Much as filmmakers love to claim that there’s no formula, sequels happen. And when I see sequels completely spoiling the memory of the original (in this case, the Malayalam movie August 15, whose first edition ‘August 1’ released in 1988 was a scene by scene lift from Forsyth’s awesome “The Day of the Jackal”), I wonder if this approach is just the greed to milk the most out of a franchise or just the lure of a safe template. In the case of movies, it’s probably more the greed.
But I realise that the latter goes not just for movies, but many decisions in individual lives as well – from where we go for a dine-out to the travel plans we make, and many other preferences that somehow seem to get a life of their own and run on auto pilot after sometime.
The auto-pilot mode is quite comfortable really, especially if you’re not aware of it. The problem, I think, arises when templates are followed but expectations are not met. That’s when the questioning begins, and ‘awareness’ begins to dawn. Then, unless you allow yourself to fall back, it becomes an itch you can’t scratch away.
And you see the mask you unwittingly made for yourself slowly slipping, and then begins that terrible phase when you realise that there’s nothing to hold it up and nothing to take its place.
until next time, mask charades
Oh yeah..I remember Aug 15 and the scene you mentioned. But imagine someone in namma ‘sandalwood’ trying an aping stunt to that effect – would’ve been disastrous. For that matter, they did try to get ‘inspired’ by Nick of Time once – called it Aryabhatta or some such…
Feels good to be back after so long – hey, you’ve virtually turned into a food critic these days. Any particular reason?
like i said, restaurant reviews are something i’ve been doing for a while. Mirror is just a larger medium. what can i say, i like food 🙂