The Grey Area In Our Wishes

I and my cousins were in the theatre wearing 3D glasses and the movie began...

Two young children ask their father to tell them an interesting story and the father’s narration begins in the form of a song...

He sings…

"Oh, I come from a land, from a faraway place
Where the caravan camels roam
Where it's flat and immense
And the heat is intense
It's barbaric, but hey, it's home

When the wind's from the east and the sun's from the west
And the sand in the glass is right
Come on down stop on by
Hop a carpet and fly
To another Araaaaaabian nighhhhhhtssss………"

and with the Arabic music that followed this sentence, I got goose bumps (thanks to the extraordinary sound technology). From that very moment, I was all eyes throughout the movie, cried, laughed, and awestruck and was in another world for the next two hours.

If you are a movie buff who never fails to watch a good film, you would have heard this article’s title recently in a spectacular Disney’s live action adaptation of a movie, Aladdin. I have been neither a Disney person nor a Hollywood fan (the reason is just that I am too Desi, not because Hollywood is bad). But when I watched Aladdin trailer, I immediately wanted to watch it for one reason i.e., Will Smith. Since I watched him in The Pursuit of Happyness as a struggling yet extremely determined father to give his son a good personality and a good life, I became his fan. He’s so charming, vibrant and inspiring (both on the reel and in real life). As I visited my young school going cousins, I thought it would be nice if I can show them this movie too.  And I would say, Aladdin is not just a movie. It is a powerful message, beautiful poetry, a celebration of music, dance and colors and a kind story that will stay with you forever. As I already watched it twice and planning to watch it again, I will share the most important aspects I loved about the movie.

PS: Don’t think this as a spoiler post. There can be no spoiler to this movie, even if the whole story is revealed.

A Fresh Perspective in the narration

 From the genie playing with the grey area in the wishes(breaking the rules) to save Aladdin, to making Princess Jasmine’s character so powerful, we can see a fresh perspective in every element. Toning down the stereotypical portrayal of characters is really an empathetic effort by Disney. Whenever genie says, “There is a lot of grey area in your wish”, I just think about how we, as human beings also wish for something to happen but how we ignore the details. Genie’s dialogues like “Be specific with your words. The deal is in the details”, “People listen what they are told to listen”, made me think of how irresponsible we can be with our words and wishes. It is this very word game that ends the life of Jafar in the film and brings glory to Aladdin. When Aladdin says that he sets genie free with his third wish, Genie doubts by saying a powerful truth that the problem with the wishes is when we have more, we want more. Later, when Aladdin refuses to tell the truth to the princess and when he refuses to use his third wish to set Genie free, Genie says that one can never live in a lie forever.   When he says, “you are breaking my heart friend”, my heart too ached.  

The cost of intense, destructive desires
I speak a little bit more about wishes and desires. Every antagonist bears a vicious motto in every film. Jafar, the antagonist of this movie, also has one strong desire for which he kills so many young boys in order to fulfill his desire. His desire is to become the most powerful man on the earth. The climax shows how this very desire ends his life. The intentions behind our desires will decide our fate and future. Both Jafar and Jasmine wish to become the Sultan of Agrabah. While Jasmine wishes to become Sultan to look after her people and Kingdom with love, Jafar wants to become Sultan just for power and to destroy the world.

Feminist Perspective

Another very powerful aspect in the film is the character, Princess Jasmine. She’s calm, strong, intelligent, and ambitious, speaks her mind and doesn’t cease to inspire any woman. Her resilience is reflected in the way she judges people and the way she takes her decision without any haste. Here is a glimpse of the lyrics of a powerful song sung by her…

"Here comes a wave
Meant to wash me away
A tide that is taking me under
Swallowing sand
Left with nothing to say
My voice drowned out in the thunder

But I won't cry
And I won't start to crumble
Whenever they try
To shut me or cut me down

I won't be silenced

You can't keep me quiet

Won't tremble when you try it

All I know is I won't go speechless"

       Freedom

Genie’s character proves the fact that more than being the most powerful man on the earth, it is a greater privilege to have freedom. To be able to travel the world, to have a small, loving family, to be able to sing, dance and tell a lot of stories to our kids is the greatest possession. All the power lies in those little things and moments. Genie, in a way, gives us a message to live life to the fullest. His occasional ‘tit bits of wisdom’ to Aladdin soothes our heart, as those words touch our heart too.

     A Spectacle

On the whole, Aladdin is a spectacle with fantastic dance and music sequences, beautiful colors and sets, jewelry and costumes. And after all, can we forget the little cunning monkey Abu, and the magic carpet? The first animated movie, Aladdin was released in 1992, which most of the 90s kids grew up watching. Perhaps, Disney would’ve thought that millennials are messing up their adulthood and brought this movie for our rescue.  It tells us to relive our childhood, to be little more insane, to be little more optimistic, to be dreamy, naughty, playful, and brave.

     The final revelation

As a Telugu girl, when I was watching Aladdin, what came to my mind constantly in every scene, was “Patala Bhairavi”, a classic Telugu movie released in 1951. The costume of Thota Ramudu resembled very much like of Aladdin’s and the storyline was very similar too. Then I found on the Wikipedia page of "Patala Bhairavi" that the storyline was taken from "Kasi Majili Kathalu", but partially inspired by Aladdin. What a joy reading this on Wikipedia! As I was amazed by how the directors and the musicians brought nativity to the entire storyline and how much thought would have gone into making sets, music and dialogues (in 1951 :o). If we hear the music in “Premakosamai valalo padene”, we can understand the intelligent Arabic touch to the music.

Let me conclude by presenting a couple of my favorite dialogues from the movie...

Jasmine: You cannot break into a palace like you own the place!

Aladdin: If you don't have anything, you have to act like you own everything.

Here's the thing about wishes. The more you have, the more you want