Review by - See the full Documentary on Vimeo
Dr. Manas K Mandal, Ph.D. FNAPsy
Distinguished Visiting Professor - IIT-Kharagpur 721302
PhD | FNAPsy | Ex Director - General (Life Sciences) DRDO | Fulbright Fellow (USA) | Fulbright - Nehru Fellow (USA) | NSERC Fellow (Canada) | Shastri Fellow (Canada) | DAAD Fellow (Germany)
Linkedin - http://linkedin.com/in/manas-kumar-mandal-07939b179
Review of
Everything is One - Origin, Evolution & Nature of Life
Dear Ramesh-jee,
I have now gone through the documentary twice to understand the essence of it. You have made an excellent attempt to create this knowledge-base for the audience you are looking for. Admittedly, its a herculean task for someone who is not into the professional field of documentary making. Yet you have been taking up this challenge for years now, all by your passion.
Let me give you my candid observations: There are many positives of this documentary: for example,
1. The presentation is very lucid, clearly discernable, interesting for someone who is not in the field of evolutionary biology.
2. The information is both scientific and jargon-free for laymen. This way you have taken care of cognitive structure of the audience for easy information processing.
3. Communication of science is not an easy process. Common people do not understand the rigor of science. The message must be given therefore in a non-argumentative way. The documentary is by and large successful in that direction.
The critical viewpoints that I want to offer you are the following:
1. Evolutionary biology is a highly scientific field. It has its own unique way of disseminating knowledge. In fact, it is a truly transdisciplinary field of life sciences in knowledge system. I wish someone guides you in this direction.
2. The developmental stages through which the documentary is prepared is accurate but not enough to understand the essence of life. Science and philosophy are together here but in which way? Are we pursuing a horizontal (philosophical) or vertical (scientific) knowledge system? or Are we interested in understanding the synergy behind?
3. The scientific evidence in this documentary is sometimes overstatement and not generalizable. For example, understanding brain is still in an exploratory phase rather than in an explanatory phase. The neuroscientists will object viciously on certain conjectures (especially about the functional architecture of the brain) as these are too simplified. We need to exercise some caution here.
4. The documentary must be able to tell us the gap in our knowledge in human system which we must pursue through research. Overstatement will bias us, create illusory expertise in the field, push us towards over-simplification in knowledge system.
5. Finally 'Everything is one' is a big statement by itself; the audience needs to be aware of your ultimate goal in this documentary. If they get it all at the end, the roadmap will be unclear all through the journey.
Review of Everything is One - Purpose of life
The film raises interesting questions about life. These questions have a root in the
philosophy of consciousness. The uniqueness of the film is about ‘connecting dots’ of various segments of life which gives a holistic understanding of the purpose of life, in retrospect. Any effort to get the essence of the film at a given stage of life will augment the quality of life as it progresses.
Despite these critical issues, your attempt is praiseworthy;
I truly admire your spirit.
Personally speaking, I am proud of you as my friend.