Movies - the main course!

Movies. Even before I knew what this word meant Ive been in love with it. My dreams ranged from technicolor to the current DI-ed double positive! Sometimes Ive played out whole 3hrs of filmstock in my mindscreen much after the film's run out of its theatres! The vaguest of dialogues have made the maximum impact, the most effective of scenes have left me wanting for more... ditto for the song n dance routines in Indian cinema, along with the dishum-dishum bits, without which Indian movies are stripped of their larger than life image! Yes...Indian cinema is possibly the only cinema in the world to have an image of its own, much like its actors, who would be replaced or retained in my silverscreen operas, depending on their 'on screen relationship' with me (wink!). I remember, lying down on the sofa, every morning for atleast fifteen minutes, weaving my celluloid fantasy, much to my mother's annoyance, as I would invariably be late for school.

Im so passionately in love with this medium that has the power to create and put out something so simple as just a story. I mean...our Moms & Grandmoms did that with ease & flair, so whats the big deal here?! And...the thinking mind always prefers books that makes us create our own visuals and whats more fun is that my visual will not be the same as yours...and hence the disparity makes it unique to both of us. Even if the story is one person's creative output, it is still customised in the reader's mind, much like Art, where interpretations differ. Painting gave us our perspectives - our different dimensions, to create and to comprehend.

And cinema, IS THE medium wherein an individual's creative vision/perspective of an idea/story is presented in such reality - touch & feel, for acceptance by another! The audience laps up or throws back ONE person's version of a story told in grandeur or simplicity. In other words, we watch and get entertained with a series of decisions for presenting a story that are made by the person called the Director. We think we like a particular scene/song because of our own sensibilities, but it is actually one person's ideas that we are rooting for! If Manirathnam's take on terrorism set against a backdrop of unrequited love gave us Chayya Chayya & SRK in 'Dil Se' - then the same outline made us put our hands together in an entirely different presentation and thought in Santoshsivan's 'Terrorist'. Same themes, different narrative styles and we simply dont realise that till somone points it out for discussion. Even then, the film is discussed in separate tones from the filmmaker. When in reality, we are just clapping or pooh-poohing the Director's ideas that have strung the film together. For cinema, he/she is GOD. And in a religiously rooted nation like India, its no wonder that cinema and its makers/actors enjoy godly status as well. And when one person presents something that has an universal appeal - it sets boxoffice records. To get that match right is I think, every filmmaker's tryst with this medium.

{I didnt understand any of this then - and maybe I dont even now as all of this maybe very idealistic or lofty or too simple, for this is again my version of cinema put out for you! So hey... I maybe completely wrong or illogical but this MY blog youre checking out and this is my clothesline, wherein I try to pinup as many clothes(posts) in as neat and as interesting a line as possible!!!}

Cinema - came with its Story, acting, music, dance, the tears and of course the laughter -and its only cinema that gave me ample scope to 'feel' all of this too. Its with cinema that I grew up, to one day, some day be a part of its making as well. And here I am....

Movies and its magical process of seeing an idea evolve, get tossed around and eventually retain its soul despite going through many transformations to what lies outside....and after 'all this is said and done', you put out the idea to the rest of the world, that just makes or breaks it as per their Will! OH...That agony and ecstasy is what makes this journey so tirelessly beautiful! To listen, see, and absorb great minds that have many a story to tell or have many ways of telling the same story sometimes... that bliss, taught me ONE lesson - that whatever we choose as the single most precious thing to do in our lives, that one thing will demand the maximum out of us. It will call for sacrifices from the deepest chambers, it will be the toughest master to please, it will goad us on a road of no-return and will also slowly, very, very slowly give us back first, ten fold and then a hundred and if by then, this lifetime still remains - a thousand fold! But it comes only if we persevere, only if we go with IT's flow.
The will to work in movies is a ride that's really From Here to Eternity...!
After all who can resist the reward of a long, neverending kiss in the end?!!

{From Here to Eternity holds the world record for the longest kissing scene shot on a beach between its lead pair}