Inception is the blockbuster Kolkata has been thirsting for In the heart of Christopher Nolan's astonishingly complex thriller,Inception,is a love story. Holding afloat the layered narrative are two familiar themes,fear and desire. Yet,there are moments in this film where you grapple with the logistics of the plot. You feel trapped under a maze of information. Dazed,bewildered,until the confident hand of the director reaches out and guides you through the dreamscape. The sprawl of Nolan's seventh film is so immense that you wonder if he will be able to put things together again .Whether the threads will tie up. We needn't have worried. Like a magician who dismembers his assistant into pieces and then laughingly puts her together again,Nolan meticulously strings Inception together in the last one hour of the film. Like in his breakthrough film,Memento,we realise that we have witnessed a tautly scripted,precisely constructed drama only after the viewing experience is over. Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) is a corporate spy who steals ideas from other people's dreams. He is supported by a group of collaborators who help him construct dreamscapes,a virtual world which is to be inhabited by the dreamers who will be then manipulated by Cobb and his collaborators. His latest project,however,is about planting an idea into a corporate bigwig's (Cilian Murphy) mind. So,an elaborate plan is hatched. A plan that involves kidnapping the victim in his dream,taking him hostage and then making him dream another dream so as to supplant the idea in his mind. The mission,however,is jeopardised by Cobb's subconscious which is projecting ghosts from the past,most prominently his wife Moll (Marion Cottilard),in this dreamscape. Since his wife dies in an accident which Cobb holds himself responsible for,her ghost is a raging,frothing beast fed on guilt and desire. With the Batman films Nolan has shown us how he can infuse a big franchisee film (with the aid of all technical sophistication available in modern world) with humanity and tenderness. Like the protagonists of his earlier films,Cobb too is a man walking on a razor's edge. Negotiating dreams and reality with bleary-eyed resignation. He may have woven a complex world of dreams and perception,but Nolan takes care not to alienate the audience. The film,its lead character and the director are never a step ahead of the audience. We wonder as Cobb wonders. We are puzzled,confounded and intrigued. Who are the people we see? Are they props? Are they figments of the protagonist's imagination? Are they manipulators? Inception is running at INOX (Forum,City Centre,Swabhumi,Rajarhat)
