Of love, care and affection...

After a very long long time, I watched five full-length movies this month! Unbelieavable for a person like me who till now didn't have patience to sit and watch a 2-3 hour full movie.

Two of them were ‘I am Sam’ and ‘Life is beautiful’…both Academy award winning movies…both centering on the theme of love…both should be on the must watch list...I am Sam deals with father-daughter affection and Life is beautiful emphasizes the importance of love, family and imagination in sailing through life and conquering its difficulties.

‘I am Sam’ is an American film starring Sean Penn (Sam Dawson) as a father with developmental disability and his seven year old daughter Dakota Fanning (Lucy)…the child is abandoned by her mother after birth…with love, care and with supportive group of people around he raises his child but soon Lucy surpasses his mental ability (Sam has the intellectual capacity of a seven year old only)... Other children tease her for having a "retard" as a father, and she becomes too embarrassed to accept that she is more intellectually advanced than Sam…in preparation for a custody case, a social worker takes Lucy away…how Sam gets his daughter back proving convincingly that he is a loving father despite his handicap is the story…it says that even developmentally challenged people can foster and raise children well…all what a child needs is only love, care and affection.

Life is Beautiful (La Vita e Bella) is an Italian film starring Robert Benigni (who is also the director of the film) as Guido and Nicoletta Braschi as Dora. Guido found the woman of his dreams and he does everything to sweap her off her feat and carry her away. Theirs was a fairy tale of love and romance portrayed convincingly with the help of humour. They later have a son (Giosue). When everything seemed to go their way, the second World War had begun and everyone are taken to Nazi concentration camp. It showcases the stark reality of a Nazi concentration camp. In order to keep up spirits, Guido convinces his son that the camp is just a game in which the first person who gets 1000 points wins a tank. He tries to find Dora. After finding Dora, Guido is caught and shot dead by the Nazi guards. Giosue manages to survive and thinks he has won the game when an American tank arrives to liberate the camp. He is reunited with his mother, not knowing that his father has been killed. When Giosue grows up, he realises his father's sacrifice for his family. The movie convincingly tells the message that humour brightens our life and lightens the miseries that we may overcome through life. Life is beautiful if we know to see the beautiful positive aspects of life.

|