Twinkle, twinkle, infinite stars…

Long time ago in a galaxy far away, Milky Way to be precise, lived a little girl who wanted to be a Jedi, like Luke Skywalker.

She thought it was even better than being Superman.

One could zoom across planets and galaxies in space ships with friends, meet odd-exotic creatures that populated those worlds. She would have the power of mind control, telekinesis, the force and be a proud owner of a lightsaber too.

Life really couldn’t get any better.

That little girl was me at eleven.

At that age I was quite susceptible to magic of all sorts and movies with special effects were the best. In India, mythological films were golden in this respect, hence my favourite. Gods and goddesses appeared and disappeared in puffs of smoke, levitating mountains and palaces and flying carpets, I was in movie heaven.

So you can imagine when I watched ‘Return of the Jedi’, there was no turning or returning from that.

It was fantastic, larger than life, something I had never seen before.

Jabba the Hutt was grotesque!

There were gigantic pit monsters to be fought off.

Luke Skywalker (what an awesome name!) was the quintessential boy next door and obviously the chosen one.

The feisty princess and a wisecracking Solo with an ape like side kick.

A metal face Darth Vader who inspired fear all around.

Two unlikely droids; R2D2 went beep and hum but its hologram projection was spot on and C3PO was funny.

There were thrills and chills and spills too. You know I’m talking about that nifty air scooter chase, on the teddy bear planet. Our band of rebel heroes weaved and zipped between the trees, dodging the pesky stormtroopers, saving the day.

I may sound blasé about it but that was the turning point; I had become a fan for life. So much so for a very long time, I thought the American Defence Programme, nicknamed Star Wars, was an exploration of our universe.

Star Wars had become a mantra for space and everything that went into it.

I was so disappointed when I learnt the truth.

Then the prequels came. No giddy excitement as such. Luckily the lightsabers still glowed gloriously and “May the force be with you”, continued to ring true.

Cut to two decades later and once again I found myself awestruck by an extremely colourful, jaw dropping cinematic extravaganza dubbed as the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Presenting the Guardians and the Avengers, protectors of our world in time and space.

The Norse gods fought along humans and aliens, united in their common goal- to entertain the audience.

Honestly, I was in only for the powerful infinity gemstones and maybe for Thor and Dr Strange and ‘hooked on a feeling’ Star Lord and the list really goes on.

Take for instance Avengers: Infinity Wars. At the heart of it, it was the best ever intergalactic scavenger hunt.

It gave us a reason to crisscross Earth, Titan, Knowhere, Volmir, Nidavellir.

Seriously, how do these writers dream of these fantasy worlds and kudos to the amazing artists who bring those dreams to life on screen.

Anyway the pace was cracking, the mighty warriors were armed with quips and kicks. There were definite moments of laughter when the going got tough. None can deny the charms of ‘Pirate-Angel’, ‘Rabbit’, ‘Mr lord’, “I’m Steve Rogers”.

‘Wakanda forever’ however had a nice beat to it.

It was an irresistible superheroes buffet!

When the credits rolled in, I sat glued to my seat. Not overwhelmed with emotions but rather well trained by this particular franchise to wait for blink and you miss post credit scenes. There are impossible to come by even on YouTube.

Summoning my powers of patience and a strong arm, the unenthusiastic member of the group who wanted to be the first to exit, was introduced to the credit game.

‘Spot the Indians who worked on this marvellous caper‘; mercifully there were many.

Star Wars and Infinity Wars, their magic is undeniable.

I say more power to the galactic nomads.

What do you think?

To infinity and beyond!

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