Yours Whimsically - Part 12: 2017: A Retrospect

At a loss for ideas, I sit before the laptop thinking of what I should write. ‘This is not new’ I tell myself. I have always oscillated between periods of high output (in terms of quantity, if not always quality!) and writer’s block. The first couple of times I was hit by such a block, I didn’t know how to react. Now, I greet it like an old friend or an uninvited guest. I am happy to meet it because I know it will only do me good at the end of it. I draw comfort from the fact that it won’t stay forever.

This time, however, I decided to try out a different strategy. I would just write. Maybe once I am get rid of all the garbage, all the rust, ideas and words would flow freely. I thought of this as a process similar to the therapy of ‘talking out’. It helps unclutter thoughts, I’ve heard. In fact, sometimes, when I seem to be heading nowhere, I have seen that just writing down my thoughts on a sheet of paper or my journal, as and when they arise helps me organize myself better. I wanted to see if it would help with my writing too. So here I am.

I’ve decided I would write about the year that went by. That should be easiest – not much of a strain on the already-strained creative reserves. 2017 has left me with a lot of experiences, memories. It has given me much food for thought. However, I will write about the one thing that I did over the last one year with utmost sincerity – watching movies. If my count is right, I have watched no less than fifteen movies in the theatres last year, along with quite a few on the laptop, thanks to Amazon Prime.

‘Kehte hai ki agar kisi ko sachche dil se chaho toh puri kayanat usey tumse milane ki koshish main lag jaati hai’.

Into the final year of my college life, I have next-to-nothing in terms of coursework. Looking out for ways to utilize the time available, one fine day, I sat down to look at the Wiki page with the list of Bollywood movies releasing in 2017. I noted down the names of movies I would love to watch – predominantly based on the star cast: If the movie had SRK, Nawaz or Vidya, I had to watch it. Then, there was SLB’s visual treat ‘Padmavati’. Also, Amitabh’s ‘102 Not Out’ seemed interesting from the title. ‘Lipstick Under my Burkha’ seemed bold. Akshay Kumar’s ‘Toilet: Ek Prem Katha’s trailer was funny. It seemed like Bollywood had slated the release of these movies that year because I had a lot of time to spare. What’s more? There is a two-screen cinema hall – no less than a multiplex, in my opinion – very close to our campus, with tickets priced Rs. 80. Mr. Modi’s demonetization had opened the market for mobile wallets and they came up with amazing offers (cashbacks, mainly) to attract users (I am not sure if this is the achche din which was promised, though!). The universe did seem to be conspiring. Dutifully, I stuck the note with the titles on my study table – to serve as a constant reminder of my goals.

The first half of the year, when I still had to deal with coursework, resulted in me watching only three movies. The year began with ‘Raees’. It was double the fun because of SRK and Nawaz. Wisdom, in hindsight, says it was a regrettable decision. In fact, Wisdom had said so in foresight as well! However, low priced tickets didn’t pinch us hard. The other movie in the first half was ‘Begum Jaan’. That didn’t go down well either. The final movie was ‘Baahubali 2’. I don’t regret that, despite the movie being bad, because the essence of that plan was the company than the movie itself. However, I was faced with doubts. Had the universe conspired to foil my plans?

‘Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost’.

In the second half, a few friends and I watched a movie almost every other weekend. It became so regular an affair that we created a WhatsApp group titled, unimaginatively, ‘Movie Club’, where we shared trailers of prospective movies. At one point of time, I almost expected Book My Show to call me up on a Friday to ask if I needed tickets for the movie that weekend!

Funnily, among the seven of us on that group, it has only been me who has been to all movies; others missing out on one or the other, due to some reason. We watched ‘Mom’, ‘Jagga Jasoos’, ‘Bareilly ki Barfi’. We even watched ‘Jab Harry Met Sejal’ (and wished he hadn’t) as well as ‘Babumoshai Bandookbaaz’ and ‘Shubh Mangal Savdhan’. We aren’t intolerant. We watch movies of all kinds. Towards the end of the year, ‘Tumhari Sulu’ and ‘Qarib Qarib Singlle’ impressed us, while ‘Newton’ was perhaps the only thought provoking movie (and hence, rightly made the official entry to the Oscars). Sadly, ‘Padmavati’ couldn’t release in 2017. (Now, that’s intolerance for you.)

Into the final semester now, I am yet to sit down to make a similar list of must watch movies. Atleast the line-up for January seems clear – ‘Mukkabaaz’, ‘Padmaavat’ and ‘Padman’.

Back home, I will miss this freedom to watch movies and regret them if required, without feeling the pinch. Perhaps, one of the very few things I will be missing. Or so I would like to convince myself.

P.S: Don’t tell anyone. I watched ‘Tiger Zinda Hai’ as well! Shh!