"When You Have To Shoot -Dont Talk"!!

We all love movies .Whether my generation or a generation before or after me .movies have always had a great impact on our lives .Actors and actresses have influenced the way we walk ,and the way we talk .And also the way we dress and romance !!Infact ,movies have been perhaps the greatest tools of educating people –either in a good or bad way .They do what dramas and plays did in the medieval times when there were no movie cameras .Entertain and educate .

I was a movie buff when I was young .I loved seeing movies ,though I must admit I was a bit overawed by English language films more than our Hindi ones .There were  reasons for it .We had come  back from Burma and were struggling with Hindi as a language .Infact I went through school studying what was then called “Elementary Hindi” .I missed out on the dohas of Kabir ,Rahim, and Surdas .I had to pass a paper which made me Hindi “literate” rather than Hindi “educated “ .So I preferred to see  English movies till I was about 13 or 14 years of age because I could understand English well .But in college I gorged into Hindi films .By that time I had picked up Hindi. I never missed the movies of the great Rajesh Khanna ,Dev Anand ,Dilip Kumar,and Amitabh Bachhan .I made up by seeing the old films  after they had debuted many years earlier but ,but which  I had missed .I cant forget Dilip Kumar prancing and dancing to the song “Urrey jab jab jhulfey teri”.!!Wonderful .But English movies had fascinated me for another reason as well –they had access to better technology .They looked more real .The sounds of trains ,horses appeared more authentic .The men never danced around trees .The women  never swam with all their clothes on (what a ruckus the world made when Sharmila Tagore surfed on the waterfront with a bikini in the film “An Evening In Paris” .Still cant figure out why anyone would object to seeing someone as beautiful as her like that ).It took me many years to figure out why Ameen Sayani used to say over Binaca Geet Mala, “Aur yeh geet gaya hai Mohammed Rafi ne ,auuuuuuuuuurrrrrr filmmmmmmmm haiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii “Sangam”!!!!.But wasn’t Rajendra Kumar singing it in the film ?I could not figure out the concept of “playback singing”!!

Some dialogues from films come to my mind immediately .I am just penning them down in the order they come.I haven’t given them much thought .So 4 out of the 5 are from English films .They have stuck in my mind .Let me start with the only Hindi dialogue that came to my mind when I picked up a pen and put down the dialogues in the order in which they came .

1.“Jo dar gaya ,so mar gaya”,from Sholay It made a huge impact on me as a college going student .I had dabbled in philosophy (I still do!),and analysis of fear was something I had always grappled with me .I had read many quotations about fear ,but Amjad Khan ,barking out the dialogue after shooting Kaliya ,made the point so powerfully .He who is afraid –is dead .!!Brilliantly enacted ,brilliantly contextualized ,the dialogue is still one of my favourites .And you have to coax me to deliver it when I am in a mood .I enjoy it ,and can do so with a lot of passion .Because ,I believe in the simple line .

2.The scene from Dirty Harry ,starring Clint Eastwood as a honest, fearless cop on the hunt for the deadly killer Scorpio.He pins him down ,and pulls out his gun as Scorpio wriggles in fear and with a heightened sense of survival .And read this dialogue

Clint Eastwood  “I know what you're thinking. "Did he fire six shots or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I kind of lost track myself. But being as this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: “Do I feel lucky?”“ Well, do ya, punk?”.Its a brilliant scene ,with a lot of power and punch and we see a situation in which it just boils down to luck .Does Dirty Harry have the sixth bullet ?Life is like that –you never know till the end .!!What happens afterwards ?Well see the film .

3.”When you have to shoot ,don’t talk “The Movie: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 
Who says it: Eli Wallach as Tuco, the Ugly
The context: A one-armed bounty hunter (Al Mulock) breaks in on Eli Wallach,who is in a bathtub, and gives a long speech about the long, difficult hunt for him to track  Eli Wallach down ,all the while wasting precious time . Eli Wallach  just pulls out a gun and shoots him.The dialogue taught me ,that what one sets to do –one must do .And one must not waste time in trying to explain and get happy just when one is about to achieve his/her objective .Its a lesson ,I have never forgotten .

4.Kramer versus Kramer .Its a movie that made a deep impact on me .It starred my favourite Dustin Hoffman and Merrly Streep .It had the theme of husband wife discord leading to a breakup of their marriage .Infact ,so powerful were the actors that for some time I felt that marriages were inevitably doomed to  failure .There was one dialogue which stood out which made me realize how we owe so much to our children –if not to ourselves .Here is the dialogue .

Jane Alexander : Joanna is a very unhappy woman and it took a lot of courage to walk out of  this door. 
Dustin Hoffman : How much courage does it take to walk out on your kid? (Joanna is Dustin Hoffmans wife in the film and walks out on him leaving a young son for him to bring up ).

The movie made me realize that at many times we need to sacrifice for  someone else who we are responsible for bringing into the world .It is the classic dilemma of self interest over commitment ,but I would always choose the latter (God forbid if I have to make such a cruel choice ).

The last dialogue was from the classic “Lawrence of Arabia.”The dialogue brought out something which I could never dream of –killing being enjoyable .It also brought out the realization that some people may be killing because it gives them pleasure .It had a deep impact on me especially since it was spoken by none other than Peter O’Toole who was a living legend .When one is young ,one feels  that actors believe in what they enact .Though its not like that always !!Here is the dialogue

Peter O’Toole as Lawrence of Arabia.-“I killed two people. One was... yesterday? He was just a boy and I led him into quicksand. The other was... well, before Aqaba. I had to execute him with my pistol, and there was something about it that I didn't like. 
Jack Hawkins : That's to be expected. 
Peter O’Toole: No, something else.

Jack Hawkins : Well, then let it be a lesson. 
Peter O’Toole: No... something else. 
Jack Hawkins : What then? 
Peter O’Toole: I enjoyed it.

As I wind up ,let me admit that I longed for one dialogue and am sure is everyones favourite .Amitabh Bacchhan flaunting his wealth ,power and influence and asking a very innocent looking Shashi Kapoor

“Mere paas bangla hai, gaadi hai, paisa hai. Tere paas kya hai?”

“Mere pass ma haih”!!

I am sure all of us have the right to that very valuable possession of any human being .Sadly ,some of us lose it  very young  .But it is perhaps the most telling dialogue of a movie which explains life the best .And the role that women have played and will continue to play as they nurse civilizations .