Yaadon ka Karkhana # 2 - Movies & Magic

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.

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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.