Sunday, January 16, 2005

Drama, painting, and movies

Lots of people really admire Drama while I cannot see the purpose of it after the advent of cinema. In times gone by, when there was no motion pictureand people wanted stories to acted out (like action songs) drama had its purpose. It entertained people, it still does. However, motion pictures, where retakes are allowed so that each scene can be perfected, which has a thousand techniques in its hands to perfect the visual experience; should have by now, a century after its advent have wiped out drama completely. yet we see everybody around clamouring to act in and watch drama.

Similar is the case with painting. Painting originated, I read somewhere, because people wanted to get their portraits done. They perhaps wanted to record how they looked like at certain points of time. Then it diversified to scenes and to religious motifs. Interestingly paintings in caves were almost always of scenes and very rarely of individuals and I have certainly never heard of a cave portrait. However, then came photography about 150 years back and suddenly every face and scene could be recorded much more precisely. However painting sill flourished and is exorbitantly expensive. Furthur it has taken a form by name of modern art that very few of us can begin to understand. Why? Perhaps arts which have lost their original purpose survive because people appreciate them as special endeavours and enjoy them with an "acquired taste". I don't really know haven't yet developed the faculty.

The kind of movies I watch should make any self respecting person cry out in disgust. These movies are typical boy meets girl, one of them has a problem and then they solve it together and live happily ever after. And these movies have to Hollywood. Reading other people's blogs containing movie reviews I wonder.

maddu you should know that I am not a "chakka" anymore. You are the last remaining holder of that title in company of that bhakt of yours Das (how apt).

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