The same day that Shakun Batra's Kapoor And Sons released.
Date: 18th March, 2016.
I still feel all of 15.
Some dispute here, as some friends and relatives think that I have only turned 5, but that's besides the point.
I just came back home after watching 'Kapoor and Sons,' light hearted and teary eyed.
Haven't written in a long time, hence sorry for the gap. Have been working too hard trying to make a living by all means legal. Basically writing things that I will never get credit for in this lifetime. No, I am not complaining, I love my job and everything about it - even the portions that I can't take credit for. I love my life the way it is. I might have been happier with a grandpa a-la Chintuji in K.A.S.
Coming back to Dharma Productions' Kapoor And Sons, I was sold out the day I watched the trailer. To be fair, till about 6 years ago I was the guy who watched 'Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham,' and cried each time the 'brothers on the bench' scene played out - I would cry my eyes out. I have this thing about family bonding, though I have been way too detached to my immediate family most of my life.
Films like Swarg and Baghbaan have consistently made my cry like a baby waiting to be fed. I cry a lot while watching films, especially when Jai dies in Sholay, or Tina in Mr. India. I am an emotional fool, but I am a shrewd fool, I don't cry very easily. That's the thing about 'Kapoor And Sons,' I held on till perhaps the last hour, and then I cried my eyes out... slowly but copiously.
I am still an amateur when it comes to family dynamics, though I have been blessed with a perfectly imperfect family. I had convinced myself that my kid brother was an adopted one, years ago. I still don't know how my parents managed to live together all these years. Arranged marriages, I tell you. All this, till I got married to the love of my life, Rani. I suddenly became the elder son.
Silly me.
And then there is this whole thing about being your own person. I am glad we are perhaps the last generation where our career choices will not be governed by those of our parents or relatives' kids. There were very few relatives or friends who had anything to do with me when I had joined the BPO. Even less, when I chose to write for a living. It didn't help that writing pays so less.
While my cousins had bought apartments and cars, and subsequently had babies, all I had by then were a few boxes of books and DVDs as my material possessions. I had my baggages, just like all those men and women I saw in Kapoor And Sons. We all need to lose our baggages, once in a while - it makes us lose weight, and times can give us wings to fly. We need to fly away from our nests too.
That is mandatory. Fly away, if only for a bit.
Let's talk about the moments - only a few of the priceless moments make their way into pictures. This was perhaps the biggest learning from Kapoor And Sons. There are moments that we want to capture and preserve forever, and there are some we are ashamed of, or choose to ignore. I was home last Diwali, and I miss taking a few more pictures with my family. Who knows how long we are here?
Let me just say that watching Kapoor And Sons was an experience where I spoke to myself more than what the film or the filmmaker spoke to me - or may be that was the genius of Shakun Batra. A story so universal, of all our lives put together in less than three hours. There are some films that need to be preserved for posterity, this one was one such. So many moments, one beautiful picture.
One family, Kapoor And Sons, since 1921.
