Today I'm bemoaning the death of one of the true champions of the movies, 'Roger Ebert', an iconic movie critic whose movie reviews have amused us and kept us at the edge of our seats with their 'reserved' sense of humor and tenacity to this day for the last 40 odd years. He was certainly my mentor as whenever I had to decide on a movie, I would simply go to his site and look out for his opinion. Though it may seem a very inappropriate and unethical decision for a young movie enthusiast (and a possible movie critic in future, who knows?) but I have believed in a theory that a man does need a opening somewhere. In my case, It was Roger. I learned a great deal from him. All my knowledge about the movies I owe to him for he was just brilliant, uncompromising in his movie reviews. His movie-reviews were for everyone and certainly not an intellectual bomb-thrower like that of an equally iconic 'Pauline Kael'. A champion of overlooked , indie movies who was equally at ease with the mightiest of blockbusters finally bade a goodbye to us. Only yesterday I was contemplating a fictional scenario which could have been very much real had the Ebert lived to that day. That scenario included the grand opening of 'The Great Gatsby' and Roger showering our own acting legend 'Amitabh Bachchan' with beautiful, appreciative words but sadly enough, that day won't come anymore. Bemoan my friends and all those personnel who love their movies for today we have lost the greatest critic that has ever walked on this earth....Rest in Peace Sir and a two-thumbs up to your presence in the sky (I'm sure you are familiar with that sight, Roger).....entertain the Gods now, my beloved master!!!!
It's really hard to switch on to a different language from the one you have constantly been tinkering with. I grew so accustomed to writing in Hindi in last few days that it started dawning on me that I might never be good again with my English. So this is a tester, ladies and gentlemen. Yesterday, one of my movie group friends, an American by nationality, questioned my fondness of documentaries. I specifically wrote in one of my columns that documentaries demand your unwavering attention and once you gave 'that' to them, you are rewarded much more handsomely than a proper, narrative, fictitious film. My reasoning for believing so is that a documentary is an experience of a creative process. It doesn't get made to 'entertain' you. They are there to reveal something to you. They teach you something. You get overwhelmed by them. 'Racing Extinction (2015)' was one such documentary. I watched it in last couple of days. I couldn't complete it in one ...
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