Christmas with Sharukh

I was looking forward to Rajkumar Hirani's (3 idiots) latest film because he's a director I appreciate. He has a talent for telling meaningful stories without preaching. The messages are not subtle, but he usually delivers it with enough whimsy and humor that by the time you have to swallow that pill, it's not tough. So when Dunki showed at Century, I had to go. Plus, this film is the director's first team-up with the king of Bollywood himself, Sharukh Khan.

I don't want to talk about the film but the audience. It's a good film, go see it, it won't be a waste of time. However, the audience's reactions to the film was wild. I have never seen a film with a crowd like this. It was an eager audience soaking up every minute of the film and their enthusiasm was contagious. The woman sitting next to me, for instance, was quiet up until Shahrukh came on screen for the first time and from that point on, she took off her sandals (people came in full bollywood costume for this), adjusted her scarf and got comfortable as if she was watching this picture in her living room. The guys sitting behind me were cheering at a moment in a film where the stuck-up English teacher was put in his place by the heroine, some people danced to the musical number and sang the lyrics word for word. This kind of crowd is precious. It was like the premiere of a film directed by a neighbor and his neighborhood showed up to cheer him on. If this isn't the magic of cinema, then I don't know what is.

When people say movies are magic, it's not just for the visuals filmmakers capture but it's how close these stories become for the audience. For a couple of hours, you escape in someone's world and in that you find a bit of yourself. That's what the best films get so right and what the great Indian movies get right in a way no other cinema culture does.

At the root of everything, Indian cinema was cinema of the people. In it's early days, most movies were about independence, then it was about finding a new identity, then it reflected the frustrations of the common with the Amitabh Bachan's angry young men films... but throughout its evolution the best films spoke to the people a way no other cinema does. This dialog also extends to much of the eastern world.

This magic is yet to be replicated, in my opinion, and maybe there's a lesson somewhere in there for Ethiopian filmmakers. I'm not sure what that lesson is but I know it starts with looking at our reality and maybe try to speak to what ails us the most. There also might lie building blocks for a bridge yet to be explored.

Merry Christmas and see you in 2024!

:)