Cinema and I

For the myriad, cinema is an escape from the normal world. People want to escape from their daily routines, work and family related stress and enjoy the 1.5 to 2.5 hours in a movie theater, which is fine with me. What is not fine is when the same people start to judge a piece of cinema based on their shallow or little knowledge of what goes behind into making it. It’s like a person who knows little or nothing about paintings, trying to pass some verdict on a Picasso piece.

For me, Cinema is art, in its most beautiful form. Cinema is like a painting in motion, with beautiful and sometimes even unheard of sounds; where the characters are not stuck in a time-frame but are moving through different stills to show you a world which never was, and make you believe that what’s going on that 70 mm screen is happening right in front of your eyes.

A good piece of Cinema is like mom’s food. The aftertaste of mom’s food lingers in your mouth for a long time and you never forget the taste of her hand. A great piece of Cinematic art has the power to take you in a different time zone, a great piece cinema can alter cultural dynamics of the society, a great piece of Cinema can inspire science and a great piece of Cinema can change the way you see and think about the world.

I had my first tryst with cinema in 1996 when cable TV came to my hometown. I had watched TV earlier, but cable gave me some sort of moral freedom. First time ever, rent was being to watch TV and someone had to utilize it. Also, dad’s job and business at hand gave me enough time to sneak into TV from time to time. One of the first movies I remember seeing is Rajesh Khanna’s Anand, which still holds highest regards in my heart. Very soon I found out, that Indian cinema is not the only one on this planet when, one fine day, I stumbled on Star Movies while surfing channels.

Those days, English channels were sort of a taboo. It was thought of as a bad influence on growing kids. Censor board too, was much more liberal and not like a moral police as in today’s times. Kissing scenes, killing scenes and smoking scenes were shown in their full glory and you had to be quick with your short range TV remote, so that you can change the channel whenever parents were around, while the characters were about to get intimate.

I enjoyed the late 80’s and early 90’s classics until 2002 when I left home to continue with my higher studies. In Lucknow, I was denied the luxury of a TV, but now, there was no one to stop me from going to theaters. Morning shows were my first love and I had even found some shabby theaters where the balcony seat was as low as Rs 15. I remember watching my first Vin Diesel movie "XXX"  in one such theater.  The name of the movie resembles a porn title but it’s actually a great action movie of that time. Watching Vin jumping out from a car in the middle of the air gave me goosebumps.

Years went by and came 2006, my second year of Engineering at Ghaziabad. Like most of the students, I too, succeeded in befooling my innocent parents to buy me a desktop, as I had a lot of educational stuff to do on that. I am an Electronics & Instrumentation Engineer, so you know I didn’t have any programming to do. Did I forget to mention that I also got an external graphic card installed in there?
Anyways, apart from gaming and listening to music and watching videos, my system was used for one whole sole purpose – Movies.

A computer and infinite access to internet in college hostel opened my windows to world cinema. I also came to know about something called IMDB, which till today, happens to be the Google of movies. I started with Tarantino, Ritchie, Spielberg, Scorsese, Allen, Zemeckis, Hitchcock, Eastwood and Leone to name a few. I then moved on the best actors of all time, then to cinematographers, then the screenplay writers until a time when I started to think, what next?

Through internet, I started reading and noticing about the various international film festivals and movies that were making a big mark there. I also came to understand that language is no barrier for a great piece of cinematic art. Emotions transcend through the barrier of language and you have Subscene dot com and Subtitles dot org to give you a helping hand.

The complete collection of a singer or a musical band is called discography. I am proud to have completed the discography of many cinematic greats of all time. Like in the case of novels, movies too have some taboo. Almost all have read or seen it, but will never confess it. I mean if you have read novels, you must have read Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho and if you ever have watched international movies in the confinement of your hostel rooms, you must have watched Melina and Irreversible. Watching the latter was a soul shaking experience. To see rape enacted in a movie which was no less disturbing or terrifying that it must have been to the victims of this ghastly crime!

Movies are a part of my existence. It’s like a world of 3D emotional experience for me, where I feel the love, happiness, hatred and all sort of other emotions a character undergoes. For during the run-time of a movie, I am the protagonist and the antagonist, I am the male lead and the female interest, I am the right hand of the hero and I am the taxi driver he has a casual chat with and I am also the father of the beautiful heroine and I can feel the emotion while he caresses his daughter’s hair or cover her in his embrace. I am the old guy from the Notebook who loves his wife and I am also the Joker from the Dark Knight who is nothing more than a dog chasing cars.

Even with the most modest of calculations and taking only 9 straight years (since 2006), of watching movies every day, I have watched 9*365 = 3285 movies, which, trust me, is less than actual half of the movies I have watched. Even today, I watch one, everyday.

Everybody hates to and is fearful of dying. One of the things I will miss most in my afterlife would be that piece of 70 MM art which the world calls a motion picture!

The Video Game Console

What I am going to share with you is surely one of the funniest and yet one of the most embarrassing moments of my life, so far.

Back in my home town, Deoria(U.P), we own an electronic shop.

It actually started as an agency for Nelco Radio, way back in 1973 (The radio you saw in Barfi Movie). As it happened, we couldn't cope up with the changing times and what is left, is a small time sell and repair shop. These days, mostly Dad’s (retired) friends visit the shop as a junction for evening time Tea- Snacks and also a platform to discuss local issues.

We (I, my elder sister and younger brother) feared our father too much. Ironically, dad never beat us for our mischievous acts. In fact he practised non-violence with us. But don’t take a wrong clue from it. He has the power to give long lecturing sessions, non-stop!

That’s where the fear stems from. If disgraceful dialogues could kill, I could have died a thousand times by now. I believe the reason behind not beating would be the same - When he could slap us with his lectures, why to spoil a rod?

Dad’s school schedule was as follows ( No he didn't study till his fifties; he was a lecturer) :-

10:00 AM to 1:00 PM – School

1:00 PM to 1:45 PM – Back to home for a tea break and spend some time at the shop

2:00 PM to 4:30 PM – School

4:30 PM onwards – Home

I was in 07^th or 08^th standard (that would be 1999-2000). Dad had brought a hand held Videogame console from his recent visit to Delhi. Actually, I and my younger brother had literally begged my father to bring it. There were 2-3 games on it; one was Tetris and another one was Car Racing. I don’t remember the 3^rd one. The console was powered by two Pencil Cell batteries. I and my brother played so much on it that the batteries wouldn’t last for more than a couple of days.

It was not more than a week since we had our toy that we were showered with tons of lectures on the topic, that how this console was ruining our life and how we would end up opening a Pan Shop, or a Grocery store, among other things. The console’s battery was almost over and I and my brother were craving to play.

Saturdays used to be the day when school would get over early. If I remember correctly, it closed around 12-12:30 PM. According to my plan, if I left school at 12:35 and reached home by 12:45, I would’ve beg mom to give 10 Rs so that I could get a couple of batteries, then would go to the nearby shop to buy them and return by 1:00 pm. The plan was perfect. Dad usually got home by 5 past 1(1:05 PM).

The plan of the schedule was tight but I had to take the risk. I was using my sister’s cycle as my cycle was puncture. As per plan, I left the school, as soon as I could. For most part of the journey (from my school to home), I was cycling in an upright standing position for maximum speed. Not once did I rest my bums on the seat! As soon as I reached home, I threw my clothes, wore shorts, t-shirt, begged mom for mercy and pedaled my way to the market. I bought the pencil cell, pedaled back, but alas; I was late. Fate was cruel to me that day. Dad was already standing on the counter of the shop and he saw me.

He signaled his hands to come over. Obstinately, I cycled myself all the way to the counter, crossing the big open drain which is just outside the shop. Dad asked me, “Where have you been?”, “Had your lunch?”

I told him that I went to meet a friend and expectedly, dad didn’t buy that. He asked me to show my pockets and I said nothing’s there, but he was adamant to check my pockets.

As soon as he tried to open the counter of the shop to come outside, I tried to drift my cycle and run away. I don’t know what went wrong, but the next moment I know, I was in the drain! Cycle above me, all muck covering my face, body and hair. The drain was around 5 feet deep (almost of my height at that time) and 5 feet wide, but in non-rainy season, its level is generally around 3 feet, enough to drench me, not enough to drown me or take me with its current.

We had 2 working staff at that time and they both ran towards the drain. As they were trying to lift me up, I could hear my dad say, “let him be there for another 5 minutes”.

I couldn’t believe my ears! Then he continued, “he was being too smart, he should learn a lesson”

I was angry as well as distressed, so, If I would have opened my mouth, the drain sludge would have entered my mouth; all I could do was to make a squealing sound while my mouth was closed!

Finally I was lifted up, and was made to wash myself with mud in the garden area. Then the maid was deployed to wash me and she literally washed me like a dirty linen. A lot of shampoo and a new bathing soap was sacrificed to cleanse me up. I ended up having cold due to the long procedure, and was still being lectured till late in the evening.

It has been more than a decade and half but the memory is still so fresh that sometimes I can feel the sludge all over again :P

The whole incident taught me one thing, if you think you are smart, remember that your parents are smarter! Do Not Lie, especially if you’re a kid, since you've nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.