It had to be a particularly bad day. The events ranged from getting up late and disrupting all my prior plans, a tussle with an autorikshaw driver, petrol drying out with the nearest bunk nowhere visible and an update failure on my computer which consequently, made me lose a couple of files that I needed badly. All in all, it was an awfully bad day. Putting to rest the tough luck, I decided to cool off for the rest of the day – watched TV.

What’s so special you ask? Well, the movie that aired specially for me – or so I felt. It was called “Freedom Writers” – had never heard. Hillary Swank and Patrick Dempsey were the only ones that I recognized. The movie was about a school in California which is integrated – that is, all the races of people ranging from Asians, Latinos, Blacks and many more who lived by the streets amidst all the gang violence, to study in the same school. The newly appointed teacher to those guys is Ms. Erin Gruwell, played by Hillary Swank. The story focuses on how the races fight between themselves for what they think would “free” them. Erin tries hard to unite the class with her off the beaten path methods. What adds to the value of the movie is that the movie is based on a book by an author by the same name as the lead, Erin Gruwell. The movie also features a few holocaust victims who appear at a very apt spot. The movie, although revolves around the theme of racism – which I hate, didn’t annoy me. Surprisingly, it rather kept me glued. There’s nothing dramatic happening in the whole of the movie. But, the flow is never tardy.

What appealed to me the most was how the movie refreshed my mood. With all the silly disasters that I was made to deal with, suddenly vanished from my thoughts. I guess, it would have been an ordinary movie had it not been this day. If I were to recommend this to anyone, I would like to say – watch it when you have a bad day and are feeling like you are going through a lot and want a break.