Cinemato Magicia

The other day I was just watching another popular flick that perhaps triggered some emotion deep inside me that perhaps was not known to me previously as well. We see so many movies and there are often myriad of emotions we experience. Dwelling deeper into the topic and just having a one to one chat with myself, while walking down on the road on my way to the local supermarket, I stumbled upon the quintessential question “What is cinema all about?” “What is the essence and objective of any movie?”

As I continued walking, I actually enjoyed this self-debate. You see it is of uttermost importance that a person should be in a position of continuous conversation with himself. This helps you in coming closer to yourself and helping you find your true self. Nonetheless, coming back to the point, I continued to tread on this dusty and hazy path for answers and not realizing that while walking, occasionally I would stumble on a stone or perhaps casually kick a small piece of gravel, not realizing that it actually rose a lot of dust and made the air more dusty and hazy. An equivalence of the metaphor used can be translated in simpler terms to the fact that there were points of self doubt and at times, self induced questions purposefully to not only confuse myself but also to add to the fun of a more intellectual clash of the titans. Like they say, the best vs the best. The time when I was surrounded by qualms on such a debate, thinking whether I was treading on the right path or not, and further, a sense of insecurity regarding the question not being essentially a rhetoric one!

Without ambushing around or rather beating around a bush doing jinga lala with nothing but a leaf around my groin, let me come to the point. Recently, being at home and having a lot of disposable time, I reckoned that perhaps this is the best time to pursue some creative or rather some interesting hobby that would keep me engrossed and remove the loneliness of a monotonous life that I possess. And what better than being a couch potato and pursuing my long lost love for movies.

So, as I got prepared to talk on this voyage to the unknown like captain Kirk and Mr. Spock of Star Trek, I ventured to the nearest DVD store and got a pile of movies. Movies that were nominated for the Oscars or movies of the past that I hadn’t caught up.

To begin with what is the objective of cinema? I think cinema is nothing but the art of story telling. It is this art of story telling that encompasses various aspects and can be distinguished and demarcated based on different criterion into different spheres and realm. But irrespective of how you see it, the crux of the matter still is that it is an art of story telling. The art that all of us have been fond of right from the days of childhood, when someone used to tell us stories of fairies and elves and withes, or perhaps the common folklore, those anecdotes which brought about vivid images of varying diversity.

It encompasses things like colour, photography, sound and various other aspects that perhaps make this whole imaginary world so exciting and perhaps makes us dream. Dream of things we want to see or dream of things we perhaps are scared to see. Irrespective of come what may, it is something that draws us like people hypnotized under the crazy spell of a dreary and evil witch.

As I was seeing a whole lot of movies right from Brokeback Mountain to Munich to Crash and other older movies like The Saint, Ronin, Beautiful Life, Gladiator, I actually stumbled upon another very essential ingredient for any movie. Its called feelings and emotions. The response generated by the chemical hormonal system in your body in response to the variety of situations simulated in any movie.

Excitement, horror, comedy, remorse, sadness. Its all actually about connecting to the audience and getting the target audience with the intended emotions and feelings. As a viewer, what is it that actually happens. I always have some sort of a preconceived notion about every motion in some way or the other. Either I am informed by means of newspaper reviews, advertisements, trailers, or gossip of friends who have already seen the movie, references made by acquaintances, and whole lot of other ways. And I f nothing, then perhaps some miniscule of imaginations, a dash of creativity and a tinge of interpolation, I always end up having some sort f a viewpoint prior to the starting of the movie.

As the movie progresses, there are unimaginable number of permutations and combinations of what might happen, leading to like, dislike or perhaps a confused state for the movie. Without dwelling deeper into this side of the moon, I realized that it is the emotions that the movie generate actually make all the difference. On one hand you have the typically commercial movie that have a predefined strategy with the right mix of all the ingredients to make a super hit movie, that might leave us awestruck or happy or sad or for that manner, in any possible frame of mind as the movie intends to. I mean, you go to see a Jean Claude Van Damn movie or a Sylvester Stallone movie or perhaps a Dolph Lungredn movie, it is but obvious you would clench your fist and grit your teeth as you see the power packed explosives blowing away and grenades bursting in air and the lady in distress actually looking out to their knights in shining armour actually rescuing them. Similarly, any Jerry Bruckheimer or John Woo movie is typically one draws attention and is a sure shot seller and a hit.

And then there are these movies that leave me baffled. These movies that are totally against the conventional norm, with experimentation, different mixes and different strategy and with topics that may or may not be different, but differ in some quintessential manner. I mean specially these movies which are nominated for Oscars or other awards and other movies that might be actually not receiving the fame and stardom. I mean there are a number of movies, that actually a mirror the society, that articulately pin point things in human nature or life or the society that we usually try to overlook. Movies like Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Munich, Boys don’t cry, Schindlers List, 15 Park Avenue, Beautiful Mind, the list goes on. I know it would be unfair and great injustice to label all these movies as similar or to assess them on a common platform, but nonetheless, there are so many movies that are perhaps so real that they defy our standards and expectations and actually stand out blatantly looking out to you, violating every measure and glaring out to you.

Brokeback Mountain. I saw this movie, with a predefined notion expecting something great and another predefined notion that being gay is something so sick. Nonetheless, eventually the movie neared its end and in fact even as it ended, there was something so different. I knew it failed me in my expectations, and I kept asking for more, but some thing me stopped me from calling the movie as useless and a waste of time. It generated this entire feeling of being overwhelmed and left large traces of residual emotions that infact kept me dazed and confused. A walk alone as I walked to the nearest market, I actually realized the undercurrent and the theme that the movie was actually focusing on. Finding the theme was actually like standing on the threshold of seventh heaven and just on the verge of entering a blissful eternity.

I saw Munich and Crash and although things were not so dismal as it was above, but nonetheless, it did take time for me to emerge victoriously from a tug of war between the expected feelings and emotions generated by the movie and those that in a way hindered me from actually taking a peek into the actual theme.

Irreversible, another movie of monica belluci, was perhaps one of the most grotesque movie that I have seen in a long time. Perhaps the weirdest movie that I have ever seen till now. Call it my inexperience or inability to actually understand a work of art. While not intending to flaunt experience and wisdom, and accepting that any work of art deserves credit and differs on a person to person basis depending on the perception of any individual, this movie, irrespective of how it might have been, actually focused on another critical issue of rape, the dark side of any city, prostitution, she males and love.

There are different things and aspects about every movie that leaves some sort of an imprint on the minds of viewers like footsteps on wet sand. Captain Correlli’s Mandolin, Malena, Brokeback Mountain are amongst various movies that have such a beautiful cinematography and picturesque sceneries that make it worthwhile to watch these movies. Again some movies have tunes and themes that touch the heart and make the viewers coonect to it.

Irrespective, it is this magic that is woven by movies that we all love and it is the child in us that is hidden somewhere that still loves to clutch on to your two fingers and go on long walks. As the sun sets and as the grains of sand along with the blades of grass caress our feet, we like to go on and on this journey to the unknown, with a story and then another that makes us dream and imagine.