Aren’t we glad to watch movies in 3D? Without a doubt, yes. Bless the nuances of technology that would not come easy to a layman’s logic but offers amazing cinematic experience. One would risk the big awkward glasses required to view a 3D movie, any given day. It is all worth it. So, what exactly makes 3D so popular for the makers and the viewers?

The Third Dimension: It was all about the length and breadth of it until of course the depth caught on. One very crucial aspect of 3D films is the clarity with which the depth of sequences can be captured on screen. It is in fact a time taking process as it requires the reels to go through complete reprocessing to turn the effects into a 3D movie. The result is the details that are served to the viewers to enjoy.

Larger than Life: The movie makers and the movie buffs, who are die-hard fans of the larger than life cinema, get the real deal with 3D. With movies that require animation, special effects, and action try and work it out in the new available technology as it gives the desired presentation. They know well that the viewer would appreciate it, if a hornbill flies straight out of its nest into his face. It is like mixing the art of storytelling with a roller coaster ride.

Entertainment Redefined: Believe it or not, 3D is one of the features that have added to the competitive market of film production and distribution. Apart from the fact that the consumer is getting a new dimension of entertainment, the movie houses, distributors and theatre owners are making the most out of a high end cinema product.

If humans are sensitive to experiences then, 3D has just taken it on to a whole new level. It does not come as a surprise that people are already talking about the four dimensional effects. So, until that hits the screen, 3D is going to rule the roost and anything that misses out on 3D would be entertaining but not superlative.

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When the television was not there, one could just dream of it but now, everything seems possible. The vast expanse of technological possibilities has just touched another milestone with multiple platform features. Multiple-platform is a simple idea that would allow people to watch videos, movies, telecasts over any chosen medium of mass communication, be it television, computers or mobiles.

 
Maximum Coverage: If a tele-series or a movie feature is going to be telecasted or can be viewed on multiple platforms, it becomes a total win for the producers. In none of the other ways can one imagine to cover a larger part of the audience as this one brings increased viewership.

More Sponsorship: Use of multiple-platforms allows for more media space and new opportunities of sponsorship. This one is a welcome thing for both the feature makers as well as the advertisers, who can catch on the prime time slots.

Connecting the Dots: Multiple-platforms allows producers to set up a virtual environment where viewers can be involved in a game setting and the plot be spread out over different slots. They would have to chase the story over platforms to keep pace and get the story together.

Ease to Fleet: For viewers, it becomes an easy option with a feature that may have compatibility with multiple platforms, allowing them to reach out to any available option at hand to watch it. This leaves out no issue of missing out on the favorite show.

Catch on Later: In other case, one may choose to do otherwise, if the same feature has different slots of appearance on multiple-platforms, one can choose to catch on the show later if missed out on an episode. Apart from that one always has the option of recording a show for a later watch.

With media houses vying for developing products that has multiple platform compatibility, people are just in for more entertainment, with flexibility and ease redefined. Life could not get more entertaining than this.

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Animation gets Real

There are some things in the world that we are biased about mostly because of their ‘not-so-real’ status. Admitting to that, it is a given that very few of us like to take animation for anything serious, even making a statement. True. Animation is something inanimate put into action and is mostly for the purpose of humour, but why should that come to limit the possibilities of the medium?

It is hard to know how many parents are thankful to Walt Disney, but they don’t really take animation for serious stuff. This definition has come to redefine itself by some of the creations of past few years. The movies have not only questioned societal norms but unusual genres and not to miss out the superior technology. Animation in fact has questioned and brought more ‘life’ to reality, with the films trying to get closer and closer to the nuances of something alive and less fictional.

Persepolis: The mix of a graphic storyline merged with animation, this film brings the point of view of a young Iranian libertine woman, who sought freedom of thought when her society was struggling with religious turmoil.

Mary and Max: An interesting representation of clay animation gives Mary and Max that magical feel. The plot that layers the emotion of two lonely souls set apart in different continents learn to deal with life through letters.

Fantastic Mr. Fox: Imagining the furry beings of your closet coming to life is the ultimate effect of this one. Working on the techniques of stop motion animation, this is a story of a shrewd Mr. Fox, who decides to define his freedom by outsmarting humans, sending out quite a message.

Up: Nobody talks of the old anymore but animation does. A septuagenarian Carl decides to take a trip and manages to do that by flying along with his home on balloons. The movie captures the plot with the effects of photo realistic animation at its best.

Frankenweenie: With Tim Burton’s direction and a perfect setting for the mysterious mix of graphic, gothic and animation, this one is to be watched for the amalgamation of stop motion and digital animation.  It is more a work of ‘difference’ than just a new-age adaptation to Frankenstein.

There is no better conclusion to this list, which is always under construction. To that effect, these are only a few master pieces out of the animation box but for the ones who think ‘it’s not quite worth it’ are missing much.

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The bug of being serious (not Cyrus) drains in an obvious yawn of over the head content. Especially for those who never prefer to be involved in serious discourse by any means. Being born in a multicultural society like India, witnessing all kinds of colors with respect to each and every societal contour creating endless socio-political and socio-economic upheavals is just inevitable. Stating the fact quite convincingly that media has played a major role in reflecting the ongoing state of affairs in the country, would need a skeptic take when it comes to referring the job as a money-making business.

Commercializing and fantasizing the real world may have been the winning formula in the Indian film industry for quite a long time. However, there were few visionaries who always wanted to take the untrodden path of showing the true reflections of the Indian society. Keeping them away from the usual spice that is often associated with ‘Bollywood’, these luminaries took the onus to showcase the real India to the Indian as well as the international audience. Post independence, visionaries like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shanta Ram and Sohrab Modi were among the few unique filmmakers whose films masterfully chronicled the societal transformation taking place in India.

Then came the dark and brooding 70s, when the entire Indian society came under the grips of extreme frustration and anger.  The strained Indian economy coupled with the ghost of emergency smacked out the normal life of an Indian from the track. Suppression of civil liberties and constitutional breakdown were core worrying issues for the Indian society. These issues acted as seeds for the birth of Indian New Wave Cinema or Parallel Cinema. Films being categorized in this particular genre addressed the growing frustrations of Indians during that period. The National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi and Film and Television Institute (FTII), Pune has also played a major role in producing remarkable filmmakers who ushered a new life in the world of filmmaking in the country.

Names worth mentionable in this regard are Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Buddhadeb Das Gupta, Basu Chatterjee and many more. If you have heard and even watched few of these masterpieces – Ankur, Aakrosh, Bhumika, Nishant, Manthan, Arth, Saraansh, Ardh Satya, Aghaat – you must know by now what parallel cinema is and what they tried to convey to the masses. The Indian New Wave Cinema saw its slow decline in the 1990s when the production costs started reaching sky high limits. The incessant commercialization hammered down the parallel cinema industry so bad that it had a bleak chance of revival.

However, since the advent of the 21^st century, parallel cinema has revived itself quite notably. Films like “3 Deewarein”, “Dor”, “Iqbal”, “Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi”, “Is Raat Ki Subah Nahi”, “Maine Gandhi Ko Nahi Maara”, “Firaaq”, “My Brother…Nikhil”, “Dev D”, “Gulaal”, “Sikander”, “Udaan”, “Love Sex Aur Dhokha”, “Manorama Six Feet Under”, “Khosla ka Ghosla”, “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye”, “Tere Bin Laden”, “Peepli Live”, “Phas Gaye Re Obama” and many more have created a new definition for parallel cinema.