Blood Diamond

Sometimes, amongst the niceties of life we tend to forget that behind some glittering and radiance lays painful history. And sometimes, conflicts and struggles tend to add brilliance to dullness. Let us take the case of Diamond. Raw diamond is dull. It is after cutting and polishing, sometimes at precise angles that diamond glitters in the way that appeals to our eyes. But then there might be some painful history attached to it. The diamond you are wearing might well be a conflict diamond.
This was the point of the movie “Blood diamond”. According to facts presented in the movie, nearly 15 % of the diamond in the market have their origin in conflicts, wars, devastations. All man-made. The movie also presents a bitter picture summed up by an African. " Thank God we have no oil”. In place of diamond it could well have been oil, gold, and platinum. Even uranium. Mao said “Power comes from the barrel of a gun”. But then power can also be bought from the object of desire. An in his quest for power man often tend to use such valuable objects as diamond. It comes as no surprise that most regions that have abundance of oil are today major points of conflicts. Nigeria,Iran,Iraq.You name it.
The movie starts with the devastation and catastrophe caused by Sierra Leonean rebels,the RUF and a poor African fisherman being at the receiving end of their wrath. People are killed and butchered like animals. The violence is so extensive that sometimes it tends to shake the audience. Yet it is unrealistic. Even though the gun blazes every 3 minutes on an average the three main actors tend to remain unscathed. The movie has made a good point though. It is good because it has cleverly woven every point of conflict which is very real in Africa into an amazing story.
The performance of Leonardo DiCaprio,Jennifer Connelly and especially Djimon Hounsou is something to watch out for.However the emotions are a bit overdone and tend to take the film to a Karan Johar like theatrics.
The conflict is very real. War still rages on in Africa and people still buy diamonds unaware of their origin. But an awareness has been created. The movie is worth a diamond. A conflict-free one!!!