Our movies are a nation talking to itself...

Our movies are a nation talking to itself...

    Let me begin by contradicting my favourite heroine. Our movies are not about entertainment, entertainment, entertainment. They are about life. And if you are lucky and your life happens to entertain you, so will the movies you watch.
    I have been watching Hindi movies since I was three. There was a movie hall bang opposite our home called Grace. I spent hours watching huge movie hoardings go up there on the marquee. These hoardings were hand painted by dark, sinewy, scruffy looking artists hanging precariously from scaffoldings. They hung up blank canvases and then noiselessly, stroke by stroke, filled them in. It was a lesson in sensuality watching them and I still remember seeing Madhubala’s eyes, lips and luscious breasts slowly come to life. Every thursday, at sundown their work began. By daybreak on Friday, the early morning cyclists were already falling off, staring at them.
    I wasn’t alone watching them. As night fell, others assembled on the streets in the gaslight and slowly the crowd reshaped itself into a long, slithering ticket queue early in the morning. At 9 the box office would open. No one I then knew could afford more than a 10 anna front row seat. I would beg for those 10 annas from my snooty elder brothers who discussed Tagore, Nehru, Marx and the future of India and then run off alone and watch a matinee show.
    The movies I then watched have made me the man I am today...
    Well, not just the movies I guess. My mother’s home cooked food. My father’s stories about Gandhi. The books I read. The poetry; the music. Ravi Shankar at Dover Road bringing in the dawn with Bhairavi. Bismillah’s many-layered bandish in a majestic Yaman. So many bright, colourful images conjure up those days when a one paise hike in tram fare would see arson light up the Calcutta skies. Or two rioting gangs would stop to allow Aminuddin Dagar to walk through the mayhem with his surbahar, both sides bowing to acknowledge the maestro, only to resume their bloodshed thereafter. Those were amazing times and all that I learnt about life I learnt on the mean streets and in the dark cinema halls, gaping at the larger than life screen.
    Movies taught me life is beautiful. They taught me that even when things go all wrong, justice triumphs in the end, right defeats wrong, good guys win and I can always walk into the sunset with the girl of my dreams. And yes, every time I did. Those were the life lessons; they stayed with me through my difficult times, stood me in good stead. They taught me hope, courage, justice, and self confidence. And when Amitabh came on the screen, you learnt never to fear anything again. We were all vigilantes.
    But the best thing our movies taught us was love. To love a woman such that nothing can come in the way. Not faith. Not caste. Not what the community said or threatened. Nothing was more important than love. And our movies taught us to love and respect all women, irrespective of who they were, where they came from. They taught us not just love but the power of equality, justice, truth, honour, dignity, hope and all, all of it through the simple art of storytelling. Storytelling that inspired us to live better, braver lives...
    Movies are a nation talking to itself. Even more so, our movies. In so many languages, so many whispers, through so many dreams. Quietly; persuasively. And, slowly, over the years, even those who found the song and dance routine a bit weird, quietly warmed up to it. The genres multiplied. The stories became more layered. The menu enlarged. But what remains unchanged is the conviction behind them, the artistry, the teamwork of thousands of people, many unschooled and unlettered, who quietly work together behind the scenes to tell these stories to us and, now, to a world increasingly more ready to listen. Cannes this year will see more Indians films than ever before. Vidya has taken a break from our shoot to sit on the jury.
    When I started making movies 13 years ago, there were many sceptics. My friends, fellow journalists, painters, authors all wondered why I was giving up everything to make movies. I gave up nothing. Everything came together for me in our movies. And nothing has taught me more about life than these...
    I believe we are who we are because of our movies...
    It took this nation a hundred years to figure this out. But today: We are our movies. Our movies are us.