from a distance

SRK's upcoming flick Ra.One is, no doubt, meant to dispell all the bad memories you may have had after watching Mani saar's paean to mud-covered hams leaping from precipices into picturesque waters. The poster on the wikipedia page dedicated to the film is another matter altogether. It appears, at first glance, to be a tribute to some of the works of Salvador Dali (consider, for example, Fifty Abstract Paintings Which as Seen from Two Yards Change into Three Lenins Masquerading as Chinese and as Seen from Six Yards Appear as the Head of a Royal Bengal Tiger, a copy of which you can see here). How else does one explain the tagline introducing gone? ग़ायब आया? It is only when one sits on the camera dolly and moves in closer that one appreciates the importance of punctuation. The tagline, correctly read, is introducing g.one. Whether you had learnt Hindi in school or from Bollywood, you know that g.one is, while complying with the nomenclature adopted for all hamdroids in this flick, a riff on जीवन (aka life). Like that old song ये जीवन है (aka this is life). The singular theme is, unless one is digging too deep into the septic tank of pop culture, a tribute to what was supposed to be the cinematic début of the offspring formerly (and still) known as Mimoh. What other offerings will this anuptamaniacal film have? How about what comes after six? (answer: say.one)? Or the hamdroid working in the USA for an Indian consultant? (answer:h.one)? Whom am I trying to kid? (answer: no.one).