INCEPTED!!

Is no place “SAFE” enough for your utmost prized possessions? What about your secrets, desires and dreams? Isn’t it enough to keep it hidden in the deepest recesses of your mind?? When it comes to burglary, in Christopher Nolan’s world, no places are off limit, including your subconscious mind. Di Caprio and his associates, specialize in invading the mind by inducing sleep and stealing personal thoughts while the person is still dreaming. While this may make them appear invincible, their greatest fear is of a reoccurring nightmare – of not knowing whether they are in the real world or in the dream world! To skirt around their very real fear, the team use a ‘tottem’ a random object, the weight, dimensions and characteristics of which are unique and known only to the bearer. This ‘tottem’ acts like their talisman which would behave in a specific way in the dream world letting its bearer know that they were dreaming! Di Caprio’s totem was an unidentifiable, circular tiny ‘top’ like object that would topple in the real world, but spin endlessly in the dream world! This knowledge was probably equally important to the viewers and Di Caprio in order to distinguish between the real and the imaginary worlds!
The term ‘INCEPTION’ implies the commencement/initiation of a monumental event. As hinted by the title of the movie, instead of their practice of extracting information, the notoriously elite group, are hired to implant a thought in the target’s mind. The group is understandably anxious as they are expected to digress from their practice of extracting information, the knowledge of which is immaterial to the target once the task is complete and the target is roused from his slumber. In contrast, the success of “inception” relied solely on the extent of delusion because the person would act on a ‘planted idea’ only if he considered it as a product of inspiration. To complicate matters, the concept of inception was not alien to the super rich and omnipotent hence the odds of the target suspecting the idea to be seeded by an invader were anything but slim.

The film starts by introducing the audience to a dual layer dream which in fact was a ‘qualifer test’ for the elite group, excelling which, would have earned them their biggest deal. As expected, failure would deliver them to their grave.
In addition to the introduction of stealing secrets in the dream world, the audience is familiarized with the people who engineer various elements of the dream world and get a glimpse into Di Caprio’s clichéd, complicated past giving the otherwise rapid pulsed, sci-fi movie a dark psycho shade!
Interestingly, akin to our everyday dreams, the target and the invaders could snap out of their reverie by responding to tactile and auditory stimulations by a ‘conscious’ handler. If all else failed, death in a dream, would definitely jolt them out of the trance! Other intriguing facets include, people’s projections of others in their subconscious and the ‘crumbling effect’ produced on the dream’s landscape while the dreamer gained consciousness. However, lame these things sound when spelled out, lose all criticism to the visual effects projected on the big screen that invoke astonishment and surprise keeping the audience deeply engrossed throughout its screening. A bit of an overdose was the target’s trained subconscious setting up defenses to this inception in the form of trained marine and other brawny guys with weapons!
I found myself hooked and optimistic till the very end, hoping the elite achieve their goal. While the end is unexpected, it did leave me disappointed at the outcome! However, the disappointment was made up when a fellow adult viewer involuntarily cried out “OH NO” which made the entire theatre giggle and clap in unison as the credits rolled on!
Sure, they could have cut out some of the emotional crap and made a movie for the “right brained” folks, but hey with Di Caprio’s effortless acting, outstanding concept, novel approach and the splendid special effects... it is worth every 150 minutes of your time.
Folks... don’t miss this one... Dream on my friends! J