U, Me and Films is 2 Today!

Two years ago on this day, on 13th June 2011, after preparing myself for about a month, I finally summed up the courage to click on 'Publish' button for the very first post on this blog. I wrote in general about what do films mean to me? What’s their place in my life? And about what do I intend to do with this place? Looking back to it now, I feel embarrassed about whatever I wrote but happy to have done that and so much more. It is amazing to see how far I have come in these past two years and how much this blog has helped me to grow as a cinephile and in some ways, maybe even as a person.

Back then when I started it, I had no idea how long will I be doing it? I started it because I had some time to spare and wanted to do something related to films. After finding couple of blogs that concentrated on films, I immediately knew that is exactly what I wanted. But the problem was not having written anything ever before and if I am to do something, I wanted to it properly. I took some time to prepare, a month I talked about earlier, tried to write something and see if it's readable. After testing some posts on my roommates, I jumped in and have managed to stay afloat for the past two years. So, all things considered, it ain't that bad right?

Off course, none of this would have been possible without each and every one of you reading this post. People like you, who have read these posts or any of the posts in past two years, commented on them, interacted and encouraged me on this or other platforms like Twitter are the chief source of inspiration for me to continue writing all this time and I wish to thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart. Hopefully, this has been just as wonderful journey for you as it has been for me. (Don’t worry! Even if it sounds like a Goodbye speech, it isn’t. Unless something unforeseeable happens, I am not going anywhere in near future. :))

On this occasion, I have managed to revise my Top 100 list. You can see it here or on the menu bar above. I hadn't updated it since I published it first in March 2012, so there was a lot to update. I have 21 new films that I have seen since then added to the list and almost twice as many films that have gone either up or down from their previous position. I would have loved to find some space for the films like Chinatown(1974), The Maltese Falcon(1941) and Taxi Driver(1976) that have grown on me since the last time I made this list. They didn't make it, not because I don't like them enough but because I wanted to watch them once more before getting this list done and unfortunately, I could not find time for it. I wanted to update 'A Life in Movies' page as well as I am pretty sure my choices now will be drastically different. But once again, life intervened! I will try to update that as soon as possible though.

Thank you once again for your support and hopefully you will keep coming back for more. Let me know if you like the updated list in the comments. Cheers!!

Happy Birthday U, Me and Films !!

About 13 months ago from today, I saw an article in now extinct IMDb Hitlist on Hitchcock and his movies that took me to a blog Riku Writes (now Streams of Unconsciousness). At that time, I was completely oblivious to the concept of a movie blog even though by then, I was already turned into a film buff for quite some time. My friends were referring me as a 'movie guy', they had stopped asking me 'Hey dude, what are you doing ?', it turned into 'So, what are you watching now ?', they were asking me for movie recommendations and my opinion on whether should they watch certain movie or not. But, personally this particular habit of mine was kinda stagnant, going nowhere. So, I was looking for something different to do with it. On personal front, I was done with all the course work for my masters with 3 months of summer just around the corner. Even when the semester would start in the Fall, only thing I had to worry about was my Master's Project which meant that I can pretty much have my own time-table for the whole week except one weekly meeting on Friday. 

With all this in mind, me stumbling onto this blog was quite serendipitous. Wheels started to turn inside my head, contemplating the idea of starting my own blog. I spent some time going through contents of that blog. In the matter of few days, I discovered that there is a whole world of movie bloggers out there which was encouraging. However, not only that I did not have any prior experience of writing anything, much less of writing it in English, I didn't have any formal film education neither to help me. For those who do not know, English is not my second but third language. Up until I was 10 years old, only thing I knew about English was A-Z. My 4 year old niece knows more nursery rhymes than me as no one read them to me when I was kid. So, I took my time not only to decide whether to go ahead or not but also to try and see if I can really write something worth putting out there. I spent a little over a month deliberating, practicing before I finally published my first article exactly year ago from today on 13 June 2011. And that is how U, Me and Films came into existence !!

Journey in this year has been fulfilling to say the least. I would like to believe that my writing has evolved over this year, but to tell you the truth I have no way of judging this. What I do know is my movie tastes have evolved a lot, what I do know is my knowledge, my horizons have widened for certain. I still don't get a lot of pop culture references but even then I at least know what people are talking about. I know that I have written only around 60 posts, but with me being a master procrastinator and with an extremely limited vocabulary that I have, it still takes quite some time for me to write it. I also took it little slow till I graduated at the end of January. I have doubled my speed since then but even then it comes to around 6-7 posts/month. I am still doing my best. However, the most fulfilling experience has been how welcoming and friendly this whole blogging community has been and that has been true especially since I joined LAMB in March. Anywhere you go, first blogging advice you will receive is always blog for yourself, not for anyone else and even though I agree with it completely, it is always great to know few people around you that you can look up to, that can inspire you, that can set example for you. Over this one year, I have been lucky enough to get acquainted with quite a few bloggers through different channels. So, let me take this chance to raise my glass to some of these phenomenal film bloggers that I have come across in last year who have done exactly this to me...

Richard Hourula@Stream of Unconsciousness: Unfortunately, I haven't had any communication with him over the year. But, as I previously stated, his blog has played an instrumental part in conception of this blog and he deserves due credit for it.

Alex@And So It Begins: For being an inspiration to almost half of the posts on this blog with his encyclopedic knowledge of movies, and more than that for being such a great patron with a lot of encouragement. We are eagerly waiting for your film, Earrings !!

Ruth@...Let's be Splendid about This...:  For our mutual Ghibli love and for all the lovely comments over the time and 7x7 Link award which ungratefully I didn't reply to. So, maybe she will forgive me for that.

Scott@Front Room Cinema: For his persistence of commenting on almost every single post. He is being missed in this part of blogosphere but since he is enjoying a rare family time(or that's what he told me), I can't really complain.

Stevee@Cinematic Paradox: For giving U, Me and Films it's 1st ever Blogging award and for maintaining an awesome blog and for her rating system and for her running features. I am sure she will win quite a few Lammies this time around.

Tyler@Southern Vision: For being a great point of reference as far as foreign or art house movies are considered - I have always been in awe of his passion for it and For being go-to guy to find movies on YouTube :D

Nikhat@Being Norma Jeane: A fellow Indian movie blogger, who also writes about English movies in English(unfortunately, I haven't found many of us) and who also has a colorful and beautiful blog.

Sati@Cinematic Corner: For...Have you seen her blog ? You wouldn't ask why if you have. She has Best Design Lammy in her pocket and then she writes something stunning like this as well.

Chris@moviesandsongs365: Even though he hasn't done them in last couple of months due to the health reasons, I loved his eclectic reviews with much more information than just a normal review and his song suggestions are always awesome.

Mette@Lime Reviews and Strawberry Confessions: For being passionate about Indian movies more than lot of us, Indians are. If you look at her site, you will notice she has a lot more Bollywood stuff than me.

Never Too Early for Movie Predictions: He was one of those people who were extremely supportive and welcoming immediately after I joined LAMB and off course, all of us are in awe of his round the year Oscar predictions. You can count on my vote for this !! 

CS@Big Thoughts from a Small Mind: For all the blogging love shared.

Murtaza@A Potpurri of Vestiges: Another fellow Indian movie-blogger who writes a great blog with very detailed reviews.

Some of my favorite pod-casters Reel Insight, Matineecast, French Toast Sunday and off course LAMBCast and they all have phenomenal blogs that I am in constant awe of.

LAMB: Last but probably the most important, for giving the platform to come and talk with fellow movie geeks without feeling like the only person on the earth who cares about something like this.

And in the end, let me raise it to anyone and everyone, who has ever visited this blog or commented on it or who has ever tweeted with me sharing their opinions about movies, please come and join me on this festive occasion. There is a lot of room for you all !! I really do not know how long will I keep blogging. But with such an encouragement, I can only hope I will go on and on !!

HERE IS TO FIRST COMPLETE YEAR AND HOPEFULLY MORE TO COME !!

Beginning of a New Beginning

Titanic(1997) was the first English movie I saw in theatre. I must have been in 6^th Std and I remember asking my father ‘Why is everyone laughing?’ when Kate Winslet’s bodyguard says ‘It's interesting. The young lady slipped so suddenly and you still had time to remove your jacket and your shoes.’ to Leonardo DiCaprio after DiCaprio saves her from her suicide attempt. I didn’t understand a thing then. As a kid, though I enjoyed many movies like Home Alone(1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York(1992) and Dunston Checks in(1996), my knowledge of English Film Industry was only limited to these movies. Somewhere in November 2006, we shifted in the new house and then came Cable Network. Until then, we never had one. Even television came in our house pretty late, sometime in 1996 I believe.

By the time I was in my 3^rd year of my Engineering, because of Broadband Internet network and Movie channels like Star Movies and HBO had kindled my passion of Films. Few of my Friends I considered as reliable sources(most of them, I still do) were used to be my ‘go to’ guys about movie suggestions. Because of J.K.Rowling and Harry Potter, I was also reading lot of English Literature as well(I should also thank my friend Mandar Harshe, who lent me first 4 books of the series). Reading those books made me comfortable with the language while watching English films. Friends(1994)helped immensely too.

Then I came to Massachusetts for my masters in August 2009. Availability of much superior infrastructure at very affordable cost made a lot of things easier for students studying thousand miles away from home like us. An Avid movie lover l was by then, it was almost impulsive to me to use this for watching many movies I always wanted to watch but were not available for various reasons. It was my chance and I was not going to miss it. Netflix, College Library and other sources to get movies became my lifeline. I became a regular visitor of IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes and similar sites.

I finished most of my course work by Fall 2010. Since Spring 2011, I was working on my master’s project. Lack of any definite time table gave me the freedom to do everything as I wanted to. Now, I had time to do many things that I loved but could not fit into my schedule because of lectures, home-works and assignments(I have read 7 books since Jan 2011. Almost double the books I read since coming to US). By default, I was watching a lot of movies. I have had quite a collection now; my friends were asking me for movie recommendations; my roommates were teasing me about being in wrong career (they wanted me to be a movie critic. :)

I was enjoying my journey of Films. But after some time it was natural to urge for something more. I was doing a lot of reading regarding movies myself, various articles, blogs like Riku Writes(This is one of my major source of my Inspiration. I am going to steal a lot of ideas from this blog) etc. etc. And one fine day, I thought to give it a try myself. And here we are. I can never be a movie critic; whatever my roommates want me to be. But at least I can try to write about them. This is my humble attempt to channel my various thoughts regarding movies that I kept to myself until now. Hope you will like it. Your comments about anything will be most appreciated. Bon Voyage!!