Film: Inception
Rating: 4.5/5
Presented by: Warner Bros
Banner: Legendary Pictures
Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Ellen Page, Tom Hardy, Ken Watanabe, Dileep Rao, Cillian Murphy, Tom Berenger, Marion Cotillard, Pete Postlethwaite, Michael Caine, Lukas Haas and others
Music: Hans Zimmer
Cinematography: Wally Pfister
Editing: Lee Smith
Story, screenplay, direction: Christopher Nolan
Producers: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
Release date: 16/07/2010
Dreams, Dreams and Dreams
Some take dreams for fun
Some consider them wisdom beams
Some take a different turn
And call them as sub conscious realms
Some probe into them and learn
That they can show us extremes
Hollywood called it ‘Inception’
Showcasing fantastic themes and wonderful gleams
The 2 Hr 30 Min roller coaster ride called ‘Inception’ took me into romanticism, fiction, fantasy and meta-physical tunnel of thought.
To understand the movie, with my cognizance, the first link I could make is with Bhagavata Purana. Yes, I feel the ‘inception of idea’ for this theme is pulled out from the ancient texts of India. The texts say that ‘Praakaamya’ is one of the 8 sidhdhis that rishis can attain with practice. Once the sidhdhi is attained by enlightening kundali, the individual can own the power of ‘realizing whatever he desires or dreams’. And another secondary sidhdhi is ‘Manojava’ which can be translated as ‘teleportation/aerial travel’ that deals with ‘moving the body wherever desired with mere wish’.
‘Inception’ is based mainly on those two sidhdhis.
- ‘realizing whatever one desires or dreams’
- ‘moving the body wherever desired with mere wish’
Already ‘Avatar’ was based on these two but with more fantasy elements.
Now ‘Inception’ deals more with science fiction and meta-physics.
The makers of this movie left three choices for audiences:
- We can derive nothing out of it
- we can derive and understand something out of it
- We can derive and understand many things out of it.
I’m going with ‘choice-2’ and trying to write something I understood, here.
The master moviemaker of Hollywood who is known for his intense insight into the human character is back. Chris Nolan has now taken the viewer into the journey of the subconscious mind.
Short-notes to Understand ‘Inception’ a bit easier:
- A Japanese Business doyen hires an ‘Inception’ expert to plant an idea in the mind of his opponent and collapse his business
- ‘Inception’ expert says ‘yes’ and conveys that his mission terms to be successful if the opponent arrives in USA by so and so time
- ‘Inception’ expert selects his team and trains them
- Inception expert starts mission in a private aircraft with his team
- Then they plunge into a dream and entire team gets into a van, a dream layer
- From there they get into a mansion, another layer of dream
- From there to an Ice region, other layer of dream
- From there to the world of protagonist and his deceased wife, another dream layer
- From there to reality
- The opponent arrives in USA (means mission accomplished)
The protagonist’s wife attempts to spoil his mission in different layers of dream. That should be understood as she died long ago but that is a hallucination for him due to his emotional bond for her. This is anyway explained at the climax.
The protagonist never likes to see the faces of his children in the dream layers as he knows that his concentration in his mission misses if he does that.
The van falls slowly into the water body while the action takes place normal in subsequent layers. This is because, it’s explained in the beginning, 5 minutes of reality is equal to 1 hour in dream.
Story In Detail:
A tale that deals with dreams and reality, the story begins with Cobb (Leonardo) who gives a proposal to the Japanese tycoon Saito (Ken Watanabe). It is to protect himself from ‘Extraction’ – stealing an idea from a dream. Saito has his own doubts and before he could take a decision, Cobb and his buddy Arthur (Joseph) try and do the extraction stint with Saito. However, Cobb’s own subconscious block in the form of his wife Mal (Marion) spoils the plot at every instant. While the plot doesn’t succeed, Saito comes up with a proposal to Cobb since he knows that both Cobb and Arthur are evading the US authorities. Cobb is desperate about going back to the US. Saito says that he would let them go free of all charges if they can take up a mission. It is to do an ‘Inception’ – putting an idea successfully into someone’s mind. The target is Robert Fischer (Cillian Murphy), heir to a multi-billion dollar oil empire. Saito wants Cobb to incept a thought so that Fischer breaks the empire and that would make the Japanese the number one. Cobb takes the mission and he gets onto form his dream team- an architect Ariadne (Ellen Page), a forger Earnes (Tom Hardy), a chemist Yusuf (Dileep Rao). The plan is to break up the inception process into three stages. Whether the dream team succeeds in the inception? What happens to the dark ghosts of Cobb’s memories? What is reality and what is a dream? All this forms the rest of the story.
Performances
Leonardo was at his usual best and though his character was a bit subdued given the lead characters, he played his role to the T and made his presence felt strongly. His eyes do the magic at all times.
Joseph was the smartest among the lot and he has carried out his role with élan, the climax part where Joseph tries to get all of them together in zero gravity is worth a watch.
Marion looks seductive and exudes that element of meanness and affection in the right proportions, though she looks a bit elder to Leo’s chocolate face, she still has that grace and charm.
Ken Watanabe has an aura about him which makes him an elegant choice for his role. His performance was quite competent and one could see the versatility in him.
Tom Hardy was cool, he impresses with his screen presence, good to see an Indian origin actor Dileep rubbing shoulders with big league stars, he was impressive. Ellen Page was cute and though she looks girlish, she had that maturity to fit in. Michael Caine was brief but impact creating. The others did their bit as required and added value to the film.
Analysis
At the outset, it is a rather complicated film for an average Indian audience to understand. The screenplay is quite complicated and the script passes through many layers so one has to be on his toes to be a part of the story.
The good thing about the film is though it is a simple concept of planting an idea through dream; it never leaves an idle moment throughout the 2 hour 30 minutes tenure. The viewer gets sucked into right from the start. The dialogues are not flashy but wise; the real strength of the film is the background score which keeps the adrenaline flowing while the cinematography is mind blowing. It must be admitted that the Indian cinema will take a while to come up with the visual effects. They were grand and extravagant; the creativity is out of the world.
Editing was crisp despite the length and no part could have been altered.
On the flip side, this is not a typical action treat or commercial Hollywood feast. It is a rather deep rooted psychological thriller that plays with the mind. There are quite a number of times when the viewer has to question whether what they are watching on the scene is a dream or for real.
The makers must be appreciated for coming up with a simple storyline but presenting it in a convincing manner. This film is not for those who want entertainment or mushy emotions; this is a complex film that appeals only to the serious and thinking audience. One thing, even a drift of few minutes will slip the plot out of you so one has to be attentive while watching each and every scene.
Bottomline: Intricate psychological thriller, watch it to see your inception.
(SiraSri can be reached at [email protected])
