Baran

Love as an innocent emotion between adults or between blooming adults is something that perhaps was never given importance. In my experience alone I tell people that nascent love is a kind of social condition that will help us withstand harsher winds of life that lies ahead. A scenario where brain tries taking over heart or at least dominating heart to a marginal degree in keeping sanity safe is, what is happening in everybody’s life.

I would not be surprised if almost everyone forgot their first love as time passes by and laugh at it as a fading fancy that’s inevitable. Or feel pride with the so called sense of balance they achieved in terms of optimizing the real world benefits with carnal needs and of course an aroma of love lingering around.

I came across this beautiful Iranian / Afghan movie purely by accident, or should I say through a friend, who is a little weird in her choices. It was with me past eight months and I never paid attention. I played it on my Laptop for a few minutes and tried synchronizing my vision with Video and English subtitles, then mildly bored and closed the window.

Honestly speaking I started realizing that Hollywood is no more a god for movie buffs. Through my liking for horror movies, I discovered Asian horror that’s bone chilling with its eerie and silent scenes where you see no blood and no gore, yet you would look around to see if there is a presence invisible right behind or beside you, millimeters away.

I broadened my horizon in collecting movies from all over the world and realized that human imagination is a treasure of jewels and gems. Every country in this world has a unique and beautiful way to picture human emotions to the precision and complexity that we often tend to ignore as a routine of life.

Coming back to Baran, on last Saturday I was determined to bend my will to submission and watch that by hook or crook.

It’s an Iranian movie. And the culture and sociology is absolutely unknown to me even it terms of a layman. Their reservation to share their culture with world around could be the reason that I am not much aware and possibly because I am an Asian I am further far away.

But I love geopolitics and an avid observer of developments that take place in the cauldron called world.

What escaped my notice is that they are as lovely as everyone else in their heart when simplicity of life is what they practice. Leaving the privileged class aside poverty and survival squeeze life out of everyone who try to make a humble living in this cruel world. And an occasional smile and pang within heart that’s incomprehensible, because its love… is another mystery of life to the poor.

True to the harsh reality when one can’t afford love in material sense, all they must relish is a glance stolen and joy hidden. For the moment next will crush your shoulders deep down to the ground mounting the burden of earning food with a little amount of self-esteem.

This movie crushed my heart not in an impact.

This movie pulverized my heart in a slow agonizing pain that caused by looking at the fact… How beautiful love could get. How selfless one could get in giving everything they have, perfectly knowing that whatever is given shall never be returned. A teenage boy who is so truculent and arrogant and hated a younger fellow worker to the core and later realize that his fellow worker is not a boy but a girl disguised as boy to make living in a mal chauvinistic world. His hatred turning in to protective behavior and he sheds his ego and hate like dead skin and almost destroy his own identity in keeping the girl safe, in his own innocuous ways

This movie tormented my soul where I had to accept the ignorant innocence of an early teenaged girl gets so baffled between survival, fear and awareness of being loved.

Baran could be a tightrope walk in making to the movie Director Majid Majidi, struggling to keep every element of reality, art, modesty, religion and emotions in place. It would have been hard for anyone even to think of love expressed in such a pious way.

The boy and girl when they realize that they are in love and at the same time they are never meant to be for each other. They cry not, they feel no pain; they don’t even smile at each other, but sense the warmth of love… and… walk away… forever

Baran made me cry for a significant few lonely moments at 3am with spasms raking my body. I was in quandary not understanding if I am weakened within not knowing myself or my brittle and unyielding self-annealed for a moment that I must be happy about. It was a silent night where rest of the world slept in piece and complacency, yet I smiled after wiping my tears… for my heart cleansed for the umpteenth time

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