Mansi

Five minutes, out of the cinema hall, I learnt that there aren't three movies but six in the series. AH! Next I heard of Harrison Ford playing Luke Skywalker and something inside my head said 'AH' for the second time.
So in case you're ready to share the finer points of the STAR WARS phenomenon with me on this post, I apologize in advance. For I am indeed a fledgling in my understanding of the series.

What I did see last night is the final episode which really is the start of the STAR WAR series - so Lucas managed to do what computer programmers call an 'infinite loop'. You're going to come out of this 'final' episode and dive right into the original series 1 - 2 and 3: At which point, you will want to go back further, some time far far ago...and again and again you will wash, spin and tumble dry (no less) in the glory that is STAR WARS.

It isn't a bad deal either.

Not many women are into STAR WARS, I know I wasn't as a kid. My brother was - something about this natural affinity to machine and machine parts - has always puzzled me. I HAD heard of Harrison Ford playing Luke Skywalker but I only remember him playing Indiana Jones. Why, pray tell, do young boys yearn for tool sets while young girls can only think of love, romance and oozing charm (I am thinking of Indiana Jones). Maybe at that time, young girls were very much still looking to be protected and swept off our feet, even if it was clinging desperately to a man whose chief accomplishment was his practiced art of swinging from branch to branch on ropes (I am thinking of Tarzan here). I wonder if young girls of today understand that as their idea of romance.

Even today, I am not a fan of machinery. I like to figure it out and then let it do what it's built to do. I haven't really fallen in love with the idea of machines -- something that I have felt at times and know to be a powerful, heady feeling. Boys know that feeling. They are in love with their machines and more importantly the idea of a machine. That if you wire things up correctly, you can get inanimate, solid substances to work together and DO something for you. Little wonder then that when they turn around and apply the same 'rules' of love to women, it doesn't work.

I have felt on occasion that love for machines. To be able to concentrate, try, fail, try again and finally "GET" it to work -- there is nothing like that feeling even if all you really did was replace a light bulb. Why do women shirk away from this kind of romance, pray tell. I know everytime a light bulb goes POP or SPAT, I look up into my husband's eyes and bat my eyelashes so... you get my drift, right?

What is it about 'fixing' things that women don't get? Do we like living in environs of chaos? Do we enjoy playing with the many buttons on the home theatre/sound theatre/ whatever theatre that is - all we really want to do is listen to a song! Why do tools like the screwdriver (no, not a conducive name, you got to admit, for our feline ears) or a hammer (again, am I just being a tad sensitive to the terms or what???) get us to surrender all intellect and fun in lieu for extra time in the kitchen cooking up treats to celebrate the real 'man' in the house?

I woke up this morning and set off for my run with my head full of Anakin Skywalker and Kobi Van Kanobi (I know I spelt that wrong!). I thought of Padume (I mean really, do I really have to hear another western take on an Indian sounding name - ( Reference: I've been listening to Lakme, the opera - with Neelkanta, Dourga (the french spelling of Durga - NOT!) etc...) My favorite part in the movie was to do with the starting scene...and also the fight scene between the general jedi and Darth Vader -- where despite all odds, he does triumph over Darth Vader. I loved it all. My favorite line in the film is when Kanobi says 'Only the Sith talk in absolutes' as it finally dawns on him that Anakin has become one with the dark side.

This final episode (and I am not sure if it's intentional) does really find a third voice in today's reality. While some may call it more 'political', I think it works on the concept of the circle. We are constantly moving from one end to the other in our grapple with what we call our lives. One day, we're in a wonderful loving relationship, the next we're lost to the lure of power that can help us sustain the relationship at the risk of annihilating every little bit of love that took to build it in the first place. Anakin and his bride's story is sad. The anger that it fuels in him becomes Darth Vader. The expression in his bride's face when she is dying and knows it will always remain with me.

Which brings me to the question of destiny. In the movie, Anakin dreams of his wife dying at childbirth. She does end up dying at childbirth. Was it destiny? I know there are a lot of people out there who believe very strongly on destiny. I am not one of them. I believe that it's a path of consciousness, to move from a state of being controlled and pre-planned to a state of acceptance and flexibility that comes with a deeper wisdom.... Like captured in this movie, where as a Jedi you are encouraged to use your emotions to tap into your deeper wisdom -- while as a Sith, you are encouraged to use your emotions to drive your actions.

No experience of this film will be complete without due credit to the effects, the sounds and the mind boggling battle scenes. The dragon as a vehicle was quite a nice touch. The end of Count Dooku was sad considering his own master would orchestrate his death. The look in his eyes as he looked at his Master and the comprehension that came seconds after was priceless.

I could go on and on about this movie - I doubt it's going to go away from my mind any time soon. I am pretty much up to watching it again and again on the big screen.
On that note, may the force be with us all.