LIFE AND CINEMA

I saw a movie last month ‘Agnipath’ and I saw a movie again this month ‘Paan Singh Tomar’. Last month I was in Goa with Biki and so all the boys said lets go and watch a movie. This month I went by myself because I wanted to see Paan Singh Tomar. For me this is a puzzling phase because I don’t see movies anymore for months and years together. Two movies in two successive months is an odd change, big time. There was a time twenty five years ago during 1984 to 1986 when I was new in Nagpur, with no friends and used to see atleast a movie every week. I maintained a dairy about the date the actors and the songs and saw more than two hundred movies during that period. The reason for the sudden surge in movie watching apart from loneliness was also because my father had a long time ago scolded me for watching too many movies and therefore I had totally stopped going to the theater. I was kind of doing overtime then for all the movies I had missed. Slowly over the years I came to realize that movies were a waste of time. Main stream Hindi cinema is always over the top, always unrealistic. The non-main stream or parallel cinema was very boring and the third option ‘slapstick comedy’ movies were only bearable on certain days. They had stopped making those mythological movies decades back. Many a times I had suffered because I misinterpreted the life as depicted in the movies to be real life. The relationship, emotion, thinking, and action as shown in the movies used to impact my thought process and this led to many disappointments. I was impressionable and stupid, I still am but then I managed to move away from the movies. One day the realization dawned upon me that by watching movies I become completely dependent for my happiness on the happenings with some fictional character all outside of my control and my life. In fact I was pawning my personal inner growth for some unrealistic stories and unfortunately calling myself happy. My friends like everybody’s friends discussed movies with a passion as if their life hinged on it. The popularity and non-admiration of the star cast became the central focus of their lives. This behavior is being justified on the grounds that movies make us forget the harsh realities of life. But I reckon that we humans like to see movies because we love our image and our ego and cannot stop imagining ourselves in the shoes of the character weighing emotions and executing impossible actions. We love to roll in the ego, firmly believing in the triumph of goodness and in automatic deliverance in a God fearing society. Therefore emotions that seize and captivate our heart like laughter, thrill, dare-devil feats, sacrifice, romance, anger, hatred and sex are very popular. Sadly that takes us away from understanding who we really are, from understanding what real life is about and what permanent happiness really is. Ironically the make belief and the false triumph. Alas!

Well, both Agnipath and Paan Singh Tomar are similar in story-line. They are about the vulnerable good folks who when unjustly treated by bad oppressors, succumb to the emotion of anger, seek vengeance and in the process sacrifice their life. The broad theme is about self-respect and the non-tolerance of injustice. But while the former is over the top and loud the latter is very practical, down to earth and artistic. Paan Singh Tomar was a treat to watch. Since it was based on a real individual I wanted to understand why an achiever lost his balance, I should mention that I came back satisfied. The treatment of a man’s vulnerability and his pride has been very delicately handled. After very many years I really wanted to see a movie and I am pleased that my instinct was right.