Not Long Ago, In A Galaxy Far, Far Away…
Of all things and matter, why are ‘we’ gifted with the art of cinema? Heck, are we the only one?
“ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light…
…and there was light…camera and action!”
Act I : Or “The Act of Genesis”
From fire to fire-throwers, flints to Flintstones - if there was one constant in our 30,000+ years of existence, it’s our concept of art. Dating back to the cave paintings, humans have ever since sought to explore a world beyond caves and animals, and also fancied upon a form of entertainment that could amuse everyone in the jungle. Someone from the troop probably shouted out ‘Booyaaah!’ in perfect pitch, and art was born.
Poetry was born. So did sculpture, music, painting, theater - all which warped art into a new world of possibilities and led to the period of the Renaissance.
Not long in the future, art became the way of expressing reality and sometimes the non-existing surrealism as well. The different children of art conquered the hearts of several minds for thousands of years, and were seen as the missing piece of the jigsaw of life.
The day finally came when you no longer needed to crumble around your bed trying to recreate that epic scene from a novelette or a play that you read years ago. Moving pictures were born, and presented the wildest dreams on screens right before you which you can pause, play and rewind.
Act II : Or “The Act of Supremacy”
Seeing is believing. Hands down, the best thing about cinema is that it can take you to anywhere in the universe. Loops, non-linear storytelling, flashbacks — all the cheats were turned on for cinema. If you were in 1895, you’d laugh at this - because then art followed this Schrodinger's principle of ‘space and time unity’; you can only perform at one place at a fixed time. The camera has a universal passport and unlimited tickets.
Not just as an art did films cast the spell - the cinema became the brahmastra of the thinking man. The voice of cinema was so loud and influencing that governing boards had to bring in ‘film rating certificates’ that hurdled film screenings in places that were liable to political and civil outbreaks. This wasn’t new for art, but the scale was now too big to completely confine the reach.
Given the unexplored dimensions and the anti-populist view of art in the past, the popularity of cinema can be regarded as a virtue rather than a vice. It has salvaged a connection to non-trivial human concerns in ways other arts could not even imagine to touch. You cried because Will Smith cried. You laughed because Vadivelu pulled off that poker face at the right moment. You loved because Jim Carrey managed to save his memories of Winslet from getting deleted. Every single of the twenty four frames in a second of a two hour movie has penetrated inside your mind, believe it or not.
Act III : Or “The Act of Indebtedness”
The fact that cinema raised several questions in your mind and thoughts that never existed is undeniable. The fact, that cinema made some of your best moments of existence or even provided a reason why you’re probably still alive is beyond question.
How did it all happen? How did the spark of a thought of someone in the labs who happened to capture a visual of life on a thin cellulose sheet which would’ve barely lasted a tenth of a second, lead to an art form that now has billions of fans? The magic is too magnificent on scale to realize.
The cinema that we see today is the result of over a hundred years of thoughts, dreams, experiments, and tireless efforts of passionate film-makers, who provided a vision for humanity to continue embracing art as a way of life and tune away from the stereotypical materialism that surrounds us all the time. In a way, cinema gifts you that ‘little part of life’ called happyness.
There may be a day when we encounter uninvited guests to our planet that take a glance at what we’ve built for thousands of years. They’ll probably be too smart to get flattered by your technological brilliance or can barely comprehend your linguistics. But guess what they’ll be falling for? Our art, that is cinema, and how we have been carefully preserving them all these years from imbecile wars and unanticipated disasters.
It is said that a few minutes before your death, a quick montage runs in your brain showing you the most memorable moments of your life. Looks like the last thing you’ll ever see is a movie — directed by you, written by fate.
Perhaps we are ‘the galaxy’.
We are Film Society of NIT, Trichy.
