Sunday, August 19, 2007

The Charm of Black and White
“Hum hai rahi pyaar ke, hum se kuch na boliye,
Jo b hi pyaar se mila, hum ussi ke ho liye…….”
Simple feelings and bare innocence, expressed so plainly, so effortlessly that it makes me cry. The actor, happy under the blue sky and golden sunshine, with nothing to lose, joyful in his existence. Simplicity rules.
Where did those days disappear to? I guess, they got rubbed out by mistake, and still remain forgotten, replaced era after era by colour, better technology, complex plots, more opulent costumes and sets and violence.
Black and white Hindi films (I shall not call them “bollywood” because the word gives it a commercial, marketish, prostitutish sound) were immensely light. Even when a scene was loaded with emotion, it didn’t weigh on your heart or mind. The lyrics were meaningful, the melodies original and pleasant to the ear, unlike the cacophony that you get to hear today. For people like me, who have grown up listening to my mother sing “Aayega aayega aayega, aayega aane wala, aayega…” to me, the films today are torturous.
I wonder how it would’ve felt to have lived in that era. When I reflect, I often visualise those time as black and white and it gladdens my heart that there existed such a time when a movie could be so ‘easy’ to watch.
I barely watch films now. I can’t stand most of them. And I will not even begin talking about the music. It’s all so revolting!! It’s all a big, organised prostitution machinery – prostitution of talent, of morality, of quality, of good taste and most of all, of people.
Plagiarism is the order of the day and so is nasal singing. Nothing works without publicity and sensationalism.
Ah! The black and white times. Of course, they had their share of snags, but in relation to the monstrosities that are created today, they’re like the lights on Marine Drive, shrouded by the smog of commercialisation and vulgarity.

2 comments:

Jugal said...

Firstly, I've never read Neruda before. In fact I don't read much of poetry :) I fell in love with some of the imagery Neruda used, powerful yet not pseudo-powerful or fake or purposely creating a sensation... they just fit in there perfectly, naturally... awesome, great poetry! :)

About what didn't reach :) in the larger scale of things I know it makes sense but for that moment it is frusting when it just poofs off. That's why anytime I know I've written something long, before I click any button, I always hit a Ctrl+C :) You know the worst or sometimes better part of it? The replacement we write is a brilliant precis/summary of the longer one, sometimes quite powerpacked.

> And writer's read.
Yes, we do :)

> They both live inside the same me.
I think I tend to live a carefree moment with informed choice. You know like knowing all facets of it.

Kandivli. Writer *coughs* yes, strangely, I have learnt to take responsibility and liberty to use that :) Usually, I say, nothing.

What about you? Where in Bombay, what do you do?

Black and White for me doesn't stop at old. I've seen new black and white films as well. Black and white has a terrific charm to it. The aesthetic value multiplies, the play between light and dark. But yes, it has to suit the concept of the film, just using black & white where colour would work brilliantly doesn't make sense.

About older cinema which we barely can stand, for people who watched it then, it just spelt one word: Magic. For them aesthetics of play did not make sense, a lot of the films had terrible goof ups, but people didn't see the art value, for them the very fact of a big screen, the size of a smile on that screen or the size of a glycerine induced tear drop was an event that made their day, week, month :) Doesn't good cinema do that to you?

Jugal said...

Mystery, my foot :D Just the fact that Writer isn't something one can say he/she is, not socially acceptable ;D

Churchgate, that side of the world :D

www.sanctuaryasia.com? errmm, checked, and now? You write for them? :) Wah, do you get to travel a lot?

What B/w films are you watching? I have a french one called The Rules of the Game on my list, most prolly will be watching it tonight.

Hmmm, Cleopatra :) I hunt my films down, I watch a lot but usually never watch a tasteless one. Though yes, there are times when I indulge in a Rajnikant marathon and go back all weirded out.

Ice-cream parlours: MY SENTIMENTS EXACTLY! How do they know I don't want a scoop of chocolate at 3 AM, huh?

I must be film production? He he... sounds funny, the way you said it. And no, I'm not into film production, what makes you think so?

You know these long comment conversations are a leetul weird, hit me: jugalmody (killspaminsteadof@) gmail