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My Share of the Rant

I read this somewhere– we’re watching new movies at home and old movies at the cinema. At first I was like ‘what a thought!’ And I later realised that that’s the truth.

I enjoyed watching MATRIX at cinemas on one of the best screens in my city. It was my first re-released movie in cinemas I guess? I don’t remember but what I do remember… Was me internally appreciating the work that went behind reviving an old piece of art. Like everyone, I have a list of what I think are masterpieces when it comes to art.

It’s like I cannot truly appreciate a digital copy of a painting unless I have one commissioned.

Today a re-release is nostalgia but, back then it was ‘Hey, this new action sci-fi movie released… Wanna see it this Saturday?’

Classics mean something. No I won’t use ‘meant.’ My grandpa still listens to those classical Hindi hits and I still watch Wilder’s films on repeat.

Today what made me write this piece is not the reminiscence. It’s a news about a major motion picture studio re releasing their 2013 Bollywood blockbuster movie. Wait for it… They’re marketing it with ‘A New AI powered ending!’

Is that movie a fucking smartphone? What’s ‘powered?’ You definitely don’t empower your director who directed the movie that’s for sure.

On the other hand… A news that felt like a (sorta… kinda…) relief was that an animated movie called THE BAD GUYS 2 has credits include a legal refusal for the film to be used to train AI programs.

Apple TV’s show, THE STUDIO has a gag about AI in one of it’s episodes.

Adapt to AI or do we completely forget who we are as humans?

This feels like a biggest speed breaker ever.

I know what I should do…

I’ll unplug the fucking internet and go back to writing.

#ai #nostalgia #cinema #filmmaking #india

On random days, whenever I meet a stranger.

"So, what do you do?"

"I'm a screenwriter-filmmaker. I write movies."

"Oh wow! Even I think a lot about stories but I don't know where to start... Do you follow a framework?"

The word echoes in my head.

FRAMEWORK.

I come back to present.

"No. I don't. It's always is and has been about the voice. First journal everything. It's easy, right? Then later when you read those pages, you'll find a story. Work around it. Resources are all over the net."

Historically all the successful writers and filmmakers were poor.

They made it big through their voice.

There's a seperate industry that capitalises on filmmaking. Hell, one of my favourite filmmaking books cost a whopping 10k INR.

Vomit on pages. Later clean it with a good rewrite. You'll get there.

#india #filmmaking #filmmaker #screenwriting #movies #films #cinema #hyderabad #writers #fiction

The Morjim Macabre

Morjim wasn’t just a destination; it was an uncharted territory within me, waiting to be discovered. The air smelled of salt, smoke, and unfiltered ambition—a heady cocktail that hit harder than any drink.

The sands of Morjim were littered with stories, some whispered by the waves, others scrawled in cigarette butts and half-finished sketches. I walked into the hostels—half ruin, half shrine—where artists gathered like moths to a flame too beautiful to resist and too dangerous to survive.

We weren’t strangers for long; names dissolved into the ether as ideas ignited over cheap beers and heady debates.

I bled my ideas on the paper like a man attempting to outrun his own shadow while listening to music that sounded like raw confessions. It wasn't always a pleasure. Truth rarely is.

However, in the middle of the chaos, I realised that creation and destruction are identical twins caught in a never-ending rhythm.

A filmmaker with a thousand doubts, I left Goa with fewer answers and more questions—the kind that keep you alive.

Spiritually, I learned detachment.

Artistically, I learned surrender.

Pernem district of North Goa didn’t give me clarity, but it gave me courage. Sometimes, that’s more than enough.