It is almost a decade since Rangeela was released. And, it was a fabulous film. A.R.Rehman had composed a brilliant soundtrack, there were some rocking numbers, and the actors sizzled. It was possibly my favourite Ram Gopal Verma movie after Shiva. I used to have the tape in my car and listen to it quite frequently. And, then my tape system died, CD’s came in and my PC became my home entertainment system. A lot of stuff I had on tape had not yet been converted to the CD format. And, I lost touch with a lot of music i listened to at that point in time.
Last week when I was out shopping, i saw a CD of Rangeela. Nostalgia overcame me, and i purchased it. A shiny new CD with my favourite songs …. i got into the car, peeled off the wrapping and put the CD to play…. to my astonishment i no longer liked the music. And, there was a part of me that felt terribly let down by it. I think, that in the intervening decade my tastes had changed … and i really didn’t realise it… But, it got me thinking … what else did i enjoy, that i can no longer handle now…. and here are a few of my (earlier) favourite things … that are no longer favourite…
a) American Prayer – by Jim Morrison – there was a time when R was still in Mumbai, when it would almost be an anthem… A whole bunch of semi inebriated people saying waah waah to the American Prayer. About six months ago I was at a friend’s place and there was something that sounded like a terrible audio mix that was coming out of his speakers…… ‘that sounds like cats being tortured’ I said … ‘ i thought you liked Morrison’ was his response…. I do like the Doors even now, but the American Prayer, is just too spaced out for me…
b) Ayn Rand – when i was 13 she was my heroine ….. i was in love with Howard Roark and John Galt. When i was 25 I re-read the books and was terribly impressed by the philosophy … “wouldn’t it be lovely to be an island without bothering about the world’s mediocrity and compromise” . was my take. And, then i read both Atlas Shrugged and the Fountainhead last year. My response to Atlas shrugged and its question “who is john galt” was who cares, and i was seriously appalled by the rape fantasy in Fountain Head — women generally don’t fall in love with men who rape them!!
I found the writing turgid and the philosophy juvenile. Maybe 10 years from now I will appreciate it again.
c) Partying – I used to be out 5 nights a week. A 14 hour working day, 5 hours of hard core partying. I simply got into the groove of socialising, going out, consuming copious amounts of everything that was not good 🙂 and having fun. I can’t anymore….. I seriously don’t enjoy partying. Hanging out with friends is one thing, hanging out with groups is something quite different.
d) Directing — like most others in my profession i was terribly fida about the film making process. i spent hours preparing, fine tuning technique, understanding light, understanding edit and so on. I was, and still am, fairly good at it…. But, it no longer interests me to the level that it did…. If i am to direct something that is not documentary in nature, i seriously have to psyche myself up …. it is often like watching paint dry 🙂
e) Films – i used to devour Hindi Films & Hollywood films with equal gusto . Ever since DD introduced the Sunday film sometime last century, i have been hooked to films. I watched at least three a week (if not more) all the way till 1998 or 1999. And, then one day, i stopped. I could no longer handle the Feature Film. Most of them – Bollywood or Hollywood are excruciating, especially if they also happen to be box office hits :). However, in the last year or so, i have seen stuff that is slowly bringing me back to being an occasional visitor to the theater !
What can one say except cite Lewis Carroll? 😉
You are old, father William,” the young man cried,
“The few locks which are left you are grey;
You are hale, father William, a hearty old man;
now tell me the reason, I pray.”
“In the days of my youth,” father William replied,
“I remember’d that youth would fly past,
And abus’d not my health and my vigour at first,
That I never might need them at last.”
Lewis Carroll is someone I won’t outgrow .. but you never know 🙂
🙂
I used to like Led Zeppelin a lot, but not anymore. I think two artists who have withstood the test of time for me are Mark Knopfler and Bruce Springsteen. And I’m not sure if I’ll ever outgrow Hemant Kumar, Talat Mehmood, Geeta Dutt or Shamshad Begum.
I’ll spare your comments section of the bee-in-my-bonnet regarding Rand, or rather, randroids. 🙂
@ Amit: Have you see Knopfler in concert? If not already seen, you _must_! His beautiful guitars are all lined up on stage and he wears his reading glasses while playing. He plays even the whole of Telegraph Road (the long riff) from memory. That is just superb. I have seen him serially over the last 4 annual concerts but am missing this year out because Kill To Get Crimson just did not grow on me. I am going to watch a modern dance performance with Shaolin Monks instead (the coming weekend or the next is usually when he plays in Royal Albert Hall).
Led Zepp played not far from me in London. Alas I do not like any act so much as to spend a few thousand quid on them, so with Led Zepp. That said, Def Leppard are re-forming and their music is so different now; a couple of them have also become vegetarians causing much mirth in the rock circles… Age, the point of Harini’s post, comes into the picture yet again.
Harini,
I’m curious to know how you missed the rape fantasy the second time you read the book? Or were there other aspects of the book that made the rape fantasy part insignificant?
Shefaly,
I saw MK in concert here in Boston many years ago. He played with James Taylor and the concert was well worth the money. I’ve read that he sometimes pops up (or maybe used to) in local pubs in London to play to a smaller crowd.
@amit – knofler rocks. always has…. Led Zepp i agree, the same with other stuff like G N R ; a lot of floyd, … i can no longer hear whole albums… select songs are ok…but the album is too much…
i read ayn rand as a romantic novelist. not any different from Colleen McCullough or Margret Mitchell. And in such novels rape fantasy is a part of the genre. Dashing man forces himself on a woman and opens her eyes to the world around her…and of course, her everlasting love for him:( .
it wasn’t therefore insignificant, i thought that was the way it was … .and i wasn’t 25 , more like 21….so dashing, forceful male was the romantic ideal… it is later you realise that if a man behaved like that with you, most likely you would slap them or report them to the police….
@ Amit: MK lives in Newcastle so I think his popping into small pubs is urban legend 🙂 The same stories also float about Ian Anderson but I doubt he does any such thing either. Occasionally some musicians do play small venues but the events are well-publicised – after all they will not play for free, do they?
I have found I can no longer go to crowded stadia to watch shows. I prefer relatively
smaller venues such as Royal Albert Hall or max, Earl’s Court which is huge. I pay to sit closer to the stage away from the madding crowd. And increasingly there are fewer and fewer artists I wish to see live.
That said David Gilmour plays in South Bank centre sometimes and I would like to catch him there some time.
Oops, make that ‘small pubs in London’ because Newcastle is about 4 hours by train from London 🙂
I think its a question of frequency. The hazy days when the same band, artiste or song could be heard continuously are definitely over. If they are rejected outright now, then they should have been a fad even then IMO. I have stopped listening to The Doors, Zeppelin, Pink Floyd now but that doesn’t mean that their worth has decreased. I can still listen to them. But I cannot bear cheesy rock / metal / glam rock of that era; either because they were a passing phase then and enjoyed no emotional connect even then. You do outgrow. like i cannot hear metallica or even pearl jam. too loud. this happened in college…when coming in touch with Van Morrison and Astral Weeks. I will always like Lou Reed although he too gets punkish…so it’s not a question of genre but the emotional strength of the artist and the memories it evoked and still evokes…a universality that refuses to die. But do we outgrow the memory too…? Of standing in line, flashing your half-torn i card and buying a ticket to the most campy film ever made. But to stop enjoying all from the past is not a welcome sign. Enjoy.