That’s Hitchcock!
Another rainy evening! Rain blurs the nonchalant juvenile mind as
well. Peering into far-away mist in the mountains in search of
groundbreaking adventure - Hitchcock comes into mind.
Disciple thought of the movie Psycho by the legendary director Alfred
Hitchcock. It was a psychological thriller movie which revolves around a
robbery and murder. Disciple had watched a number of modern crime
thrillers at home. But he couldn’t recall a better crime movie than
Psycho.
Alfred Hitchcock |
He found it in master’s heap of old VHS tapes and went on to watch it
taking it to be a comedy from the title. But what a gripping mystery it
was. Disciple shivered and shuddered many times during the movie. He
also had goosebumps in his skin.
Master had been a fanatic movie-goer in his youth. Snuggling into his
old couch he reminisced how he and friends adored Hitchcock in those
good old days. When they passed the theatre while going to school, they
always inquired the hall’s guard about a latest Hitchcock thriller.
Annoying him at times.
As he grew up, master realized this world itself is a mystery and he
strived to be a astronaut and solve the mysteries of the universe. He
wondered had he been an astronaut or a scientist, would he have such a
tranquil life as this.
Master turned the pages of his memory book. He understood it was Enid
Blyton who had aroused him to fall in love with mystery novels and
films. Later, Hitchcock took it over with his complex and ingenious
plots. He flipped through more pages. Lifeboat, I Confess, Strangers On
a Train, Rear Window, Psycho and North By Northwest flashed in his mind.
He was more relished in Rear Window. The movie had been more intimate
to him because on that very day he broke a window pane while playing
Cricket with some other village lads. He recollected it with a contented
smile.
As the protagonist of Rear Window, Jeffris, observed his
neighbourhood through his apartment’s window, little Master also made a
binocular with the aid of his science teacher and occupied himself
peeping at the village from the glass that he broke.
Hitchcock’s Lifeboat was released during the World War II. As a
senior school student, master used to have many debates over it with his
friends and teachers. It was a wonderful time in which teachers used to
discuss with the students works outside the syllabus.
Master remembered his Sinhala teacher taking him aside one day to
give him a lesson about Lifeboats concealed truths beyond its surface.
Suspicion and enmity of ethnicities in war periods etc.
Disciple isn’t very fond of black and white movies but he was so
intrigued by Daphne du Morrier’s Jamaica Inn that he borrowed from the
library the DVD version of it.
Although he didn’t like it very much because he thought the burly
black and whit actors appear comic, he also realized Hitchcock would be
very interesting to watch. But the non-availability of his movies in his
area, soon made him forget Hitchcock and embrace some modern filmmakers.
Till he saw Psycho yesterday.
Until it was yesterday he wondered why this director is called Master
of Suspense and placed highly above his favourites like Kubrick, Coppola
and Spielberg. Oh Psycho! He shuddered again.
Then he remembered The Birds by Hitchcock. A horror piece about some
birds going berserk and terrifying humans. Master drove himself further
into investigation. Hitchcock’s films roused man’s curiosity and
certainly helped man’s inquisitiveness, he thought. It had been a
wonderful time for master reading Conon Doyle and watching Hitchcock.
Dead end again, I’m dead too! - disciple thought at last. |