APARICHIT- THE STRANGER, THE STEP UP FRANCHISE, NEVER BACK DOWN, KILL BILL (1& 2), YES MAN, KYUNKI....MAIN JHUTH NAHI BOLTA, RAB NE BANA DI JODI, RIGHT YA WRONG. Just naming a couple of films here, films which are not actually merely films for me, these are pieces of art that I can keep watching endlessly over & over again! Yup, I know they are as diverse as they can get but I can never get tired of watching them! I have even lost track of the number of times Dad has seen me engrossed deeply in watching something and thinking that it's a new movie, come along only to find out it's the umpteenth time I am watching the same movie with the same excitement. He is highly amused at this obsession of mine with these films. How can the same subject, which I know so well as though I am the scriptwriter/director of the film, still hold the same amount of attention drawing power after countless viewings? I couldn't answer him initially, but now I think I got an answer! Dad, this one's for you!
I am a Media postgraduate and for the last two years, films have been as common a part of my life as eating food and sleeping, though I have lesser of the latter due to films.The length & breadth of films that I have seen over these last two years is something like, to give a very horrible metaphor, like Buddha attaining Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree! There are so many stories to be told, there is so much that happens around the globe, there are so many types of people and most of the times & most importantly, it's the escapism that these films offer or the cathartic release they give that is the most satiating experience! Until now I have had such a restricted definition of a 'Hero' or a 'Heroine' is. But now I see a hero in everyone. I see a villain in everyone, I see everything in everyone, including of course myself!
We think of our lives to be so mundane at times, everyday from getting up from to sleeping back on the bed we have pretty uniformly structured lives. The structure may change from time to time but the uniformity remains. Every lifestyle is permanent for a temporary span of time, if you know what I mean. But it's only when the camera zooms into one such character who leads an almost similar lifestyle as ours that we begin to view the same lifestyle differently. We want our lifestyle to follow a similar trajectory, we become the character just as the character becomes us and for those two-three hours, we enjoy the spotlight shining on us. Yes, we all want the spotlight on us, don't we? We do want our stories to be told, we do want our experiences to be shared, our views to be aired, our dreams to culminate in that ultimate realization which possibly we might not realize. And that is the most endearing quality of cinema for me. That is impartial to people and societies. The most remote part of the world also gets its place here, be it an eskimo in Antarctica (Nanook Of the North), a boy in a Brazilian ghetto ( City Of God), the hip, modern New Yorker who walks by the street with a hotdog & coffee in his hand, dreams in his eyes and money on his mind(countless movies), a slum boy from India, strugglers, winners, losers, people rising from rags to riches & vice versa, a wronged civilian, an 'eccentric', all have a chance to tell their story and express themselves. And we identify, we identify with each one of them, because we are all of them. We probably would do what they do in tat situation, at that time even though we might detest them initially. I remember one of my teacher looking at me straight into my face and asking me, " Do you think you could be a rapist? Do you think you can commit suicide someday?" and I was blank. A brief silence and some subtle laughter in the background later, I softly mumbled, "No sir". "No?! Of course you can be!! You can be a rapist and you can very well commit suicide as well! It's a just a matter of time & a mental conditioning that is a result of that time!" and I couldn't deny the veracity of his claim. It was surprising yet true!
Chetan Bhagat says, "The world's most smart person & the biggest idiot on this planet are both you". So take your pick, you can be Daniel Ocean, Bruce Wayne, The Joker, Peter Parker, Macbeth or whoever you want to be, they are all in you.
I am a Media postgraduate and for the last two years, films have been as common a part of my life as eating food and sleeping, though I have lesser of the latter due to films.The length & breadth of films that I have seen over these last two years is something like, to give a very horrible metaphor, like Buddha attaining Enlightenment under the Bodhi tree! There are so many stories to be told, there is so much that happens around the globe, there are so many types of people and most of the times & most importantly, it's the escapism that these films offer or the cathartic release they give that is the most satiating experience! Until now I have had such a restricted definition of a 'Hero' or a 'Heroine' is. But now I see a hero in everyone. I see a villain in everyone, I see everything in everyone, including of course myself!
We think of our lives to be so mundane at times, everyday from getting up from to sleeping back on the bed we have pretty uniformly structured lives. The structure may change from time to time but the uniformity remains. Every lifestyle is permanent for a temporary span of time, if you know what I mean. But it's only when the camera zooms into one such character who leads an almost similar lifestyle as ours that we begin to view the same lifestyle differently. We want our lifestyle to follow a similar trajectory, we become the character just as the character becomes us and for those two-three hours, we enjoy the spotlight shining on us. Yes, we all want the spotlight on us, don't we? We do want our stories to be told, we do want our experiences to be shared, our views to be aired, our dreams to culminate in that ultimate realization which possibly we might not realize. And that is the most endearing quality of cinema for me. That is impartial to people and societies. The most remote part of the world also gets its place here, be it an eskimo in Antarctica (Nanook Of the North), a boy in a Brazilian ghetto ( City Of God), the hip, modern New Yorker who walks by the street with a hotdog & coffee in his hand, dreams in his eyes and money on his mind(countless movies), a slum boy from India, strugglers, winners, losers, people rising from rags to riches & vice versa, a wronged civilian, an 'eccentric', all have a chance to tell their story and express themselves. And we identify, we identify with each one of them, because we are all of them. We probably would do what they do in tat situation, at that time even though we might detest them initially. I remember one of my teacher looking at me straight into my face and asking me, " Do you think you could be a rapist? Do you think you can commit suicide someday?" and I was blank. A brief silence and some subtle laughter in the background later, I softly mumbled, "No sir". "No?! Of course you can be!! You can be a rapist and you can very well commit suicide as well! It's a just a matter of time & a mental conditioning that is a result of that time!" and I couldn't deny the veracity of his claim. It was surprising yet true!
Chetan Bhagat says, "The world's most smart person & the biggest idiot on this planet are both you". So take your pick, you can be Daniel Ocean, Bruce Wayne, The Joker, Peter Parker, Macbeth or whoever you want to be, they are all in you.
