Kitne aadmi the

‘Kitne aadmi the’. I am sure when Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar wrote this line or when Amjad Khan as Gabbar said them on screen; they would have never imagined it to become so popular. If you haven’t heard this dialogue and still Indian, then probably you are still in the Neolithic age and if I am not mistaken, you have just finished the deer you hunted last night and are strolling around in your night suit of tiger skin.

Why am I suddenly talking about this? It’s because I visited my dentist today. Wait, before you think that I am under the influence of any substance or have not yet come out of anaesthesia given by my doctor, let me tell you how this thought creeped or crawled (whatever you prefer calling that movement) into my head.

I was sitting still on the dentist chair and the dentist was busy digging through the canal (he had the same passion and sense of pride in his eyes that may have been on the labourer digging the Suez canal) and he was busy flaunting his armour consisting of pins, syringes, water jets and what not, my mind told me its time I fix my attention to something else- something more interesting than a fellow soul breathing over you. (Wow, I just realised I wrote the longest sentence of my life). This is when ‘movies’ my all favourite topic dawned on me.

I don’t know if I qualify to be called a ‘movie-buff’ but yes surely I like talking about them.

Movies for me are a medium of one’s expression. The director’s vision. It is his canvas. It is like photography where the same subject can be shot and presented in different ways. Just changing the angle or composition can change the photograph completely. There is nothing right or wrong about it. Like any form of creativity, Cinema too is subjective. Often Hits or Flops talk about only the commercial successes and not the creative spectrum.

Some movies like Andaz Apna Apna and Jaane Bhi Do Yaro have been an intrinsic part and its dialogues have become phrases cropping now and then in the conversation. ‘Shant gadhadhari bheem’ for ‘control your anger’; ‘Yeh aap idhar idhar kya dekh rahe hain ... udhar idhar dekhiye, udhar idhar’ for direction; ‘Galti se mistake ho gaya’ for ‘sorry’; ‘Teja main hoon ... mark idhar hai’ for ‘its me’; ‘draupadi jaisi sati nari ko dekhkar, maine cheer haran ka idea drop kar diya hai’ for ‘change of plans’ and so on.

Some other dialogues that keep wandering in my head and oscillating in various lobes of my brain are ‘Ja simran ji le apni jindagi’ (DDLJ); Pushpa, I hate tears (Amar Prem); ‘Babumoshai..(Anand), ‘Apke paanv dekhe...Inhe zameen pe mat utariyega, maile ho Jaenge’ (Pakeezah) and so on.

I think there are two broad categories of Cinema; Comedy and Non-Comedy. In Comedy, you can go all out with so much of non-sense that it starts making sense. But I don’t like comedy movies that become too serious in the end and suddenly start philosophising. It’s like just when you are about to kiss your girlfriend she talks about her bowel that was upset since morning.

I have enjoyed watching various genres of cinema and more than that discussing it with many friends who share the same passion. I have found that I develop a good camaraderie with people who share the same excitement about cinema as I do. It’s like birds of same feathers shit together. (That’s my contemporary version of the old adage).

Whenever I watch Hollywood movies I am very impressed with the way the story telling is done. The character is not sabotaged by the actor playing it. The focus is on the theme and the theme or the central plot is so clear that you feel happy watching the whole creation. Movies like Bucket List, Phone Booth, The Shawshank Redemption, Life is beautiful, Driving Miss Daisy, Forrest Gump are few movies that come to my mind.

Indian Cinema or Bollywood to be precise has undergone metamorphosis. Now, apart from the regular ‘dancing around the trees’ and ‘blowing the cars’ kind of movies we do have movies that are more on the story telling and creative side , tough very few in numbers. The former types of movies do become super hit in terms of box office collection. But atleast the journey has begun. Also we have a long journey to make in terms of the animated movies. Let’s hope we get to see Indian animated characters similar to Babe, Shrek or Lion King. And I am not talking about mythological characters like Chota Bheem or Ghatothkach.

In the recent lot, I was very impressed by the movie ‘Lootera’ by Vikramaditya Motwane. He actually managed to subdue Ranveer Singh and made both Ranveer and Sonakshi actually act. I liked the way the background score and silence was used to convey the emotions. The Cinematography, lighting and camera were simply amazing. It was a transcendent experience for me.

Well, all these jabberwocky happened during my five sittings or layings (that's the posture you take) at my dentist’s clinic. Finally it was time to pay my dentist for his excavations that he very enthusiastically and adeptly undertook in my mouth. Luckily there were no traces of any Mahenjodaro or Harappa civilisation remains. The canal is now laid and I am free to navigate out of the dentist’s den.

Let there be light (sound, roll camera and action)...