Movie maniac!

Movies and Cricket have been the bigger than religion in India. Movie stars and cricketers are treated in a Demi-god stature. Being born in a middle class typical south Indian family it was hard for me to avoid the early morning devotional hymns and posters of Kapil Dev and Sachin stuck on walls, not to forget cricket being watched as a ritual in those old tunable 21inch television.

So every child basically grew up with a bat in his hand or dressing up as his favourite movie hero pretending to be as powerful as him.

I was no different, these two religions stood out for me. My cricket bat was my favourite companion in bed and jumping from the stairs to Akshay Kumar's tu cheeze badi hai mast were some of my earliest memories.

Since this is about movies, let me just stick to that now. Rajini Kamal, Shah rukh, Salman, Bhachan, Vishnuvardhan names were engraved in my heart while growing up. Then I graduated to Rishi Kapoor, Pran, Shivaji Ganeshan, Raj kapoor, Nagesh, Brando, Al Pachino. Then came the younger lot of actors Vijay, Ajith, Sudeep, Hrithik, DiCaprio, Jhonny Deep and a whole lot more and now finally back to Rajini- Kamal.

Movies have made a strong impact in my life so much so that I actually feel that I have matured along with them. The way I feel about them now is filled with so much passion. I enjoy all kinds of movies and all languages.  Right from the black and white ones to the present day technically advanced ones. A wide horizon there. Its like how a fat kid loves food. You never get bored. Every movie has something to give you, be it the techniques, the story, the drama, emotions, even tell you what not to do in a movie and how not to make one. I dream to make a movie someday, if not a feature film atleast a short film. I totally respect the new directors who only breathe film making. There are certainly a set of film makers now thinking out of the box and really taking the Indian cinema to another level. You can see it in their work that nothing but passion for Indian cinema is what drives them. The Indiana cinema also celebrated its 100yrs of existence. what a brilliant occasion! pure joy! Indian cinema is certainly on the map now. We also have the techniques, only the budget lacks, now with public funding coming in I guess that will also be taken care of.

Parallel cinema has also come a long way now, in fact it is making a great foray on the mainstream field with the help of some well established stars. For all cinema enthusiasts like me, its a melting point of good story, culture, techniques, screenplay and photography. Of couese! the acting and the visuals are much appreciated.

There are also quite a few doors open now and the cinema industry is open with arms open for young and creative minds including entrepreneurs, marketing guys and finance guys to come in and help the cinema industry reach greater heights. For those like minded people go ahead and dive in, live your dream! its for you to conquer, and hopefully we shall meet someday on a movie making set!

Cinema and cinema enthusiasts shall prevail. Period.