On Cinema

I have loved Cinema... each and every thing about Cinema makes me go crazy.... I adore cinema in all it's forms and styles.... however I am not one of those who has been an avant-garde intellectual who speaks about the 'great creations' of cinema....

I am a simple man... the cinema I love is the Cinema I was born and brought up with... the cinema that many may find escapist or too thoroughfare to be given a place of respect... my cinema is simple and it talks simple enough terms....

So of course I will talk of the Cinema of my heart.... although predominantly Hindustani in language and here I mean the twin sisters Hindi and Urdu.... I may at times also talk of some of the films that touched my heart deeply.... these maybe English or it may very well be one of the regional cinema that also boasts of a number of beautiful jewels.....

Indian Cinema is not only Hindi Cinema although if there is one art that binds the nation today and even those parts of the nation that are erstwhile... it's Hindi / Urdu Cinema.... the one I call Hindustani Cinema.... there have been great films and artistes all over India but my understanding and knowledge has been more attuned to the Hindustani genre... still I will take out time and write about the others too as my heart says.... whether Marathi, Tamil, Bengali, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Assamese, Punjabi or any of the others.. they have also enriched my cinema and so has Hindustani Cinema enriched them.... a cross-pollination across the times extending from the early days of last century and still maintaining that magic today....

I have heard a great deal about the great divide between the Art and the Commercial worlds of cinema and nothing makes me feel worse than such an artificial divide..... All Cinema is a work of art performed with the aid of science and technology and with a commercial angle to it.....

Economists may talk a lot about psychic fulfilment by production of a film that only satisfies the creative urge of the creator..... but is there something actually called as 'satisfaction of a creative urge'..... even the most reclusive of the makers expects appreciation and when such appreciation is demanded, it has to be bestowed in a form that makes it worthwhile.....

What's the use of an appreciation that does not allow one the right to again satisfy another 'creative urge'..... for no urge, whether creative or non-creative is a one-time affair.... it keeps repeating and it keeps calling for more attention and one can only be absorbed by another attempt.... in case, the project is not economically viable who is going to spend his hard-earned money on it..... after all, even the artist has a stomach and needs food even if he is enlightened enough to stay on the roads and roam naked as if on the streets of ancient Babylon....

So.. I believe in Cinema as one whole thing..... there can only be one definition of Cinema... either it can be Good Cinema or it can be Bad Cinema... in fact this is also a very clumsy label... the worst of the Cinemas have some redeeming aspect and the best of cinema may have a glitch....

So.. how do we then classify Cinema.... I would say ... the only way would be to classify it as one that inspires us to a newer and better Cinema or one that forces us to wring our hands in despair.. thinking what could have been!

Like George Best and his brand of soccer that never reached the World Cup makes people think what could have been.... Like the chess of Bobby Fischer that bloomed erratically all his life and makes people think what more could have been..... Like the cricket of Vinod Kambli that forces us to think of what we could have enjoyed.... so also, there are movies that make us feel what could have been....