He has not touched his movie player and his DVD-VCD cabinet for more than 13 months now! Baba, an avid movie-watcher, would at times drive us crazy by not being able to control the surround-sound volume levels and by watching Yes, Prime Minister or Titli (although my favorite, but you cannot watch it on a Monday and again on a Friday, can you? :P) again and again!
In the topsy-turvy of the last one year, the home theater had also got disconnected somehow and never has the situation allowed me to relax enough to touch the home movie corner.
Last night, when I had no work and the TV failed to offer anything interesting, I opened the DVD cabinet. Yeah, it required a bit of dusting, most of which still remains to be done. The remote had slipped and fallen somewhere and I had to spend 20 minutes just finding it! The categories in which Baba kept his movies- Satyajit Ray shelf, Rituparno shelf, and so on, had gotten jumbled up.. I tried to put things into their respective places. Then I chose Antaheen and Khela.
Antaheen is a movie that Baba loves! I have seen him watching the movie many a time, always getting emotional in the end. I have never watched the entire film at one go -- only caught bits and pieces while Baba watched! Yesterday, I thought of watching Antaheen, almost in a quest to understand why my father loved it so much!
From the earlier glimpses, I had the idea that Aparna Sen and Kalyan Ray play an estranged couple who still care for each other deeply. I was a different "I" then. I am a different "I" now. The way I understood each little nuance of their estrangement and love, yesterday, was like never before. I know what it is to be like that, now. To be not-together, but, .. a million things that still keep you together! Beautiful acting by Radhika Apte and Rahul Bose, Kalyan Ray and Aparna Sen, Saswati Guhathakurta and Sharmila Tagore, and Meeta VashishTh, make this movie so brilliant! And the pain that engulfs the heart at the end is so addictive! Shantanu Moitra , Anindya, Chandril make the songs a pleasure and a salute to the cinematographer too. As the movie ended, I remembered Baba saying " O bujhte pere gechhilo thik sedin i" referring to Vrinda recognizing Aveek to be the Boy in the Box, "kintu o bujhlo por e" referring to Aveek understanding it only after Vrinda's death!
In the topsy-turvy of the last one year, the home theater had also got disconnected somehow and never has the situation allowed me to relax enough to touch the home movie corner.
Last night, when I had no work and the TV failed to offer anything interesting, I opened the DVD cabinet. Yeah, it required a bit of dusting, most of which still remains to be done. The remote had slipped and fallen somewhere and I had to spend 20 minutes just finding it! The categories in which Baba kept his movies- Satyajit Ray shelf, Rituparno shelf, and so on, had gotten jumbled up.. I tried to put things into their respective places. Then I chose Antaheen and Khela.
Antaheen is a movie that Baba loves! I have seen him watching the movie many a time, always getting emotional in the end. I have never watched the entire film at one go -- only caught bits and pieces while Baba watched! Yesterday, I thought of watching Antaheen, almost in a quest to understand why my father loved it so much!
From the earlier glimpses, I had the idea that Aparna Sen and Kalyan Ray play an estranged couple who still care for each other deeply. I was a different "I" then. I am a different "I" now. The way I understood each little nuance of their estrangement and love, yesterday, was like never before. I know what it is to be like that, now. To be not-together, but, .. a million things that still keep you together! Beautiful acting by Radhika Apte and Rahul Bose, Kalyan Ray and Aparna Sen, Saswati Guhathakurta and Sharmila Tagore, and Meeta VashishTh, make this movie so brilliant! And the pain that engulfs the heart at the end is so addictive! Shantanu Moitra , Anindya, Chandril make the songs a pleasure and a salute to the cinematographer too. As the movie ended, I remembered Baba saying " O bujhte pere gechhilo thik sedin i" referring to Vrinda recognizing Aveek to be the Boy in the Box, "kintu o bujhlo por e" referring to Aveek understanding it only after Vrinda's death!
Yes, Baba, you were right. I missed you while watching the movie last night, as the surround sound vibrated the windows and I remembered how we used to get angry with you. Thank You Baba, for gifting us a huge Movie Collection, and a vast Music CD library! I still hope you will get well, and we will again watch movies together, just as I told you today! I am waiting to watch Sonar Kella with you, again!
No. He did not get well. He left us just 10 days after I wrote this.
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