Youth,Film,Reality

From the time he learnt to recognize the world around him Derek had
wanted to make films. He was not bothered about the kind of film he
would someday make. He merely wanted to tell a story on celluloid. For
a person of Derek's background this was indeed tough. Derek had been
brought up by a poor uncle who did not have enough money to send the
eager boy to school. However, the uncle taught Derek whatever he knew.
The boy picked up the alphabet. Later he taught himself to first form
words and then sentences. By the time he was fifteen Derek could read
and write well enough. He had this grand plan of getting direct
admission to college. But before any such thing could materialize
Derek's uncle was killed in a road accident. Now, there was no money
and no future. Derek asked everyone regarding some kind of employment.
He was ready to do any work really as long as the salary was sufficient
to pay for meals. When he had nothing to do Derek would visit the local
cinema house and look at the colourful posters. He would observe the
faces of the actors and say to himself, "One day, people will make
posters of a film that will be directed by me." On one of these trips
to the cinema Derek found a notice that interested him greatly. The
hall authorities were looking for an usher. The person had to be
literate and be at least twenty years old. And Derek was only sixteen.
Nevertheless he decided to meet the manager. Derek was in luck. The
manager liked him instantly. He was asked to read a newspaper loudly.
Derek used to read the daily paper regularly. He passed the test
without any problems. The manager understood that the boy needed the
job badly. So, he was asked to join the very next day. It took a while
for Derek to learn to read movie tickets in the dark. But he was very
friendly and behaved well with others. In two years time he was
everybody's favourite. The manager lived in an apartment that was part
of the cinema premises. In five years time Derek became known to the
manager's family. The manager's wife began to like him as the son she
never had. Derek attended a course at the polytechnic that trained him
to operate a projector. After completing the course Derek was made an
understudy to the projector operator at the cinema house. Derek now
believed that he was very close to making a film. In fact he now saw
the actual "film" (on which the story was recorded with the help of the
camera and other devices) while it was being loaded on to the
projector. When the projector operator retired Derek was given his job.
But in five year's time Derek was fed up. He was as close to
film-making now as a jeweller is close to wearing valuable ornaments.
He handled many film prints, saw many films but there was no scope for
Derek to become a film-maker. Then, a lot of things happened together.
The manager's family was killed in an accident. The manager was also
owner of the cinema house. After the accident the manager fell ill.
There was no one to look after him. Derek was now the de facto manager
of the hall. He appointed a nurse to take care of the manager. The big
doctor advised the manager to shift to a hill-station. The sick manager
spoke to his lawyers. After working at the cinema house for fifteen
years Derek was also its owner now. After the manager shifted to the
nearest hill-station with a nurse and cook Derek began to prepare for
film-making. He wanted to sell the cinema and with the money he got he
would make his film. One thing troubled him though. He had no idea
about actually making a film. Any film. But he was sure that he would
know once he had the money. But misfortune struck again. A violent
earthquake destroyed the cinema. It was a new problem. With the cinema
out of the way Derek had a lot of vacant land. He decided to plant
fruit trees on the land. Accordingly a thousand mango trees were
planted. In eight years' time the trees were ready to produce fruits.
But nothing is obtained easily in this world. A herd of monkeys ate the
entire crop of mangoes as soon as it appeared on the trees. The next
time the fruits became affected by a killer disease. But Derek was
lucky the third time. A bumper crop was obtained and all fruits were
sold. Derek now had a hundred thousand pounds. He consulted experts and
was told that the amount was sufficient to make a small film. Derek was
now fifty years old. He found that he had to hire people to write a
story, to operate the camera and score the music. All these years Derek
had believed that just wanting to make a film was enough. He had never
written a screenplay but believed that he could write one easily. He
had never operated a movie camera but thought that it was easy to learn
shooting with one. He also did not have any idea about music. Indeed,
Derek had no knowledge about film-making and others thought it was too
late to learn at fifty. He had no intention of hiring people to make
what he believed was well and truly HIS film. Indeed, sad as he was,
Derek had to go back to growing mangoes. It was the death of a lifelong
wish.