Today, I met some friends for lunch and my two best friends went ''Whenever I hear her talk about films I just go hmmm....'' and giggled. I responded by making my usually grumpy face, grumpier.
I just saw Before Sunset (which was amazing but I love Before Sunrise more). After almost violently recommending the trilogy to Adeeti, another one of my ever suffering best friends, I have decided to write about my love for movies.
When I was a kid the television was pretty much my favourite thing ever. (I know this makes me sound unimaginative and stupid but which of you hipsters didn't feel the same way about your TV?). Our ugly, black, bulky but wonderful Aiwa was probably the thing my brother and I have bonded and fought over the most. He wanted to watch cricket while I preferred music channels and dancing to ridiculous early 2000s Bollywood numbers. The inevitable conflict of interest would result in serious hand-to-hand combat sessions between the two of us. After he would get tired of us trying to kill each other and listening to my continuous bawling, in some sort of unspoken compromise, my brother (who would take great pride in successfully overpowering his baby sister. Congrats, Bhaiya.) would change to Star Gold or Zee Cinema and on rare occasions, HBO/Star Movies. We would watch a film-any film. Films were something we could both sith through, in peace. I have seen things like Koyla and Karan-Arjun with my brother. Aunty No. 1 was and still remains one of my favourite films. I remember on the day of Holi, the whole family saw Sholay on Zee Cinema. I loved it. I loved every moment of that long, dated but brilliant film.
Bhaiya and I still adore Hera Pheri and Chachi 420.
Hazaribagh was a really small town and in those days, films wouldn't release in the local theatre months after their actual worldwide premiere. I remember how we waited a month for Lagaan before someone found a pirated CD in some store. We rented it and finally saw the film. I loved it. I still remember laughing very hard when Guran says ''Lagta hai apni Amma ko yaad kar raha hai.'' when the umpire points towards the sky to declare a batsman out, the thrill of the final cricket scene and the euphoria we all felt when the villagers won the match.
That film doesn't move me as much as it did when I was younger. It is so difficult for films to remain fresh after so many years. Lagaan was still great though, I will always remember how I felt when I first saw it.
I was five or six when I saw Josh in the theatre and I don't know why but I still love that stupid film. I was lucky enough to watch some great films like Fiza, Mammo, Zubeidaa and Sathiyaa with my mom. It is only now when I am older that I realize that they were actually really good films. But most importantly, how can anyone from our generation have had a real childhood without the monstrosity that was Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham? I rolled my eyes, even as first grader, at the sheer impossibility of the lives they were leading in it. I loved Kareena's pink lehenga though and I could do a pretty mean dance rendition of Bole Chudiyaan for anyone who bothered to show half-hearted interest. So. Much Cringe.
I was obsessed with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai till I was six or seven. If it was ever on air, I would make a fuss and force everyone to watch it with me and it didn't matter that it was the eighth time I was watching it-I just HAD to watch it. The film is absolutely ridiculous but Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul was pretty much the definition of ''COOL'' for baby Zehra. He still is. Hell, he even wore a necklace declaring it to prove that. No judgement, please.
My father enjoys movies. I remember watching The Godfather and The Good, The Bad, The Ugly with him as a kid and not understanding anything that was going on but still, staying put in my seat and watching everything that was going on screen very, very carefully. My father and I watched Gladiator together as well. I was awed by how elaborate and grand yet effective everything was in that film.
There is something about cinema that has always fascinated me. I love, love, love films. I adore them. I feel almost as though I can breathe films. My parents used to be both, bewildered and embarrassed, by how much I could talk about them. I mean, there are prouder moments for a parent than their daughter blabberring on for hours to aunties who'd come for tea about how Kal Ho Na Ho is the most perfect film ever made. But they never really stopped me from watching movies as long as their content was not creepily adult and I wasn't watching them between 7 to 9 pm, which was studying time.
But I actually developed an actual taste in cinema beacause of satellite TV and the internet. So I watched Thelma&Louise, An Education, Erin Brokovich, Breakfast At Tiffany's, Catch Me If You Can, Vertigo, Runaway Bride, Se7en, Amelie and so on. I initially watched random foreign films because I was bored and then because I wanted to seem cool. But somewhere along, I actually started enjoying it. The subtitles worked for me. I realised that good cinema doesn't really require you to know a language. It just requires you to give it attention and sometimes, with foreign films, a little patience.
I have a handful of friends who fully understand my passion for cinema (special people who watch slasher movies with me and scream together) but most of my cousins love films as much as I do. I think its a family thing. Yasir Bhaiya, my eldest brother, would buy DVDs from stores in Delhi and give them to me. I spent my summer in 2012 watching another cousin's movie collection. It was pretty much one of the best summers I had. My sister and I always have detailed Skype discussions on everything we watch. When we all get together, we can discuss a film for hours.
Even when I was a kid, I had known that cinema was always way more than just entertainment for me. Films help me think and make sense of the world. I feel for characters and situations as though they are real people. I can relate to other people's struggles because of them. One can say that movies help me become a more sensitive individual. It is a lot like reading, if you think about it. You learn new things from good movies. It doesn't necessarily have to be facts but often it is just a deeper understanding of the human mind or society's condition.
I am far from being a connoisseur and there is so much I need to watch, so many genres I need to explore before I decide to call myself an expert but I can't stress upon how important it is to make kids watch GOOD movies. It makes them smarter people. Everyone talks about how important it is to read, which of course it is, but it is also just as important to make your kids watch good films. I love books and reading so I keep debating with myself over what medium is more effective-reading or cinema and I can never make up my mind. I have realised that both films and literature have had an equally lasting impact on me.
There is a lot I have learnt from movies. Things that I will remember for a long, long time.
Anyway, this is basically because I just saw Before Sunset.
I just saw Before Sunset (which was amazing but I love Before Sunrise more). After almost violently recommending the trilogy to Adeeti, another one of my ever suffering best friends, I have decided to write about my love for movies.
When I was a kid the television was pretty much my favourite thing ever. (I know this makes me sound unimaginative and stupid but which of you hipsters didn't feel the same way about your TV?). Our ugly, black, bulky but wonderful Aiwa was probably the thing my brother and I have bonded and fought over the most. He wanted to watch cricket while I preferred music channels and dancing to ridiculous early 2000s Bollywood numbers. The inevitable conflict of interest would result in serious hand-to-hand combat sessions between the two of us. After he would get tired of us trying to kill each other and listening to my continuous bawling, in some sort of unspoken compromise, my brother (who would take great pride in successfully overpowering his baby sister. Congrats, Bhaiya.) would change to Star Gold or Zee Cinema and on rare occasions, HBO/Star Movies. We would watch a film-any film. Films were something we could both sith through, in peace. I have seen things like Koyla and Karan-Arjun with my brother. Aunty No. 1 was and still remains one of my favourite films. I remember on the day of Holi, the whole family saw Sholay on Zee Cinema. I loved it. I loved every moment of that long, dated but brilliant film.
Bhaiya and I still adore Hera Pheri and Chachi 420.
Hazaribagh was a really small town and in those days, films wouldn't release in the local theatre months after their actual worldwide premiere. I remember how we waited a month for Lagaan before someone found a pirated CD in some store. We rented it and finally saw the film. I loved it. I still remember laughing very hard when Guran says ''Lagta hai apni Amma ko yaad kar raha hai.'' when the umpire points towards the sky to declare a batsman out, the thrill of the final cricket scene and the euphoria we all felt when the villagers won the match.
That film doesn't move me as much as it did when I was younger. It is so difficult for films to remain fresh after so many years. Lagaan was still great though, I will always remember how I felt when I first saw it.
I was five or six when I saw Josh in the theatre and I don't know why but I still love that stupid film. I was lucky enough to watch some great films like Fiza, Mammo, Zubeidaa and Sathiyaa with my mom. It is only now when I am older that I realize that they were actually really good films. But most importantly, how can anyone from our generation have had a real childhood without the monstrosity that was Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham? I rolled my eyes, even as first grader, at the sheer impossibility of the lives they were leading in it. I loved Kareena's pink lehenga though and I could do a pretty mean dance rendition of Bole Chudiyaan for anyone who bothered to show half-hearted interest. So. Much Cringe.
I was obsessed with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai till I was six or seven. If it was ever on air, I would make a fuss and force everyone to watch it with me and it didn't matter that it was the eighth time I was watching it-I just HAD to watch it. The film is absolutely ridiculous but Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul was pretty much the definition of ''COOL'' for baby Zehra. He still is. Hell, he even wore a necklace declaring it to prove that. No judgement, please.
My father enjoys movies. I remember watching The Godfather and The Good, The Bad, The Ugly with him as a kid and not understanding anything that was going on but still, staying put in my seat and watching everything that was going on screen very, very carefully. My father and I watched Gladiator together as well. I was awed by how elaborate and grand yet effective everything was in that film.
There is something about cinema that has always fascinated me. I love, love, love films. I adore them. I feel almost as though I can breathe films. My parents used to be both, bewildered and embarrassed, by how much I could talk about them. I mean, there are prouder moments for a parent than their daughter blabberring on for hours to aunties who'd come for tea about how Kal Ho Na Ho is the most perfect film ever made. But they never really stopped me from watching movies as long as their content was not creepily adult and I wasn't watching them between 7 to 9 pm, which was studying time.
But I actually developed an actual taste in cinema beacause of satellite TV and the internet. So I watched Thelma&Louise, An Education, Erin Brokovich, Breakfast At Tiffany's, Catch Me If You Can, Vertigo, Runaway Bride, Se7en, Amelie and so on. I initially watched random foreign films because I was bored and then because I wanted to seem cool. But somewhere along, I actually started enjoying it. The subtitles worked for me. I realised that good cinema doesn't really require you to know a language. It just requires you to give it attention and sometimes, with foreign films, a little patience.
I have a handful of friends who fully understand my passion for cinema (special people who watch slasher movies with me and scream together) but most of my cousins love films as much as I do. I think its a family thing. Yasir Bhaiya, my eldest brother, would buy DVDs from stores in Delhi and give them to me. I spent my summer in 2012 watching another cousin's movie collection. It was pretty much one of the best summers I had. My sister and I always have detailed Skype discussions on everything we watch. When we all get together, we can discuss a film for hours.
Even when I was a kid, I had known that cinema was always way more than just entertainment for me. Films help me think and make sense of the world. I feel for characters and situations as though they are real people. I can relate to other people's struggles because of them. One can say that movies help me become a more sensitive individual. It is a lot like reading, if you think about it. You learn new things from good movies. It doesn't necessarily have to be facts but often it is just a deeper understanding of the human mind or society's condition.
I am far from being a connoisseur and there is so much I need to watch, so many genres I need to explore before I decide to call myself an expert but I can't stress upon how important it is to make kids watch GOOD movies. It makes them smarter people. Everyone talks about how important it is to read, which of course it is, but it is also just as important to make your kids watch good films. I love books and reading so I keep debating with myself over what medium is more effective-reading or cinema and I can never make up my mind. I have realised that both films and literature have had an equally lasting impact on me.
There is a lot I have learnt from movies. Things that I will remember for a long, long time.
Anyway, this is basically because I just saw Before Sunset.
