The List

 “The list…. is life!!” – Itzhak Stern to Oskar Schindler in the movie Schindlers’s List (1993)

I never knew that this line would come to be applied to me as crazily as it has done for the last two and a half years! And the fact that I followed it so religiously makes its even crazier! Incidentally Schindler’s List was the first movie I watched once this list business started. And to write about a journey of this magnitude is tough (almost like that of The Hobbit’s). But will still have to give it a shot!

It was just another day at the office for me at Jaipur. It had hardly been 3 months since my marriage (Haathon ki mehendi bhi nahi sookhi thi abhi ;-)). I was busy setting up my newly rented home those days. And in one of these mundane moments, Rahul asked me if I wanted to join in this list where they were marking all the IMDB Top 250 movies they had seen. And I don’t even recall whether Rahul had invited me to this craziness over phone or over chat. (Minakshi curses you a lot for this dude!!) But yup! He asked me to join in this and this was certainly an offer I couldn’t refuse!

The Weapons:

Weapons

I started watching this list on my 9 year old laptop. The configuration is mind boggling. An HP laptop with 256mb RAM and Celeron Processor. It could have been used just for watching movies and TV series or for making presentations. Some day I’m going to sell it as an antique. In the later part, I got a much respectable Compaq laptop with a decent configuration.

The Competitors:

The first competition was supposed to be between Rahul and Shruti so as to who would be the first to reach 50.(Rahul about to reach 250.. Shruti recently crossed 50!!) But once the race started, there was no looking back. For the first 100, the main competition was given by Abhishek. But after reaching that milestone, I had a long break. And then Rahul accelerated big time. He has been closing in all the time. But finally, I finished just ahead of him (22^nd February, 9:05 p.m.). The invitation and inspiration to reach here, certainly on you buddy!

The victorious moment!!!

Concept credits: SRT & Rahul

What started out as an attempt to watch some really great movies of all times, turned into a maniac obsession that had to be completed at all costs. Less sleep, endless whatsapp conversations discussing these very movies, Wikipedia understanding, updating the list, etc. Everything was part of the business.

The Movies:

The range, the depth and the diversity that has come across us while completing The List is unparalleled. We would certainly have lost a chance to see some masterpieces had it not been for The List. And though we had to overcome some really boring Japanese/Korean/Chinese animated movies (What the heck are those doing in The List anyways!), the good ones were just too good.

From the all popular cinematic miracles (The Godfather I & II, Shawshank Redemption, The Good The Bad and The Ugly) to the recent revelations (Inception, The Dark Knight Series, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, Shutter Island), from all time classics (Casablanca, Gone with the Wind,12 Angry Men) to the highly contemplated irregular movies (Citizen Kane, Dr. Stranglehold, Sunset Blvd), from the Charles Chaplin silent comedies (Modern Times, The Kid, City Lights) to the singing comedies (Singin’ in the Rain, Some Like It Hot), from The Star Wars’ series to The Lords of the Rings’ series, from some marvelous animation movies (Ratatouille, Finding Nemo, Toy Story series) to the heartwarming non-English movies (Life is Beautiful, Cinema Paradiso, Amelie), from shocking stories (Oldboy, Incendies, Memories of Murder) to just beautiful and happy James Stewart movies (It’s a Wonderful Life, Harvey, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), from movies based on true life stories (Gandhi, Downfall, In the Name of the Father, Schindler’s List, Amadeus) to some brilliant original screenplays (Memento, The Green Mile, No Country For Old Men), from good old gangster movies (Goodfellas, Scarface, Casino) to artists/sport star movies (The Artist, Wrestler, Warrior)  from movies based on the Vietnam war (Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Platoon) to relaxing romantic comedies (Annie Hall, Manhattan, Groundhog Day), from the weird and bizarrely made alien movies (Alien, Aliens, The Thing, District 9) to the majestically picturised movies (Life of Pi),  from Alfred Hitchcock mysteries (Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo) to Paul Newman dramas (Hustler, The Sting ,Cool Hand Luke), from Quentin Tarantino’s fast paced thrillers (Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained) to Clint Eastwood’s directorial magic (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby, Gran Torino) and from the headless tail-less Monty Python comedies (The Holy Grail, Life of Brian) to the only two Bollywood movies making the cut (Taare Zameen Par & 3 Idiots(yeah, only Aamir Khan movies!)), every possible variety is included in The List. I might have missed some other diversity as it’s too long. But all in all, to watch all these movies was an exhilarating experience (well, certainly most of these!)

The final movie!! Stalker

                                                            

But at the end, a time came when I just couldn’t put myself to watch a movie at all. It’s similar to a punishment sequence shown in the movie A Clockwork Orange in which the protagonist is forced to listen to Beethoven’s music among other things. And then a time comes when he just cannot put himself to listening to Beethoven again. It sounds crazy, but now I understand it can surely happen. So the end was really tough. Anyways, I did complete it. And its an achievement even SRT doesn’t have (at least for now :P)!

And certainly, the hollow that remains now will be difficult to fill! So I have gone back to good old books again. Now may be the focus would also shift to composing more songs (Amen!)

Vote of Thanks:

Firstly, the vote of thanks would definitely be to the IMDB site makers. Had it not been for them, I would still have been watching FRIENDS again and again. Secondly, thank you is in order to the torrentz people, without whom I couldn’t have access to all these movies.

Turning to the human thanks, it definitely has to go to my dear friend Rahul Saraf for the invitation, inspiration and competition in this amazing quest. And even the writing of this blog has been inspired by him (not even half as good! But something is always better than nothing!)

And most importantly, a big thanks to my loving wife Minakshi. Thanks that you have such a peaceful sleep which is not disturbed by the constant khatar-patar of my dabba laptops. Thanks for letting me watch the movies in peace. I know a lot of people would be jealous of me today because I have you. I love you J J J (I promise a lot more songs would be composed for you only!!)

Statistics/Milestones/Rankings:

Top 3 movies:

1.       The Godfather

2.       Life is Beautiful

3.       Schindler’s List

Top 3 performances from actors:

1.       Marlon Brando in The Godfather

2.       Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight

3.       Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs

Top 3 performances from actresses:

1.       Jodie Foster in The Silence of the Lambs

2.       Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby

3.       Audrey Tautou in Amelie

Top 3 quotes:

1.       “Here’s looking at you kid!” – Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca

2.       “I’ll make him an offer which he can’t refuse!” – Marlon Brando in The Godfather

3.       “I’m as mad as hell, and I can’t take this anymore!” – Peter Finch in Network

 The Milestones:

1.       100^th movie – Full Metal jacket

2.       200^th movie – Rain Man

3.       250^th movie – Stalker

Most Beautiful Actress (just had to put it here):

Ingrid Bergman (Casablanca, Notorious)

Movie requiring most sittings:

Das Boot

Most movies seen in a day:

6 (Six)

Worst/Most Boring 3 movies:

1.       8 ½

2.       2001: A Space Odyssey

3.       Stalker