Before I start this, let me grab all the things that I need in handy. I have Dark Fantasy biscuits on my left, my phone getting charged on my right, I have the book I’m planning to read next, next to my phone, and finally, I have my laptop open with a Blank Document of MS Word ready with the cursor blinking – as if it is waiting for me to get instructions which it is about to do for the next hour or so.
Now that everything is ready, let me begin.
Where do I start this? How do I even begin? Should I just paraphrase what Wes Anderson had shown in his latest short movie, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar or should I just pour in my thoughts? How do I approach this?
Ah! Right!
“This movie has made me sit on my reading/working/chilling chair and start writing something after almost 9 months”, said I. As I was watching the movie go frame-by-frame, dialogue – no scratch that! As I was watching the movie go frame-by-frame, dialogue monologue-after-monologue, I was getting this deep sense of love that I always had for cinema. It was one of those instances where you just let the fingers do the typing instead of assigning the task to the brain and making it sound more “prolific” or “intellectual” even though there was no substance to mention. And that’s how I’m doing it right now – letting my fingers do the talking.
This movie, TWSOHS, was suggested by one of my colleagues, who (comma) I feel (comma) is one of the few people I take movie recommendations seriously. Anyhow, back to the narration. This morning i.e., on 28th September 2023 at around 11:03 AM, me and him were casually chatting about what’s up and he suddenly stopped and said, “Bro! Wes Anderson dhi oka movie vachindhi, movie ante movie kadhu, adhi 45 min ey entho untadhi, it’s more like…” he paused. “Mini movie?”, said I. “Yes, mini movie laga anamata. Chudandi bro, baundhi”, paused for a few seconds. Again continues, “Ante proper Wes Anderson-esque feel tho untadhi – aa French style of taking and all – with Benedict Cumberbatch style of delivery anamata. Chudandi.” And it somehow got glued to this persuasion point and asked, “Aunaaa! Endhulo undhi bro?”, he said, “Netflix lone!” I immediately opened my phone, gave my fingerprint impression to unlock the phone, opened the ‘Viewing’ folder on the home screen, and Netflix. As I was asking him, “Aunaa! Netflix lonaaa!”, I saw the movie banner on its homepage. And I “+ My List” it. (See footnotes)
Once I reached home, details of my activities are unnecessary here.
CUT-TO: DINNER TIME (FADE OUT):
As I was about to have Upma as my dinner, I started playing TWSOHS and once it began, I was unable to blink nor eat and not even gulp.
Here I was watching an old man talk about Henry Sugar, who is a wealthy spoilt middle-aged man, about to find out the life of Imdad Khan which was written by Dr. Z. Z. Chatterjee in 1935.
“It was mind-boggling!”, I exclaimed and I thought to myself, “I should write about this! I should archive what I’ve just experienced.” But I was not having any interest in any of the interests that amused me earlier. Not movies, not books, not self, not even Ukiyo, and lastly, not at all writing. “How should I do it?”, said to myself as I resumed the movie – SCRATCH! movie mini movie where Henry Sugar had just learned about the secret power of Imdad Khan whom he got to know via the book which Dr. Z. Z. Chatterjee claimed he had written word-by-word without stopping for eight hours. And he (Henry Sugar) was about to try and learn the secret power. Then…
My phone notification popped; it was a reply to Reel that I sent him related to Animal movie teaser as a meme. Some 5 min went by, then…
(Long pause for 30 seconds thinking am I going in a right direction on writing about this…Well, let’s continue)
Coming back to the interruption, I saw my roomie’s message notification, got interrupted for a few seconds, and began to contemplate the way Wes Anderson had all planned out to execute this picture. The way he made was cinema before the projectors rolled, the auditorium became indoors, and entertainment came in ‘handy’. It was a pure theatre spectacle. The movements of props, the continuous delivery of lines, the spot boys pulling the ropes to slide the actors, lights fading away – everything!
“This is a true folklore!”, thought to myself with a broad grin, filled with excitement, on my face.
This short movie is one of those movies that make you sit upright all of a sudden if your body is in a relaxed position. It makes you forget about time. It doesn’t allow you to eat if you’re eating along the way. It doesn’t make you look at your phones, which has become such a high-level phenomenon in this 21st century.
“This movie”, as I continued taking a long breath, “shall be revisited by me, again and again just like how Imdad Khan so persistently followed that yogi who lived in the thick jungle”, said it out aloud. But of course, how foolish of me! There was no one around me while I was watching this amazing art. Maybe only a couple of mosquitos were there and got mesmerized, I think because they didn’t bite me while I was sitting there in an upright position. (Adlib to self: or maybe you didn’t pay much attention to their bites just like how you’re completely oblivious to the mosquito bite as you are typing this hard and typing it fast, not caring much abot the speling mistaks.
I will not recommend you to watch it. Because, “I don’t want you to start talking in third person just like how I did here throughout”, thought I.
FOOTNOTE:
Loose translation (don’t expect the emotions to be translated. These are just words, you add your own emotion to it and see how it turned out) of what my colleague-turned-friend-turned-movie-recco’er and me were discussing about earlier:
“Bro!” you know this, I’m assuming, “A new Wes Anderson film has come out, I mean it’s not “movie” movie, it is about 45 min,” “it’s more like…” since you know what it meant, I just paraphrased it “Mini movie?”, said I. “Yes, mini movie of sorts. Please watch bro, it’s good”, paused for a few seconds. Again continues, “I mean, it had a proper Wes Anderson-esque feel to it – that French style of taking and all – with Benedict Cumberbatch style of delivery types. Watch.” And it somehow got glued to this persuasion point and asked (just CC’ed it), “Is ittt! In which (OTT) is it bro?”, he said, “In Netflix itself!” And I immediately opened my phone, gave my fingerprint impression to unlock the phone, opened ‘Viewing’ folder in the home screen, and Netflix. As I was asking him, (literally Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V’ed it this whole English part) “Is it! In Netflixxx!”, I saw the mobie banner in it’s homepage. And “+ My List” it.
Watch it!
By, Dinesh R., September 2023.
The End
