To think or not to Think

It was easy to rant about and critique Kambhakt Ishq, even the half a brain cell watching this movie leaves you with was more than enough to figure out and point out what all was wrong with the movie. It’s a little harder to tell you why I liked, nay Loved Dev D. Of the top of my head and without much analysis, I’d say it was the music, the look of the movie and the character arc of Dev which was portrayed brilliantly by Abhay Deol (sigh........)

It’s a lot harder (almost impossible) to tell you what I thought of Kaminey, primarily because two days after watching the movie, I can’t remember much about it, what I liked, what I didn’t like, what I was thinking of during the movie, what I felt about the characters, nothing much, no strong opinion. All I know is that I enjoyed watching the movie, I was buzzed out after I saw it and that I’d like to watch the movie again.

There are some movies which defy analysis by me. It’s not that they’re mindless movies, it’s just that I seem to watch them mindlessly. These movies (almost always) contain the following elements. Humour, it could be black, it could be very clean, but mostly it’s inconsequential humour, there’s no deeper hidden meaning beyond making the viewer laugh (even the Mumbai Bumbai joke in Kaminey is an old one, last noticed by me in Jab We Met! And which has lost all meaning due to repeated use). They always have well fleshed out female characters, it doesn’t mean that they portray my ideal woman, but rather that they portray women as they are, without shying away from their faults and emphasizing their strengths, (Priyanka Chopras role was an absolute delight to watch and her acting was excellent, must have more women with machine guns in movies). They have no right and wrong, either all the characters are kamineys with some redeeming feature, or else all the characters are decent but slightly flawed people, the only reason you’re rooting for someone is because they have star billing (this movie does have some obvious variations in good and bad, but since the movie so staunchly refuses to pass judgment on any of its characters or glorify any other, you’re also left unable to decide whether you agree with the movie.) These movies are generally high concept movies that through the skill of the director/ writer managed to avoid becoming gimmicky (excellent direction, great writing). These movies have a sense of fun, they have panache, they have style (cue the wonderfully choreographed to look unchoreographed Dhan te Nan, the relationship between Mikhail and Charlie). And they always have happy endings, sometimes ambiguous ones, sometimes with a twist, but a happy ending nonetheless.

I can’t find anything to disagree with, or agree with in these movies, they’re about style, they’re about the experience and I leave my brain behind and enjoy them. They’re movies like RocknRolla, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Kind Hearts and Coronets (an oldie and an absolute goldie), Arsenic and Old lace (these being the black humour ones), Singin’ in the Rain, Music and Lyrics (Clean Humour and yes I enjoyed Music and Lyrics). Think of them as abstract paintings or instrumental music, often there’s a meaning, but sometimes it’s just about the viewing/hearing pleasure. It’s art.

What do I think about movies like these and Kaminey? I think I need to watch....... enjoy them again.

I Think I See a Horse

My mother told me that when you listen to music, and shut your eyes you see the music. When you listen to music you picture it in your head, a song with lyrics unfolds like a movie inside your head, you see lucy in the sky wearing diamonds and you’re able to picture a stairway to heaven. Even plain and pure music can inspire images in your head, Beethovens’ Pastoral, Vivaldis’ Four seasons are literally named after the images the music evokes. Sometimes while listening to plain music you just imagine abstract shapes, and colours, Fantasia the classic Disney movie played on this concept by literally painting and animating western classical music – sometimes as a story (the extinction of dinosaurs, Greek Mythology) sometimes as just patterns and shapes(rolling purple hills turn into green lines which become yellow waves) the dancing mushrooms and hippopotamus ballerinas defy description but I assume they fall in between the two categories above. Music videos – do the same the same – they paint the song.
Music and art have been interlinked for me since the day my mother introduced me to Fantasia and explained the visual power of music. And just like you use art to understand music, you can use music to understand art.
Art is just like music, when you look at art and open your ears, you ought to hear music. Look at a painting of a girl sitting by a piano that’s music with lyrics, look at abstract art it’s like an instrumental piece of music. No one questions that instrumental music brings pleasure, no one complains that they don’t “get” instrumental music. Well, it’s just the same with an abstract painting, what instrumental music is to the ears, abstract painting is to your eyes. A truly wonderful piece of art can inspire music in your head. And just like a piece of instrumental music can sometimes be a story or sometimes just shapes in your head, similarly an abstract painting can sometimes be interpreted and sometimes just appreciated for what it is – a pleasure to behold. Treat art like music and you’ll open a whole new world. Open your eyes, look at the painting, do you like it? Does it make you feel good, happy, sad, excited, dulled? You don’t need to know technique or the interpretation of art, just know what you feel and slowly you’ll pick up the rest. Perhaps Kandinsky my favourite painter shared this theory with me- he named his masterpieces in abstract work after musical terms, he called them compositions.