture it. "Placing ideas in one's mind" is actually a known trick which is proved to be a successful technique right from the day our mythology was born! In a very 'not so famous' interview, the makers of multi-billionaire blockbuster movie 'Avtar' accepted the fact that the film is partly based on the concept of "Aatma being the real soul and the real protector the body is just Karma" which is exactly the phenomenon our few shastra's preached us ages ago.
So what is gone is coming back! I kind of felt relived after the fact that "Inception" is nothing but a recreation of our story in a new bottle, as we move ahead into 'next generation cinema' I see most of the films based more on the Indian philosophy and mythology. As i wrap up my 'perception' I just "dream' that one day the thing line between dreams and reality masks your 'Totem'!