We all knew about the age-old fairy tale. Yet, many of us cynical adults went to see it in the theatres.
Because ‘Beauty & the Beast’ is not just about the 3D glasses you get to wear. Or the colorful cinematography you get impressed with. And not even the lyrical songs the characters break into every now & then, giving you a yesteryear feeling of watching a musical ballet instead.
Beauty & the Beast is a story full of metaphors, whose ‘characters’ roam around the streets even today, in every nook and corner of this twenty-first century world.
So if you take your eyes and minds off your cellphones for a moment and look around yourself a bit more carefully, it won’t be long , before you find them. Yes, every single one of them, around you, at some point of time.
The young Belle, a strong intelligent single woman, whose happiness on just ‘getting educated through books’ confuses the society. She is laughed upon by the old, she is gossiped about by the young, but she is never forgotten, by any of them. Her independent status, the society cannot digest, and thus they are ready to ‘tame’ and ‘name’ her if necessary, for their ‘common benefits’. Sounds familiar? There’s more.
The very handsome, self-proclaimed ‘Hero’ of the society, Gaston, who wants to marry this headstrong Belle, not only because she also happens to be the most beautiful in the lot(of course!) but mostly because she appears ‘unachievable’. She is intelligent enough to avoid his types, but this trait of hers seems to him to be a downright insult to his manhood, on the very which the other local girls who are drooling over already. He is more the ‘local Bhai’ who feels that every girl of the ‘basti’ should be falling for his ‘good-looks’. He wants a girl because ‘he’ wants her. The girl, should just be grateful! The society agrees.
Well, how many girls in this world still get married to such ‘Gastons’, I really can’t tell you the count. But they are many, and this much i can tell, that the life they lead, could give birth to a hundred more 'fairy-tales' not necessarily with a happy ending.
Last but not at all the least, our very favorite, the Beast. The one with a twisted face and a loving heart. The one who learnt the lesson the hard way and waited for a rescue, through a love, which will see only his beautiful inside. Oh, so many of us identify with him, don't we. We the average-looking types? The introverts, who do not show off their goodness around. The unselfish ones who do toil in the background and sacrifice the limelight. How many of then get their Belles I wonder. But of course our Beast surely gets lucky with the beautiful Belle.
Because sensible Belle falls in love with him too, because with him, she can finally ‘talk’. Because in contrast to the dominating Gaston, the beast gives her her freedom, the true mark of unconditional love. The Beast in love at last is not a beast anymore, and is actually a prince , in everyone's eyes. Because people who are good at heart, whatever their physicalities be, ultimately look beautiful, to one and all.
Beauty & the Beast is a actually a lesson to everyone who judge people by their looks. A warning to every girl that the macho hero of her dreams might not be the 'prince charming' after all. And a reminder to all the boys, who judge girls by their 'statistics' first. And to the society too, who still cringes their nose at dark-skinned girls and short-height boys.Who still make hullabaloo over the colors of skin, white,brown,black. The modern day 'beasts' are still on their look-outs for the very few Belles available. Good luck to them for their own little 'happily ever afters'!
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