What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?
It was Saturday night. I had planned to see a movie on this day earlier that week and here I was in front of my television. The brightness of the television screen spread through my intentionally dimly lit room and the screen itself was reflecting on the irises of my eyes.
I was going from one OTT platform to another looking for a movie that would suit the present state of my mind. I like watching movies in movie halls too, but I feel I can take my time to understand them in greater depth at home.
A movie from 1955 caught my eye. It was made by a well-regarded film director, and the movie was one of his masterpieces. The entire movie was in black and white. I decided to watch it, the idea of watching a movie with a story having lesser complexities of the world attracted my mind quite a bit.
I was glued to it from the beginning. The opening credits were handwritten and were probably shot and merged to appear in a sequence. It was my first time seeing something like this and it intrigued me.
The entire movie was shot pretty well. If I paused anywhere, there was an artistic picture right before my eyes. One shot of the movie particularly attracted my attention. In it two kids, a young boy and his elder sister, were following a vendor selling sweets. They were shown walking behind the vendor on a path which ran along a pond. Then the camera changed its focus completely to the reflection of the walking children in the water of the pond. The reflection showed the children walking further and the camera moved along with their onward moving reflection.
I was very impressed and inspired and, in my mind, I thought ‘it wouldn’t be a bad idea becoming a cinematographer and making something which resonated a similar feeling.’ I frankly don’t think I will make the effort to acquire the means to do so, since writing is my true love and I don’t wish to venture far from it. What I will do so for sure is dive into greater depths of photography and videography, whose subject will accompany the words of my writing, just like the reflection of two walking kids in the water of a pond.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
Early Morning Memories 