Movies & Me!

I had been one of these people who didn't take movies very seriously until about a few years ago. In fact, I should put it that until my marriage I didn't see a lot of movies; especially English movies. Thanks to Ganesh, my husband, I am now watching movies by the dozen every month.

In my school and college days, I watched movies just for entertainment or for my favorite hero. Then, once I crossed that phase, I lost interest in movies as a whole because I thought it was a waste of time. I also became this person who thought that saying, 'I don't watch movies at all!' was fashionable and made me look like an intellectual person ;) Of course, I now know that I was stupid and it was one of those 'keeping up with the joneses' act that I got into at that time. Anyway, because of my skewed thinking, I had until then just watched movies for entertainment and didn't think of movies as a medium of powerful expression of ideas. Frankly, I never explored my creative side until quite late in my life. And once, I started thinking more creatively, I started appreciating art forms including cinema. Now, I look at actors (the good ones) as absolutely terrific people who are able to convey a message so poignantly. It is amazing, especially how Hollywood actors, carry off their roles so wonderfully that for the hour and a half that a movie lasts you are almost living the story as if it was real.

I have come to watch movies with a real critical eye nowadays. I am not sure if this is called being creative or if it just comes with age. However, I don't watch all genres of movies. My favorites are drama kind of movies which are closer to reality, though I also like comedy and thrillers which are well made. I now watch movies, and go, "Wow!! That was a great movie that conveyed such a powerful message that I also keep reading in so many books and I discuss with like-minded people so seriously." I am not sure if this just the 'movie magic' that seems to have gotten me; but I think it is more of an overall refinement that comes with age, knowledge and experience. The kind of knowledge that gets you to pick up or identify yourself with the ideas and thoughts that interest you the most and that you keep pondering about, irrespective of what medium that knowledge comes from.

I guess one of the down sides of all this gyan I have acquired is that I now have one more commitment to keep to myself - Watch all the good movies that have been made until now and that would be made in the future! Whew! now that is one hell of a task that will eat up so much of my time. But, I guess it is worth it.

Images from : http://www.biggeststars.com/w/woody-allen-photo-14.html
www.canmag.com/news/4/3/3386
www.webindia123.com/movie/profiles/south/kamal.htm

Quotes from 'My Hero'

I happened to see an interview of Kamal Hasan in a Malyalam channel when I was on holiday in Kerala recently. As usual, I was bowled over by his thought provoking views. I seem to be going very close to idolizing him!

I just wanted to put down two quotes from his interview as it struck me as very profound. So here go.

1. To a question about religion(I didn't hear the question fully as I just then switched on the TV), he said, "Would anyone ask a man if he is a man or a woman or what he did with his wife yesterday night? Religion is just as personal. No one should ask anyone else about it." I thought this was a beautiful way of looking at religion and that if everyone thought of it this way, may be we will have more peace and harmony in our universe.

2. The host questioned him about whether he was afraid of aging. To which he answered, "No. Why would I? I look at life as a journey and death as a part of that journey; So, I can't be scared of it. Every sentence has a full stop, otherwise the sentence will become boring. It's the same with life." I was so enthralled with this analogy, I couldn't stop thinking about it. So, obviously the next thing was to blog about it.

I am not sure how this goes down with all of you, but because I caught myself thinking so much about it, I thought it wouldn't be a bad idea to put it down for those of you who would want to reflect on it.