Filmology then and now..

Someone recently asked me recently if I saw Ravan or Ravanan and i replied an emphatic NO. Of course with all the publicity one thing everybody makes sure nowadays is to tell you every little bit about a movie whether you like it or not. So I suppose a lot of what I had heard and what I saw as trailers sort of sealed the fate of that movie for me.

I like to call myself an avid cine goer but I would be lying if I said that I watch all kinds of movies. Thats something that sounds good in my head but its not true. I basically like to watch a movie for its entertainment value and of course for good movie making as long as the movie does not depress me. "The movie does not depress me" actually is a big pre-requisite for me. I strongly believe that I don't want to watch a movie that is preachy or tells me about stark and sad realities of life. I see that all around me, I don't need to spend 200 bucks and waste 3 hours to see it all over again on a big screen. I also do not like to see the central characters die a gruesome or sad death. I just don't understand movies like that. Why would you want to kill central characters whom you spend 2 hours in the movie making the audience like and appreciate ? Strange.. (Or maybe I just don't like stories like that. I really really like happy endings)

I look back and I know it wasn't always like this. As kids we were crazy about movies as a family and used to watch all kind of movies (crap included). Apart from hindi movies, I remember there used to be this short dark tamil chap who used to come to our house in his moped and his huge bag of tamil cassettes (it was cassettes those days :)) We used to take about 3 movies a week mostly during vacations and other non exam times.

General tamil movies reviews and box office collections were a mystery to us in Delhi far away from any tamil community. All we had was the word of mouth assurance given to us by this Sarvanan chap. And interestingly he used to give us that 5 star rating for every movie that he used to give us. He would pretend to search for good movies out of that cloth bag of his and by the end of 2 months we would realize that we had watched just about all the movies from that bag and there was just no filter criteria. With every cassette he would take out he would say with so much pride "Arumayaana padam saar/madam" . It soon became a joke in my house and with my limited tamil vocabulary I started to make fun of him everytime he said that by saying "arumayaana padam illai erumayaana padam" ! (erumaye = buffalo)

But the point is that I was a lot more open to movies at that time which has made me watch tamil movies from the 60's and 70's like 16 vayathinile and meendum kokila to agni nakshatrams types. I think if I had those choices today I would really weigh them before watching any of those.. We watched happy movies like "Kadalikka nerumillai" to "Micheal madana kamaraj", arty movies and family dramas by K Balachandar and melodramas by Visu and of course some sad ones like Nayagan etc.. (sad as in sad endings, story of unending misery etc.. )

Part of it was because we definitely did not know what the movie was eventually about and partly because we would see all the so called famous ones anyways (famous according to Sarvanan who also, it turned out, was a huge Vijaykant fan !! He has scarred my childhood permanently by making me watch 90% of Vijaykant movies that have ever released!)

But the point is that I was never choosy about it. But now I always wonder a) Is the movie gonna make me sad b) Is the movie preachy c) Do people die unecessarily etc etc.. I am much happier watching above average movies in which a) there are good looking people b) good soundtrack c) good actors d) good story. You see how the good story kinda features in the end :)) Which probably explains why I actually enjoy Yash Chopra/ Karan Johar kinda movies..

Hmm.... who says things become simpler as you grow older :))