Ledger keeping

Heath. Heath. Heath. Heath. Heath. Heath... I am breathless!! What a performance! What a movie! Batman didn't stand a chance against the Joker. The Dark Knight is one of the most thought provoking movies I have ever seen - a cinematic poem on morals, ethics, violence, greed, compromise. And Heath's Joker is perhaps as iconic a movie character as Brando's Godfather. Years and years down the line, there will be others striving hard to match up to the intelligence and timing of the late actor, who brought a rare black humour to his interpretation of the role that was synonymous with Jack Nicholson all this while. While Jack played it broadly with an evil glint in his eyes, he still remained quintessentially Jack. Ledger's Joker is far edgier, more manic and epitomises the evil lurking within all of us.
I came home shaken and stirred. Since sleep was not an option, I decided to write (the world's best therapy!). I was on my laptop when the mild earthquake (4.5 on the Richter scale) that had its epicentre in Koyna made my chair wobble. I thought I could sense the Joker's presence at my elbow.... and shuddered. The large Art Deco lamp above my head started to sway. I got spooked but carried on writing, challenging the imaginary Joker to scare\threaten me further. It was well past 2 a.m. when I finally retired. The Joker was licking his lips and laughing. At me. At all of us. He was not in Gotham.The Joker was in fact, in Surat. And heading Mumbai -wards. We have been warned. Are we ready for him??