Disclaimer: This post contains plot spoilers. Do not read this if you haven' t watched or read Cloud Atlas.
If you completely liked, loved Cloud Atlas, read the protagonist version and shed out happy tears.
If you totally disliked, hated, couldn't understand it, do read the Antagonist/ parody version. Sit back and have a fun read.
P.S. For a musical reading experience, play this cloud atlas sextet and read it.
Cloud Atlas –
Everything is connected. A Protagonist Version.
Cloud Atlas is
a stunning hexaptych, a clandestine composite film. By hexaptych, I try to brand
that cloud atlas is a classic renaissance painting filled with six panels or sections
painted in a beautiful canvas (a silver-screen here), depicting an anthology of six different stories- that
are interconnected and entwined in multiple themes and highly sedative theories
of life, love, birth, death, existentialism, spirituality, reincarnation, modernism,
past life etc….
If the thematic
essence of cloud atlas must be realized, understood and dwelled upon, one must
be familiar having watched lots of films that deal with multi-layered
screenplay, hyperlink cinema. If you are a voracious reader, and came across
nested stories and interwoven narratives - thereby intriguing lot of fantasy
elements in it, that definitely helps in understanding cloud atlas.
Hyperlink Cinema, which is multi-linear in a more metaphorical sense, is one among the
best, revolutionary things that happened in the film genre. It started way long
before the advent of color films, but its tremendous rise and popularity can be
well noticed in the past two decades.
My personal
favorites under Hyperlink cinema includes like Amores Perros, The Edge of
Heaven, 21 Grams, Mulholland Dr., City of Gods, Memento, Pulp fiction, Babel,
Sin city, Crash etc..
For understanding
Cloud Atlas in high level, I would recommend you to watch ‘The Fountain’ by
Darren Aronofsky, ‘Café De flore’ by Jean-Marc Vallée, ‘Hereafter’ by Clint
Eastwood. These are the films that came
as Déjà vu and flashed in my visual cortex while watching Cloud Atlas. Moreover
these were close enough to explain cloud atlas to some extent.
‘The Fountain’
is a simple love story, triple layered screenplay, with a single quest-
spanning across the past, present and future. ‘Café De flore’ is a musical film
with two layered plot- dealing with love and reincarnation. ‘Hereafter’ is a
supernatural fantasy drama based on the lives of a psychic, a tsunami survivor
and 2005 London tunnel bombing survivor.
If you’ve seen these flicks, you can get to know that the plot is dealt and revolved around with characters and stories that grow up on a sequential, contiguous timeline- often moved through a single quest/ motto/ search. Cloud Atlas here breaks another record by taking a further leap by narrating six different stories in a complete disoriented timeline that spans over centuries and moved in multilevel patterns.
Plot:
The plot
goes on in a circular loop with an idiomatic context, not like ‘What goes around
comes around’ but ‘What starts here ends here’. An old Zachry sitting in a
sandy beach narrates the story of a voyager, whose incomplete journal lands up
in the hands of a struggling sextet composer, who shares his music and love in
the form of letters with his gay partner, who turns out to be a whistle-blower against a nuclear research.
Ok I’ll pause here. *Takes deep
breath and continues*.
Meanwhile an
old publisher tries to escape from filthy money lenders, unwillingly ends up in
an old-age home and plans for an escape. This story is seen in a cinematic
format by a genetically-engineered fabricant (clone) in a dystopian future
society, where she starts to rebels against the exploitation of her race. *Gulps
Soda*
On a distant
post-apocalyptic earth, Meronym, a member of futuristic civilization paves a
visit to a tribal clan. The fabricant from the dystopian society is idolized
and worshipped by this clan. Young Zachry helps Meronym to find cloud atlas that
would send a signal to the people who live in the outskirts of earth.
Finally it
ends, where it starts. We could see old Zachry finishing his story telling session
in the beach and returns back home with old Meronym. Behind them, we can see a
pale blue dot that represents the Earth. Pheww..
Tom Hanks,
Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess makes their appearance in all these six
stories with interesting roles. A character that plays a protagonist version in
one film plays an antagonist in another. Circle of life. Period.
A single
character in all the stories carries a birth mark which gives us a hint to observe
the theme of transmigrating souls. Irrespective of the criticisms, Tom Tykwer and
the Wachowskis has made the fellow critics and cinephiles awestruck by adapting
the unadoptable novel. They have also left us open lots of loop holes, loose ends,
knots and puzzle that can be observed, discussed and ranted by the fans.
Cloud Atlas
will be hailed and studied in future. Seen it
twice already and will see it n number of times, hoping that each and every
viewing will add up and stir a better shake, compared to the previous viewing.
Just like
Memento DVD that has a special cut which runs in a Chronological sequence, I
hope that Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis release a Chronological cut of Cloud
Atlas. That cut should run these six stories in parts as 6 different short
films, each spanning over 27 mins. Similar to the documentary ‘Room 237’ that
explains the hidden concepts, theories and philosophies of Stanley Kubrick’s
masterpiece ‘The Shining’, a documentary follow up must be made for Cloud atlas
that explains the movie from lots of perspectives.
No wonder that
this film received 10 mins of standing ovation in Toronto International Film
festival. Watch Cloud atlas right away before some worst, cash grab,
reboot/sequel movie steals the silver screen. Do watch this massive film in a
big screen and get your minds blown in nanos. P.S. Don’t walk out near the end
credits. Wait for it to roll out exposing the interesting character
lineups.
Cloud Atlas - 6/6
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Cloud Atlas:
An antagonist version.
How to Prepare
cloud atlas ?
Take 6
individual stories from top 6 genres of all time. Interconnect them. Integrate
these six stories with x pieces, differentiate them into y pieces with each
chunk running a minute. Yes, it’s the goddamn calculus. Jumble the chunks in a
non-linear sequence. Add more of philosophic ingredients. Screw the audience
mind like the way editor got his head jagged in the edit table. Mix it and mash
up like how masala poori is mixed with khatta, mheeta, jeera and dhahi. Serve it
plateful. Yeppie. Cloud Atlas is ready to eat.
Let’s see
about these six stories in detail. I couldn’t recollect these six titles
easily. So I renamed it for my comfort and understanding. Here it goes…
The Slave
and the Sea:
Just like
OC/BC/MBC/SC/ST quota in engineering colleges, there will be separate quota in Academy
Awards every year under all categories of nominations.
White helps
black, superior helps inferior, dick helps douche- such types. You can find
this in films like The Help, Hotel Rwanda, Blood Diamond, Schindler’s list etc…
This is one such story.
On a Gold
rush, a white guy finds a slave in his deck and helps him, fights for his
right. Boo.
Musical
letters of a bi-sex(ual)tet composer:
In every film
festivals you can find this type of film, which explains and explores the world
of homosexual people, Incest- their life, love, pain and struggle. This is one
such story.
An amanuensis for
a musical composer struggles to compose a cloud atlas sextet. He shares his experiences
and thoughts with this gay partner through letters. Finally kills himself with pain and regret.
The Diving
bell and the Journalist:
Erin
Brockovich, The Insider, Whistle blower, Witness Protection Program, State of
Play.
Journo facing
and escaping all barricades to safeguard the truth..Meh.
Not a
superhero script, but this is another single hero/ heroine where the lead will
decode the entire conspiracy, the hidden mystery, the mythical mattresses, the
lost sauce packet, the unfried finger chips etc… This may not be a serious
script, but definitely wins box-office, Home DVD sales and big roles for the
lead actors.
Oldies day
out:
Movies like
Prison Escape, A man escaped, Shawsank Redemption - dealing with a single guy
or a group escaping a lockup, can be juxtaposed with movie scripts in which people
are trying to get out of a mental asylum. Eg. One flew over cuckoo’s nest, K-Pax,
Shock corridor etc..
A bunch of
old, unfunny douchebags figures to escape an old-age home and executes it. On
the verge of getting caught, they finally escapes. *Yawns* *Skips to next plot*
Do watch ‘It’s
a kinda funny story’. It’s the young version of it and its really funny.
The White
knight rises:
Minority
Report, Terminator, Artificial Intelligence, Avatar, Bicentennial Man, Fabricants,
Cyborg, The Island, Surrogates, Daydreamers, Transformers.
Our greedy
human race has become even filthier in a so-called dystopian future society.
Just like exploiting nature, feminism, freedom and democracy, human race has ended
up exploiting fragments (clones) too in such futuristic society. Under the
leadership of a clone named Sonmi 451, they rebel against the human race condemning
the totalitarian state.
So basically,
we mess with these clones, fabricants, machines, cyborgs etc.. and they fight
us back. *Bitch Please*
Apocalypto
& Co. meets the Star wars:
Cow Boy meets
aliens, Harry Potter meets twilight, Spiderman meets Joker.
Makes sense ?
Well that’s the whole point of this story.
This chapter is
an epic facepalm. It simply reminded me of Wall-E movie where the fatso captain
sits in-front of a big computer googles about earth and family. Eva coming down
to earth in search of a plant, meets Wall-E, befriends and use him. Imagine the
apocalyptic Tom hanks as Wall-E and White dressed Halle Berry as Eva. Wall-E
helps Eva and he worries about the abandoned earth, while fighting with its own
inner ego and demon.
Did you guys
get the logic? Its fucking same. Goddamn !!
Too many CG, racist/worst
makeups, multiple roles, lots of theories, 6 different stories with a mediocre
hope that at least one story will satisfy audience in an individual manner. So
there is nothing great about cloud atlas. It just like Andhra Meals or masala movies
which has all spices, sweets, starters, main course, salads, desserts, Intro
songs, fight, love, romance, family sentiments etc.. Even though it will make
us feel full, it often gives us big headache, stomach pain, nausea and diarrhea.
One can even consider watching Cloud Atlas as a 'Navarathri' screening, in which 6 films were
played in a row the whole night to stay awake. Go for cloud atlas by telling
yourself that you are gonna watch 6 films for the price of one.
P.S. If
someone advise me to read the book, Ill punch and gift you 'Twilight' and '50
shades of grey' anthology. That’s what I call it as an epic. Damn you all cloud
atlas likers !!
