The latest spectacle from SLB productions, a movie dedicated to life and to love. It’s a story about a quadriplegic Ethan, a world famous magician crippled by an unfortunate accident and his plea to this world to allow him to end his life and suffering. A plea for euthanasia or Ethanasia as he calls it…
The movie is a work of art, like a thousand pictures telling a story. Each frame is so beautifully captured, the colors, the landscapes, the old dripping walls and ceilings of Ethan’s once mansion, all these take you to a different world. Goa has been captured like never before. Both Hrithik and Aishwarya are spectacular in their characters, the rest of the characters have also done a great job, especially Sharon Patel who plays Hirthik’s lawyer. The story and each character touches the very core of your heart in certain scenes yet, the movie is not about feeling sorry for Ethan and his condition.
The movie leaves you with a very strong message, it forces you to think. About what...well actually about a lot of things? For starters it teaches you the value of life. It’s quite obvious actually that a movie like that should give this message. And I truly hope that each one of us who watches the movies learns that. Isn’t it fascinating that we are always complaining about things in our lives and how they are imperfect and how if we had this or that we would be happier. Very rarely we stop for a moment to think and be thankful for what we have.
What amazed and inspired me to write about the film is the fact that people around me in the theater dealt with this thought? Why do we have to always find entertainment value in everything and not take it seriously? Ethan Mascarenas could just be a character and Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s imagination, but why don’t we look at the thousands who probably would be suffering like Ethan did. Euthanasia is a big deal and matter it’s time our country thought of seriously.
It’s ironic, in a country where thousands each year die due to poor medical facilities, hunger, poverty etc. A man who has been suffering for years does not have the right to willfully and with dignity end his pain. Isn’t it funny that people who have no idea and empathy for him are passing a judgment on whether or not he should live or die? And it’s not something that happened in just his case, there are thousands of such cases pending in our courts waiting to end their misery.
I’m not promoting the idea of euthanasia; I just want to ask all of you and this judicial system do we still remember people like these exist. Or are too busy making money, buying expensive cars, competing and fighting with each other. How many of us have ever seen or met anyone with a condition, let alone be of support to them. I’ll request you all to meet someone who’s got limited days left and for whom each day is a struggle. Trust me, that moment/day would change your life.
I remember someone I met once, just once. Someone suffering from various types of cancers for over a decade, someone whose pain we can’t even imagine, and someone who was a true inspiration. In that pain and suffering, when we met with limited sight and hearing, he managed to crack a joke or two. Made me laugh, complimented me and even flirted with me. He shared some stories of his younger days and then thanked me for visiting him. All I could do was walk out of the room with tears in my eyes. He died a few months later, after fighting cancer for more than a decade. And in spite of numerous surgeries and radiation treatments he was all full of life & hope.
How do these people manage to be so happy in spite of their own condition? Ethan was a radio jockey inspiring people to live when he was leading a vegetated life. He managed to smile and laugh more than we normal people not because this was a movie, but coz people like him have some things we “normal” ones don’t.
Ethan like my friends uncle has the following virtues which we mere mortals have forgotten. They know Love, they give and receive true selfless love to whomever they meet and as a result enrich their lives. They know forgiveness; Ethan managed to forgive the man who was responsible for his condition. They even forgive God for doing it to them. And what do we do if we face trouble, we ask God why me. Most of us take quite a lot of time even to forgive the person who over took your car and got you delayed for work for a couple of minutes. They day we learn to forgive others and ourselves for what happened to us, we’ll become a much happier race.
People like Ethan are full of gratitude. They thank each person who’s made them smile or was responsible for just one bright moment in their day. They are thankful for the life they have, for being able to get up every morning and still see the sun, hear birds chirp and even our “normal” whining about our lives.
And more than anything else, people like Ethan have Hope. Something I think us normal’s have forgotten about. Ethan has Faith, not just in the Almighty but also in himself and people around him. Ethan has dreams, not of material pleasures of the world, but the dream of someday being able to walk, someday being able to hug people he loves or simply scratch his nose. We all have dreams we’ve just kept them a little deep inside our cup boards and filled them with other material things. Let’s find them, and try and make them come true, we’ve got very little time.
You also learn a lot from Sophie, his nurse. She teaches you the value of selfless true love, love so strong it’ll hold you even in the toughest of times, a love that feels your suffering and is your strength through all that, and a love who without a doubt would be the first to help you get rid of it. A love each person should be able to experience. They say when you love someone selflessly, forgetting your own being and identity for the love; you actually become not just one with the person you love. You also become one with God.
So when you go watch this movie, don’t just look for entertainment. Don’t be judgmental about the number of times it makes you cry or people around cry. Remember all those people on this planet who have to suffer each day like this, remember those for whom waking up every morning is a miracle. And the next time you meet someone, anyone, any random stranger, anywhere, don’t think too much, don’t judge them, just try gifting them a smile. You never know who’s life you’ve enriched and guess what you’ll enrich your life much more in turn.
Life is too short and uncertain, spread happiness and collect happiness. That’s all you’ll take with you when the last day comes and that’s all that people will remember you by.
Go ahead….make yourself a multi-multi smile-ionaaire….
