I just finished reading Apropos of Nothing, the autobiography of Mr. Woody Allen. What a beautiful book, and of course - life!
Beautiful why? Because it's funny. Extremely funny. And not in a cringe, pedestrian way. But in a genuinely smart, insightful and surprising way. Yes, it's nice that Woody Allen Sir has made 50 movies in a 60 year long career, earning 24 Oscar nominations, winning 4. That's a lot of good work! Movies aside, he's also a big Jazz musician gigging regularly even at age 88. But that's not what I loved the most. It might be something that Mr. Narayan Murthy would go crazy over (and understandably so), but not me. I think Mr. Murthy would look at Allen Sir's "resume" and be like, "That's my man pulling 100 hour work-weeks! Let's have him do some real work now!". And then a fabulous job offer will be sent; 3.2 LPA, Bangalore office. Tester profile. Fresh start. Great career ahead.
But there's more to Allen Sir's story than his work. And that's his remarkably original sense of humour. The sense of humour with which he approaches not just work, but also life. After years of deep contemplation and serious meditation (unfortunately done while scrolling through social media), I've come to realise that being funny is very important. A life like a Greek tragedy can be tolerated, even relished every once in a while. But an evening with a dumb and unsmiling piece of shit who can't understand a good joke is pure torture. What do you do with all the money, power or fame if you can't share a good laugh about every forty minutes?
I got introduced to Woody Allen Sir's cinema quite recently. Being an extreme movie buff, I had stumbled upon Vicky Christina Barcelona when I was a child, but back then it was just too scandalous for my simple, conservative mind. "A guy invites not one, but two strange girls he just saw in a cafe to 'make love to him' in his far off Spanish town (where his wife also stays)? And the girls say Yes? What the hell is going on here!", I remember thinking. But about 15 years later, I think I became ready for all that, and by absolute chance watched Annie Hall, and then Manhattan, and my life was changed forever!
Usually, I read a book and if I like the author, I read everything by him. Same goes with movies, and so after watching the first two masterpieces, I went on a Woody Allen marathon. And my god, what a gift it turned out to be! It was like a treasure chest. And as I read more about him, I found out that not only is he a great writer, director, actor, comedian, and musician, but he's also accused of child sexual abuse.
What?!
It was shocking and I frankly can't 'separate art from the artist' too much. So I read more and thankfully found that all that's a total crock of shit. He was investigated under great public scrutiny TWICE, and found innocent. But who cares about the truth? Unfortunately, Mr. Allen had to dedicate some space to all that in this book as well, which wasn't as funny. Still, it was not too bleak..
Apropos of Nothing is a great book. You could definitely pick it up! :)
P.S. You just read an honest (and hopefully valuable) article for free. If you like reading my writing, please consider making donations. Amounts don't matter, gestures do. Here's a big cheers to all my Patrons!
Read more articles here.
Comments