The Human Spirit – In Films
Like a lot of you out there, I love watching films. And I think, like a lot of you out there, I believe myself to be a wonderful critique as well. Don’t deny it; every time we watch a YouTube video showing us the loopholes in films, we share it like wildfire now, don’t we?
But in all honesty, I admit it. I am a bit stuck up when it comes to films. There are very few films that I watch and say immediately that ‘I’m impressed’ and in most cases it is the story or script that draws it out of me. At other times, it is the visual style that does so. Very rarely do both catch my fancy.
However, things changed a bit when I began to actually make the films myself. Apart from realizing how difficult it is to write a script that pleases both the masses and yourself, I also realized the sheer effort that goes into making a film. And that was when I asked a simple, but echoing question – WHY?
Why do filmmakers work so hard on making films which actually, at the end of the day are not a necessity at all? Coming to think of it, the amount of time, effort, energy and resources that go into making films seem so futile at times. And then some film comes in to blow our minds and everything begins to make sense again.
Perhaps my upbringing, thriving on art and sensible content makes me prone to judgement that I am in no place to deliver, but nonetheless, movies are something that make me feel things that I may not have ever come to know otherwise.
What I now come to realize about films is that they are so, so much more than make belief stories on a screen. They encompass the wide range of human emotions and give people something to look forward to. Different people may watch a film and take back different things from it – sometimes courage to create a ripple in their lives, sometimes laughter that allows them a break from their everyday nonsense, sometimes hope, sometimes anxiety, and sometimes even peace.
Therein lies a power that no other medium in the world can combat – and with that in mind, when I think of myself wanting to be someone who at some point of time, some place in the near future will add a page or two of my own in that gamut, it gives me the will to go on. Who knows, all the stuff that life hurls my way might end up adding its own flavor to my contribution.
In the words of Mr.Keating from Dead Poet’s Society (because it only makes sense to end with something that moved me from another film) –
‘The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?’
And to ask you the same…‘What will your verse be?’
