Excelsior

The zeal of the word EXCELSIOR or “ever upward” stroke our psyche and gusto with Mathew Quick’s novel or David O Russell’s film “Silver Linings Playbook” starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence alongside Robert De Niro. A creative magnum opus with cyclic inspirational and motivational cinematic texts that redefine our purpose and artistry of life.

An art by Ragini Saikia

The romantic comedy or psycho-comedy untangles few of the habitual credence with a positive appeal ; be it with the perception that true love of a woman can enlighten a man or with the fact that zingers and fights echoes pure love. In the rills of “Silver Linings Playbook”, Patrick Solatano Jr.,an irritable and desperate man disturbed from bipolar disorder attempts to find the “silver linings” in his downcast life. Pat becomes happy and finds meaning in life again through his friendship turned love with a genuine widow woman Tiffany Maxwell. The encounters of Pat and Tiffany where they bicker are humourous and ironical in a sense. The climax of the film shots with Pat revealing Tiffany that he fell in love with her the moment he saw her, despite the fact that he was seen drowning in the delusion of getting back his ex-wife Nikki in majority of the film.

What draws my mind and heart is expressiveness of the notion that it takes a lot of mutual understanding and support for people to be in their best selves and that if we are not afraid of our complicated and complex emotions, we can help ourselves and others to live up to one’s potentiality. It’s when Pat gets conscious of who his real love interest is, he gets the impulsion to take his medication and gets disciplined and focused on his assignment of getting a “score five” in a dance competition to win a parlay taken up by his father. Also, the acceptance of bitter reality yet seeing positivity seizes another chapter with the converse -“Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.

The film acknowledges the fact that despite paradoxical and hypocritic human nature, there lies the element of silver if not gold which forms the bedrock of realistic spur of socialisation. What catches my emotion is its conveyance of the fact that how generous one should be as world breaks our heart ten ways to Sunday yet at the end of the week metaphorically Sunday is the best day. Let’s not forget what Pat Sr. seizes his end of share preaching us that it’s a sin if we let go things we love. So, let’s take out all this negativity and use it as a fuel and find the silver lining and yes, let us cheer out ‘Excelsior’ loud.

Abhinav Sankar Goswami

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