I am a big movie buff. Since the day I started using the computer, before diving into the internals of the computer, I’ve spent a lot of time watching movies. Maybe that’s a fractal stain in almost all Indian Engineering colleges. Even now, I love to watch movies/TV shows like the rest.

Phase 1

I don’t exactly remember what was the first foreign film that I watched. Back then, I used to have a friend who gave me a lot of English movies, such as Inception (which I watched after five years), Fight Club (which I watched lethargically), Prestige (which I watched but didn’t remember). I think I really got interested in cinema after watching this movie from the playlist called The Illusionist, it was a story of a magician played by Edward Norton (whom I recognized from Fight Club). I loved that movie so much back then. Not only that, but I think I watched it a couple of times and recommended to one of my other friends as well. If I remember correctly, I also watched a couple of Hindi movies that I really liked, such as Ek Villain. I’m mentioning this explicitly because watching movies on a computer without ads was a new experience for me.

Phase 2

As I got more mature, I started watching movies with a bit more fervor. This is the phase where I started exploring the genre of non-linear movies, the Christopher Nolan type movies. I researched a lot about this genre, they were called as mind-bending, mind-boggling or mind twisting movies. Never liked to use the term non-linear, as mind twisting was exciting and had a primal first best impact. In this phase, I watched almost all the English language mind twisting movies that I could find through blogs. I’m going to write a separate blog on my favorite mind-bending movies in the future. I enjoyed a lot while watching these movies, as they required me to have focus and attention to details with the hope of understanding the movie completely or near to it at the first sitting. It gave me focus and helped me to look at things differently rather than boring conventional ways. Apart from my improved observational skills, my greatest achievement is that I was able to totally indoctrinate one of my friends to this genre. Even today, they ask me recommendations for the same.

Phase 3

Like all good things must come to an end, all mind twisting movies got exhausted. Later on I jumped the ship and started watching psychological thrillers which were slightly inclined towards nonlinear genre. Till day, I’m watching them. They never bore me at all. Now my horizons have expanded as I watch a lot of foreign language films (thanks to the Internet) and OTT platforms have made them easy to access for a huge audience and that’s great. This phase was more about the contemplation of the cinemas that I had watched, I used to watch and that I might watch in the future. It was a refreshing experience when I realized that I had gained a decent amount of knowledge, perspective, and worldview through cinemas. Probably, watching cinemas for knowledge happened during Phase 2, which really made me think critically and understand the world through someone else’s lens. I should also thank a cinema website called as The Cinemaholic, whom I used to follow daily and found a great deal of awesome recommendations.

Now you must be curious that what phase am I currently on. Well, the answer is infinity. I’m not going to explain that to you, that’s my little secret. If you love me enough, maybe you’ll understand that one day.

So what are my favorite movies? Let me tell you the top three.

The Reader – Undoubtedly, it is the best movie. It made me cry. The story of love, grit, and disallowance (I understand).

Kill Bill Series – It is celebrated as a revenge classic by many, but for me, it’s a story of internal conflict.

The Count of Monte Cristo - Knowledge is power and destiny favors the brave.

Favorite Directors

-Stanley Kubrick

-Bong Joon-ho

-Christopher Nolan

-Darren Aronofsky

-David Fincher

-Martin Scorsese

-And many others!

If you are still reading this and wondering where’s the Interstellar or Inception, probably you should wait for the future posts.