Three Movies

There is no movie which I can finitely claim as my best movie or a favourite. The finality of superlatives scares me. I have three movies in mind that I watched again this week, as I write. Three planets I re-visited. Each a planet with a pull of its own.

Sudhir Mishra’s ‘Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi’, (Hindi) set in the times of political turmoil of the 70s in India,  is not just the movie that gave me the ‘Shiny Ahuja problem’, as my husband has been jestingly calling it for nearly a decade now, or a tale of lament over unfulfilled dreams. It is an intense struggle of identities as the characters grapple with their individualities, beliefs, emotions, dreams and realities on a shifting landscape, drifting ahead to where life takes them inevitably, changing them forever. A gem of a movie that I can never stop loving.

Some stories blur the fine line that divides fact from fantasy. Hariharan’s ‘Ennu Swantham Janakikutty’ (Malayalam) beautifully does that. Janakikutty’s charm lies in her imaginative and talkative conscience that holds us captive as she lets us in on her secret. M.T Vasudevan Nair’s story weaves in and out of the ancient sarppakaavus and ruins of the enchanting Yakshi kottaram that Kunjathol haunts. I have always loved to believe that Kunjathol was real, maybe because I had watched the movie for the first time when I was around Janakikutty’s age. A movie that transports me to a different age and place every time I watch.

‘Amelie’ (French) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet is all about the little joys of everyday life. I don’t follow French, and this is the reason why I have always been surprised at how close ‘Amelie’ is to the superlative side of my love for stories. When I watched it for the first time many years ago, I loved Amelie without understanding a word of what she spoke, yet loving every second of it. Everything from the little acts of kindness to the happy coincidences, ‘Amelie’ is all about life and its small, yet extraordinary moments that largely go unnoticed every day.

Movies are temporary refuges. Like dreams. You step into an alternate universe. Then you wake out of it and land back exactly where you had left from.

So as I drift into the next dream.

Adieu. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let the show begin!

Image
 A fond farewell to the old, as a bold 2022 unfolds. Power naps are super productive! It’s after one such snooze that I woke up to the impulsive, yet intense resolve to publish my first book. I don’t think I ever foresaw myself accomplishing the mission until that moment, when the thought almost exploded in my head like a supernova.  If 2020 was about surviving the colossal disorientation, 2021 was all about re-building the bridges & re-connecting with the self (that seemingly had been paused), as well as, with others. It was also about giving in to the now unpaused otherworldly biddings of the brain – in my case, resulting in Earth Sky – my first book of poems. The burning desire within, finally transformed into reality.  2021 made us work hard, & hope harder! The Cabin fever state-of-mind apprehensively gave way to a sneak peek of the mountains, the rivers and the back waters too - perks of working remote from God’s own country for a whole year! The post-pandemic (if there’s
Continue reading here... »

Colossal Contemplations

Image
I just sensed quite a few female subconscious minds flash yellow & black upon reading the post title this time. Well…the subconscious somehow always senses it right. Read on... The word ‘colossal’ used to draw images of the Colosseum in Rome or the Colossus of Barletta until a few years ago for the female population in the country, and that was precisely until the day Colossal Kajal from Maybelline New York hit the shelves, creating a furore in the beauty markets of India in 2011. Like the millions of ‘colossal’ fans all over the country I too lost no time in going loco over this yellow magic pen that gave your eyes the bold & beautiful look. How much ever bankrupt I became towards the end of the month I would always keep aside an emergency Colossal kajal fund just in case I ran out of this piece of 'sheer necessity' ;) In fact my husband thinks that all this is a tad too much for a lady who had never even bothered to use any form of make-up including kajal befo
Continue reading here... »

Summer on wheels!

Image
            It was that particular epoch of existence, when my life revolved around Salman Khan & roller skates. I’m talking about the pre-historic 3rd Std. goer - me - of the 90s surviving through childhood and its vagaries back in time when Salman Khan wore clothes and sported a gap in the middle of his front teeth and appeared to be as seemingly innocent as those darling Kabootars he was seen fondling lovingly from scene to scene in Maine Pyar Kiya .              Days used to dawn way earlier then, say as early as 6 A.M.! Did I just perceive gasps of gastroenteric shock from diverse quarters? (Well… hold your gastrics ye merry pre-dawn souls, we’re dealing with a late a.m. birdie here). So I was saying… I was passing through one of the most thrilling phases of my moppet life. I’d sit quivering with excitement like a bullet waiting to be released on Achan’s trembling Yezdi until we reached the Museum grounds, which would've already become dotted with the pre-dawn types
Continue reading here... »