It is unfortunate that most of the human race is forgetting about the best remedy to all human ailments : laughter. There are people who don’t know how to laugh, and unfortunately no school or college teaches the pupils how to laugh. The parents who had never laughed in life after their wedding, do not know how to transmit this lovely and lively art. There have to clubs who teach people how to laugh and be happy, and still when they twitch their lips, the natural laughter refuse to pop up, and they turn out to be worse than they were earlier. That is where every person likes a good dosage of comedy on the screen, and that is the reason why Charlie Chaplin is more watched even today in subways and railway stations, where the degree of disappointment and disparagement is at its peak, than in cinema halls and multiplexes. And at this juncture, we need another Chaplin to turn the minds of busy-bees to lighter side of life and laugh heartily.
Killer (the Polish title being Kiler), a movie from Poland, was a real treat to the audience; because it was not to do with cheap bawdy comedy, but one that provoked and ticked the lighter side of our sensibilities and there were smiles followed by bursts of laughter in the audience, and there were times when the viewers laughed heartily, the sign of any true comedy. The plot was nothing so serious, but could be put in one sentence : a taxi driver by name of Kiler is suspected to be the killer of a leader, and at the end grooms himself to be the killer, and at the end confronts the real killer, kills him to keep his new identity as the killer. The twists and turns in the course of the film were quite entertaining, and one was not aware how the 65 minutes passed by. I am quite sure that many of the people who had watched the whole of the film (there were some who were too old to learn new tricks of laughter, who walked in the middle of the film), would have had a peaceful sleep and a fresh and refreshing sleep.
I really pity those who do not know how to laugh, an art which unfortunately cannot be learned by any specialized centers; but if one wishes, one can train the body and the mind to carry half the smile always sticking from the face. The revered Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thick Nhat Hanh, in his book The Miracle of Mindfulness: A manual on Meditation, recommends that we train ourselves to “smile”. Here is his exercise : “Hang a branch, any other sign, or even the word “smile” on the ceiling or wall so that you see it right away when you open your eyes. This sign will serve as your reminder. Use these seconds before you get out of bed to take hold of your breath. Inhale and exhale three breaths gently while maintaining the half smile. Follow your breaths. Anywhere you find yourself sitting or standing, half-smile. … Maintain the half smile and consider the spot of your attention as your own treasure” (p.79). Hanh sure knows for sure that the modern generation needs to be taught how to smile.
Let us get back to the Killer, and what was so funny that we laughed as the innocent victims were punished, and the wicked were blasted beyond recognition? Should we always expect something funny to laugh and smile? I was told that often theatre actors and actresses stood in front of the dressing mirrors and practiced laughing and crying, the two most predominant emotions that theatre personnel were at their best. If we fail to laugh, then is there something wrong with us, or that laughter has become out of fashion with our generation? We need to look at small children, preferably those who are below the age of three to understand and learn what makes their tender sides tickle? Look at the world with new eyes and mind, and there would be a million things which would tickle our sensibilities. Maybe our eyes are too used to the reality around and we fail to notice the color and beauty, and even incongruity in them, and therefore we are ever more serious.
Are you drowned in perpetual melancholy and find it hard to get out of the sickening tendency to keep a stern face all through the day? Get hold of a hardcore comedy video or film DVD or CD, and put it inside a DVD/CD player, close all the windows and doors of the room, and put the volume of the television at blasting, and forward the DVD/CD till the movie has finished all the titles, and you are ready to rock… don’t control your laughter, but let it blast and don’t worry even if the ceiling were to come down… roll down the floor and laugh, or if you prefer kick and punch the sofa you are sitting on, jump off your seat, leap from one seat to another, and let it continue for the next ten minutes. If you find any particular scene, especially funny for you, rewind the DVD/CD and watch it again and again till you have extracted all the juice out of the scene, and when the time is up, shut down the television, open the windows and doors , and lie down on the bed and relax. Go back in your mind some of the scenes, which had ticked your funny bones and smile and laugh to yourself… I can now guarantee you are ready for a cool and enjoyable day ahead!
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