A Movie Called Life.

Shakespeare had said- “All the world's a stage and all men and women are merely players.” Or rather, Jaques from 'As You Like It' did, but that's besides the point. The point is that I was watching the Lego Movie. And oh my god is it the best movie ever. What makes it the best movie ever? Not only does it have a great message, it also actually inspired me to write this blog post. The movie, starts out to be your regular run-of-the-mill animated comedy, and moves on to create a connection between the real human world and the Lego universe. What the cute little kid Finn imagines with his toys, translates into the actual movie we are watching, and the characters are living. *mind blown* A movie within a movie- Movie-ception! Which led me to thinking, maybe this bubble called life is nothing more than…a movie.

A movie that we act in, direct, produce, write, create an original soundtrack of, so on…and finally view and review. So perhaps the point really was what Shakespeare had said. For him, life was a seven-act play. And so it shall be for all you theatre lovers out there (I also speak to my own drama-geek self). And for my blog post point of view and that of every single movie buff out there, life shall be a movie. Shakespeare said it, and now it’s my turn.

What is reality? How do we know that what we live in is ‘real’? Life sometimes seems nothing more than just a dream. I have had many conversations with my friends where we spend a minute pondering on the fact that maybe the world is just a dollhouse and we are the dolls. The world around us is an illusion, a figment of our imagination. That, we, in all entireties are not that different from the Lego mini-figures in the Lego Movie. I choose to believe that we each have a soul. Correction.  To paraphrase, I believe we each ‘are’ a soul. The role that we took up? Nope. Not the real us. Our soul is merely an actor. A pretty damn good A-lister. Everyone around us- also just actors that take upon roles that have been cast to them. Their traits, their personality is mere characterization. Each role (lifetime) that the actor (here, our soul) takes upon, makes the actor grow, emotionally and mentally, as he molds his character into shape with personal experiences and so on. Because as I mentioned earlier, here there is no scriptwriter. You write your own story. You direct your own scenes. You write the humorous scenes, you write the emotional scenes. You act them. You grow as an actor. You direct them. You grow as a person.

How many times, when we feel exhilaratingly happy, do we crank up the music and head-bang away to all glory? How many times do we play a sad ballad and look out of the window, trying to re-create a sad scene from our favourite movie to satisfy our inner filmy-ness? Now, isn’t that how you create your own soundtrack to your life, oops, I meant your movie?

How many times do we realize that life is just a movie? And that we need not get so caught up, because this is just a role we are playing in a fictitious reality. So press Play. Don’t Pause, Rewind or Stop. Live every scene. Laugh when your co-actor improvises and cracks a joke, Cry when someone breaks your heart. (It’s probably ‘cause he wasn’t good enough and George Clooney is going to have a very special cameo). *evil laugh* Hey you rolling your eyes! No kidding. It is your script! (But yes, keep it to a minimum on casting- actors are SO demanding.) Okay, shake it off, back to the topic. Enjoy life, like you enjoy a movie. Because that is what it’s always been supposed to be. To be enjoyed. Treat your challenges as mysteries- your hurdles as clues- What would Sherlock do next?

Buy yourself a flower. Sing a song to someone. Start dancing in the middle of a conversation, straight out of a Bollywood movie. Hakuna Matata yourself through a long Monday. Life is too short to live fully and freely, too long to survive. A blink of an eye yet a span of eternity. Get your popcorn ready. Show’s about to start.

Bubbles of movie masala,

Ankita.