Life is Perfect

I’d heard of ‘The Last Samurai’ a few years back. When Swami Mitrananda recommended a couple of movies to watch, I decided to go ahead last week. Well, I wanted to wait for 4-5 days whether I really have the urge to write about it. I do have still. Hence this blog.

The film is about an American war shooter & captain, Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) and the Samurai Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe). It is one of the grandest movies I’ve ever seen in terms of slick direction, sharp dialogues, fabulous canvas and what to mention about the excellent performances of Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe and all others. In fact, Ken Watanabe outshone Tom Cruise. Though it appears to be a typical war movie, a lot of wisdom is soaked into it.

I am not going to talk about the story as it might run into pages as I leave it to the readers to watch on their own to believe it (if not watched before). I am also not going to revel on the technological sleekness and the grandness of the movie. I am neither going to talk about the extraordinary efforts of the actors / director who had made the movie a grand success; especially for Tom Cruise who is into Scientology for many years. I am also not interested whether the story is cent percent true or not, though I am aware that it is based on the true story of the Samurai.

Sometimes, the warmth of one hour talk could be compensated by a second of silence. Sometimes, words in pages could be conveyed in a single camera shot. Sometimes, even many frames could not give the deeper meaning of a couple of words. Likewise, I’m yet to come out of a few scenes that are deeply intriguing….. some are aesthetically beautiful, some are gory truth, some are subtle realities, some are simply astounding.

Imagine this simple yet very powerful scene….

Nathan kills Samurai’s brother-in-law, Hirotaro in a war defence move but held captive by Katsumoto instead of killing him. Nathan is taken to a secluded village where he is nursed day and night by a mother of two. He is shocked to find out that the lady is none other than Hirotaro’s wife. So are we! Because the lady shows absolute devotion and dedication in her work knowing fully well that Nathan had killed her husband. She takes care of that man who has made her a widow, who has made her two children lose their father permanently.

The Samurai though appears rough and tough outside, he is so beautiful and soft in his heart. A group of Japanese trained soldiers tries to enter into the village at night to kill Katsumoto when the Samurai is engaged in entertaining the villagers by his dance/drama skills. Nathan helps him vanquish the enemies. The very next morning he writes a poem which he shares with Nathan saying he is unable to complete the last sentence. But he completes the poem as ‘Life is perfect’ in the most strange situations (It may take sometime for me to overcome this scene I think).

Yes, life is like a sinusoidal curve with crests of joys and troughs of sorrows. No one is exempted. But we can make our life a celebration even at the gravest of situations.

I do not want to survive; I do not want to exist; I want only to live. To live a life of no ill-feelings… a life of love and dedication…. a life of thanksgiving… a life of celebration… for Life is ever Perfect.