With time, I started to realize that my appetite for films, particularly honest and realistic films, good cinema is only increasing and not decreasing. And this led me to start exploring Western cinema too. I still remember watching Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960) and how it left me flabbergastered. Thriller in a true sense, one of the finest, “Psycho” was followed by reading about Hitchcock’s other prominent films such as Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), Rear Window (1954), To Catch a Thief (1955) and The Birds (1963). While reading and studying more about Western cinema I also came across Orson Welles and his trend-setting film “Citizen Kane (1941)”. I read about the film, and watched it but didn’t get much from it back then but there is more to know about my journey with this film (will talk about it in subsequent parts).
I have a habit of discussing films and literature with my parents, so one day when I was discussing different writers with my father, he told me about a book he had read a long time ago, during his college days, and that too both in Hindi and English language. This book was Mario Puzo’s “The Godfather“, and I already knew about Coppola’s “The Godfather (1972)” (but I didn’t know a book of the same name existed until he told me) so then I asked him to watch “The Godfather (1972)” and the way I intended this go he became a huge fan of the film and rewatched it several times. After “The Godfather and its sequels”, he asked me to recommend to him other films with the same or similar cast or story which continues to this day and I recommend films to him regularly…
Category: The Journey
Not just Hrishida, but it was also my first proper introduction to mainstream cinema and the one and only Mr. Khanna, Mr. Rajesh Khanna. When I asked my mother about both of them, she asked me to watch Hrishida’s magnum opus and Rajesh Khanna’s finest to date “Anand (1971)”. And this film…
This film changed my definition of mainstream completely, the storyline, memorable dialogues & songs, and powerful performances by the entire cast, especially Rajesh Khanna. After watching Anand, it became extremely important for me to watch every film made by Hrishida, be it Satyakam (1968) (one of the finest but quite underrated) or Bawarchi (1972), or Abhimaan (1973) or Naukri (1978). Watching Anand somewhere also made me a huge fan of Kaka. I saw all the important films he worked in, starting right from Anand (1971), Khamoshi (1970), Aradhana (1969), Safar (1970), Aakhri Khat (1966), Bawarchi (1972), Amar Prem (1972), Namak Haraam (1973), Avishkaar (1974) (one of his most distinct works), Naukri (1978) and some selected films from the 80s. His choice of projects was very interesting (being a major box office actor), especially between 1966-1978. I think he was one of those actors who always kept a balance between popular mainstream and inventive films. In 1974, with highly anticipated releases like Roti and Prem Nagar, he also had releases like impressively artistic Avishkaar and Aap Ki Kasam somewhere belonging to the middle-of-the-road genre. This tells a lot about his selection of films and it was only he who could manage to play a character like Amar flawlessly in Avishkaar, making the film rich artistically and at the same time getting it successful at the box office too.
…to be continued
Also Read Journey Part 3
My journey with cinema started back in 2016. After completing my 12th standard, I started preparing for medicine away from my hometown. I was not very happy with what I was doing so I returned to my hometown but with a pang of huge guilt as if I failed or something. And other aspects of my life were also not going very well back then, quite a low phase. One day, while passing through the living room, I saw a glimpse of a film (on the TV) that was very different from the usual ones. Very curiously, I asked my mother, “what film is that”, she replied, “that’s a good film, a realistic and artistic one, none of your business, you will not get it” she said laughingly. But this statement left me even more curious, so, in the evening, I started watching the film on the TV when it was supposed to be telecasted. The film was Ardh Satya, originally released in 1983, directed by one of the pioneers of Realistic Indian Cinema Mr. Govind Nihalani. If I were to describe my journey with Ardh Satya, I can just say that I was a different person, at the beginning of the film and became an entirely different person when the film ended. It changed something in me, my mind, and my thoughts, it impacted me deeply. Ardh Satya was just the beginning, in a matter of a week, I almost completed watching and reading about all prominent films made by the extraordinaire of the New Wave Cinema. This whole process of watching films, and reading about them introduced me to the geniuses like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, Basu Bhattacharya, and many more. I think a person can learn filmmaking more by just watching Satyajit RAY’s films than by having a formal education about the whole process. A time came when I considered watching these films only or films made by directors like them only. But this belief changed when one day, very surprisingly, almost impossibly I was introduced to Hrishikesh Mukherjee, through one of the finest classics- “Namak Haraam (1973)”.
…to be continued
Also Read Journey Part 2