The Shawshank Redemption(1994)

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"
--John Lennon, Beautiful Boy

Fate, destiny, Karma. Call it whatever you want to, but we are at the mercy of the auteur of a complex play called Life. Its a play which gives its actors enough scope to perform, albeit within a narrative filled with unexpected twists and seemingly deserved or undeserved experiences. Andy Dufresne would have vouched for that when he was handed two life sentences for a crime that he had intended on, but had not committed.

Life as a convicted felon loomed large on him. If it could be called a life. Shawshank prison was a culling ground, where menace to society was sent to be rehabilitated. Ironically the only times we hear the word are during farcical parole hearings or empty statements made by the powers that be. No sir, Shawshank prison was a hell which made even the most hardened of sinners squirm inside. You would "eat when you were told to, sleep when you were told to and shit when you were told to" for the rest of your life. It did not rehabilitate you. It debilitated you. It 'institutionalized' you.

We are born and reborn many times over. Every new stage of our lives, every new project, every new challenge,gives birth to a new dimension and new experiences, sometimes painful, sometimes fascinating. For Andy, 'delivered' to Shawshank, the baby steps of this new stage, were painful. No daddy, no mommy, a bunch of rabid "sisters" and the company of a few friends who were themselves trying to come to grips with the reality that confronted them.

But the pain brought out in Andy an antidote, which he used day in and day out, to build a world within the cold grey columns of prison, one, which would one day smash them to smithereens. Hope. And he infused that antidote in every man he came across. From the dastardly prison guards to the crooked warden, from the young felon who couldn't "read too good" to his faithful friend, who considered it to be "a dangerous thing within these walls".

It was not an easy journey. It meant compromise, it meant being abused, it meant being raped, it meant being insulted, it meant being victimized, it meant being used, it meant polishing shoes, it meant forging accounts, it meant losing out on all else except that one thing, "in here....in here", which no one could touch. It meant believing in something and not stopping at anything to prove it right, in the wake of any obstacle, physical or mental.

Bit by bit, as the layers of the cold Shawshank walls gave way to his efforts, so did the layers that kept these men in a world of crippling sadism and separated them from even the image of a civilized life.

The film raises important questions. Should convicted felons be extended the basic courtesy one would extend a fellow human being? Weren't they as brutal on their victims? Why do we need to romanticize their view of the world? There is regret. There is remorse. But the deed cannot be undone.

'Shawshank Redemption' is more than a romaticization of the hard reality of prison life. It is a metaphor.Andy is just a metaphor for what we all are. The verdict, symbolic of yet another twist of life. His struggle, a reminder of the many battles which we have had and continue to. His constant struggle, an indication of the earnestness of purpose with which barriers can be broken and the indomitable will which can overcome. His salvation,a reassurance that the end can be sweet for those who are true to their convictions.

And what symbols are these that make this such a symbolic story! Tim Robbins, almost melts the screen with his sensitive portrayal of the wronged Andy Dufresne, who's silent suffering is embalmed with a steely grit and an almost casual approach to a life of drudgery. Morgan Freeman, as Ellis Redding, is the bulwark on which the film rests. He's the silent, yet involved observer of the transformation of Andy Dufresne, a man, whom he wagered on to crack, but who became his best friend and a ray of hope in his life.

Freeman renders what is arguably the best narrative ever in the history of cinema. His mellifluous voice, conveys the myriad expressions in an emotional journey, making the viewer hopeful when he hopes, curious when he is so, despair when he says "Maybe I just miss my friend" and happy, when he finally gets to meets him. His voice is the voice of Andy Dufresne's mind and his heart.

Frank Darabont delivers a cinematic masterpiece.

Probably, 'Shawshank Redemption' is another reminder that we may all, knowingly or unknowlingly be imprisoned as a part of our own Shawshanks.

Maybe its time to break free.

"Remember, Salvation lies within."