‘Once Upon A Time’ by ‘Gabriel Okara’.

‘Once Upon A Time’ by ‘Gabriel Okara’.

Introduction about the poet:-

 

Cultural conflict is one of the most striking points in African poetry. In African what is culture and tradition that seems uncultured or peculiar to the western. African poet Gobriel Okara focuses the ice-cold attitude of Europeans to the African culture.In African what is traditional and cultured and humorous to Europeans. They also represent the African culture in humiliated sense. Gabriel Jibaba Okara was born on 24 April in 1921. He is a Nigerian poet and novelist who were born in Bomoundi in Bayelsa state, Nigeria. He was awarded the commonwealth poetry award in 1979.

About Poem :-

This poem is written by African poet ‘Gabriel Okara’. In this poem we found that conversation between father and son. Poet deals with impact of globalization so called civilization. The life of human becomes mechanical and robotic life. All people run behind money. And in this race human becomes robot. Here in this poem poet talk about that the relation is remain formal, lake of trust and aspens of feelings. Even smiles also became plastic smile or artificial smile. 

Humans are doing all this things like hospitality, charity and other things only for sake of doing, not from their heart. People becomes formal some word are only for speaking like good bye, I really enjoyed your company, nice to meet you, come again and many other thing are spoken by for formality, not from heart. People use to wear mask, we found this kind of duel face rather we can says malty face of human being. 

They stared change emotions like they change their cloths (makeup of mind). Poetic persona tells his son about his glorious past and what is present. Poet try’s to connect past and present, also generation gap of life of father and the life of son.

 Father says that “Once Upon A time I was like you.” Child is innocent and happy, his smile is original and he enjoyed his life, whereas father cannot do all this things through his heart. Inn past father also use to smile with their heart but now he cannot smile with heart, he smile with teeth. 

All this things are happened because of money and civilization. Poetic persona asked his son to teach me how to smile. He also longing for original and real life but he can’t. In this poem we found impact of civilization.

Mystic Drum by Gabriel Okara

Mystic Drum by Gabriel Okara

Introduction :-

Gabriel Okara was born in Nigeria when there was a British colony and, indeed, it would be nearly forty years before his country was to gain independence in October 1960.During his life, Okara did jobs like, initially working as a book binder, journalist, radio broadcaster and newspaper editor. He has also travelled to the USA where he helped raise money for Nigeria by giving poetry recitals.

Okara’s poems tend reflect the problems that African nations face as they are torn between the culture of their European colonists and their traditional African heritage. 

He also looks at the traumatic effect that colonization and DE-colonization can have on the self and a one's sense of personal identity. For example Okara often depicts characters suffering from 'Culture shock' as they are torn between these two irreconcilable cultures. On the one hand there is Christianity and the definite material benefits such as classroom education and well-paid jobs that the European way of life offers, while on the other hand, there is the unspoken expectation that the 'true' African was allegiance to his original tribal culture and should embrace these 'roots'. This contrast is summed up nicely by another African poet called Mabel segue in the following lines:

“Here we stand

Infants overblown

Packed between two civilizations

Finding the balance irksome".

 About Poem:-

This poem is written by Gabriel Okara. The Drum represents African culture.

The Mystic Drum and Lines:-

“The mystic drum beat in my inside

and fishes danced in the rivers

and men and women danced on land

to the rhythm of my drum”

“But standing behind a tree

with leaves around her waist

she only smiled with a shake of her head.”

We can say that is connecting with heart beats of poetic persona. Lady who smile’s behind tree is signifies so many things. She is an outsider. Lady thinks that she has more rich culture, but in real sense the colonized won’t have their Own culture. In this poem we found that men, women and fishes are dancing on the bit of drum. It shows the connection of nature and humans, that they are dancing together. It also shows how powerful mystic drum is? The African culture is connected with nature, the mystic drum invokes the sun, the moon, the river, gods and the trees began to dance.

 In the poem lady is outsider and colonizer also. She is standing behind tree; it shows because of industrial revolution the trees and forest are cutting down. Poetic persona says that the mystic drum is not beat loudly anymore (Vajani Bhumi's Assignment).Because of industrialization, African culture destroys slowly. It means the western people started ruling over Africa. We can say that lady is personification of industrialization. 

This is gift of colonialism and imperialism. Industrialization started sucking the land through their roots. The smoke comes from her lips is suggest how much pollution is done by industrialization. In the poem we found that when drum is beaten men become fishes and fishes become men. But when mystic drum stopped beating men become men and fishes become fishes. It reflects that life become dry and mechanical.

Refugee Mother and Child by Albert Chinualumogu Achebe

Refugee Mother and Child by Albert Chinualumogu Achebe

Introduction:-

 

Chinua Achebe born Albert Chinualumogu Achebe; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, professor, and critic. He was best known for his first novel and magnum opus, Things Fall Apart (1958), which is the most widely read book in modern African literature.

Raised by his parents in the Igbo town of Ogidi in south-eastern Nigeria, Achebe excelled at school and won a scholarship for undergraduate studies. He became fascinated with world religions and traditional African cultures, and began writing stories as a university student. After graduation, he worked for the Nigerian Broadcasting Service (NBS) and soon moved to the metropolis of Lagos.

 He gained worldwide attention forThings Fall Apart in the late 1950s; his later novels include No Longer at Ease (1960), Arrow of God (1964), A Man of the People (1966), and Anthills (1987). Achebe wrote his novels in English and defended the use of English, a "language of colonisers", in African literature.

  

 About Poem :-

This poem is written by Chinua Achebe. First poet introduce statue of ‘Madonna’, and gives refrains of Jesus and his mother. But in this poem poet writes about the real mother and her child. What is the situation of the mother (African mother). Statue of Madonna is illusion of reality. Generally smile of mother is sweet but in the poem, mother’s smile is ghostly looking. Poet also says that mother’s heart is always tender.

 Mother’s smile is ‘Ghostly looking’ because her child is dead due to diarrhea. Here we found what the condition of African slave is. Mother, she is not able to take care of her child in such kind of illness. The description of mother taking care of her child is like she make child ready for school. But she makes ready her child for tiny grave. Here we found that death of motherhood also. She not sent her child to school but she sends her child for burial. If the child is belong to rich family, child get proper care. Here in the poem death of motherhood and child.

S.T Coleridge’s view on poem and prose

Coleridge’s view on poem and prose

 

  Introduction :-

Samuel Taylor Coleridge was a poet, philosopher, and literary critic whose writings have been enormously influential in the development of modern thought. In his own lifetime, Coleridge was renowned throughout 

Britain and Europe as one of the Lake Poets, a close-knit group of writers including William Wordsworth and Robert Southey, who resided in the English Lake District. He is greater than great and a genius of his poetic work as we can look in his poems and by that feeling of nature, romance preciousness we feel. Coleridge was the son of a Vicar. 

He was educated at Christ’s Hospital, London, where he failed to get a degree. In the summer of 1794 Coleridge became friends with the future poet Laureate Southey, with whom he wrote a verse drama. 

Together they formed a plan to establish a pantisocracy, a utopian community, in New English. They married sisters, but the scheme fell apart and they argued over money and politics.

Coleridge was also known to many English readers as a talented prose writer, especially as the author of the Biographia Literaria (1817), a literary autobiography; The Friend (1809- 1810), a collection of essays; and Aids to Reflection (1825), a series of aphorisms on religious faith.

Coleridge’s view on Poem:

The poem contains the same elements as a prose composition. But the difference is between the combination of those elements and objects aimed at in both the composition.

“In Imaginative power and Narrative Skills, Coleridge surpassed Wordsworth”

According to the difference of the object will be the difference of the combination. If the object of the poet may simply be to facilitate the memory to recollect (remember) certain facts, he would make use of certain artificial arrangement of words with the help of metre. As a result composition will be a poem, merely because it is distinguished from composition in prose by metre, or by rhyme. In this, the lowest sense, one might attribute the name of a poem to the well-known enumeration of the days in the several months;

“Thirty days hath September,

April, June, and November, &c.”

Rhyme:

Most traditional poems use rhyme as a basic device for holding the poem together. Rhyme is the agreement in sound between words or syllables. The best way to think of rhyme is not as a series of lock stepping sound effects but as a system of echoes. Poets use rhyme to recall earlier words, to emphasize certain points, and to make their language memorable. In fact, rhymes can be extremely effective in making language take hold in a reader’s mind.

• Lines from S.T. Coleridge’s “The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner”;

“And I had done a hellish thing

And it would work’em woe:

For all averred, I had killed the bird

That made the breeze to blow. Ah wretch! said they, the bird to slay,

That made the breeze to blow.”

Coleridge’s view on Prose:

The conception on the matters and situation take place in the creational way to drown in hierarchy that can better impact in humans mind. We see that a poem contains the same elements as a prose composition; the difference therefore must consist in a different combination of them, in consequence of a different object proposed. Prose writings and its immediate purpose and ultimate end. In scientific and historical composition, the immediate purpose is to convey the truth facts. In the prose works of other kinds romances and novels, to give pleasure in the immediate purpose and the ultimate end may be to give truth. Thus, the communication of pleasure may be the immediate object of a work not metrically composed. Coleridge, as the editor of her father's posthumously published prose works. The Biographia Literaria was widely read and reviewed at the time of its original publication and it remains the best known of Coleridge's prose works.

It’s a type of the view towards the reader and perspective through the art and it’s tale well, we can say that more to think and more to growth by that also it’s difficult to determine but the fact is always be like this to order such as words in their best order.

Wordsworth’s Definition of Poet and Poetry

Wordsworth’s Definition of Poet and Poetry

Introduction

William Wordsworth was born on 7, April, 1770 in cokermouth, a town on the edge of the Cumberland into a lawyer's family. He studied at Cambridge and completed his graduation there. He was a leader of the Romantic Movement in England. Wordsworth was a major English romantic poet but not a critic. 

However his views on poetry are extremely important and can be found in the preface to the lyrical ballad 1802. He is the most representative poet of English literature. Wordsworth has written a series of poem collaboration of Coleridge entitled "Lyrical Ballad". He gave definition of 'poet' and 'poetry' in his "Lyrical Ballad". His first two collection of poetry would be published in 1793, five years after his first published poem. By the time of his death in 1850 he had produced some of English poetry's greatest work and influenced by future generation of poets.

Wordsworth’s Definition of Poet and Poetry as Expressed in his Preface Lyrical Ballads

‘Lyrical Ballads’ is a collection of poems generally considered to have marked the beginning of the English Romantic movement in literature. The Preface to Lyrical Ballads is considered a central work of Romantic literary theory. The Lyrical Ballads was a manifesto for a radically new approach to the writing of poetry. Wordsworth declared that the most important thing in poetry was the poet's ability to record his spontaneous feelings. Poetry, he said, was "emotion recollected in tranquility".

Definition of poetry:

All good poetry is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling" and thought this be true, poems to which any value can be attached were never produced on any variety of subject but by a man who being possessed of more than usual organic sensibility ,but also thought long and deeply.

As 'Poetry' is the "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings”, it takes its origins from emotion recollected in tranquillity". In this definition of poetry there are two apparent contradictions. The “spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings” and “emotion reflected in tranquillity” on the other side are apparently two contradictory statements.

Wordsworth uses his poetry to look at the relationship between nature and human life. For him poetry is the talk of man to man and it should be in simple language. His experience and attitude are reflected not only in his poetry, but also in letters and prose work. Wordsworth’s poetry remained consistent throughout. Even the language and imagery he used to embody those themes remained remarkably consistent. They remained consistent to the canons Wordsworth had set out the Preface to Lyrical Ballads.

Function of poetry:

According to Wordsworth, 'poetry' 'is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science'. Poetry seeks to ennoble and edify. It is like morning star which throws its radiance through the gloom and darkness of life.

'Poetry' is the instrument for the propagation of moral thoughts.

‘Poetry sheds no tears, such as angels weep, but natural and human tears’.

Definition of poet:

According to Wordsworth, "A poet is a man speaking to men, endowed with more lively sensibility" and he also say that the poet is such a human being who is overall in degree a far better human being than ordinary human being.

In other words..

• He has a greater knowledge of human nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than one supposed to be common among mankind.

• He is a man pleased with his own passions and volitions, and who rejoices more than other men in the spirit of life that is in him; delighting to contemplate similar volitions and passions as manifested in the going-on of the universe, and habitually compelled to create them where he does not find them.

• Man speaking to men.

• More lively sensibility.

• Greater imagination. (―affected by absent things as if they were present‖)

• Greater zest for life.

• Greater power of expression and communication

Conclusion:

 

We can say that he was a poet of simplicity of both human life as well as nature and his poetry has too simplicity of nature and human life and it often puzzle to reader. And though his language and subject are simple but they are deeply philosophical. Thus Wordsworth elaborately describes the function of poetry and of the poet in his critical essay preface to lyrical ballads. In both the cases he avoids classical tendencies and adopts romantic and nature loving attitude.

Movie Review of the film “Slumdog Millionaire” directed by Danny Boyle.

Movie Review of the film “Slumdog Millionaire” directed by Danny Boyle.

 

 

Movie Review of the film “Slumdog Millionaire”.Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film directed by Danny Boyle.

The film begins to Juhu slum 18 year old boy Jamal Malik is contestant on the Indian version of Kaun Banega Crorepati. 

it is all about question and answers, than win grand prize. At that time he is detained and tortured by the police, who suspect him to cheating because of the impossibility of a simple “Slumdog” person as never ever little education knowing all the answers. as story goes on. Jamal recount and memories though flashbacks the incidents in his life which provided him with each question.

We see in the film, Jamal's flashbacks begin with his managing, at age five, to obtain the autograph of Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan, which his brother then sells, followed immediately by the death of his mother during the Bombay Riots. As they flee the riot, they meet Latika, another child from their slum. Salim is reluctant to take her in, but Jamal suggests that she could be the third musketeer whose name they do not know. The three are found by Maman a gangster who tricks and then trains street children into becoming beggars. When Salim discovers Maman is blinding the children in order to make them more effective beggars, he flees with Jamal and Latika to a departing train. Latika fails to board the train and she is recaptured by Maman. Over the next few years Salim and Jamal make a living travelling on top of trains, selling goods, picking pockets, working as dish washers, and pretending to be tour guides at the Taj Mahal, where they steal people's shoes. At Jamal's insistence, they return to Mumbai to find Latika, discovering that she has been raised by Maman to become a prostitute and that as a virgin. she is expected to fetch a high price. 

The brothers rescue her, and Salim kills Maman with a gun. Salim then manages to get a job with Javed Maman's rival crime lord. Back at their room, Salim orders Jamal to leave him and Latika alone. When Jamal refuses, Salim draws a gun on him, and Latika persuades him to go away to protect him.

We see in the film, a tea-boy in an Indian call centre. Jamal searches the centre's database for Salim and Latika. He fails in finding Latika but succeeds in finding Salim, who is now a high-ranking lieutenant in Javed's organization, and they reunite. Jamal attacks Salim who then pleads for forgiveness. We see how directed create and lets him stay in his luxurious apartment. Jamal then bluffs his way into Javed's residence and reunites with Latika. 

While Jamal professes his love for her, Latika asks him to forget about her. Jamal promises to wait for her every day at 5 o'clock at the VT station. Latika attempts to rendezvous with him, but she is recaptured by Javed's men, led by Salim. Jamal loses contact with Latika when Javed moves to another house, outside Mumbai. Jamal becomes a contestant on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? knowing that she watches the show regularly. Much to the consternation of Prem Kumar, the show's host, he becomes a wonder across India. Jamal uses the 50/50 lifeline on the penultimate question and during the following break, whilst in the men's room, Kumar feeds Jamal with the answer, but Jamal chooses the other answer and the correct answer.

In movies goes that believing Jamal is cheating, the police become involved. After an initial beating up, the police inspector listens to Jamal's explanation of how he reached each answer. Here we see to Indian police system. We know that finding all of them "bizarrely plausible". He allows him to return to the show. At Javed's safehouse, Latika sees Jamal on the news and Salim in an effort to make amends for his past behaviour, gives Latika his mobile phone and car keys, and asks her to forgive him and to go to Jamal. 

Latika is reluctant out of fear of Javed, but agrees and escapes. Salim fills a bathtub with money and sits in it, waiting for Javed and his men when they realize he let Latika go. We see that Jamal a life lfe learner and how he answer all question and at end his life becomes change. Jamal's final question is, by coincidence, the name of the third musketeer in “The Three Musketeers” which he never learned. Jamal uses his Phone-A-Friend lifeline to call Salim's cell, as it is the only phone number he knows. 

 

Latika answers the phone, and, while she does not know the answer tells Jamal that she is safe. Relieved, Jamal randomly picks Aramis, the right answer and wins the grand prize. Javed hears Latika on the show and realizes that Salim has betrayed him. He and his men break down the bathroom door but Salim kills Javed before he is shot, gasping, "God is great." Jamal and Latika meet on the platform at the railway station. It is end to be happy and satisfaction of Indian movies end.

 

So we narrative of this film and how Jamal as center in the film. Jamal as life learner. Here we found that as poor boy becomes richer it may be questioning him. It is Indian dream of many youngsters as becomes richer. Jamal life was rags to richer. And it may be famous and real Indian ideas portrayed in this film. at last we can say that it is Indian concept ideal film and society reality of India in the film

Masaan Movie Review drirected by Neeraj Ghaywan

Masaan Movie Review drirected by Neeraj Ghaywan

 

 

Cast Team of the Movie :-

Sanjay Mishra as Vidyadhar Pathak

Richa Chadda as Devi Pathak

Vicky Kaushal as Deepak Chaudhary

Shweta Tripathi as Shaalu Gupta

Pankaj Tripathi as Sadhya Ji

Nikhil Sahni as Jhonta

Satya Kam Anand as Vikram Mallah

Vineet Kumar as Doctor Chaudhary

Niharica Raizada in a special appearance

 Review :-

Masaan (meaning “crematorium”) might just have been as forgettable as any average story, had it not been for the Ganga and the river banks of the holy city of Varanasi that witness life and death. For India, the Ganga is no ordinary river. It has beauty, mystique and sacred significance. If used well, it can also be a most powerful character.

Neeraj Ghaywan, debut director of Masaan, understands this and has woven it intimately into Varun Grover’s tight screenplay. Several crucial moments swirl around the Ganga, beautifully shot without succumbing to visual exotica, and after you leave the cinema, they linger in your memory, like the flames dying slowly in the cremation grounds where so much of Masaan unfurls.

Masaan.

The film opens with Devi (Richa Chadda) watching porn on her computer during the day. Soon, she leaves her dowdy room, dressed in salwar kameez and carrying a backpack. She changes into a sari at a public toilet (Sulabh Shauchalay, no less) and meets Piyush (Saurabh Chadhary). They’re obviously posing as a young couple when they rent a cheap hotel room.

Inside, with curtains drawn, the two stand, shy and awkward. Within seconds, they are in bed, in the throes of what is obviously their first passionate, sexual encounter. And then, the cops start banging on the door.

Masaan is about five unremarkable residents of Varanasi. In stark contrast to Deepak and Shaalu's endearing romance is Devi (Richa Chadda), who decides to have sex with her boyfriend because she's curious to know what it's like. That plan, as the film's trailer shows, goes horrifically wrong when the police interrupt the couple. Inspector Mishra (Bhagwan Tiwari) takes a video of a barely-dressed Devi and threatens to put it up on YouTube if Devi and her father Vidyadhar don't cough up Rs 3 lakhs in three months.

The man at the pyre is Deepak (Vicky Kaushal) and he looks calm because there's nothing unsettling about dead bodies or burning pyres for him. He belongs to a caste of corpse burners, the dom. By day, he studies engineering and when he isn't a student, he joins his father and brother at Varanasi's burning ghat.

These five lives don't intersect, but they're connected by the shared feeling of being trapped in Varanasi. This is poignantly ironic when you keep in mind that Hindus believe death in this pilgrimage centre promises the soul liberation from the karmic cycle. In life though, freedom comes at a steep cost in Varanasi.

Winner of two prestigious prizes at Cannes Film Festival, Masaan belongs to the growing tribe of Indian independent films that have garnered praise and accolades in the foreign film festival circuit. 

Like Court and Titli, it presents viewers with a view of India that is solidly rooted in reality and feeds the current curiosity that the rest of the world has about contemporary Indian society. From the dialect in which Deepak speaks with his family to Shaalu's pristine Hindi accent, Devi's desire and Inspector Mishra's guiltless corruption, Masaan presents a snapshot of everyday India. Depending on where you live and your social circle, it's both familiar and exotic in its normalcy.