Of Watching Titanic in 3D With Kids & Signs Of Ageing....

Today I turn 36. Well & truly into middle age, I say. Today is also the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the 'unsinkable' Titanic. oh that great ship, which everybody thought was unsinkable. I remember watching it in 2D back in either in 1997 or 98 (depending on when it was released in India)

I first heard about the Titanic, the ship ie,  from a friend in our neighborbood back in Delhi about 22-23 years ago. He had apparently seen the first movie made on The Titanic (in black & white made back in the 50s or  so). He was able to capture my attention with his vivid description of the events that took place. I was 12 or 13 and just wondered how big the ship must have been and would shudder to imagine what all the passengers would have gone through that fateful night. Of course, since I had no other means to verify the truth of the story (mind you ,internet was still unheard of at that time), I just lapped it up. Later, we had a chapter on Titanic in our English language paper either in XIth or XIIth grade and that's when it all came alive. Ah, nothing like a well written story, I say. More so, if  it's a true and tragic one.....................

Cut to present...Early last week on Easter Monday to be precise, I took my children for the 3D version of Titanic, which has been recently released world wide. I had never seen a movie in 3D and my children never seen Titanic. I had often told them stories about 'the big ship' which hit a 'Big ice berg' and sank and went under the ocean and they just couldn't hold their excitement about going for the movie. My son, Clement (who turned 5 on tuesday), has always been into big machines. Cranes, earth movers, space ships, locomotive trains and the like. These are things which give him a high. He would always ask Sweet, innocent yet pertinent questions such as "How big can a ship be, to be called unsinkable?" or "How big and powerful can an ice berg be to sink an unsinkable ship"....I could see "WOW!!" in his eyes everytime he heard the story and I couldn't possibly complain  as I had the same questions, when I was 12 and he was barely 5. My Clare(6+) had been a bundle of excitement ever since, I told them we would go for this movie about a week earlier. One day she woke up and confessed, she was getting dreams of Titanic in her sleep for the last 2 days.

Well, finally the D-day arrived and both of them were up early, finished their breakfast in a jiffy ,as if their life depended on it (normally breakfast on holidays takes anything  from 45-min to 1 hour) and  were at their best behavior. And off we went for the movies, which is not very far, just about 15-20 min walk from our place. My main area of interest was the 3D effect, which I did not find particularly impressive. (Sorry, Mr.Cameron, I was never a tech-savvy person anyway). As for the ship, it projected the same grandeur and majesty which it had 14 odd years ago (obviously!!). Clemo yelled "Oh ship, Dada", Clare exclaimed "How big!!". Clemo was not very interested in seeing through his 3D glasses, though I ensured he had them on all through the movie. All he wanted to see was the big iceberg and the 'big collision'. And he was getting restless in the first half as the romance between Jack & Rose was blooming. Then it happenned, "Ice berg right ahead" shouted the man on the watch tower and Clement yelled "Wo raha" in Hindi, (there it is)  and then the collision. Immediately after the collision , it was the intermission and as lights came on and people started to move off their seats to take a break, thinking that movie was over Clare asked me if  we will go home now. I told her its just half the movie, the breaking of the ship right in the midle and the sinking part is still  left. And in the second half both of them watched with rapt attention....giving out loud exclamations at appropriate juncture.

   I went down the memory lane and I remembered three dialogues captured my whole imagination when I watched it first time. First, "You jump, I jump" then "I am too involved in this now" told by Jack in his conversation with Rose and lastly, "I promise, I won't let go" (Rose telling Jack who is already dead due to freezing water hanging by the wooden plank, possibly a door and then letting lose his hold on her hand 'allowing' him to drown away into the ocean). These lines had a very strong effect on me back then but now only the 3rd dialogue had a similar impact, if not the same. The first two dialogues by Jack (Leonardo Di Caprio) are said in a scene very early in the movie when Rose (Kate Winslet) is about to kill herself by jumping of the stern of the ship. I was like, 'Man,that's a hero for me'. Why does he say he wants to do that? "because he is too involved" and I would have said 'that's a brave heart. A man who is ready to put everything in line to save a stranger woman.' But things have changed, when I saw those scenes again, I just told myself, what a foolish thing to say to woman that you will jump after her. A woman who, as it is, has stopped fighting her fight anyway. and then where's the sense jumping after her. Now, I have a wife and 3 children at home to look after (besides, I still do not know how to swim). Then, I had dreams in my eyes and a romantic at heart. I still have dreams , dreams of a different kind but romantic, well that's something I do not miss being anymore. Signs of ageing, I guess. I am middle aged now........well & truly.

As for the last lines said by Rose,I was struck this time also by "I promise, I won't let go". A life boat had come back to carry the survivors and she had to catch that to survive.She had to let go of Jack and get to the boat and she fulfills the promise she had made to Jack that she will 'make her life count'. Fair enough, I said. But back then it was painful to see jack slip down into the ocean, though it did make some sense then too, it did all the more now. Yes, a middle aged man thinks differently :)

The movie ended and my Clemo ecstatically yelled out in the hall itself "maza aagaya!!" (great fun!!). Of course, post movie, new questions and 'doubts' have surfaced in their big heads especially Clare is the one who asks a lot of smart questions. "Those who did not make it to the life boats, will they be still there in the ocean or inside of a whale's or shark's tummy?" (they got this from the story of Jonnah). "How come the fish, sharks etc did not eat away the ship that is still under water?" and the funniest "Is Rose still alive" , Clemo would like to investigate, where is that 'big ice berg' which sunk the ship. "Is it still there, dada ?", he asks innocently. One thing is for sure, the effect of Titanic will not go away just like that and the Titanic will continue to stay afloat in their hearts............"and the heart will go on & ooooooooon...."