Killer conflicts !!!

Conflict is not to be labelled as aggression, neither it is the recipe of wars. It could be the banality of life that could spurn up conflicts. But the tendency of the press, the opinion leaders, the ring leaders who control the shows,  is to patronize the conflict,  favouring one side or the other, offering texts of a single voice. There are those who do present both of them together, resulting in a deficit balance of a situation or a surplus, or it could be a forced one too, an internal conflict t. The most difficult ones could be the internal conflicts. It needs no introduction, it could be written all over you, no  magic formula could unravel these conflicts.

Talk about Emmanuel Kant and who can forget, “Cogito ergo sum.” His philosophy rested on doubt. Doubt in paranoiac proportions is etched into every frame of the  movie “Doubt”, a screen adaptation of John Patrick Shanley’s stage play. Meryl Streep, as a sceptical nun, puts up an impressive performance, with winds of energy and humour. Father Flynn, a hushed downed Philip Seymour Hoffman, is  at the eye of the storm, fanned in by the unsuspecting doubts of a younger nun, enacted by Amy Adams.  Sister Aloysius, (M Streep) is bent on accusing her superior, Fr Flynn of 'unusual interests' on one of students, that too, the only black student in the school. The movies is nothing about main stream movie which does not tolerate tolerate ambiguity as the coffers won’t cling loud enough.  The conflicts are well pronounced from the very moment Fr Flynn sits on the chair of the principal, offers suggestion about a secular song for Christmas, the use of ball pens, long nails, sugar in the tea etc. Fr Flynn’s crime seems to be his tolerance and his character is delineated to elicit more sympathy than any other emotion.

The final frame puts these words in the mouth of Sr Aloysius, “ I have such doubts.” This is no adrenalin pumping, edge of the seat entertainer. Conflict just refuses to die and the compelling performances by the lead actors just underlines the diabolical character of conflict. The film could be blamed to be a bit one-dimensional, but speak about conflict and it's a full house.