Aamir Khan’s eagerly anticipated film ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ was recently in the news about the grand war sequence to be filmed in the majestic Ladakh. While we all know that the film is an adaptation of Robert Zemeckis’ Academy Award-winning film ‘Forrest Gump’, which featured eminent actor Tom Hanks in the titular role.
It is interesting to observe that in the motion logo of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, which was revealed by the makers earlier, two things stood out.
First was the song (rather a catchline) being played with a mellifluous background score. The lyric of the song is inherently related to the parent film’s premise. The song is “Kya pata hum mein hain kahani ya hain kahani mein hum” (Whether there is a story in us, or we are in the story). Because the entire film is told by way of the protagonist (Tom Hanks) narrating stories to strangers featuring himself.
The second and the more striking visual that struck us and stimulated our memories was the floating feather shown in the video, which eventually becomes part of the film’s logo.
In case you have seen the 1994 film ‘Forrest Gump’, you might have recalled the opening scene of the film where an abiding feather floats through the sky, then descends, then briefly settles on a man’s shoulder, then emerges from under a car to finally land on the shoes of Tom Hanks, who is sitting on a bus stand bench. Tom Hanks then picks up the feather and keeps it safely inside a book.
Then, just before the movie ends when Tom Hanks is sitting at a school bus stop, a feather lying beside his shoe suddenly ascends and drifts away into the sky with the same mellifluous music track playing in the background. Both these opening and closing scenes apparently appear to be randomly picturized, however, it’s not as straightforward as it seems.
The most logical explanation behind the symbolic feather scenes is that just like the feather is nonchalantly guided by wherever the wind takes it, in the same way Tom Hanks’ character (Forrest Gump) throughout the film impulsively goes with the flow of life without overanalyzing the pros and cons of his actions. That’s because his character was portrayed in the film as a slow-witted yet kind-hearted person. Consequently, Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) inadvertently becomes part of several important historical events.
Having said that, the above-mentioned philosophical reasoning behind the feather scene in Forrest Gump is subject to interpretation.
Similarly, Tom Hanks’ titular character Forrest Gump had said the following words in the film: “I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating around accidental-like on a breeze, but I, I think maybe it’s both. Maybe both is happening at the same time.”
So, how one perceives the floating feather depends on one’s own understanding of life, their philosophy, and their own thought process.
Thus, it is apparent that the motion logo of ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ might just be the opening sequence of the film and the floating feather may eventually land at Aamir Khan’s feet. The filmmakers have nailed the opening (feather) sequence, which according to us, is the essence of the film’s underlying premise and on the philosophy on which the protagonist’s character and his actions are based, throughout the film.
‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ is eyeing for Christmas 2021 release, if everything goes well. And we are super eagerly awaiting its release.
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