A Beautifully Portrayed Saga of Life

Rating: 10/10 (11 November 2014)

This is not just a film. This is not just a work of art that transcends the black and white of human outlook to caste, justice and freedom and paints the human soul in all its true colors. This is not just life set in motion that takes us through it all - jealousy, hopelessness, irony, tragedy, monotony, inspiration, perseverance, success, and the unending miracle that is life itself. This is all of these and more.
"The Shawshank Redemption" is as much about the story it tells as about the way it tells it. We have to really immerse ourselves to understand and share the protagonist's exuberance of redemption that is the principal focal point of the entire film. And the slow and steady unfolding of events in an apparent idyllic manner makes it very easy for us viewers to get engrossed into this wonderfully threaded, emotionally rich story.
All the actors in the film were in perfect tune with one another. Never for once did any of them give an impression that this is a work of fiction and not a true incident captured on camera in real time. Tim Robbins is easily the finest of the cast, portraying the initially deranged, subsequently fearful and tentative, and ultimately the emancipated Andy Dufresne with total compulsion. Morgan Freeman is equally captivating as the wise and ever-supportive "Red" Redding, with his wry indifference to the sufferings of life, which finally gives way plain and raw happiness at his own emancipation.
This is a film that makes us appreciate the beauty and subtlety of life, soothes our soul, gives us hope and inspires us to keep trying till we reach our own "redemption" - our own freedom from the failures that bind us to the success that we always crave. This is film of life, for life, and a film to live by.