GUEST: Connie Haham on Ramesh Sippy's Shakti

THE ONGOING MYSTERY OF THE ATTRACTION OF RAMESH SIPPY'S SHAKTI

The attraction of the movies is itself a bit of a mystery. Philosophy professor Colin McGinn explores the issue in his 2005 The Power of Movies: How Screen and Mind Interact. His focus is on the visual component of this audiovisual medium. He distinguishes between what we look at and what we look into: space, water, windows, flames, people's eyes, the flickering of light on a cinema screen. This last 'looking into' involves story and offers the possibility for utter absorption, the sort that our minds otherwise devote to our dreams.

But let's just suppose that one has seen a movie, perhaps many times, but one's ongoing connection with the film is not visual but auditory. Outside of a few exceptions, say, Lawrence of Arabia, my criteria for a good film is first and foremost a good soundtrack, and not primarily music and sound effects but rather the strength of the dialogue and the quality of the voices delivering them. I love color, and I love the power of the human face to convey fleeting or profound emotion. Yet in the end, for me, it is visuals which complement sound - our most primordial sense.

Given this basic penchant, what is it about Ramesh Sippy's 1982 Shakti, written by Salim-Javed, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Dilip Kumar, Smita Patil, Raakhee, Amrish Puri, and Kulbhushan Kharbanda, that makes me continue to listen (obsessively) to the film's dialogues for years on end?