Once upon a time today

Quentin Tarantino made a beautiful movie titled Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The movie may have received its fair share of fanfare and praise since it was a Tarantino movie with heartthrobs such as Brad Pitt and Leo DiCaprio. However, in my very humble view, the movie was underrated at best. And this article is not a movie review. But rather how that movie is actually a great depiction of our societies around the world.

The movie is about a struggling actor who was a lead actor in the mainstream movies but then Hollywood started to change. The movies changed, people’s taste changed. This lead actor of the yesteryear had been diminished in value and stardom in this shift. He was a true actor but he was not what the people of the hippie age of America wanted to see. Despite following the rules of great acting, he was finding himself to be bogged down by every new aspiring actor who had become the popular taste.

Let me share my own complaint about the similar trend of the age in which we live. I grew up in a family where I was being told by my elders to read books. My father used to bring me English language newspapers and taught me the importance of reading and writing. I am sure many can relate. I read all the columnists of all the leading newspapers and aspired to be one day among them. That day has come in my life but the day of the columnists is over. Today’s young people do not read my columns. They watch vulgarities.

I and many like me are transitioning through an age where writers are struggling to find readers and even when we broadcast our videos on YouTube, the seriousness of the content finds an audience that has long lost whatever semblance of attention span it had. That is sadder for society than for those who are paying attention to it. The importance of intellectual thought is fast disappearing.

I am not at all blaming the content makers who put up absolutely vulgar and worthless content to an audience that is consuming that rubbish relentlessly. They are not the culprits in this saga of cheap entertainment. It is the society that is actually addicted to mental laziness, which is always seeking mindless entertainment to cater to their chronically short attention span. Some of what are called social media stars in Pakistan speak volumes about what we have become as a society. Almost every famous person on social media is someone I would not want to indulge in any serious discussion. I mean seriously, what would you talk to these worthless dancers and trash talkers anyway?

But that’s just my opinion and I am in the minority here. My father didn’t know that while his son would become a columnist one day, the age in which he would live would have no use for such professionals. I have a confession to make. That movie I mentioned above. Every time I travel between Pakistan and the US, I watch that movie on the plane. I have watched it several times. While the great movie is surely great entertainment, I watch it because it is fun to see DiCaprio and Brad Pitt reflect me and many like me in an interesting way.

In one of the scenes from the movie, a little girl after doing a scene with DiCaprio whispers in his ear, “That was the best acting I’ve ever seen in my whole life.” Yes, I also get such emails from various people from around the world praising my writing. No wonder those are like the same whispers only I hear.

Toward the end, a beautiful song of The Rolling Stones plays and does justice to the entire idea of the story. The song goes, “Baby baby baby you’re out of time… yes you’re left out..”