Its over a century old, but cinema has been homo-sapiens' favorite past time since the times of Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens and Metropolis. Back home Dadasaahab phalke ruled the roost for a good decade or so. The face of cinema changed with Chaplin and Welles in the west and went through a terrific transformation in the east with stalwarts like Akira Kurosawa and Guru Dutt.
But sadly the world of cinema today stands divided between people who love the art of cinema and the people who love movies.
Now, I like to think of myself as a smart guy, and i'm pretty sure i am. I also have a keen eye for Cinema but I find myself fighting the urge of getting into a fistfight with anyone who said he/she liked Love Aaj Kal. Dont get me wrong if movies like Love Aaj Kal weren't being made our beloved industry would have long vanished , but to say the movie is actually good is something i cannot seem to digest.
Now me, I loved the Kaminey side of things- The beauty and darkness of Vishal's masterpiece, Dev D- the almost sadistic retelling of the great bong tragedy, Satya- the poetic yet bloody tale of love, deceit and war. And these are movies that have actually been dubbed as 'great'. Leaving aside the plethora of indian masterpieces of the 40's, 50's and 60's.
I do have a habit of imposing my burden of knowledge on all my peers. Though I myself have been subject to some of my friends' burden of knowledge (Read Munna, Sam and Aah Aman). But this seemed to teach me what truly good cinema is. And I do feel the need to teach my friends the same. But i guess that is where the pooch gets screwed.
Although movies like Love Aaj Kal, Fanaa, Dhoom 2, Krish etc, to me were equivalent to a heap of celluloid fecal matter, it needs to be said that for the average moviegoer they were a few hours away into a world free of their worrisome lives.
A world where they wanted to kiss Aishwarya Rai on the lips and have her kiss them back, A world where they wanted to be saved by a superhero like Krish,A world where the sight of seeing Shah Rukh Khan die made their eyes well up, even a world where the girls wanted to wear Churidaars like Deepika Padukone and dance their way around the labyrinth that is Delhi with an "apparently cool" hero.
This is where the thinking part comes in. We all love movies. In our different ways. So why this constant need to one-up the other.
So here's calling a truce... We will keep on loving the movies that compel us to think for weeks about the ending, that make us visit imdb.com to see who played who and look at all the trivia we seemed to miss. And all of you keep on loving the cinema that makes you smile and sing and dance for 3 hours and that gives you the juice to better deal with the major buzzkill that is your nay our life.
And finally as the great Charlie Chaplin put it "Life is a tragedy when seen in close up, but a comedy in long shot."
Who are we to say what's what?
