supriy.me

Reality can be beautiful. Sometimes reality is so wonderful that we cannot let go of it. It seeps into our sub-conscious and our dreams. We keep seeing the same reality in our dreams again and again and again because we cannot let go. We become prisoners of our own past in our own dreams. This is the reality syndrome.

Dreams, reality and ideas are the major plot elements of Inception. An idea is the seed which can create great empires. A dream is the fertile ground where many ideas are born. Dreams are when our sub-conscious is completely vulnerable, where reality does not matter, where laws of Physics can be bent. Dreams are where an idea can be planted or from which an idea can be stolen.

Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) is a master extractor, a stealer of ideas for his clients. Cobb cannot go home because of his past and not being with his kids torments him every day. After an extraction gone wrong, the target Saito (Ken Watanbe) becomes the client. However, Saito wants Cobb to perform an inception (plant an idea) in the mind of a business rival instead of deception (stealing an idea). Arthur (Joseph Gordon-Levit), Cobb’s right hand man considers Inception to be impossible and is dead against taking the job. Saito throws the sweetener- He would use his contacts to clear all charges and Cobb would be able to go home. Cobb cannot resist this temptation and the Inception is ON.

Cobb suffers from reality syndrome and hence, needs an architect to create the dream world for his Inceptions and Deceptions. Inception being way way more difficult than Deception requires a team of seasoned extractors along with a young but talented architect (Ellen Page). On surface, idea sounds so simple. Enter dream world, implant the idea and leave. It is deviously complicated but is well explained in the movie if you are willing to listen. The team does exhaustive planning before the heist of mind begins. Unfortunately, things go topsy turvy almost as soon as they start with Inception.

Christopher Nolan movies (Following, Memento, Insomnia, The Prestige) always deal with the sub-conscious and the ability of sub-conscious to bend reality. Inception is classic Nolan- multilayered story, fast narrative, brilliant visuals and lots of psychological stuff. The best part about the movie is that it does not treat audience as dumb people out to spend 2 hours away from home. It respects their intellect. It challenges audience to understand the movie.

However, Inception is not perfect like Memento or The Dark Knight. The dream worlds are plain and unimaginative even if the heist is anything but. Leonardo Di Caprio does a decent job of conveying his turmoil but the basis of his turmoil is a bit superfluous. We are used to seeing Nolan serve flawed but unapologetic characters (Guy Pearce in Memento, Hugh Jackman in The Prestige) but Cobb is a character full of conflict. Maybe, just maybe Nolan gravitated towards the trend of having emo lead characters (Yes, I am looking at you Spiderman and Superman).

The concept behind Inception is pure genius. Like all ideas, the final reality cannot and does not do justice to the concept. That said, it is a certainly one of the best movies of the past 5 years and a must watch. In a nutshell, Inception is Ocean’s XI meets The Matrix meets Nolan’s story telling. Inception is awesome and is surely going to be another cult movie.

I have seen Indian audience applaud at the end of only two Hollywood movies- The Dark Knight and now Inception. I certainly plan to watch it atleast once more. So would you.

Rating: 4/5

PS: Reality Syndrome is a self-coined term and not a term in the movie