Yin n Yang (Genre - Life and Living)

Two epics - two remakes - one message. Past week had me revisiting two of India's greatest epics Ramayana and Mahabharat. No I am not talking about the Ramanad Sagar and B.R Chopra versions but Mani Ratnam and Prakash Jha in their own versions of Raavan and Rajneeti. 
I am not writing a review of these movies, critics have done their job, but what struck me was the amazing parleys with an age old concept in Chinese philosophy called the Yin and Yang.
Well for beginners the above image is what people associate Yin and Yang with, and in simple words it describes how polar or seemingly contrary forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other in turn.Many natural dualities — e.g. dark and light, female and male, low and high, cold and hot — are thought of as manifestations of yin and yang. Ok, if that seems hi-funda, let me break it down further White universally stands for purity and Black stands for mystical dark forces - the opposites. If you see the above symbol you see a black spot in a predominantly white area and a white spot in a predominantly black area. Both of them seem to be in the opposite directions. In layman terms it means there is evil the purest of hearts and there is purity even in the most evil of minds and in totality a divine balance !
It seemed to be like both the protagonists in the movie Samar Pratap (Ranbir Kapoor) and  Beera (Abhishek Bachan) displayed this fine variation of evil within the good and the good within the evil balance.
Whats good I seemed to ask whether to be all evil and little good or all good and little evil ?? Well if you go by both the movies .. none ...why ?? because neither Ranbir nor Abhishek get the pretty ladies ... Katrina and Ash...and one gets branded as a conniving cheat and other gets shot ... :P 
Pun aside..the moral of the story as far as I am concerned is that no one is born good or bad... including our mythological Gods ...and the forces of good and evil are within us and ideally should be controlled by us rather than being controlled by them. Its usually the situation you are in that brings the good or bad out. Mastering the Yin and Yang would be difficult but thats what determines which force is dominant within us and on which side you wish to be counted on. May the force be with you :) 


Passing shot : Life is a grindstone ; whether it grinds you down or polishes you up - depends on what you are made up of !!