The film decoder

Ankit Sinha, the man behind Instagram handle Fables of Film, is breaking down the nitty-gritty of each scene, and each song

Growing up in the small town of Daltonganj in Jharkhand, Ankit Sinha had little access to Bollywood. The son of a businessman and a housewife, who studied engineering, he would have led a very different life if the Internet hadn't come to his town. "When the Internet came, I knew there was more to movies than the film that released every Friday. I started watching old movies, new movies, movies from all around the world. It was a completely different ecosystem," says the 24-year-old. Today, he runs Fables of Film, an Instagram account he started on May 1 this year, and where he, in analytical form, breaks down a song, or a particular scene, in a particular movie. The account, which started off as a collaboration with the India Film Project, showcases Sinha's eye for detail for all things on the big screen. For example, one recent post has him breaking down the I Love You song from Mr India, and why it could be the most erotic song in Bollywood history, as one of the lovers is invisible throughout the song. In another post, he talks about how the poster for Omkara sums up the movie in a beautiful way. He also does posts that talk about the little-known fields of film editing, and how edits can make or break a scene. "Film isn't mathematics, and everyone will think about it in a different way. That being said, when I give an analysis, I want it to be the only way a scene or song can be seen as. I want there to be conviction. However subjective my analysis is, the aim is to get into a filmmaker's head."

If this writer's love affair with movies started when she watched The Sound of Music and closer home, Mr India, the turning point in Sinha's obsession with films came when he watched Guru Dutt's Pyaasa. "It was my first classic ever, and was years ahead of its time, so it's still relevant now." After discovering Dutt and his works of art, a young Sinha knew he wanted to write about cinema, and more importantly, study cinema. So, he graduated from a media course in Delhi University, all the while watching and reading about as many films as possible. He then decided to make his education legitimate by doing a film studies course from Mumbai University.

For Sinha, the process is simple. It's about watching as many, and as diverse, movies every week. But there is a method in the madness. "So, if I watched a classic, then I watch a movie with a deeper narrative, something heavy. For example, if I watched a Kubrick movie, then I will watch a Rajkumar Hirani movie next." For now, as his course is over, he is busy planning video content for his Instagram account. What he wants to tackle first: each and every song from Mughal-e-Azam, a movie that he hadn't watched till recently, and is now blown away with.

"It's a movie where you don't have to compromise on anything, you don't have to explain anything, because it's just so great. It sucks you in with its perfection. And the songs! I love the way they are used in the movie. I want to write about each and every one of them."

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