Film appreciation…

I love watching films. Since Pinch and I started watching films together, we had a rather specific method of appreciation. We used to endlessly dissect scenes, discuss subtle nuances and technical aspects, camera angles, filters… it used to be a lot of fun. For eg. Satya has some amazing camera angles. The background music was brilliant, I thought. So also for Company, though it was far *posher*. But that was about 6 years back. Now, both of us have diametrically different ways of looking at a film. He goes for *the total experience*, the feel, the final impact. Whereas I have started appreciating the film as a giant unit made up of smaller-sized, discrete parts each with a charm and magic of its own. Even in a film as ridiculous as Boom, I couldn’t help loving the way the music played its own part. Bhangra rap, underground music… it was cool. The script was unbelievably crazy and the characters were totally unrealistic. Yet I enjoyed watching it. It was almost as if I’d made peace with the fact that this film was going to be a whacky trip and I might as well enjoy it on its own terms. Like Meenaxi – .., another film which was really difficult to place. It left me with no sense of time, space, reality or imagination. A film that had to be enjoyed for its own sake, for the sheer beauty on canvas transported to film. The visual appeal, the colours, the charm of cities… I liked watching Meenaxi. And Great Expectations.