INTERSTELLAR

Apocalypse; the instincts of an ordinary man may work to stand guard to his family but a scientist thinks for the survival of the humankind. The conflict between hero Cooper and Professor Brand, elegantly played by Michael Caine in ‘Interstellar’ is no different. Christopher Nolan has seamlessly woven a beautiful screenplay on an uncompromising bond between a father and daughter in the backdrop of pure science; at least in cinematic terms.

In the early eighties it was writer Sujatha, kindled my interest in ‘black holes’ and ‘time dilation’ with his comic strip in a weekly, the name I don’t remember; a dear friend and mentor tried to explain but with half success, Einstein’s theory of relativity with the passion and perseverance, no Professor whom later I came across exhibited.

Interstellar, I am sure will help in rekindling the interest on inter galactic travel in many a hearts; any viewer at the close of curtains will return home wondering about ‘wormhole’, ‘black hole’, and the relation between time with speed and gravity. Fear not, it is otherwise and interesting film and science is spoken in laymen’s language, keeping the general audience in mind.

Till the end there is no nail biting moment, to pull one to the edge of the seat but still the film succeeds in keeping the audience riveted to their seats with its thought provoking dialogues, monotonous they may be.

Survival; is intrinsic in every living thing, with no exceptions. We do not know why but it is written in our genetic codes that we have to survive; without such core quality we would not have been evolved against the odds. Mother’s love, I mean all living creatures and the urge to copulate cannot be explained otherwise. Methinks, if humans start to procreate through ‘in vitro fertilisation’ procedures, future generations may evolve with less and less appetite for sexual pleasures!

The quote ‘Do not go gentle into that goodnight’ which Caine uses to urge others to fight for survival is from a very famous poem written by a Welsh poet Dylon Thomas seeing his father fighting death. This poem, it seems has been used in many films, including ‘Independence Day’ with a minor variation as ‘We will not go quietly into the night’. One must admit and admire the fighting spirit of Americans, particularly after seeing they closed ranks and regrouped after September’11 attack.

In Interstellar as the world is sinking in its own weight, scientists as usual from US of A driven by their urge to survive devising ways to colonise planets in other galaxies. Help comes from ‘they’ one may interpret as God, aliens or future generations in forming a traversable wormhole to sneak into a distant galaxy. Cooper, a former shuttle pilot has to captain the mission to collect data from those who had already been sent to other planets and the film revolves around his love towards his family, particularly his promise to his daughter that he would return conflicting with his duty to the humanity.

In the end, we are left bewildered by the awesomeness of science and its unlimited possibilities and pondering over questions about what we now come in conflict,

‘The Family’.

Madurai
25/11/14