100 Rays Of Son - 85

The Heroes

When we lived in Rajarajeshwarinagar, we used to come across a lot of film shootings taking place near and around the Best Club. Once, when I was on way to pick Rayyan back home after school, I ran into the shooting of a Kannada film. Since there was not much crowd around, I could watch the shooting happening clearly and naturally it was something that caught my attention. I saw that the actor in the movie was the famous Ravi Chandran.

I rushed to Rayyan’s school and picked him up quickly. On our way back, I did not explain much to him about the shooting because I did want him to be disappointed if there was too much of crowd and he couldn’t see it properly. When we approached the site, there was still not much crowd though some people had gathered and a scene was being enacted. I pulled Rayyan towards the actor and told him, “See Rayyan, that is the famous actor Ravi Chandran, would you like to meet him and take his autograph?” A very highly disappointed Rayyan answered, “You were so excited about seeing people? What is so different about actors Maa? They are just like anyone else. Look at him, he is not much different from this man here”. He said this pointing to a guy holding some sort of shields to brighten the area. He actually burst out laughing at this child’s words and said, “Ma’am we all should learn something from this little guy”.

Walls then 

And Now

 Gone are those days. Rayyan grew up with Disney characters like Mickey and Donald and became their fan. In fact, he was the one who enjoyed our Disney tour more than anyone else. He moved on to Batman and DC comics and later fell in love with the Marvel Movies. I am sure, he would not respond the same way to actors if he ever met, RDJ, Hugh Jackman or even a tiny character actor from those movies.

The love for superheroes may be something Rayyan inherited from me, especially his love for Batman. Somehow, DC movies (other than few) let us down. As for Marvel, we developed new love the characters due to the movies.

The Avengers series has caught him in its frenzy and he has been crazy fan of the movies. 20% of his communication has revolved around this in the past few years. He couldn’t wait for the MCU movie to replace Avatar at the top slot, and finally when it did, I am sure he must have celebrated secretly. He has seen all of the recent superhero movies within a week of their release. Sometimes, I discuss the old favourite comics I have read to him. We still have a good collection of them as well.

His first good editing of picture was of terminator, when he was not even into animation. He later developed few more depicting himself in the role of superheroes. I loved the creation of Night Wing the best. Since, it combines both his love for superheroes and photo/video editing together, he gets engrossed in it and enjoys the hobby.

He created a short movie where he craves for the superpower. It shows how his head is steady on his shoulders and how he enjoys the movies but never moves away from reality.

The difficult part in all of these is to find the furniture in our home arranged in weird way, running into Rayyan dressed in Farheena’s clothes, seeing him hanging at a weird angle or being scared by the way he looks as though he is turning into the wolf-man.

But, when I see the output, I feel it is worth the scare and tumbling around the furniture. Wish to see more of this creativity from him in coming years.