Questions. Points to ponder. Discuss maybe. Wait over. Mull over. And loop back on.
Well, how long does one wait for anything, eh? How long would one want to, really? How long before the waiting numbs you to, eh, the act of waiting itself? How long before this brain-numbing waiting ensures that it makes no difference no matter what happens at the end of that wait?
What about Euthanasia? Is it easier for the one waiting, or for the one being waited on? Who knows? Who can ever? Medical science, doesn't really have all the answers, at least not all answers the ones who're waiting seek, in vain. Lotsa subjective opinions and data (mis)interpretations.
We all wait, in the meantime.
Now, in a milieu like ours, still 'developing', where most of our time is spent waiting for something or the other, is it easier, for anyone, to be in a predicament like the ones our leads, Shah & Koechlin, find themselves in?
I think the following observations are as important as the ones made by the movie, in all its decency.
Our leads, our respective 'windows' into 'Waiting', you see, they have health insurance. They have coordinators. They research. They fly in from one place to the other. They live in clean places. They know 'love', they're in 'love', and they've been loved back. Before this exploded their blissful utopia, they were mostly self- absorbed, the way most people in love, and who're loved back, are.
How many, among us, are as fortunate as they have been? How many of us are still waiting for entry into that Utopia?
All of that informs how one is gonna perceive this flick, along with every other work that we try and analyze, obviously.
They never stop doing those 3 essential things Shah mentors Koechlin about, when he meets her. However, they can. He can. 'Can (afford to) ' being the operative word.
However, while the movie posed all of those questions in my head, and in the heads of a few others that watched this, to me, this was also about forging that connection, across generations, with someone who is going through the same secondhand trauma that one is, and maybe, pass on some wisdom, gleaned from their recent experience, that prepares them better to understand and deal with what's going on. I think most of us have been there, in both positions, as the impart-er of said wisdom, and the receiver as well.
That connection, at best, is tenuous, most of the time, since it is a function of the circumstances that bring you both together, made more tenuous by that common circumstance being traumatic in nature, and our judgmental outlook on life is ever-present to complicate things. In this scenario, how to create and build on a relationship that'll last.
Movies about connections that I love, in no order, that I'd add this one to - The Lunchbox, Cheeni Kum, Before Sunrise/Sunset, Cairo Time, Frankie and Johnny (1 of my all-time favs), Stanley & Iris......
Well, as a movie, 'Waiting' does go there. It stays in the lives of the privileged, for sure, but it traverses little-trod paths, and needs to be appreciated for that.
Thankfully, and refreshingly, like life, it does not provide any (readymade) answers to the relationship questions, though it does tick off on all the tenuousness that said relationship is fraught with.
Honestly, I felt that it just skimmed the surface though, and the only movie that I thought (even though it did not address this particular theme) went there into detail, was 'Ship of Theseus'.
Shah and Koechlin both, are at the top of their games, and are a treat to watch, while the talented Suhasini could have had a little more active screen time. Arjun Mathur is a surprise (of the pleasant kind) in his limited screen time.
The movie, to me, was made more memorable by the fact that it was the final one I was fortunate enough to watch with my better half, who's now gone forever, and for whom I'll now be 'waiting'. Maybe I liked it the way I did, in spite of flaws that many might have had problems with, for that very sentimental reason. These are all subjective observations, after all.
I'll watch it once again, to see what other feelings it re- inforces in me, and for the memories.
Well, how long does one wait for anything, eh? How long would one want to, really? How long before the waiting numbs you to, eh, the act of waiting itself? How long before this brain-numbing waiting ensures that it makes no difference no matter what happens at the end of that wait?
What about Euthanasia? Is it easier for the one waiting, or for the one being waited on? Who knows? Who can ever? Medical science, doesn't really have all the answers, at least not all answers the ones who're waiting seek, in vain. Lotsa subjective opinions and data (mis)interpretations.
We all wait, in the meantime.
Now, in a milieu like ours, still 'developing', where most of our time is spent waiting for something or the other, is it easier, for anyone, to be in a predicament like the ones our leads, Shah & Koechlin, find themselves in?
I think the following observations are as important as the ones made by the movie, in all its decency.
Our leads, our respective 'windows' into 'Waiting', you see, they have health insurance. They have coordinators. They research. They fly in from one place to the other. They live in clean places. They know 'love', they're in 'love', and they've been loved back. Before this exploded their blissful utopia, they were mostly self- absorbed, the way most people in love, and who're loved back, are.
How many, among us, are as fortunate as they have been? How many of us are still waiting for entry into that Utopia?
All of that informs how one is gonna perceive this flick, along with every other work that we try and analyze, obviously.
They never stop doing those 3 essential things Shah mentors Koechlin about, when he meets her. However, they can. He can. 'Can (afford to) ' being the operative word.
However, while the movie posed all of those questions in my head, and in the heads of a few others that watched this, to me, this was also about forging that connection, across generations, with someone who is going through the same secondhand trauma that one is, and maybe, pass on some wisdom, gleaned from their recent experience, that prepares them better to understand and deal with what's going on. I think most of us have been there, in both positions, as the impart-er of said wisdom, and the receiver as well.
That connection, at best, is tenuous, most of the time, since it is a function of the circumstances that bring you both together, made more tenuous by that common circumstance being traumatic in nature, and our judgmental outlook on life is ever-present to complicate things. In this scenario, how to create and build on a relationship that'll last.
Movies about connections that I love, in no order, that I'd add this one to - The Lunchbox, Cheeni Kum, Before Sunrise/Sunset, Cairo Time, Frankie and Johnny (1 of my all-time favs), Stanley & Iris......
Well, as a movie, 'Waiting' does go there. It stays in the lives of the privileged, for sure, but it traverses little-trod paths, and needs to be appreciated for that.
Thankfully, and refreshingly, like life, it does not provide any (readymade) answers to the relationship questions, though it does tick off on all the tenuousness that said relationship is fraught with.
Honestly, I felt that it just skimmed the surface though, and the only movie that I thought (even though it did not address this particular theme) went there into detail, was 'Ship of Theseus'.
Shah and Koechlin both, are at the top of their games, and are a treat to watch, while the talented Suhasini could have had a little more active screen time. Arjun Mathur is a surprise (of the pleasant kind) in his limited screen time.
The movie, to me, was made more memorable by the fact that it was the final one I was fortunate enough to watch with my better half, who's now gone forever, and for whom I'll now be 'waiting'. Maybe I liked it the way I did, in spite of flaws that many might have had problems with, for that very sentimental reason. These are all subjective observations, after all.
I'll watch it once again, to see what other feelings it re- inforces in me, and for the memories.