P is for Passion

One of the things that I truly admire in people is passion. I don't mean passion towards a person. More like passion towards a sport, music, writing, making movies etc.

I knew a guy who could play the guitar really well. Music was his passion and he wanted to start his own band. I had faith in his capabilities. I believed he could be a guitarist of a successful band, if only he had the initiative to start one! Yes...unfortunately he lacked initiative.

Yesterday, I went to watch 'Michael Clayton' with a friend. While I was standing in queue to buy the tickets, I was approached by a twenty-something guy who handed me a flyer of the movie 'The Lives of Others', a German movie with English subtitles. I was quite keen on watching Michael Clayton but I didn't want to be rude to this guy by waiving him off either, so I asked him for the synopsis of the movie. He smiled & said "Mam, the synopsis is printed on the other side of the flyer but I'll tell you anyway." And he went on to tell me what the movie was about. I still wasn't too keen to watch the movie (as I had my mind set on the irresistably charming & suave Mr Clooney) so I non-chalantly asked: "Why're you handing out these flyers?". He smiled again & answered, "Because I don't have the money to promote the movie but it's a movie worth watching!" That was enough to make me walk away from Mr Clayton and go to another theater that was screening 'The Lives of Others' shortly. The guy also told me later that he worked for the company that was releasing the movie in India but that didn't matter. I was already sold out on the movie!

I never asked the guy's name, and I don't think he knows I went on to watch the movie he wanted me to watch. Neither do I think he ever will. But I admire his passion towards movies. In a day & age when most of us look for cushy corporate jobs that will help us afford the ridiculously priced multiplex tickets (among other things), it takes a lot of guts, and love for cinema, to work for a small company that doesn't have the financial resources to promote movies that are not only
off the mainstream but are in a language that the mainstream population doesn't even understand! My friend's comment "Here we go watching a freakin' documentary!" is quite descriptive of our attitude towards such movies.

I'm sure he tried pitching 'The Lives of Others' to many other people who had come to the theater to watch other better-known movies. And going by the number of people watching the movie, I don't think he had too much success. But it doesn't matter because while most of us spend our entire lives trying to figure out what we're really passionate about, he was one of the lucky few who know what they're passionate about, and are brave enough to pursue it without worrying about how "successful" they will be. Hats off to such people!