Genius, in cinema, in my small opinion, is not in creating a piece that makes someone think about all that is, was and will be. Genius, in cinema, in my small opinion, is not in seamlessly tying every aspect together so that the end-product is not only appealing to all the senses but also creates the impression of art in motion. Genius, in cinema, in my small opinion, is not in making sure the audiences’ hearts beat with the movie. Genius, in cinema, in my small opinion, is all that.Now here is a movie that will go down in history as a blockbuster with a brain. Of course there will be the few who really don’t get Cinema. People in the same clique as a colleague who vibrantly proclaimed, quite unabashedly I may add, that Katrina Kaif acted well in Namaste London and that the monstrosity that was the particular movie in discussion was something that was palatable to her senses. I hope the sentence above brings no harm to my chances with Katrina Kaif because I do believe that she is one of the hottest women in Indian cinema, but I have to be honest; After the 10th commandment and the Armageddon and the end that is inevitable, if she was the last human on earth and then the aliens that had obliterated our existence came down to earth with their version of the laser gun and put it to Kat’s head, telling her, “if you act well reading out “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, earth will survive”; factoring in the fact that the aliens themselves had understood their concept of acting from the only video on YouTube from Gulshan Kumar’s younger brother’s only movie which would put “Acting 101” in any university to shame; she would still be killed and we would all cease to exist. Kat can’t act. My colleagues who called this movie “A Drag”, and “A bore” know Jack about movies; or may be even Jack knows more.
An unhealthy digression but my understandable distaste for fart from farters who believe that just because you seem to have a mind your opinion is warranted, talking as exerts in topics that you know little or nothing about and thinking that raising your voice somehow to express the same fart that is would magically transform it into something written in stone and subscribed to by the high and mighty of the Intelligentsia, has thus been expressed. Opinions are brilliant, especially the one that I don’t subscribe to, but we do need to learn how to put it forth.
This is not a review of the movie if you were looking for one. This is my tribute in my space to a movie that I believe is a modern masterpiece. A modern movie because it takes the genre of the comic book hero (I have my reservations to calling The Batman that) and translates it into a reality so believable, that if Gotham were Chicago and The Batman was a suited detective, the story would appeal to the people who claim that the comic book genre is for kids. A masterpiece not only because of the directors brilliant vision of the screenplay that made the treatment of the movie unique but also the technical brilliance around cinematography, just the right amount of CG and some mind-blowing performances. Here I have to stand up and applaud Heath Ledger’s Joker that makes Jack’s Joker look like a bad caricature. He is brilliant. There is no other way one can describe the pinnacle of drama that he attained with his portrayal, so I repeat it. He was brilliant. Pity he decided to OD for this probably was a sign of a person who could finally be called the successor to Marlon Brando and the Old Pacino. God rest all their souls in peace, for I believe that the actor Pacino is dead and all we see now is an Amitabh bachchanised version of a personality who plays the same character on celluloid every time he anoints it.
And finally to Christopher Nolan I repeat what Dr Watson says “Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself but talent instantly recognizes genius”. You are Genius, which makes me quite talented.
