Recently I watched the Adi Shankaracharya movie in Samskritam after a long long time .. The last time I watched it was on a Sunday afternoon when DD used to broadcast a national movie on Sunday afternoon's. They probably still do it .. but I haven't seen one in more than 10 years.
As a funny aside, Naren was watching Mackenna's Gold at the same time. So for a while there it was Old turkey buzzard meets Purnamadah purnamidam before I got my pizza and went to the other room :)
There is a one line verse that keeps coming throughout the entire movie - "Aakashat patitam toyam sagaram pratigachchati ( Having fallen from the sky water makes it way toward the ocean ) "
At all the critical junctures of his life, Shankara pauses and we hear this in the background, when his dad passes away , when he sees and injured man being killed by superstitious tribal people, when he sees a sick man being thrown out of the village ..
The beauty of cinematography ( and of course philosophy ) is such that this simple line is so profound, so moving .. it's impossible to capture in words all the emotions it evokes ( well maybe if you are Hemingway it's a different matter ... )
At this time, to me, it symbolized the inevitability of things .. something not to be too happy or too sad about .. something that hints at deep Vairagya .. Perhaps what it means to us will also be partly influenced by where we are in life at that time ...
All in all an excellent movie to watch once every few years and like a true classic, always fresh, always inspiring and always holding the secret to eternity.
