Tuesday, November 09, 2010

A slice of life

I like Art movies. I like art movies for its deliciously stark portrayal of real life. It’s a relief from commercial cinema that has no resemblance to real life. I find Art movies refreshing. The more stark the reality the better. It is like a purge, a purge from the one sided vista, commercial cinema brainwashes you with, whether it is patriotism, family relations, poverty, love, and relationships… anything and everything and the way it is shown.

For people like us, who live in concrete cages, Art movies are like a bite of real life.

While growing upon a steady diet of Malayalam and Hindi movies thanks to my Dads collection, I learnt to look at life through pink tinted glasses. Elders were nice. Poor people were humble, grateful and loyal to their benefactors. Boyfriends sang songs to their girlfriends and girlfriends pledge eternal troth to their boyfriends. Husbands were pillars of the family and mothers, the foundation. And lot of other blah blah.

Then came Art cinema, the next item in my Dad’s menu and I saw my first “Ankur” like swallowing a bitter pill. A very bitter pill. I didn’t like it and wanted some nice mushy movie. But Ankur fascinated me. It raised a lot of questions that my folks had to answer red faced, perhaps cursing themselves under their breath for opening a can of worms.

That movie also taught my mom to get over the reticence of her upbringing and face her metro kid and tell her what adultery was all about. What landlords of yore were and the social system that existed in villages and between upper castes and lower castes, the rich and the poor.

Reality is a bitter pill to swallow and but it makes you feel so much better after that. I mean it felt good to see people with shades of grey unlike the black and white portrayal in commercial cinema. For very love story there existed ten of betrayal, for every good husband there were ten bad ones and for every chaste woman there existed many who were not. It explained a lot of things that puzzled me from real life.

Today I relish Art movies. They are like a sneak peek into the real India. A break from the untiringly nice Moms, as portrayed by commercial cinema to the woman who has needs and a personality and frailties of her own as shown by art cinema. I would say that Art cinema has its fingers on the pulse of change that is taking place in a transitional society like ours. And keeping us in touch with it.


What we need is more Art cinema. I think the public is ripe for it.

And with this I complete 300 posts at My Think Pad . Thank you for your support and interest :)

10 comments:

Anish Thomas said...

first of all congrats on 300th post......I like this version more than poomanam.......

I generally like movies of type devd,palerimanikam ,page3 and few shyamaprasad stuffs.But at the same time i will better take a beer and sleep instead of watching adoor gopalakrisnan kinda movies.Yeahh we need good realistic movies to remind us and make us aware about things happen around us........

Gauri Gharpure said...

you have said it all when you point put tht art cinema show a shade of grey instead of plain black and white of commercial cinema. Art cinema indeed provide fodder for thought..

a film tht really seemed like a bitter pill as bhumika (Smita Patil).. i hope to see a lot of good films tht i have missed and such posts give a nice range of choices.

Congratulations for the 300th post.

dr.antony said...

I do like them.But some directors seem to overdo it, and make it monotonous.Art doesnt mean shouldnt be enjoyable by every one.

Akanksha Pandey said...

Interesting write up. I'd agree movies that portray real life with its fair share of grey are far more worth appreciating.I would vouch for it.

However once in a while personally I'd want to return to my chic-flicks and candy floss, only because I love happy rose-tinted endings and I'd want to watch a movie which would give me a break from harsh reality around and help me smile, even if its not completely realistic! :)

skar said...

It is a miracle that Think Pad has been defibrillated to some semblance of life and pulled through to 300. I will stay by its side in its hour of need, even as its heart, a Ms. Anjali Philip, vacillates between pumping life and abandoning it.

Nice post :)

Pink Mango Tree said...

300!! What it is indeed a great number! Congrats... looking forward to more...

Talking about art movies, I watched this amazing movie called 'Astitva'. If you have not watched, grab the dvd; I am sure u will love it!

Anonymous said...

I like Art movies. For insomniacs like me, they are a perfect substitute for sleeping pills.

Stella said...

All we see in the cinemas is violence and nudity.In order to develop a little brains and souls, we need art!

Peppo said...

I don't know if this falls into your category of Art movies but watch 'Magnolia' if you haven't. Also there are a lot of foreign films in the same vein which are really mind blowing. Nice honest blog btw.

Unknown said...

like this post.

pm kutty