Confessions of a DVD Chapter Sneak
I have a confession to make. When I get a brand new Bollywood DVD, I just can't wait to watch the "Songs". So more often than not, I'll stick that DVD in the player and take a sneak peak at a couple of the songs. I will definitely watch the Item Number, because that one has nothing to do with the plot of the movie anyway, right? Am I at least justified in that? No you say? Well then maybe you just aren't addicted to Bollywood like I am. Because how can anyone in their right mind wait through a DVD to watch the songs? When I go to the movie theater, I am resigned to the fact, and actually quite content to sit through a Bollywood movie and wait for the songs to unfold with the story. However, with a DVD it is just to tempting to wait. I love the songs and often (when they are good that is) when they have ended, I want to watch them again right away. In fact with a really good Bollywood film, after I have watched the movie I will most likely watch the songs over and over. Why else would there, in every DVD "menu", be a "songs" selection? Its because some of us (and I am talking about me) want to JUST watch the song and even can for long periods of time, live on songs alone.
I know I am not alone on this. I have shared this confession with some of my friends and they to admit to sneaking peeks at the songs before they actually watch the movie too.How did this happen? Where did this practice of "sneaking the songs" come from? Well I will tell you. It was the advent of the DVD/VCD that make it all possible. Before the DVD/VCD there was the Bollywood video-cassette, the Long Playing video-cassette, that scrunched a 3 hour long movie onto an extended play tape. On those things, finding a song you wanted to watch over again was an art in itself, hit and miss at best. In that day, one had to have a video-cassette compilation of just songs if you wanted to be a song freak.
The DVD/VCD has revolutionized all that. With the invention of the "Menu" the watching of Bollywood has changed. It has become an altered medium. In fact, I would propose that the DVD/VCD "Menu" selection has revolutionized Bollywood as much as the introduction of television and the video-cassette did in their day. Because now, not only do we have the ability to watch and re-watch movies in our homes (what television gave us), and then watch the movie at our own leisure (what the video-cassette gave us), but now we have the ability to have nearly instantaneous control over any part of the film we want to watch at any given time (what the DVD/VCD menu and remote control gave us). With this control I absolutely believe that the viewing of Bollywood, past and present, have been given new life. I know many people who have bought the DVD/VCDs of, Karan Johar's K3G and Sanjay Bhansali's Devdas, just so they can watch the songs. And we all know that many Bollywood DVDs actually have a menu selection that will let the viewer watch, "all the songs".
So the next time you are watching a DVD/VCD of Bollywood, remember that you are actually part of a new revolution. One that not only gives you more and convenient control over the movie you are watching. But has altered the way Bollywood can actually be watched and enjoyed. OK, now I was going to starting talking about Bit Torrents, but that is a whole other story...
