BENGALURU: The advent of February and March is a treat for Indian cinephiles in general, and Indian film critics in particular. After being bombarded for the entire year with love stories and revenge sagas and patriotic vitriol, we are finally treated to the best of world cinema, thanks to the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.This year at the Academy Awards was path-breaking in a number of ways. Director Bong Joon-Ho’s masterpiece Parasite – about class differences in modern societies – won the most awards, including the haloed Best Film. What set the film apart was the universality of its tone. Most films that win the Best Film have an ‘Oscariness’ to them – they are all slow burners that wear masks of poetry and nuance. Bong Joon-Ho’s film didn’t bother masquerading as anything else. In many ways, the film gave aspiring writers and filmmakers like me hope.
However, I have a confession to make. I watched the film as a parasite myself. I did not watch the film in theatres. I watched a pirated copy of the film online. And even as that fills me with a little guilt (not a lot, just a little bit!), kindly find my reasons stated below. Even for me, a person as single as Leonardo da Vinci (without the artistic talents!), the experience of watching a movie is akin to taking a family out for dinner. As if the tickets aren’t expensive enough, one needs to pay for the snacks using foreign reserves! Moreover, international films release months after their release, and it becomes a daily struggle to avoid the spoilers and analyses one is bombarded by. To make matters worse, our theatres force-fit intermissions into international films.
Just when you’ve settled into the film’s atmospherics, the lights are switched on, you’re sold soft drinks and chips; advertisements and warnings begin to play on the screen. After 20 minutes, you’re expected to dive back into the world of the film, as if nothing ever happened at all!In such times, piracy walks up to us film-lovers like a long-lost brother. Pirate Bay should be renamed ‘Pirate-Bae’, simply for how much it has helped me expand my cinematic horizons. It is easy for people in cities to wax eloquent about the damaging effects of piracy. But as a teenager who grew up in Bhubaneswar, piracy was the only route that I could have taken. We did not have access to Film Festivals, or groups of cinephiles to discuss it with. And for those who think it’s as easy as clicking a few buttons, you couldn’t be more mistaken!
Finding the right link is a struggle in itself. One needs a shaman to show and lead the way. One needs to avoid traps that say ‘Download the film here’, and ‘Hot girls are waiting for you RIGHT NOW’. One needs to watch one’s step, persevere, before landing on the correct link. In many ways, the journey of finding the right link is a journey in itself. While the advent of streaming services has made life easier, the Government constantly warns us of monitoring and regulating their content once every few months.
It wasn’t really my fault – the system works unfairly against us cinephiles. And yet, like the characters in Mr. Bong Joon-Ho’s masterpiece, I am filled with hope. Perhaps one day, we will all be able to enjoy international cinema in its purest form – without intermissions, overpriced snacks, and months in delay. Until then unfortunately, we will all be ‘parasites’ looking for hope.