Vinit Masram, the person behind ‘Cinema Beyond Entertainment‘, passed away yesterday. The news of his passing away has left a number of people in shock, specifically the ones who worked closely with him. Masram worked on films like Rustom, Mom and Sanaa. And we have no doubt that his work left a great impact on all of these films, but his YouTube channel left us with a lot to know about cinema.
His content made viewers feel closer to films, and also managed to teach us a thing or two. Even now if you watch these videos, you’ll be able to identity the kind of passion and knowledge that he had about cinema.
So, here’s everything Vinit Masram’s content taught us.
1. To look at filmmaking closely.
Watching films is one thing, but we very rarely look at them closely to understand their meaning. Vinit Masram created content that talked about it, and managed to make us look closely at filmmaking. His videos explained scenes, their importance and the different elements that make a film what it is. Like this one video where he looks at a scene from Dear Zindagi.
2. To acknowledge films as a part of life.
His content always acknowledged the role that cinema plays in our lives. For instance, when he talked about why we watch films. This video talked about the impact of cinema on our emotions and as an important part of art.
3. To understand the importance of music.
As people who have grown around Bollywood, we know how music is an important aspect of films. He used Game Of Thrones as an example to explain viewers how music is used in shows and movies – this not only includes songs but also the BGM. He also credited the musicians and how they created the BGM for this specific show – which was refreshing to watch.
4. To be critical about movies.
We often don’t credit movies enough for the kind of impact that they do. Films can affect how we percieve things and ideas, and Vinit Masram always talked about the need to be critical of them. He focused on why we need film critics at all, which is something that we hardly talk about. In this one video he talked about this in depth and left us with a fresh perspective.
5. To focus on everything on a film set.
A film is made up of different elements – which also include the mise en scene or props and scenery. These small things have a huge impact on how scenes look and make us feel. His video about the mise en scene in Rockstar was almost an eye-opener about the film, and we can never ignore it, now that we watch the movie again.
6. To call out what is wrong.
One thing that his content did was stay true to filmmaking. This also meant that he didn’t shy away from calling out movies for something that they did not do right. Like in this video, he talked about the ways in which Bollywood ruins its own songs and dances. He mentioned that the editing leaves very little to the performer and ends up creating flashy dance sequences.
7. To analyse films and not just the actors.
We often credit and blame the actors and actresses for a film, when there’s a lot more to it. So if a film does well, there are a lot of other things that make it good. His analysis not only looked at films closely but also acknowledge the effort that goes into writing and creating them. This video about Dil Chahta Hai is one example and you must watch it.
His demise is a true loss to the film industry, and the people who knew him. May his soul rest in peace.