Hyperlink cinema - part II

In fictional literature, no character is introduced, however insignificant he or she may seem at that point of time, who doesn't appear later on at some crucial moment to give the narration an unexpected twist. Hyperlink cinema is sort of reflection of this type of literature and has emerged in the movies over the last few years. It is being lapped up by the audience who have grown to accept that the chances of 2 strangers from different walks of life meeting at different times is probable with the advent of technology and the direct result of a shrinking and flat world.

The phenomena of ‘six degrees’ of separation as cited by Malcolm Gladwell in his book ‘The Tipping Point’ is a great supporter of this idea and which says that every individual in the world is connected to every other individual by via a minimum of six steps.

So now we have movies with several different, seemingly unrelated storylines that are all connected in some small way. The action of one character, unbeknownst to them, affects another character, and the film follows that effect, instead of the character. People are linked up in interesting, often surprising ways, and the whole thing has a ‘butterfly effect’ feel to it. Each event has its own ramifications and repercussions that touch several other lifes and characters are involved inadvertently in several stories at once, with subtle, passing or major influences.

These films unfurl slowly and methodically ,like layers of an onion or as a jigsaw that seems to take shape out of obscure pieces, a collage made from varied ingredients ,but beautiful regardless of that or more so because of that.

Hyperlink cinema is truly a new genre, with potential for telling stories across cultures,generations, and boundaries. It involves stories about people more than stories involving people, with plenty of subtitles and with climaxes that may not necessarily have any clear conflict resolution or summit clash. Many may come out the theatre with the feeling that nothing happened in the movie but essentially that is the aim- to show a slice of life, not the whole lifespan in entirety. Sometimes the subtext carries more significance than the main scene and you have to respect that point of view as well.

Cinema evolves; and the more the techniques, perspectives and vantage points, the more enriched becomes the medium.

Hyperlink cinema - part I

Hyperlink cinema, the term itself sounds interesting; because it combines something we associate with websites to cinema.

Hyperlink is a genre of cinema in which the multi-threaded storylines tell different tales and the narrative cross and connect at unexpected points. These films are not multimedia and do not have actual hyperlinks, but are multilinear in a more metaphorical sense.

Playing with time and characters' personal history, interwoven storylines between multiple characters, jumping between the beginning and end (flashbacks and flashforwards) are its prime elements, as illustrated brilliantly in Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu's films Amores Perros(2000), 21 grams(2003), and Babel(2006).

Hyperlink cinema are films where the characters or action reside in separate stories, but a connection or influence between those disparate stories is slowly revealed to the audience. The narration is often non linear with no specific timeline and events may be portrayed out of chronological order.

Hyperlink cinema is a term coined by author Alissa Quart, who used the term in her review of the film ‘Happy Endings ’(2005) which was used later by noted critic Roger Ebert when reviewing ‘Syriana’, also in 2005.

There's a growing influence of the world wide web and multitasking in the genre, where captions act as footnotes and splitscreens ,as elements of hyperlink cinema. Quart also
considers the television series '24'and Alan Rudolph's film Welcome to L.A. (1976) as early prototypes. Crash (2004) which beat Brokeback Mountain to the Oscars for best film, is an example of the genre, as are Robert Altman's The Player (1992), Steven Sodenberg's Traffic (2000), City of God (2002),Love Actually (2003) and Syriana (2005).

Mani Ratnam's underrated gem ,Yuva (2004) is a genuine addition from India ,so is its Tamil version Aayitha Ezuthu(he shot them back to back) ,where 3 stories ran parallelly until they all merged at one point in the movie and then there's a racy dash to the climax. Love Actually (2003) written and directed by Richard Cutris had seven stories that are fleetingly connected, and by the end seamlessly blend into each other resulting in an immensely watchable flick. Nikhil Advani tried to adopt the idea in Salaam-e-Ishq (2007) but it was a massive downer as the stories seemed too contrived. Earlier, last month we had Love sex aur Dhokha with its 3 vaguely connected stories, but there, the focus was on shooting it if it all was found footage.


To continue..…..