Music.. Colour.. Editing..!!

26.08.09. He came like a flash. Swiftly. With oodles of grace and sophistication, like always. Moment he walked inside the Convention Centre (fondly called CC by everyone to save time) more than half of the fairer sex just kept staring, nudging each other and giggle foolishly.

He was dressed stylishly in a long Black Kurta and Pajama. I looked dreamily at him, high with happiness. After some time when I realized I am staring at him like a frog, (maybe like many other girls in the class) that I shifted my gaze and looked around. He is one Professor whose class everybody LOVES to attend, irrespective of the fact whether it is a Senior or a Junior. He has got that charm. He has got that awesome teaching technique, which will make even a regular MBA guy contemplate once in the First Semester to change his specialization to Audio-Visual (No Kidding here).

"Music", he  continued, "is what we will discuss today. Needless to say it would not be about Pink Floyd (Seesh!), but about music in Cinema" said he, flashing that gorgeous smile.

The class rolled on with 'Case Studies' varying from ancient films like 'Ayodhyaya Raja', 'Indrasabha' and 'Sadhvi Mirabai' to films like 'Pather Panchali' and even Bergman's 'Cries and Whisper'. He explained how Bach's western classical music piece has been effectively used by Bergman to show the impactful 'sisters apologizing' scene. The 'music' drowns the word as the sisters keep on apologizing to each other and breaks down.

'Pather Panchali' as we all know is well-known for the extraordinary theme music by Pandit Ravi Shankar. Ray uses it effectively in the right areas as the movie rolls forward.

"Have you guys noticed that this theme music comes up everytime something significant happens in the familiy's life?", he pointed.

The song sung by Indir Thakrun, "Hari Din toh Gelo Sondhye holo, Paar koro amare" too plays a significant role in the film. The way it has been used as the background score after she dies, gives the viewer a chill down the spine.

The next lecture was about the impact of  'Colours' in the movies. Bergman's 'Cries and Whisper' was repeated as a Case Study again. The way the colour red and white has been used in the movie is worth noticing. Bergman have used 'Red' to Fade Out and 'White' to Fade In, rather than the conventional colour 'Black'.

I especially loved the way he explained about 'colours' in Black and White Cinema. 

"It contains not only Black and White but thousands and thousands of grey shades in between", he winked and said, and showed us the video of a mock shooting set and how 'colour' helps setting it up.

The last lecture was really impressive. It was about one of the most important parts of Post Production- i,e Editing. He explained about 'Fade In' and 'Fade Out' in great detail and also how 'Dissolve' is used to show Flashback sequences. Case Studies varied from the film 'Our Daily Bread' which has got a superb 'Fade Out and 'Fade In' scene, to noted films like 'Saheb, Biwi aur Ghulam' to show 'Dissolve'. The class did not quite end in a good note, as I wanted it to be, let's not get into the reason behind it though.

After class I looked for him and found him standing near the notice board. I gulped and tried hard to think of something really intelligent.

As I went near him all I could come up with was, "Sir Do you think Pather Panchali was the first Trilogy in India?" (I slapped my forehead mentally as I threw the Lamest-Question-of-the-Day at him. If there would have been a prize for that, I would have won it am sure.)

He looked at me and actually thought. 

"Hmmm.. I think not. There was this 'Hunterwali' series by Nadira. It was a whole series of films", he said.

As I made my way towards the Canteen with a silly grin on my face and a swing in my step, I just said to myself "God! When is the next class!" *wink-wink*