RENT

The heart may freeze or it can burn…the pain will ease if I can learn…

There is no future. There is no past. I live this moment as my last.

There’s only us, there’s only this. Forget regret or life is yours to miss.

No other road no other way, no day but today!

The songs never cease to inspire. Neither do the characters leave without making you think about them, their lives for hours after the credits. That’s RENT for you!

My first rendezvous with it was when I heard the A cappella of Seasons of love being performed by my friends in the auditorium in college just before they were to leave for Malhar for the finals.

5,25,600 minutes, 5,25,600 Moments so dear. 5,25,600 minutes How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights? In sunsets? in midnights? In cups of coffee? In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife? In 5,25,600 minutes How do you measure A year in the life? How about love? Measure in love… Seasons of love।

The words so simple, yet thought provoking managed to strike a chord. The next few days involved running around to all the possible Music Worlds to hunt for the DVD. I have always loved musicals. Finally found it at the Crossword in Kemps Corner.

Fellow hostellers thought I had gone mad coz I saw the movie before sleeping every night. In fact those RENT watching sessions were the best part of my insomniac phase.

Its not that the movie is that exceptionally good (I think it is) but the songs are so down to earth and close to life that you’d want to learn them so that you can keep humming them.

Of all the songs of RENT La vie Boheme I’ve seen is the most popular। It can any day become a rebel’s anthem. It talks about everything. From "...Creation, Vacation Mucho masturbation Compassion, to fashion, to passion When it's new To Sontag To Sondheim To anything taboo Ginsberg, Dylan, Cunningham and Cage Lenny Bruce Langston Hughes To the stage! To Uta To Buddha Pablo Neruda, too Bisexuals, trisexuals, Homo Sapiens, Carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pee Wee Herman German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein Antonioni, Bertolucci, Kurosawa Carmina Burana To apathy, to entropy, to empathy, ecstasy Vaclav Havel- The Sex Pistols, 8BC To no shame- Never playing the fame game To marijuana To sodomy.....!!!!!!!"

Would you light my Candle? being another song you would love to hum. And if you by any chance become a die-hard fan of the musical (like me), dont blame yourself if you say Well its gotta be close to midnight the next time someone asks you What's the time?

The story revolves around six characters Mark (a filmmaker), Roger (songwriter, HIV +ve, and ex-junkie), Mimi (a dancer at a Night club, HIV +ve, a junkie), Maureen (a bi-sexual, Mark’s ex-girlfriend), Collins (HIV +ve, ex-professor at NYU), Angel (HIV +ve, Transvestite and Collin’s girlfriend), the two supporting characters being Joanne (Maureen’s girlfriend) and Benny (Mark, Roger and Collins’ ex-roommate-turned landlord of their apartment).

It’s the story of their struggle against poverty, AIDS, discrimination of homosexuals seasoned with an honest script the reality of which hits you hard on the face. Its a must watch!!!