Image credits: Ipsa Samaddar
“I see frames.”
Whenever I imagine my death, I think these will be my last words.
No, this column is not about last words or my morbid thoughts about death. (It’s actually something that makes me feel alive.) But, I’ve always been struck by the analogy people use to describe near-death experiences: “It was like a movie. My life flashed before my eyes in frames.”
It’s an arresting metaphor.
Movies are a human creation, crafted from imagination and technology. So how is it that on the edge of existence and the brink of oblivion, the mind conjures up a reel of flickering frames to capture an entire life? How does the final act compose itself, not in chaos, but in flashes of memories? How?
I’ve never come close to death (touch wood). But, I am convinced that the analogy of passing frames is true. Life is, after all, a montage of moments, and movies are its reflection—captured polaroids strung together in stories of hope and heartbreak. So it is only fitting that in the end, life plays out like a movie.
Man-made, yes. But movies are portals to something bigger, something extraordinary. They are an inspiring display of human emotion and fantasy. They make us laugh, cry, rage, and rejoice. For me, they do something more:
They let me live.
Everything I cannot be in real life, I become when I watch a movie. Every thought I have, every emotion I feel, plays out in my head as if I am in a film. Life itself is cinematic to me.
So, this column is my ode to cinema. To the frames that linger in my mind and the flashes that have found a place in my heart. Here, I want to write about the walking, talking, singing and dancing motion pictures that have let me feel and heal.
Movies consume me. They are my obsession, my glorious madness. But is there a purpose to this obsession? A method to this madness? Through this column, I hope to find out. Or at least have fun trying.
I hope to write about the cities I’ve wandered, the people I’ve met, the moments I’ve cherished and the many lives I’ve led, because of cinema. One day, maybe these lives will flash before me as frames.
Stay tuned to Frames and Flashes!
Spandana is the writer of the column Frames and Flashes, a space that explores films through personal experiences and unfulfilled fantasies.
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