Real Cinema

Fresh pop corn liberally smeared with large amounts of butter, and a huge serving chilled pepsi was all my friend enjoyed at a tamil movie we recently saw together. The protagonist would jump in the air and dodge bullets, sometimes even bounce them off his body and do many things to save the lustrous heroine . He would deliver dialogues of a higher intellect and caliber with a sacred, yet eloquent meaning . He would portray a monumental character of a legend, he would do noble, great and commendable things, he would perform feats that were unimaginable. Sing songs to woe the girls and mock the villains. He would do all of it to entertain you.

And what do you do ? You write him off , call him typical and stupid, and childish in more ways than one. You would call him names that would make his children cry. Why is my question ? And your answer would be, ‘ Macha, its not realistic or practical da, something’s missing “ . Realistic, lets go through that term, what is reality ? Global warming, corruption, your ugly girlfriend, the house loan that you can’t afford to repay, the horrid food at the hostel mess. Now that’s reality. If all of you crave for reality, then why go to the cinemas at all ? Why don’t you just stay at home and drown yourself in your so called reality.

But then you demand real cinema, at least you heard the critics on TV use that term, “Real Cinema” . Your not sure about what it actually means, but you want it so badly, believing that you actually have the maturity to appreciate and enjoy it. There were movies that were made ,great movies, and if I mentioned those names, you would have never heard of them, they would sound like Korean Hip Hop. They were original classics, and no im not talking about those names on Lion Dates Top Ten Movies that you see on SUN TV every Sunday morning. Im talking about movies that are true originals. They are like the patterns created by the clouds in the ever changing sky, natural in origin. They are works of art created as if they were a feeling, a jolt of energy, a wave of passion that projected the most articulate expressions.

These were beautiful movies, real cinema. But the local distributor wouldn’t have it, he wouldn’t run the movies at all! Why? Because they were too complex for the audience, and that they aren’t made well and so no one would watch them . “Not made well ? What are you talking about” the filmmaker would say. And the reply would be simple, as simple as a magnum .45 in your face. The movies is sad, there aren’t any pretty sixteen year olds running around in their underwear , there are no stars in the flick, only actors. But the funny thing is that these actors can actually serve their purpose unlike the stars, they can actually act and do a good job. But no ! You cant watch a movie without a star, it wont sell, who would want a movie without a star ?

So the filmmaker, the guy who sold his house, car, property that his grandfather left him, his son’s bike, and other things in order to make a movie he loved, sells the reel to the worst theatre in town for peanuts ! He makes no profit off it at all, none. He doesn’t even break even, and its all over. They call him a failure, a fool and a delinquent. He kills himself by drowning in an ocean of booze and heroin. Three decades later some moron actually understands the true beauty of the movie and spreads the word, and the movie becomes famous, spectacular they call it ,true work of art, a Classic ! They worship it and bathe in its greatness. The grandson of the filmmaker, the guy who womanizes by day and works in a call center by night, is suddenly rich beyond his dreams, all because of a man who was supposedly his relative ! But whats the point, the real artist died as a heart broken man, who didn't have enough money to watch his own movie in a theater. And after all this ,you say that you want " Real Cinema" !!!!