Journey with the movies

I am a very time consious person and feel guilty about wasting even a single minute, because I believe time once gone never comes back. Having a long list of interests that I'd like to pursue, catching up on movies is one among them. I am very selective about watching a movie and would only watch one if I hear good reviews about it from like minded people. I would not even think of watching it otherwise.

Watching movies as per me is a journey. Every movie is a journey of its kind, travelling with the places, time and emotions the characters travel. I hate the feeling of watching a complete movie in a theatre and come out feeling, that is 3 hours of my life wasted that I'm never going to get back. Add to it the hassle of navigating through crowded city traffic to reach the theatre, queuing up in the Parking lot, Queuing up for tickets and hours if not days of planning ! Thanks to the internet, atleast the ticket queuing is reduced.

I like watching movies in theatres primararily because the ambience provides all means of least distraction and makes sure we travel the journey the right way. Be it the travel through real-life wits of "Anbe Sivam", staying through war-times in "Saving Private Ryan", sailing in the grandeur of "Titanic", dodging bullets in "Matrix", enjoying the silliness of "Dil Chahta Hai", getting confused in the story lines of "Memento", going through blind emotions in "At First Sight" or the ever inspiring "Sea-Biscuit", every one of these movies ensure you travel with the characters and feel their emotions, be it joy or sorrow. In each of these so called good movies, as you walk out of the cinema hall, you're filled with a sense of fulfilment or sorrow or joy, pretty much the same feel the characters end up with. Kudos to the crew members who take immense creativity and effort to conceptualize and make us feel this journey.

I'm just back from "Kaminey"; its a simple story-line of twin brothers, a case of mistaken identity and how they get tangled among the Mumbai mafia. Nothing new or great about this story, but it still made me feel like I was travelling this journey with the characters and situations. The cinematography was good, you always felt like you were one of the Shahid Kapoors in the movie. The director deserves special credit for this. I think this is one of the few movies where I didn't realise it was a double role movie. I normally tend to find faults in such movies, but this one never gave me that sense. Gone are the days where dual characters would always have a thin line between them in the screen and the characters would never cross over to the other side of the frame. This is the future, a seamless one in fact.

Guess the day is not far away where cinema halls would have a 360 degree screen and the entire story unfolds all around you. Add to it, watching a film like "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button". You would not only be traversing Brad Pitt's life in time, but you'd be doing it in a 360 degree space as well.