Movies

I have been following Hollywood movies since in my teens. Back then I liked so much the intensity of every American movie. Back in Venezuela some friends and I use to go to the first show of some of the best movies I have ever seen in the history of cinema, e.g. Benhur, Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Star Wars, Superman, Titanic, and many more… One of the movies that eventually mark my adolescence was Godfather. It has so many messages hidden for the viewers to see and interpret. The script was so rich and powerful that it won’t let the cinemagoers take his eyes off the screen for a second. The union of the Corleone family was admirable yet so many enemies within that unity, it was amazing. The family man Don Corleone fighting the system to get his own flesh and blood above the pain and misery he left behind in Italy. The magical performances lived every character in their own flesh. Above them all the unbelievable portrayed of Don Corleone by the even greater Mr. Marlon Brando. His transformation into the head of the family left me wanting more to see, unfortunately after the Godfather I never came across with a powering performance by him anymore. Instead my attention was caught by none other than Robert De Niro who has given so many towering and amazing films in Godfather 2, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Cape Fear, Deer Hunter, Analyse This, Goodfellas, and many more… If you read about De Niro in any of his many interviews given to the press, you can palpitate the sense of every character he as play during his life. The preparation process is amazing to see, according to him he gets into the skin of the character he is about to play, and you can feel it in every movie of him. After all movies is to entertain people and Brando’s, De Niro’s films will take you to the edge of your seats.

In the 80s I came across a new culture of movies. In the house of Mr. Molla one of the Bangladeshi family living in the community I was introduced to Bollywood movies through Betamax. I saw Don (1978) produced by Nariman Irani and directed by Chandra Barot, with amazing performance by Amitabh Bachchan. India’s best actor to date. It was overwhelming to see a movie with so many plots and stories going on yet coming up to one end. Songs were according to the situation of the movie. The leading actor and actress had the ability to dance. This hindi feature film took me to followed movies from India most of the Big B (bachchan’s nickname given by the industry) movies. Next I remembered watching Suhaag a film by Manmohan Desai, the story of two brothers separated by circumstances when babies and reunited after 25 years when young. Even though, it was impossible to digest the idea, the movie really seems to be a mass attraction to the moviegoers. Add to that the theme of the normal or common man disturbed by the political or social system of the country and the hero raised against the unjust and corrupt villain. The whole situation was a representation that caught the attention of the nation and took it by a storm making Amitabh, the angry young man. Zanjeer by Prakash Mehra was the initial stroke to hit the hot iron to shape the superstardom of the Star of the Millennium.

After a long period in the 90s came a movies related to a great favourite of mine, Agneepath by Mukul Anand, it had Mr.Bachchan kind of following the footstep of Mr Brando in Godfather. It was so remarkable that you could say which one was a better performance. Amitabh did full justice to the role and won the national award in that year for his electrifying portrayed of Vijay Dinanath. One other milestone which came to in the 2000s was Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Black. Amitabh won the critics by his admirable role as the teacher of a physically challenged child. It didn’t stop there; Mr Bachchan came up with a new magical stunt with Auro in Balki’s Paa. They movie brought up the child in the aging actor, and gave him one of his best characters to date.

Be it Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro or Amitabh Bachchan they are all doing their work for the entertainment t of the masses. I hope and wish that they will come up with new ideas to make us laugh, cry, and forget about ourselves for at least 2 hours.

Love to all.

DiL.