Just A Span Of 100 Years

My first love, the man who taught me how to love is breathing his last somewhere. He has not told me about it because it is my wedding today and he does not want anything to upset this special moment of my life. I close my eyes and there is a silent prayer on my lips. In my next life I want to be married to you.

After years of hide and seek, I arrested the terrorist. How many innocent people died in that bomb blast which he masterminded! My sister was one of the victims. How many children he kidnapped for a ransom! I derive an animal satisfaction as I beat him with a hammer and tear him into pieces with my own hands. I beat him more as he screams louder.

They sent my father away. They told me he was a bad man. I hated him all my life. But he used to wait outside my school everyday, just to get a glimpse of me. When I grew up, I resolved to reform him. I had to fight with the whole world. Now he has given up alcohol. As he enters my home today after years of exile, I hold his hand and stand next to him. My father was not a bad man. He deserves respect. The reunion is tearful.

My childhood friend has cancer. I am a doctor. He has come to me with the hope that I will be able to save him. But I know I cannot. There is no cure for this disease. I feel helpless and desperate. I have sent Ramu to the temple in my village to get some holy water that is supposed to be miraculous. All my life I condemned such superstitions, for I was a science student. Today for the first time, I want to be proved wrong. I am hoping the holy water will save his life.

I am one, but I am many people. I am one, but I am many people……

I am absolutely free to step into the shoes of anyone I like and live the life I want… for three hours. Just three hours, but in those three hours I have laughed in mirth, wept in sorrow, burnt in separation, united in bliss. I have ruled a kingdom, died in a war, saved someone’s life, fought for a cause. I have clinched a business deal, shot a gangster, and sacrificed my life to save my loved one….. I have flown to outer space, danced with a fairy, won a lottery, lost my heart……………

So what if a span of one hundred years is not long enough to allow me to experience the spectrum of all emotions of the human heart? There are thousands of people out there working day and night to offer those emotions to me on a platter…

We all lead such incomplete lives. Life passes by as we stand there endlessly weaving many dreams and desires. But only a few of them find a landing point. We desire to experience everything under the sun in just one life. Too bad we cannot. But once inside this enclosure called the cinema hall, the silver screen becomes larger than life, painted with a plethora of colours, characters, music, magic, mystery, madness, laughter, humour, glitter, glamour, sorrow, silence…..

Justin once said, “Movie making is the greatest gift bestowed upon mankind”. How true! Cinema has to be the most creative and the most comprehensive form of art. For it is the confluence of several forms of art. The imagination of the story writer, the poetry of the lyricist, the music of the composer, the skill of the make up men and costume designers who create such beauty on the screen, the talent of the actors and the vision of the director.

A lot of people watch cinema with detachment…but that defeats the whole purpose I think. I for one become completely involved.

Movies take me incredibly far from reality in a matter of minutes; my spirits soar high and plunge into depths…

Eyes are wide open but what I see is no different than a dream. I know it’s a dream but at this moment, it is the only reality….I have no control over my tears as I weep over the death of a son that I do not have…. I have no control over the ecstasy that’s overwhelming me as I unite with my husband that I am not married to…..And I love this loss of control… my intelligence and my judgment retreat before the man who wrote the story, the poet who wrote those sacred verses, the romantic who added music to the poetry, and the visionary who gave his soul and spirit to make it a movie full of life. I bow to thee…for helping me ride the wave of emotions, taking me from one end of the spectrum to another….. Showing that colour of the spectrum which reality would never have shown me…. I bow to thee…