If I was as crazy about movies as I am about books then I doubt I’d find time to sleep even. Fortunately (or unfortunately) I’m not a very serious buff though I enjoy watching movies occasionally. My last movie was Ghajini. With low interest in movies I haven’t really developed a taste for the good ones which is quite surprising since one of my dreams is to write a movie script before finally dying.
However, I love to read movie reviews. I read practically every film review I come across. Some write lengthy ones and some write short reviews which don’t tell much either about the movie or anything. I wrote reviews for a couple of films for the inaugural issue of ‘WOW Hyderabad’ ages ago. Those were the only film reviews I ever attempted but as I said earlier I love to read film reviews, good ones, that is. I also love to read any book or article related to films and film making.
Sometime last year I found a book of film reviews by a famour critic whose name eludes me at the moment (which also means I haven't yet read it!) Last Sunday I found another book of film reviews by someone said to be a famous film critic. The book I found was ‘Negative Spaces- Manny Farber on Movies,’ the expanded edition. I got this book for hundred bucks and it looks like a good find given the stuff I read on the blurb and also on the net about Manny Farber.
The next find turned out to be a film related book except this was about writing movies-something which I have always dreamt of. The book was ‘The Tools of Screenwriting: A Writer’s Guide to the Craft and Elements of Screenplay’ by David Howard and Edward Mabley, which again I got for hundred bucks. It joins the lengthy list of books on writing I am trying to plough through just so I could get everything right in my own book. Time only will tell if this investment will pay off or not.
It could have been a hat trick of sorts if I had also picked up Mira Nair’s book on the making of ‘Salaam Bombay’ that I had come across. I was quite tempted to buy this book too but I didn’t since the voice began in my head again ‘Have you gone crazy or what? You just spent TWO HUNDRED RUPEES’ on two books and you want to spend more??’ Wisely, I didn’t pick up Mira Nair’s book and returned home with the Sunday’s haul which also included latest issue of ‘The Atlantic’ magazine with Obama on the cover.
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