MOVIES MADE ME A BETTER PERSON

Nameless

There was a time in my life where I loathed movies. On second thought, I wouldn't say "loathed", but I wasn't particularly a fan of movies. I saw it as something that people did to pass time, and why would someone want to pass time when there is such a dearth of it.

I thought of myself as a pragmatist and someone who knew how to make every second count. Only that, on some days I lost not just seconds but hours to mindless scrolling on social media that eventually proved to be of no benefit.

Those were the good ol days.

I have since grown to appreciate good movies. Movies that were well thought of, planned and executed to perfection. I have grown to see that my world view could be well enhanced by good movies and movies may not be a waste of time after-all.

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes?

Overtime, I have encountered some movies that have shaped my perception of movies in general as well as my view of life. The first one that comes to mind is the adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

I never was a fan of story books/novels, even though I am considered to be a nerd in many quarters. I guess that is why my first encounter of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes was on Netflix and not on a bookshelf.

There are many versions of it out there. I have seen a few, but only one left me wanting more. The series starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

I loved the way Benedict portrayed the self absorbed and incredibly pompous Sherlock who could see a million things at once.

I am definitely not sanctioning being a pompous dickhead like he was. He would look at everyone else as infinitely inferior in intellect and charm. It became repulsive to watch many times.

But I was definitely intrigued by his ability to see and observe a thousand different things that the normal person would overlook. His ability to make connections that seemed impossible, so much so that he was more or less a psychic.

It reminds me of his statement to John Watson...

"The problem is not that you do not see, it is that you see but do not observe"

It is a statement that is so true for a lot of people, myself inclusive. We take for granted the things that we see every day so much so that we fail to observe.

Here is a practical example. Everyone has seen a traffic light. Can you tell which color is at the top of the traffic light? Is it green or red? Or is it yellow?( tell me in the comment section if you got the answer once without checking)...

No! I am not telling you that it is the color red that is on the top, not green. You get the point. Let's try another example. A simple one.

This is for the road users. How many colors are a standard stop sign? Thats the easy part.

Here is the hard part. Which of them is in the background?

Did you say red and white?

Did you say that the background is red?

Well, you might be a better observer than most people. The point here is that we tend to see but do not observe. And If Sherlock taught me anything, it is that you should take time to observe things carefully, you never know when you will need to call on it.

Talking about observational skills, have you seen "the mentalist"?

The Mentalist

Simon Baker

Patrick Jane is an ex-psychic using his "psychic abilities" to catch criminals. The only thing is that Patrick insists that there is no such thing as a psychic. He clearly demonstrates a strange set of observational skills that made people believe that he was a psychic, even after he continued insisting that psychics don't exist.

The seven series are a chronicle of how Patrick uses his keen powers of observation to notice details and draw inferences. Which is pretty much what Sherlock does...

So what makes Patrick different from Sherlock? Patrick not only has amiable powers of observation, he has a robust understanding of human behaviour and psychologic processes such that he is able to tap into the subconscious mind through hypnosis in certain instances.

With that, he is able to tell when someone's lying. He basically knows how to play around with the human emotion and use it to his advantage. He is a dangerous man when you are on his wrong side, and a really helpful person when he wants to be. Although a lot of times he just behaves like an ass...ignoring people's feelings and boundaries.

Since watching the series, I have become a lot more aware of my interactions with people, and their emotions and their pattern of thought. I am more conscious of what I say and how I say it.

I admit that I have been tempted to use it sometimes for selfish reasons. But I can say categorically that i have become a better person since I saw the series.

Do you think movies have made you a better person?