Film maker Gautam Ghose's YATRA [Nana Patekar, Rekha] is finally releasing at theaters today. Here, he speaks about film making in general and shares his thoughts about the "science of cinema"!
"The science of Cinema is based on linear motion pertaining to linear time; where a film has a beginning and an end. In spite to this physical aspect, the art of cinema has the strength and the substance of becoming timeless.
As an ordinary cinemagoer, this element of cinematographic art had never occurred to me. As I have dealt with the medium for many years; watching the works of great masters, interacting with many actors, technicians, and audience, I have started wondering, 'Why do we go to the movies?' ' to get entertained and thrilled? To enjoy the drama in our lives? Or just to chill out and have a good time?
I would rather say that we go to the movies to experience 'Time'. Cinema provides a unique experience of a narrative unfolding in time and space. One can tell a story of few centuries in two hours and at the same time a story of two hours can be shown in two hours. Thus the real time and space is regulated by cinematic time and space.
We define time frames as past, present and future. But do we really have a present state of time? Even as I'm writing this note, every word is becoming the past, the immediate past. So the present is a fraction between the past and the future.
In cinema what we watch is all about the past. The film was scripted, photographed, acted, edited, and printed for the public release. Yet in the theatre a film gives us the excitement of the present. As if things are unfolding in front of us. Again an illusion and an element of timelessness.
We enjoy the movie collectively, and do we come out of the theatre cherishing our collective memory of it?"
