I was mildly surprised and rudely shocked when I went to watch the movie “17 Again”. Why surprised and shocked? Hmm…
For those of you who’ve not seen the movie, it is about a guy ignoring his dreams, failing to listen to his inner voice, walking over his talents. He chooses a girl and forgoes his basketball and college scholarship. It takes a marriage, 2 kids and 20 years of family life for him to finally hear the inner voice. And today he feels so trapped in life. Call it the vicissitudes of life or fate, but this is perfect entrapment most of us get into. All through his marriage he blames his wife for his failures and none of the project that he undertakes sees the light of the day and now
suddenly reviews his life at the brink of divorce. Can I get my life back? Can I get another chance to redo my life? Can I be 17 again?
This left me thinking…How many of us feel this way? How many of us decide to go behind our dreams? How many of us realize our inherent gifts and talents and capitalize on it? Some of us feel it is right and just to thrust our dreams on our kids? Did we have a choice over what we wanted to study? Did we have a choice over going overseas for education? Did we have
a choice when it comes to a job? We end up taking up a job because of the opportunity cost and bills payable. We decide to settle in for bills than dreams.
While I was trying to catch a glimpse of drama on the screen there was another drama that was unfolding in front of me. A sixty plus man, with all qualifications for a sixty year old – bald, grey hair, a bulging waistline and an arched spine walked in with a 20 year old kid with jelled hair,
tight shirt exhibiting those rippling gym trained muscles, low waist jeans held tightly by a canvas belt and his hands around the shoulder elderly gentleman. And during the break I saw the old man all over the fawn, holding him by his shoulders and coaxing him to have popcorn and coke.
Wow!
I don’t know how many in the movie hall caught a glimpse of them and felt that way, but I felt something sharply contrasting in this duo. Why should a twenty year wrap his hands around a sixty year old? Could they be father and son? Could they be grandfather and grandson? Or a simple sugary relationship? Or could it be any other relationship beyond the traditional
framework? May be it is a new kind of relationship in the make and yet to be defined by the society?
I was reminded of storyline “Memoirs of Melancholy Whores” by Gabriel Garcia Marquis and K. Balachander’s movie where the hero in falls in love with a man twice her age. I realized such stories are not fictional anymore.
Were they caught in a turbulence of lust or love? But it didn’t seem to matter to them and it was none of my business to analyze and judge. The old man was definitely trying to catch up with the life that he failed to live, explore and satiate. And may be the young one was getting love and more that he is missing in life. They walked out of the movie holding each other hands, may be inspired by the movie? The sixty plus was definitely17 Again!
