Cinema Paradiso

My love affair with the movies began very early in life; when I was a little boy of about 5 or 6. We used to live in this small colony in Bihar (that’s another story, but don’t you get images of a pan chewing, oily haired guy now. ok?) :) Yeah, we were in Bihar. I was born there (though I'm a south indian native) Anywayz, this colony was our world away from the rest of the Bihar and that was a relief, ‘cause it was a mini India and we were quite different from the average Bihari crowd outside of the colony. Since most of us had educated, well meaning parents, we were brought up with the same values.Our colony had a community club that was a favorite haunt for, among other recreational activities, the movies. The main dining / party hall opened out to a backyard that was almost as huge as a football stadium and this was MY favorite place. Come Saturday evenings, and the place would resemble an open air stadium, with steel chairs (remember, those rusty creaky things that electricians still use to fix things?) lined up neatly in rows and columns. The chairs would be evenly lined up with an aisle between them, just like in a cinema theater. When the chairs filled up (which would be around 7 pm I guess), the projector ‘uncle’ would get to business. He had this old 16 mm projector that went ‘whirrrrrrrr’ throughout the movie and added a rare ‘bioscope’ kinda experience to the whole thing. You could find a couple of rows near him empty, unless of course a young couple wanted the noise as camouflage for ‘THEIR’ movie show. ;) Well, anyways, once the projector uncle was ready, the lights would be turned off in the back porch of the dining hall and the small squarish screen in front of us would be filled with lovely images of movie gods and goddesses in their beautiful and colorful worlds. Ah! Bliss.My initiation to the movies started with the short Laurel and Hardy films, old hindi masala movies which had lots of ‘dhishum dhishum’ in it. Then my father gradually allowed me to tag along for movies like ‘The Guns of Navarone’, ‘Where Eagles dare and westerns like ‘The good bad and the ugly.’ Initially I would wonder why the hell he brought me along to such movies that had lines I could hardly understand and that at the drop of a hat the main hero would feast on the heroine’s mouth like it were a fruit to eat. Ugh! J But the raw action in these movies chilled my spines and I got hooked to them after a while. Most kids would be left at home for such shows, but not my dear ol’ man. He would take me along. I thank him for it now. From then to now, I've come a long way. It’s been more than two and a half decades of movie addiction. I can’t even begin to count on my fingers the number of films I’ve watched. And I’ve watched all sorts of movies – from li’l kiddie cartoon shows, to serious ‘off-beat’ stuff to the main stream masala to the short 50 minute movies that the Europeans are so good at making. Small wonder then that I've penned a screenplay. I was toying with this story for more than 2 years now. I’ll have to start marketing it. Know anyone? :)