A year ago, or even a quarter of a year ago ...okay so I have to admit I’m facing a serious case of writer’s block, and its been on for months now. You know, months and months of agonising inability to write anything substantially noteworthy. And the feeling that this is simply stretching on and on .
Not even written a poem yet, which I generally do when my feelings stay repressed for a tad too long, or when I feel all inky dark inside and want it squirt it all outside. As I attempt to articulate my collective musings, IIFA Awards is going on on TV. And must I say what a fashion disaster its gradually turning to be. Not that I generally check out clothes, but the fashion mis-sense has obviously compelled me to scream it out aloud. Take Sonam Kapoor’s badly choreographed, badly executed dance, complete with the tacky dress and all. Ditto for Bipasha Basu. I continue writing about aspiring starlets meanwhile realising what a waste of resources such Award functions are-they all turnin tacky, what with all the low brow gyrations to even distasteful Hindi music. Having said that, it is noteworthy to note, obviously, how the same functions unite an entire film fraternity, not exactly entire with ‘serious professionals’ like Aamir who refuse to buy what cinema herrings term ‘the jury’s decision’. With the exception of a few such Aamirs, the industry graciously comes together in the spirit of all those romantics, who courageously unleashed their creative talent for people all over to see, their performances even being smuggled out to stricter nations. It is artistes like these in whose memories we need to work upon and toil, and incessantly uphold the very ideals for which the industry was created and stands today. To dream on. To entertain. To represent the collective psyche of the masses. And when this is what it functions for, the power to change the way a nation thinks is but a natural by-product. Industry –wallahs should just tap into it, as in many cases they already are. Take homosexuality for example, had mainstream movies not been made on it, it probably had not been raised people’s voices a notch higher. As much as I feel negatively of it, it is still an untackled issue, by and large. Schizophrenia. Communal riots. National disintegration. A nation of disinterested youth. Terrorism and religion. When has modern cinema failed to address such issues! However, in my opinion, the glamour seems to be steadily seeping in to assume proportions of wasted repercussions. In a country where we as a nation are very much aware of the role of education in society, what efforts are being taken to potray thorough professionalism or glamorise something pure. Can that be done? Is it possible? Are we really through with bikini babes, and the mindless comedies centered on themes that even their directors themselves fail to entirely comprehend? Agreed they are lapped up many people. But just lets begin the tugging. Gently at first, because its gonna hurt bad. And bring people gently and safely from point mindless caper to point wow-what had I been watching before!! That is the purity cinema really stands for, to me.
We are capable of achieving it. But the problem is I do not know how to define that timeless essence which can in idea move mountains. Are we really going there, or just teetering there, hanging on till we get a real deal once every x years. Is cinema just about gathering every year for a gala round of applauses and bronze statuettes, when the bronze givers in no way represent the real audience out there. Is it slowy turning into this subtle battleground for domination, or is the work sincerely shining through the murky controversies of their artistes. I hope its the latter. I hope our taste in cinema matures, coz that would possibly mean cinema itself is influencing us.