The Shawshank Redemption

“Hope is a good thing, Maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies”

Were the words subtly uttered by Morgan Freeman, in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”, and then it happened.
I did something, which I always hold back myself from doing in public. I wept like a baby.

People who have already witnessed this epic movie, would know what I’m talking about. And people who haven’t, keep reading…

I was once recommended by a good friend of mine, to watch this flick and he also preached, that this one was ranked as the greatest film of all times.Being a not “bigger” movie buff myself (though I’m a big movie buff), the reason being, I just watch every movie under sun, primarily the ones I get can get hold of, or rather the ones my DVD vendor can get a hold of. I don’t get to choose them, the DVD guy gets to do it.But this one was quite appealing by the title itself, “ The Shawshank Redemption”.

There was something unusually usual about the very name itself .My initial thoughts were, it would be yet another underworld mafia movie. To my resentment, the movie was not even tad close to what I thought it would be.In my defense the name “ Shawshank” was misleading. It sounded like one of those mafia family names in the genes of the famed “Sopranos’” or the Corleone’s of God Father.Trust me,I was wrong.And there was this second word of the title “ Redemption”. Like everyone, I thought I knew the meaning of it . You bet, I was wrong again. I guess everyone associates “redemption” to something “religiously-piously-reviving”. Well the dictionary says it’s the “the act of delivering from sin or saving from evil”. Which I understood after I saw the movie.

Well, the film is screen played across 2 decades back in time from 1947-1966 in a fictional penitentiary called Shawshank state prison. The entire story is meticulously narrated by the Morgan Freeman in his hoarse voice as seen and interpreted by his character “Red” who’s serving two life sentences in the prison. Enter “Andy” who gets wrongly convicted for a double lifetime for murdering his wife and lover in action and meets Red in Shawshank and slowly gets acquainted with fellow inmates and the ways and plays within the prison. The typical cruelty in a prison is disturbingly well portrayed, Be it a prisoner beaten brutally to death by the sadistic guards or when Andy gets attacked by a gay group “The Sister” and harassed and abused.

The movie had a number of scenes, which would move even the darn est of mountains.For instance, the scene where andy plays “an Italian song” over the intercom for all the inmates to hear after locking up the warden in the loo or when, he persuades one of the guard to buy beers for his friends by offering free financial tax advice or when watching fellow prisoners happily boozing away their beers with a satisfied smile on his face.Not mention, his redemning escape for the prison itself.

The movie, had a lot of makings for an Oscar. In the 1994 Academy Awards it was nominated for seven awards (Best Picture, Best Actor – Morgan Freeman, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Score, and Best Sound) but, in the shadow of 1994's big winner Forrest Gump, did not win a single one.

But it sure made my day!!!!!

Remember, “Hope is a good thing, Maybe the best of things and no good thing ever dies"