Films and My life...

Films and my life....

Indian movies always framed my perception about life. In life, you cannot have all the experiences directly, films played a great role in my life to understand issues like love and relationship, dark world of mafias, a life of a prostitute, issues related to begar industry, the life of legends like Gandhi, etc. I started to watch film and analyze it as well as related it to my life from very early age. My first films were films made by legend Satyajit Ray. It was difficult for me to understand the deep meaning of his films but slowly with due-discussion with my mother I tried to understand it. on the onset, I would like to give the full credit to my attraction to films and learning from it goes to Supriya Chettri, my beloved mother. She taught me in a subtle way the importance of film in our life. I still remember to cry unending, till my mother had to scold me, even after the end of the Hindi film named. "Rishta Kagaz Ka". That was the level of engrossment I had while watching the film. I used to get into the film and experienced all the emotions like humor, fear, suspense, love, happy, sad, angry, excited and so on and so forth. Film was always an escape mechanism for me from the reality. It helped me to live a life which is fully mine, even though it was not real. Till date, I love to watch movies with emotions. I get irritated when people say. "It's not real. It is a film. So don't get scared/cry/...". I feel that if I had come to watch a horror film and I don't get scared then there is no point to come for a film. My tear buds get super activated and my emotions get highly charged when I watch a film. I don't feel ashamed at all to watch the film with its right emotions. 

Beside my emotional outbursts, I have framed my opinion on political and social issues from films. Of course, I have enhanced my learning from several readings and discussions with like-minded people. But I would say that films helped to understand different perspectives, helped me to excite my curiosity on different issues, sustained my thirst to learn more and garner strength to fight all odds in my life. Films definitely empowered me to a large extent. I have used films clippings during my workshops to polarise people thoughts on different issues and helped them to reflect life in a much better way. 

Recent films like Queen, Kahani, lipstick Under my Burkha, Newton, Dangal, Secret Superstar and numerous Bengali as well as Hindi films of Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal, Rituporno Ghosh, Aparna Sen, Nagesh Kukunoor and recently Sujoy Ghosh. There are many other directors whose films also inspired me as well as molded my personality, my thought process and my perception about life. 

One of the best movies of the recent time that made me awestruck is "Nirbak (Speechless)" It is an Indian Bengali film by Srijit Mukherjee starring Sushmita Sen (probably her first Bengali film). I saw it in Summer 2015, probably in during the month of May in Delhi. The films excellently depict the stories of love and separation. The films went far beyond the love between two human beings (which can be seen and felt) to love among human being and non-human being. The society which still grapples in understanding the love between same-sex is shown suddenly a film that shows how a tree fell in love with a girl and masturbate to a love between a man and a bitch. It also goes beyond the love between two living being to love between a living human and a dead human (though one-sided). It really shows the existence of intense love, lust, and jealousy among all living and non-living creatures. I will say it was a fantastic movie to watch and reflect. 

"Queen" film taught me to turn my lonely life to a life of solitude. As an individual, I had experienced sudden strokes of depression due to my inability to find true love, was greatly influenced to see life in a positive way after I came out watching Queen. To tell you truth, I started managing my alone life in a better way. Film "Aligarh" helped me to articulate my lonely life. "Lipstick Under my Burkha" helped me identify many people who are quite rebels (lipstick rebels) who challenged in their own way the inequality and dubious facets of life. I started respecting all those who secretly rebelled successfully in their life and made their own headways. "Newton" showed me the reality of standing alone in a society which co-opts people and swallows them without even the slightest burps. Just this Thursday I watched "Secret Superstar". The film made me cry and made to question myself as to how much effort do I give to achieve my dream. In life, its really easy to blame the circumstances for the failure to achieve the dream but have we ever asked ourselves why were we scared to take the road less traversed by the people. 

Life for me without films will be monotonous. Films give me strength and inspiration to face all the odds in life. I am waiting for another thought-provoking films.