Troy Boy

Homer harnessed gods, sent men to war, invented a long love story and designed a wooden horse. The blind poet wrote (or rather sang, those being pre-alphabet days) a couple of poems 800 years before Christ and he’s remained a global cultural sensation ever since. Although there are doubts whether the wandering blind minstrel actually existed, Homer is believed to be the author of the Iliad and The Odyssey which set the Agean on fire when they first became public. And judging by the latest Hollywood blockbuster Troy with the eternally cool Achilles ably essayed by the ragged-looking Brad Pitt, Homer is as hot as he’s always been, one of the greatest scriptwriters of all time. Move over Salim-Javed, take a walk Steven Spielberg, the best roller coaster ride through the mental and the metaphysical, one of the greatest quarrels in history right up there with the siege of Lanka, was written more than 2,000 years ago.

Ah the delights of the Homeric epics! The valiant sons of Greece set forth to rescue Helen, queen of Menelaus, whose beauty launched a thousand ships and burned the topless towers of Illium, the fearsome battle between Hector and Achilles, (son of the absent-minded Thetis who having slogged to the river of immortality, The Styx, dunked her boy in but neglected to dip in his heel), the smooth Paris, crazy about his friend’s wife, the fraught homecoming of Odysseus, all of it embellished by the odd thunderbolt from Zeus, the rage of Neptune, chariot-racing with the hunky angst-ridden Apollo, (Mr Universe of all time) not to mention the sheer oomph of Aphrodite and Artemis, the terrors of the sirens and nasty goings on with minotaurs.

Exploits of men and gods, politics, wars and passion, men driven insane by love and women angelic and diabolical by turn, Homer understood it all and thankfully documented it all and elevated the human being to such high nobility and deep despair that the Homeric poems remain not only the most important texts of Western civilisation but also essential to anyone who loves to party!

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In fact classical writers have always been excellent cinematographers. The Bible has delivered several box office bonanzas, such as the Ten Commandments. A few centuries later, Shakespeare’s plays, like Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet fuelled Hollywood for decades.

As far as we’re concerned the twin efforts of Vyasa and Valmiki have kept us in human drama for generations. The lack of quick first aid endured by Surpanakha, the coalition politics of Ram, Kunti’s bad behaviour towards Karna, Draupadi’s garment crisis in public and Kaikayee’s flirtation with women’s rights have not only been the subject of modern literary interpretation but also of an avalanche of soaps, mythological movies and television serials, which when produced and aired by Ramanand Sagar almost two decades ago, brought the nation to a virtual standstill.

The Ramayana and the Mahabharata were smash hits, not simply because of the pull of tradition, but because they celebrate in thundering, warlike, cosmic dimensions that one attribute so familiar to us all: human frailty.

Most amazing too that Homer, the ancient trendy scriptwriter, was blind. Just goes to show that vision is obviously a highly overrated thing and in darkness there is often a clear true light.