Beware of Trailers

I remember chatting with one of my friend back in 2002 wherein I jokingly said “seeing the trailer means seeing the movie these days” after which we gagged a little bit and continued talking about other stuff. But I personally can’t ignore this fact anymore as it applies to not only Bollywood but also Hollywood.

Been constantly watching movies ever other weekend, since I graduated in 2010, I have enough experience by now to claim it with unshakable authority that ‘Trailers kills all the fun!’ I have personally tested the validity of this fact many times knowingly but at times unknowingly as well.

Like the first movie I saw on big screen in U.S. was ‘Avatar’ and I am damn proud that it was. I avoided seeing any trailers, reading any reviews, so I had no idea about what I am going to see. The only bias I had in my mind before watching ‘Avatar’ was that it’s from ‘James Camerons’ the guy who directed ‘Titanic’. I had waited almost two years to break the record of seeing a movie on big screen in U.S. so obviously I was not going to take any chances, hell I avoided seeing at posters as well. I had managed to keep almost all the biases out of my mind to, for the first time in my life, ‘SEE’ the movie and not just see the movie,  like imagine an alien landed on planet earth and the first thing  it does is gets a ticket at AMC to see ‘Avatar’. Needless to say it was a PRICELESS! Experience, and to add the cherry on the top I saw it in 3D. And although it was the second movie I saw in 3D, the first been ‘Anjali’ with horrible 3D technology compare to what we have right now and with me been 10-12 years of age I don’t even recollect what 3D effects I saw in that movie, I mean the only thing that I can remember is that of a small girl riding a bicycle in air.

My mind was metaphorically living in ‘Pandora’ for weeks after I saw ‘Avatar’ and I crave for those feelings even now some times. So after that kind of an experience, I was totally convinced that I should do this time and again; that I must try to keep my mind free of any biases before watching a movie. Not only doing this will gave me enough mind pills to deal the 21^st century stressful life for following weeks but also it will serve justice to the director and writer whom I respect the most.

It didn't work every time obviously, thanks to the trailers that AMC seeds in our brains before the movie starts, and millions and millions of dollars spent in brainwashing the public opinion by advertisement and marketing giants, but it does works every now and then. The last time this technique worked was during ‘Talaash’ the recent aamir khan movie; I instantly fell in love with the directions, the story and a couple of songs which I heard for the very first time, so yes as a side note, I personally try to avoid listening to songs as well if going for a Bollywood movie.

All I am saying is you should try it sometime too and let your experience guide you as in whether to avoid biases if possible or not. Mostly you will agree with my conclusions because we share the same chemical reactions within our brain, so give it a try and spread the word if possible.