More than one occasions, I have professed that movie is my religion. I am serious. Of course, there are others who say religion is my movie, and goes around shooting…literally with bullets, and planes.

Reading all my reviews and comments in this site, readers can only conclude one thing, "this guy got no life". Wait, there are other conclusions like, "he is nuts about movies’, or ‘he sees bolt and nuts in movies (hence, he is nuts), or, in case of babes, "I need his phone number’.

Though the latter conclusion has not been reacted to yet, I am sure that everyone will agree to this: I am crazy about movies.

Writing a response to a columnist, when the person blasted Stone’s Alexander (the person is wonderful otherwise, honest), I realised how much I loved this movie, and how much I honoured the art of watching movies in my life.

You see, films have largely been responsible to whom I have shaped into when I grew up. My love for films led to reading. Characters I heard of in the movies were either originally conceived in or inspired other books. I read them, and one lead to another and voila - as you are now undergoing extreme torture, subjected to reading this writing - I have become a writer.

Films were greatest training ground for me for many things. First, it was through films that I learned cultures and human behaviours in the world. Film also thought me all about sex. Watching Alexander (2004), you will realise that bisexuality was a norm in those day. Watching Mystic Rivers (2003) will have you realise that Americans are far more vulnerable psychologically than us Asians. Watching Gauvaram (1973) makes us realise that there is nothing greater in Indian's culture than pride. Those are just few of many things you can garner from watching those wonderful movies.

Films also thought me the differences between fantasy and reality. Films have always been a realistic rendering of fantasy, or fantastic visualisation of reality. Citizen Kane (1971) is a dreamy representation of a man's life, seen through many eyes, many angles, many versions, etc. King Kong (1933) was a fantasy, and but it clashed with the psychological state of the contemporary - of greed, of power, of lust and our deepest desire to manipulate our environment.

Films are entertainment, I agree. It was Lumiere brothers (the inventors of cinematograph), if I am not mistaken; who said that cinema is an entertainment for the illiterates. People flocked the cinema during their days to watch a train rushing towards them in a railway station. They saw foreign world without travelling. They experienced tragedy, without having to really go through them.

Later, people watched the Little Tramp (played by a genius named Charles Chaplin) down and out in poverty, but triumphing in the end, laughing at the face of miseries. They saw film playing with their emotions. They found themselves relating to or yearning to become those characters. They act out the fantasies, in the 'holy shrine' called movie theatres. There, they find their peace…as social critics would put it, ‘escape’.

The other day, my ex-wife asked me whether I pray these days. I said "yeah, like always, in the movie theatre". Of course, she didn't buy that. She asked about 'real prayers'. I said, "well, I have a clear mind, I have a direction in life, and I am capable of loving, and falling in love again. I don't need the kind of prayers you are talking about." I attribute all those to my own kind of prayers.

During bitter period of separation (I have gotten over that), I had only one and only solace - movies. Of course, there were also some folks, relatives and friends. But when I am alone, I talk to Eastwood, observe Connery, cry with Sivaji, do some serious brain exercise with Scorcese and Stone, get my adrenalin up with Ford and Schwarzenneger, get away some really silly things with Rajini and Sathyaraj, so on, so forth.

I have two great 'bibles' or 'holy books'. They are both written by William Goldman, a scriptwriter, called, "The Adventures in the Screen Trade', and 'What lies did I tell today: Further Adventures in the Screen Trade'. I read and reread them every year. It was the writer himself and the first book that prompted me to go for scriptwriting course. During the course, you learn to write scripts - beginning with a blank page. Then you draw characters, you study them, you think of them as real persons. You give them problems, you give them situation, and you watch them react. In most cases, they live on their own. When you finish writing, you are amazed that you have written them. And you learn. You continue learning about human behaviours. No psychology, anthropology or sociology lessons are necessary. When you go out into the real world, you'd be amazed how much art imitates life, and vice versa.

I could go on and on, and I will. Right now, I got to go and watch Die Hard With A Vengeance - a useful tale about how to spend the day when you are having hangover. I shall be back to give you more tortures in near future. Take it easy...