Yaadon ka Karkhana # 2 - Movies & Magic

By


2017 was the year I spent most of the time lying in my bed. One after another several health issues kept hitting, rendering my unable to do anything much except sleep and mop around in bed. While I did spend most of it shedding copious tears, but once I was bored of doing that I decided to watch movies. Because holding books at times is an effort, music seems like noise and you feel like staring at something on the screen which distracts you from your current surroundings. After books if there is anything that has the magical power to tele-transport you, then it has to be movies.


Though I have always been a movie lover, it was during that phase I realised the joy of watching them as an artist. Maybe because it was devoid of any guilt. You see, growing up in middle class Indian households you are bound to be told off for watching too many movies. They tend to brain wash you and make you dream of things which are not possible in real world - that is what the core belief behind it was. I am glad, that I managed to shake off that guilt pretty soon.

I watched short films, microfilms, full length movies, documentaries, series - everything and anything that could be construed at visually appealing. And that is when I decided to maintain a movie diary where I note down the name, language (Yes! I watch across languages and thank God to subtitles for that), genre and my initial feelings before watching the movie. At times I leave the page blank to note my thoughts after watching the movie, scribbling on and off randomly because movies just like books tend to have after effects. Some relevance. some scene, some song, a lyric, a dialogue  - suddenly comes to your mind out of the blue and you just pause to ponder over it, appreciate its beauty because life will  never be the same without doing so.

Image Source: Pinterest
It is interesting how movies teach you so much, not only about life and relationships but also about writing and art. Like that one scene where you cannot help but simply pause the screen and just admire the whole feel that scene has - the colours of the wall, the curtains, the lighting, that upturned book in one corner, the heaps of clothes lying on the floor, the crumpled bedsheet, the dishelmed hair of the protagonist - each and every thing on the screen has a dialogue of it's own to add to the scene and that is what makes it out of this world.

Over a time I have managed to create a decent list of movies along with some inadvertent observations which I plan to share here going forward. Some might sound like ramblings while some are honest, straight from the heart confessions triggered by the scenes or the overall storyline of the movie. But I do so, in a hope that it leaves you a little more hopeful, cheerful and joyful than before.



Popular posts from this blog

Essay: How to mourn the loss of love?

By
Image
Image Source: Unsplash.com I remember the first time I mourned the loss of love was when I was eleven.  For me, dance was love at that time. I had discovered a strange joy as I glided in and out of those movements. Every time I swirled; I could feel my heart soar. Any beat that strained to reach my ears, tempted me to move my body to its tune. I just knew I was born to dance and that is the only thing I wanted to do, all my life.  I had my reasons to believe so and a very simple one at that. It made me happy. That was a reason enough. However, my father thought otherwise. Girls from good families, do not dance. That line was enough to break all those rosy dreams of dancing on a stage. The day my brother was sent to the same dance class which was not good for me, was the day I experienced heartbreak for the first time.  That is the day I mourned the loss of my first love- Dance. 
Keep reading »

Diary of a Lost Wanderer - Lost & Found

By
Image
Dear Diary, I fell in love with Mumbai when I first visited it in 1995. Bombay, as it was then known, fascinated me since then.  If you ask me what made me fall in love with this city, I perhaps cannot explain. It wasn't that I was seeing the sea for the first time. It wasn't even the biggest city I had been to till then. Still, there was something so magical about this place. The trip was a short one lasting less than a week but this city now had my heart. Years later, I arrived here all alone on my first solo trip in 2005 and fell in love all over again. I got my first job and was required to come to Mumbai frequently. The local trains, the chaos on the roads, the crowds, the humdrum, the salty smell in the air, the stale air- everything about this city was intoxicating for me. 
Keep reading »

Metro Diaries: The Art of Making Love

By
Image
Image Source: Unpexels (Cottonbro) “Do you know why is it called making love?” He whispered, pulling the comforter closer.  I don’t remember for how long we had been in that room, on that bed. Lying aimlessly, just feeling each other in silence. I managed to just whimper to denote my curiosity.   “Because that is the moment we create love. We are the closest we could ever be to love, in its purest form. It is sheer magic as we are naked, in every form. Mentally, physically and emotionally before that one person, we love. We know they can hurt us, as much as they want to, in the way they want to. But love gives us that power to trust them, that they won’t.”   “And here I was thinking it is a need. Something you want at that moment and you get it!” 
Keep reading »