Monday, July 26, 2010

For the love of Cinema.

When I had nothing exhilarating to do on a not so happening Monday evening, I let my fingers rummage through an old carton stacked with DVDs, rusted and shagged. Out came a few, in dusty masses of dirt, strands of my long curly hair and an ancient stole. It must have been left in abandonment for, well, a really long time, because I couldn’t remember using that stole and the curly strand of hair brought some weird nostalgia of days spent over cursing my hair.


So, I dug in deeper and picked a random plastic case which under the same dispersion of dust, read, ‘Khamoshi – The musical’. It had a poster of Salman Khan and Monisha Koirala, smooching. And despite the presence of Nana Patekar’s too-realistic-to-be-romantic face on the same frame, the poster somehow made up to appear romantic. There was a time when I loved this movie, so dearly. There was a time when I would come home from school and play its music, every evening for an entire month. And then one day, I couldn’t take ‘bahon ki’ or ‘Aaj me ooper’ anymore; so I moved onto other fascinations. Thirteen years later, simply glaring at that picture was still a warmth-inducing feeling. I did not end up watching ‘Khamoshi – The musical’ that evening. Over years, it has slowly glided out of my all time favorites though sometimes during conversations about good Bollywood, I still love to say ‘I love Khamoshi’.

Movies have been quite a staple of a food in my life. In everybody’s life, I suppose. There are some, I love, love and love. On this piece of random blog rambling today, I thought I’ll remember a few of those, in honor of my ‘love, love and love’ for ‘em.

The list is not complete; there's a few more I have adored, loved and love to love. I can't believe I haven't included 'Alaipayuthe', 'Anbe Sivam', 'Jurassic Park', or ' Christmas Carol', perhaps for the lack of words(and space) (and your time) to describe the beauty.

Not sorted in any particular order.

1. Anjali


The first movie to ever leave me struck with wonder of what movies were all about. I came out of the theatre, in tears which warmly remained so for a long time afterward. As an eight year old kid, I didn’t quite understand or pay detailed attention to the beauty involved in this cult Maniratnam-craft. All I knew was that I wanted to go, watch this movie again, smile, rejoice and come out of the theatre yet again in tears which I did, after a week and some hardboiled cries of plea at dad’s knees. With abundance of great cinematography, music, dialogues and the essence of Maniratnam’s portrayal of human emotions, twenty years and probably about several hundreds of movies later, Anjali still stands rich and classic in my list of favorites.



2. Roja


For everything about it. And there is one thing I want to put outside and beyond the word ‘everything’ here– THE MUSIC. With Roja broke out a volcanic eruption of a new era of music. But I had no idea. It was simply customary in our family to watch a Maniratnam movie; so we went. You know, though some Maniratnam movies arguably do not stand completely honest for a ‘family’ watch (with the erotic pudhu vellai mazhai, Roja was strictly outside a PG-consideration), we nevertheless did go. Dad had said he read some rave reviews about the music. I was still humbly naïve then to have asked who the music was by. After the movie, we went straight to an audio shop and did ourselves a favor by investing in the audio cassette that went on to make history in world music. Every household in my neighborhood, Tamilian or not, music lover or not, dutifully added Roja to his/her treasury of music. And every time I watch this movie, there is one thing that slightly gets more handsome than Aravind Swamy and more attractive than Santosh Sivan’s gorgeous landscapes and better than Maniratnam himself – the music that I am still head over heels in love with.



3. Titanic


But, of course!! If there are souls in this world who do not like Titanic, I respectfully think they could be probably psychopathic, blank, selfish or antisocial. Even if you were all that, you would still want to bow to the magnificence hiding behind Cameron’s multi million dollar head. I mean, it’s TITANIC.





4. Dil Chahta Hai



I remember watching this movie on a girl’s night out, at a friend’s place, through silent, wee hours of the night, over casual conversations. Over the first few minutes of the movie, we stopped conversing; only occasionally opening our mouth to let out a chuckle, a mild gasp or a content smile. The silence carried on heavily in my mind long after the movie was over. And I am honest to God when I say this – the next morning when I woke up, I emerged better a person; I wanted to start life all over again, Dil Chahta Hai style. It still helps me resort my thinking when I know I have to break off the pessimism that sometimes clutters up in life and restart. If you are reading this and haven’t seen this movie, I beg you with folded hands to do so. And do so every time life sulks. It’s worth every second.





5. Ratatouille


For the magic, movies can make us experience!!For the beauty of colors ! For the love of animations we all grew up on ! For the lusciousness of the sexy Italian food ! For the beauty of Remy !For the love of the genius called PIXAR ! For the love of cinema !







*

11 comments:

Siddhesh Kabe said...

Ahh...apart from Anjali, I have seen the others...and yes they are nice...:D

Karen Xavier said...

All the movies mentioned here are beautiful, but if I had to pick out the best... it would be without a doubt Dil Chahta Hai. That was one awesome movie, rare to find these days. Even Titanic was in a word magnificent, how could you not help falling for the lead characters. Roja had mesmerizing music as you said, that was when we all got to know the mozart of Madras. Anjali was just too cute for words...

Dr Roshan Radhakrishnan said...

nahiiii.. anything but Titanic !!
I too loved Roja and yes, the music played a huge role.. other iconic ones were indeed DCH...
Used to like Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai.. but that was for personal reasons ( being teased with a girl abt it ) :)

$ph!nX said...

There are times when I hate movies that make me cry.. And yet, I love them for that exact same reason!

Anjali and Titanic were beautiful movies. DCH, I haven't seen yet.. Might I suggest "Kannathil Muthammittaal" as well? "Vellai Pookal" always seems to reach deep down in me and touch strings I never knew existed!

Luckymoi said...

Am sure the order of the listing is based on the age you were when the movie released :-D

Characteristics of each movie in order they were listed
1) Sentimental
2) Romantic
3) Sacrifice
4) Friendship
5) Happy go Lucky life in Fantasy

To choose the best would be real tough as it would mean choose one characteristic over the other. Each movie was a creation of its own. Hats off to the people who made it happen !!

PurpleHeart said...

Roshan, Nahiiiiiii !!!! But that's just the way the world works, right? Insanely diverse minds! :)

Aneesh, hmm...'Kannathil..' was a great one too, but I don't really see it in my choice of favs, perhaps for the excess of political content in it.

Haddock said...

Out of this complete list, Ratatouille stands out as No one for me.

Readers Dais said...

Hi! Sandhya,

thats a gr8 selection uve listed here..not seen the 5th still loved ur selection,maniratnam yes is the best in the industry and as u too had the chance my parent too were verymuch into his films,maybe thats y i too never miss..but i would like to add Dilse for the painful success of love though with death, and Iruvar simply for its beauty of shots and the superb acting of both Mohanlal & prakashraj, i never get bored seeing them again & again.

Still waiting friend for the sweet.. :(

PurpleHeart said...

Unni, Mani is the king !

PurpleHeart said...

And, you HAVE TO watch Rattatouille !! :)

arvind said...

interesting post..