Amadeus.

My nephew Jai had posted a clip from Amadeus on his facebook page to illustrate his revisiting Amadeus.  That got me intrigued as I did not know that Jai was interested in Mozart at all and decided to revisit Amadeus myself. It however took this article in yesterday’s Times Of India to get me to do something about it. The title for the article in the print version was “The Age Of Mediocrity.” While the article talks about the Indian condition, I would not be surprised if most of my overseas readers will agree that this could be a problem in their countries as well. One of the scenes that one can never forget in the film is the last one where Antonio Salieri in a wheel chair and in the assylum for the insane keeps blessing all the inmates for being mediocre.

Amadeus came to Mumbai in the late eighties when my late wife and I went to see it in a theater.  It was not a commercial success in India for obvious reasons but it was a topic of conversation in all social gatherings while the movie ran in Mumbai.  The discussions would be more on the story line and the psychological byplays rather than on the music and the opera shows in it.

Fully knowing that the movie would run to almost three hours, I sat through it last evening and needless to say, it was an exhilarating experience with the new speaker system installed just last week enhancing the listening experience.

For those interested in learning something about Mozart, his music and his rival besides court intrigues and politics which seem as relevant as today’s situation if it had to occur now, I would recommend with a [rating=5] revisiting the film in DVD or Bluray.