“How many of you have seen Matrix ?” asked our teacher in MBA class , during one of the lighter moments ,back in 1999. I ,as an elder student having seen twenty eight springs then, raised my hand along-with many other classmates ,who were in their early twenties .This was a contact programme class of correspondence MBA in Jabalpur .
“How many of you actually understood it ?” was the next question . This time it was only me .My inclination for movies , science and abstract had made me just fall in love with the Movie then and I still love it , twenty two years later.
I went on to explain , to the class , what the movie was all about and how it can be associated with our, Indian , concept of Maya . For years I believed that the movie was largely influenced by Indian philosophy to later realise that I was wrong . In fact movie was influenced by many philosophies and written works of our world . Though we can always interpret things to suit us , confirmation bias .
Matrix went on to become a game changer in genre of sci fi movies besides a huge grosser at box office . It was followed by two more sequels to complete the famous trilogy , Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions, but they could not recreate the Magic .
The movies raises the basic question of reality of our world and of free will or destiny in a scientific way .
The Matrix is around a concept that we are all part of computer generated reality where everything is programmed or destined ,as in virtual reality ,and we are governed , rather harvested by machines in dystopian future . It also talks about free will or destiny , a concept eerily similar to many religious philosophies.
In last twenty years I would have seen this movie around ten times and I am still intrigued and wonder will I ever know enough to know that I don’t know . Unlike for many , for whom ’ The Matrix effed with their minds’ it tickled my mind . I put it in league of movies like Inception , Interstellar ,Pandorum, a less known cult classic . Movies that actually ‘effed’ my mind , equally loved though, would be Predestination, again less known , and Tenet
Many years later the reality of our world was also questioned by a research by Bank of America and Elon Musk, , I wont describe him , if you don’t know about him you have been living under a rock . And when Musk says some thing the World listens .
I waited with bated breath for the release of the fourth installment , when its release was announced . I completed a refresher of the Trilogy and made Upasna , my wife who is not at all keen on sci fi ,watch it with me .I booked the tickets for he first day in advance and watched it in IMAX, dragged Upasna along . I absolutely loved it and the experience it offered and asked myself later “Was it free will or destiny ?”
Written :2022 , after watching the movie in Lucknow
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