The Sounds of Silence, and other such..

This piece doesn't quite relate to the immortal track by Simon & Garfunkel (that must be another post, another day!).
Rather, it tries to look at one (perhaps a few) small aspect of the infinite expanses of cinema, and the movies that grace our social consciousness today, through my small, very ignorant, but very impassioned eyes.

I have, over the last few weeks, managed to arrive at this one point, based on my many colourful observations spread over many many years.
I shall proceed to state it with brevity, before going all out insane elaorating on its significance.

An important factor in determining how well a movie has been made, is the manner in which it handles silence.

Most of what we're fed today, tries to follow the "there's never a dull moment" model. What this entails is a sequence of gags stitched together, with an equally cheesy soundtrack playing in the background. What most people have all but forgotten is, is that there are limits to which an industry can unrelentingly, without discrimination, rely on 'Suspension of Disbelief' to sell their produce.

It is not normal for every character of a film to fall into one of the stereotypes that we as a collective consciousness have given birth to.
It is not normal for every dialogue to have 'punch' in it, natural or forced.
It is not normal for every passing thought in the mind of every passing character to be verbalized to dialogues that get mind numbing in their redundancy.

(I shall not touch on the entire Size-0 issue, as that does not pertain to the issue at hand, and was handled to some extent, as part of a larger discussion, here.)

Silence is a monster.
It fills the entire screen when it arrives, eclipsing the mere mortals filling space besides it, above it, below it, and all the while getting wholly consumed by it.
Silence is thus boundlessly powerful in how it can devour the most elaborate of sequences and sets.
And thus, it scares the living daylights out of all those who straddle themselves with the tag of 'film maker'.

Nobody today, barring the exceptions that are 3 or 4 thinking souls, has any semblance of what it takes to delve into how this monster can be tamed. That it can be, is proven without doubt by the numerous such instances from our glorious past. But to look it in the eye, and then guide the countless little elements in a manner that lends some meaning and balance to its antagonizing existence, requires more than just some old tapes for inspiration's sake.

As one looks at the today's output, one is often left feeling insulted by the industry's blatant lack of respect for one's intelligence, as evidenced by the material that makes the cut to the final print. Yes, India is a diverse country, with diverse tastes, and highly varied expectation levels. And as I was told long back, the pseude, critical audiences shall always be doomed to the mute minority, thus perhaps rendering this entire post poignantly pointless. The free market rules I guess. What we all want, is what you and I get.

Perhaps out of the creatively frustrated ashes of this generation, shall rise another crop, hints of which are already visible; Pather Panchali may still be a far cry, but Dasvidaniya and Dev D still come by now and then.

(Much of the) Old was gold,
In today's darkness, in the cold,
Amidst the sparks that go unsold,
We look to the morrow, and behold...

Cheers duniya!