12 Angry Men

The film 12 Angry Men last night left me with a serene state of mind. It highlighted so many aspects of human behavior. There are ample times when we just grab a brand name, grapple with terms without understanding whether their usage is required, judge a person with his/her ideologies, as if they are orthodox and conservatives ideologists who are blindly following their dictum... 11 men in a jury blindly voted that a convict (an 18 yr old boy charged with the murder of his father) was guilty, while one dwelt on the possibility of  not being guilty. The possibilities of the convict not being guilty were of the same weight as the facts in the court that  found the boy guilty, but yet each of the 11 men at first were swayed to vote that the boy was guilty. each had their own reason. Some was troubled by a personal emotion, some was a meticulous follower of the facts, some was prejudiced against the background of the boy, some were indifferent, some afraid, some didn't want to contest, some did not understand and others were blindly ignorant. only one man started with a 'reasonable doubt' that slowly got spread in the jury and with time, one by one started having their 'reasonable doubts'.

Sidney Lumet's film made in the 1950s takes a dig in reasons, emotions, humanity and comments upon human callousness. An introspection makes everyone realise the strength of a judgement or a verdict, but how many will to do so under the strong play of egoism, selfish interests, prejudice, indifference, ignorance... People are so given towards judging that it ultimately harms or become meaningless. They take for granted certain behavior, issues, certain debates... they take shelter under terms, concepts, theories, ideologies.... they don't realise that everything at operation in the world are processes connected with each other, it doesnt have two poles, good or bad, rich or poor, capitalism and marxism, men and women, guilty vs not guilty....

The film falling mainly in the genre of social psychology (so it seemed) is an all time favourite of people, because no matter how much the world changes with time... how much developed it is.... these are human traits, they can be bettered, but cannot be wiped off.