Passion for Cinema
iView Author:
Shiladitya Bora
(Ahemdabad, India)
E-mail:
shiladitya [at] fulmarxx.net
Title – Passion for Cinema
Standing in a queue for hours on end to get the tickets of a movie the release of which you have been waiting for a month. Raving mad, in this world of instant gratification, you would say, and of course, you are right, by Jove.
But ask the ones who actually stand in line for movie tickets, books (not just Harry Potter), rock shows, Playstation et all.
What’s life without a little madness, a streak of the loony, a little risk? The star-cast is what makes him drool for the movie. A girl stands outside a classy bungalow in Mumbai for half a day just to get a glimpse of her all-time favorite actor. A paan-wala boasts of having been this close to the all so beautiful actress – an eternal beauty, he claims. A teenager is all so excited about the dinner invitation with a celebrity that she has won on a contest. The diversity of India is what I am talking about here, my friend.
A certain nostalgia catches hold of me, a sense of larger-than-life bearing, a feeling of déjà vu overpowers me as I am drawn irresistibly towards the edge of my wretched couch (if you can call it a couch). Here I have taken the liberty of ascribing it the adjective ‘wretched’ since it has taken the weight of my not-exactly-like-a-superstar (boo-hoo) body on its diminutive frame without a single groan of misery.
And nothing could unite us more than our love for Bollywood. Gathering precision, it is our devotion to the Bollywood stars. But not anymore! The equation is changing swiftly. The fan club for on-screen deities is rapidly being replaced by a much-awaited recognition for the behind-the-screen crew, which I feel is long overdue for its due. No longer is Cinema just the dazzle-and-razzle world. It is the dream world of talented directors, artistic cinematographers and creative script writers. No longer is a movie awaited solely for its cast, however, it is surely awaited for its structured story line. No longer does an expectant fan, disappointed with a film, merely come out of a theatre to remark “How could such a legendary actor work on such bloody crap!”. That is passé, to state an understatement. But it is more likely that one would hear from her “What happened to this talented director who created such a masterpiece in his last release!”
This also presents a piece of positive news for the acting fraternity. At the least, the blame is shared for a flop, a succession of which we have had the bad luck to witness over the past few years, with some actually good cinematic masterpieces being few and far-between.
Gone are the days when the actress’s accessories, breathtaking scenery (mostly imitative) and the well-sequenced dance numbers were the only things counted among hot topics for discussion. The audience now attempts to view a film from a critic’s perspective – analyzing the various angles the movie is shot from, studying the effect of the proper shades and lighting and realizing the impact of good editing. The oh-so impatient Indian viewers wait till the very last moment in the theatre to see the
names of each and every person associated with the movie. It is their way of applauding a good team effort, their way of reaching out to the ordinary man who turned her/ his dream-like image alive. The single person credit take-away scenario has definitely transformed into a team acknowledgement exercise. Our perceptions are changing and our horizons are broadening. It is not restricted territory any longer. Nor is it an inheritable domain. It is a revolution. It is clairvoyance. It is not only about our love for films. It is truly, in every sense, a Passion for Cinema.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
i m also from Ahmedabad. hope to meet u soon.
lovely piece of work… inspiring truly!
Shila
Welcome to PFC.
Good luck with your Short Film Festival. I hope its a great success.
You should write a post about that.
Thanks Mainak!!
will follow soon.
Good one
Well Done… we ahmedbadis are waiting for ur fest.. truly inspiring…!! good work.. all d best…
Nice… very expressive…