I was recently watching a video by Chris Anderson on TED about questions which don’t have any answer and one of the questions mentioned there was whether we (humans) are the only living intelligent species in the the Universe. If not, where is this other species? If there is an intelligent life form out there that evolved millions of years before us, why hasn't it contacted us yet? The video went on to show that one of the possible reasons we are yet to meet such a species is that the intelligent species is already extinct, destroyed by it’s own technological advances. To quote the author “ …......perhaps civilization carries with it the seeds of it own destruction, through the inability to control the technologies it creates.”
Of course, I cannot talk about any other civilizations, but the little bit of what I know about mine (human race) tells me that we are, in fact, a destructive race. Now don’t get me wrong, I am not some apocalypse freak who is waiting for the world to end, but the situation does not look good. There is something inherently wrong with us that makes us crave for destruction. Maybe we are nature's control mechanism, used to ensure that there is complete extinction of life on the planet so that new life can start afresh.
Why does destruction appeal to us so much? What is it about destruction that makes us want it more and more, even though sometimes we know it will not end good for us? Maybe it has something to do with our supposedly developed brains. I am not the foremost authority on biology but I have never seen this amount of craving for destruction in any other species. While all other animals feared fire, we were the only ones who could harness it. And not just harness it, we could abuse it. I feel that, to some extent, all humans are born pyromaniacs. Over time, most of us learn to control our arsonist urges. But the fact remains, we love creating fires and seeing it destroy things. How many of us have played with fire as a kid? I still love to play with fire. Even a newborn cat or dog knows to stay away from fire. How is it that only the human kids like to play with it, even after being burnt once or twice?
And however creepy burning objects sounds, the thing that is even more creepier is the desire to hurt fellow humans . Now I am not getting into the debate about moral and human implications of wars. Ernest Hemingway once said, “Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime” Wars are indeed a crime against humanity, but there are many other smaller, day-to-day instances where we try and inflict pain on fellow humans. And the only thing that is worse than inflicting pain on someone is the act of enjoying and relishing it.
That brings me to Talaash. Talaash is a whodunit crime thriller and for any whodunit one of the most critical ingredient is the suspense. That is what really adds flavor to this genre of movies. The cast and crew of the movie have worked very hard and gone to great lengths to make it a thoroughly enjoyable film for whoever wants to see it and my belief is that everyone has the right the fully enjoy a film she/he wishes to watch. But with each suspense film, and I have seen it quite a few times now, we observe the emergence of a group of people who really enjoy ruining the fun for others by disclosing the suspense. The same is the case with mystery novels. There are very few experiences in this world as fulfilling as reading a good novel. Even if you read it like crazy, it takes you at least a 3-4 days on an average to finish a novel. That is 3 -4 days of your life that you have invested in reading a good piece of literature. And suddenly there comes some annoying creep who reveals the plot twist or the suspense with a wicked little grin on her/his face.
Now these people are definitely not so naive as to not understand that they are ruining someone else's day. And to top it, they give excuses like “ My friend forwarded the message to me and so I am forwarding it to you”. I mean come on dude, that’s your reason! It’s like, I contract some deadly contagious disease and instead of protecting my friends I pass on the disease to them because someone else “forwarded” the disease to me. What are we, Zombies?
Guys, remember that you are not Sherlock and you don't bear the burden of revealing the killer. Let us take our own sweet time to find out who the killer is.
