I watched a Tamil movie Super Deluxe on Netflix. It was like entering into a fantasy arthouse world, not sure how else to describe it. Magic realism meets music in motion. A world which imitates life but is not really anything like real life. Where things are predictable but at crucial moments completely out of joint with prediction. It was mind bendy in that sense but not in the science fiction sense—which feels clinical to me and not a genre I am keen on—but a life-art sense where you are immersed in the artist's unique imagination and rich aesthetic sensibilities but possibilities are not completely disconnected from some notion of the real...

I was interested to understand where the director was coming from or what they were like. I always have a curiosity to know the creator's mind or life better when I engage with any kind of interesting artistic product, generally literature. This interview with Thiagarajan Kumararaja didn't disappoint. There are many gems in there like when he talks about his early reflections on why certain greats like Picasso sold for millions while no one appreciated the art painted outside the local fruit shop for instance. He also gives an interesting take on why he doesn't like to give any explanation or deconstruction of his cinematic choices. He says that the past has only one path whereas the future has any number of possible paths. Likewise by not giving any explanation for the movie he was keeping those umpteen possibilities of perception open. What I really liked about Thiagarajan is his refusal to pander to the public. It's pretty clear that he wants to create movies that meet his own standard of excellence; this authenticity and integrity is probably what differentiates him from someone who just makes and sells movies (or anything else for that matter).

There is a bit where he talks about his creative process... and I couldn't but help relate it to my writing process, a big piece of which is the freedom to 'do nothing'. Not everyone gets it so it's wonderful to hear someone talking about it. Here's the bit:

Thiagarajan Kumararaja: "To be honest, some scenes you can crack in minutes. Sometimes the entire idea can be cracked in 30 minutes. But for that half an hour to happen, you'll laze around... go through that phase of... I was reading this quote a couple of days back... A writer is somebody who is writing when he is not writing...

 But it will convince you only when you get it on paper. You won't know when that moment will come."