Decoding Love

There is a lot spoken and written about love. Religion and mythological stories all have covered ‘love’. But it’s funny when it comes to define love, it is so difficult to put it in words. Probably that’s why everyone will have a different version of it. Actually what people end up doing when asked about love is that they talk about the feelings that they have for the person they love the most and that feeling probably sums up to be love.

Naaa I’ve no intent to give gyaan on love. This thought of decoding love came to me while watching my favourite movie ‘ Before Sunset’ ( which fortunately or unfortunately happens to be a love story). I’m not a sucker of romantic movies. But I’m a sucker of movies which just makes me so close to the movie that I start living in it ( OMG! that sounds dramaticJ). Not that I don’t enjoy senseless movies- these set of movies are entertaining ( which includes all your Singham, Dabangg, Andaz Apna apna, Golmal ,Hangover,Fast and furious etc etc) In fact movies with no meaning are the best because they take you on a ride, which is surreal and away from any thoughts. But Before Sunset is probably the only movie which seems like you are peeping in somebody’s life and experiencing each action, movement, feeling, emotions, smiles, cries and pains of the character as if it’s happening to you.

Richard Linklater (director of Before Sunrise and Before Sunset) has broken the rules of film making. With just 2 characters on your screen for almost 2 hours, doing nothing but TALKING has broken all the records and made this movie a cult. Excellent dialogues and strong screenplay make this movie so fresh, real and raw. It’s not only Richard Linklater but Ethan Hawk and July Delphy got into their characters and wrote this beautiful piece.

According to me this movie ranks the top in my list because it touches upon ‘CONNECTION’ – which is pure and rare. The beauty is most of them will see themselves in  Jesse and Céline’s character( atleast I doJ). It will remind you of one person in your life who made you look perfect with all your imperfections. That one person with whom you can ‘COMMUNICATE’- right from fears,politics, environment, movies, passion,bosses, rains, clothes..about your childhood memory- the girl you hated in college ( because of all the silly reasons),extremely bad jokes, how dumb you were in geography, how you peed in your pants because there was no loo around, childhood crushes,the most silly thing in this world that you can think of, Stories and experiences which has made you- Anything and Everything.

Coming back to the movie, its difficult to pick one fav scene but my favourite is when Celiene and Jesse drive down to Celine’s place- her feelings how she was crazy and naïve with him and after that she has never found herself..In frustration, she says that how all the guys who had loved her got married and then they call her back to thank her how nice she was and how she taught them to love ( this is a damn funny scene). The way Jesse narrates that his life seems so perfect but it is completely opposite of what it looks. He wrote the book in a hope to meet Celiene again. And the last scene is a complete winner, when she Celiene sings and dances imitating the singer – she is so happy and completely herself  and then she says the last dialogue of the movie’ Baby, you are gonna miss your flight’.  Confronting each other how comfortable they are with each other is expressed in the dialogues and it is done brilliantly. I have a smile throughout while watching this movie.

Simplicity and real characters with endless conversations – this movie will make you probably believe that ‘love’ exists. And it is that feeling that you share with someone with whom you are yourself and crazy. And that person makes your life meaningful J. Conversations will only make you meet yourself.

Apart from Before Sunset- Life is beautiful, Great expectations, P.S. I love you, The pursuit of happiness, Barfi expresses ‘ human connection’ in a brilliant way.  It amuses me how magical the experience is to watch good movies.

This is the 2^nd time I watched Before Sunset and to my surprise I remembered most of their conversations. This is one movie, which makes me feel wish I could write and express experiences and stories with that ease and simplicity.

No story and writing can create magic without personal experiences. Linklater ( director of Before Midnight) had met someone in his life, where he spend one whole day and that woman inspired him to write about this story.

Experiences are precious and they make great stories.