Random thoughts - Death, as in movies

Animation movies look perfect to me. I find most regular movies (in which humans act) silly or funny (inadvertently); there are exceptions of course. But animation movies seem flawless. The attractive color scheme, the depth of expression in the animated characters and the light hearted, feel good demeanour amuse me perhaps.

Image source : https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/98/Coco_%282017_film%29_poster.jpg

Recently I watched this movie "Coco" on TV.  It depicts how death is viewed in Mexican culture, woven into the story of a boy named Miguel. He is born in a family which abhors music, but wants to be a musician. Miguel enters the land of the dead by mistake and needs one of his his dead relative's blessing to return. His great grandma Imelda agrees to bless, but on the condition that he abandons his musical interest. This makes Miguel flee from them to find his great grandfather Ernesto De La Cruz who was a popular musician when he was alive. Ernesto had given up his family to pursue his dream of becoming the most popular musician in Mexico (hence the family detests music). Hector, another deceased offers to help Miguel find Ernesto. With my knowledge of what a screenplay is, this movie has a fabulous one with some twists and a revelation at the end. Being a movie about musicians, it is a great musical too. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and would strongly recommend you to watch it. Haven't given any spoiler! But my toddler, who usually enjoys animation movies, seemed uninterested; maybe because of the dark color tone. 

Now coming to the perception of death in Mexican culture, the dead people enter another realm of existence - the land of the dead (The dead being skull faced helps us differentiate them from living people in the movie). The memories about them in living people are necessary for them to live in the land of the dead. As these memories of the dead fade in the living people, the dead person enters another realm about which no one has any knowledge. 

The dead get to visit their living family once in a year, in a night called Día de Muertos, the night of the dead.  The living family has to put a picture of their deceased relative on the family Offrenda (an altar in which offerings to the dead are made) enabling their visit on the night of the dead. The filmmaker had beautifully documented this facet of Mexican culture.

The conception of death in this movie was thought provoking. Death is not an end. It is just a transcendence to another plane or realm of existence where one's life is fueled by his / her memories in the inhabitants of the physical world. Quite a fascinating thought! This may motivate people to value relationships when alive perhaps. To not lose the memories of a deceased one, living people place pictures of the dead in an altar enabling them to visit the physical world one night of a year. This will make the living ones to ruminate the legacy their deceased family had left.

In Tamil cinema, death would usually evoke pity or  melancholy. Or the movie would be of some crass (and/or) spooky ghost or re-birth for revenge types. A new genre of பேய் காமெடி (ghost comedy) has been beat to pulp as well. The movies நான் கடவுள் ("Naan Kadavul" meaning "I am God") and இரண்டாம் உலகம் ("Irandaam Ulagam" meaning "Next world") gave different perspectives. The first movie was about an Agori saint who was abandoned by his family as a boy. He grows to be a bold, fearless saint at Kaasi and is sent back to his family by his Guru. He says "Death is the punishment given to those who don't deserve to live. It is a boon to those who cannot live". The latter is a movie about a man who kills himself after the unexpected death of his love. He transcends to a parallel world where he finds himself and his love. These two movies are of the must watch type, far away from cliched themes.

Death - it is intriguing because of the mystique it holds. What happens then? Where were we before birth? Do the dead come back? Nobody knows. At least normal people like us don't. We happily enjoy worldly pleasures and sulk or cry for sad events fantasizing that we and our life are permanent. This is easier said than realized. Death can be viewed as an ultimate truth to which all of us are bound to return. For normal people like us, death can be a teacher, a huge and humbling teacher. The rich or poor, men or women, influential or powerless - everyone has to answer this mighty master. It teaches us not to take anything or even ourselves seriously.
It can help us take decisions too when confused. "Will this decision or action add any happiness when i depart?" is a question we need to ask ourselves when confused or aggressive. "This is just a phase before my departure" is an assurance we need to give ourselves when low. This way the sense of self is subdued; hence making our life a little more pleasant. Many of us do understand the theory of this but practically to apply in our life is far from easy. At least trying to do so would make us better persons.