My Inception Experience

There were compulsions from two sides in making me watch the movie ‘Inception’. One was a young blogger friend’s latest blog post about the movie which was written emphasizing its ‘dream element’ and the other was a new house mate’s suggestions regarding the serious talks that the film stimulated among the film critics.

The person in the second case, (let’s call him a mini-encyclopaedia of the world cinema), told me about the curious structural twists the movie possesses. Apart from encouraging me to watch the movie, he also taught me that the film ‘Inception’ belongs to the ‘heist genre’ and it is an example of ‘caper films’. Above all, what temped me the most to watch ‘Inception’ was the fact, that the top three things I admire in my life have the ‘dream element’ in common, viz., Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, Sigmund Freud’s ‘Interpretation of Dreams’ and lastly, the dreams themselves.

I would say 'Inception’ is one of the greatest movies of the world cinema history. I really enjoyed the dream elements and the surprising twists the film had and really its structure that interconnected dreams captivated me. I was ‘boastful’ after watching the film and I said about the film everywhere I have acquaintances. One such a person, who became victim of my suggestion to watch that film, was my film teacher Louis Matthew (who appears in this blog in an earlier post titled Left...Right, Left...Right).

Though busy with some meddlesome schedule, he agreed to watch the film and to comment what he had felt after watching the movie. The next day, I was pulled up from my early morning bed by his phone call, which I attended in half sleep. Attempting to open my partly closed eyes rubbing, I spoke him in half closed husky voice. 

“I saw the film, but it did not surprise me as much as it did you,” he said.

We had a discussion regarding the structural twists of the film and the intertwining of dreams.

Quoting Leonardo DiCaprio, I said, “One has to see the film at least twice to understand its main plots and sub plots”

“The reason for the film not surprising me much is actually another film...,” he explained, “a 1965 made 'The Saragossa Manuscript', which had several layers of multiple sub plots. The film would completely baffle the spectator without clearly telling whether the protagonist is watching dreams or he really is a part of the real happenings”. (Later, I checked what my teacher said in the internet and found a blog post written by American poet Silliman, who described ‘Inception’ as the Spiritual Grandchild of ‘Saragossa Manuscript’.)

After a twenty minutes talk, we stopped the conversation. Then I remembered that I had been dreaming another house mate SK, exactly the moment I was woken up by my teacher’s phone call. SK, who was appearing in one of my earlier blog posts as the victim of my horoscope experiments, had just two days before left for his home town, and to my best knowledge, he would have been back only after a few weeks.

“I understand now that the film ‘Inception’ is true in many aspects, especially where it narrates the cases of shared dreaming and lucid dreaming,” I said my roommate who was staring at me in a ludicrous manner hearing my alien like talk over the phone.

Widening the eye balls, he asked, “What do you mean?”

“While waking up, in the half conscious state I saw a dream, that the man SK, who left for home has today come to our room and asked you something. He was smiling all the time and I am so sure that he was wearing his T-shirt with white and black stripes.”

Watching the staring eye balls of my roommate, I continued in growing enthusiasm, “It was a lucid dream and even the thread of his dress was so clear. I wonder, what it would be called, if a dream takes place at the exact surroundings in which the dreamer sleeps.”

“So, you mean that you dreamt SK in the morning exactly at this room?” my roommate inquired.

“Yes! That’s what I mean! Only creative persons can have such clear dreams,” I claimed.

I saw a hilarious smile sprouting at the corners of his mouth. Slowly, it became a big embarrassing smile.

“Don’t laugh like that. Is there any funny thing happening,” I became irritated.

“Nothing,” he said in between laughing, “the thing that you supposed to have dreamt was happening here exactly the moment you mentioned”

“What?”

“Yes. Don’t say such idiotic things again. SK came to our room when you were woken up by that phone ring and he left after taking a bag that he placed here. Will you claim again that there happened something creative?”

I was silent and when his jeering reached at its heights, I warned him in a revengeful tone,

“You wait! I am gonna write about this thing in my Vanity Moments!”