I was working with a filmmaker a few years back. I was given a script of a short film to write as a test to finally work on a script of a full-length feature film. I failed miserably. However, the time I spent during proved fruitful for my growth. One day, while we were chatting casually, he told me how his mother once asked him about a movie she liked.

After watching Soumendra Padhi’s Budhia Singh, her mother asked him why couldn’t he make the film instead. The filmmaker then asked me have you watched the movie. Yes, I replied. Did you like that as well, he asked. I said, of course. The filmmaking was quite original. Lots of thought has been given to avoid the typical narrative flow. How will you compare it to the most favorite film of yours, he asked. My favorite film was ‘The Tree of Life’ at that time, he knew it. It will be far behind if compared with my favorite, I replied. He said, do you know what I replied to my mother! I told her, Budhia Singh is a good movie – a great movie. I envy its makers. But is it a profound movie! Can it stand the taste of time!Will you watch Budhia Singh again?, he asked me. Probably no, I replied. But you can watch The Tree of Life again I guess’, he asked. I nodded. It is because The Tree of Life is a profound piece of art. It is not my favorite but I have felt its power, I have moved by it, he said. So, let’s make something profound.

Since that day the word ‘profound’ rings inside my head whenever I am creatively challenged. I analyze it often – both positively and negatively. Isn’t it subjective! I have heard people have watched Mohabatien many times. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge is running for the last 20 years in a Mumbai cinema hall. Hasn’t that stood the taste of time! Did that make it ‘profound’ for some people! How can someone know if it is something ‘profound’ he is creating! An artist is always evolving. What I had written yesterday may not be like today. How the path of profoundness begins! Should I wait till my end to create it even if it is the only one in an entire lifetime! I search for answers from time to time.

Is there a difference between what is profound and what is permanent! Can any work of art achieve permanence! Can it be immortal! I don’t have the answers obviously. If I would have, I could have passed the short film script test. But Shakespeare said that art lasts, yes. I have seen many artists wonder and apprehend how will they be received! Whether their works will be remembered or perish like a newspaper!

Sinan, a want-to-be author in a movie called The Wild Pear Tree, struggles not only for finance to get his book published, but he also fears what if no one reads or understands what he has to say. One of elder cousin opines that an artist’s work is wasted if people can’t comprehend it. I usually don’t care if anyone ever gets what I want to say. I enjoy the process of creation rather than its reception. The young Sinan of The Wild Pear Tree may not have realized that the journey is the fun and what ultimately matters.

Should we go on write things that may or may not be profound! Or should I wait for a moment or even a lifetime to produce a masterpiece! Or should an artist go on creating things and let the receptors decide what is profound and what is not!

Even if an artist could able to produce something of profound impact, can it really last – last longer than time! “A writer writes a novel, a songwriter writes a song, we do what we can to endure. We build our legacy piece by piece and maybe the whole world will remember you or maybe just a couple of people, but you do what you can to make sure you’re still around after you’re gone.” – a random character utters in 2017 movie A Ghost Story.

So, an artist’s goal behind his profound creation is to just endure, to exist infinitely!

I don’t have the answer. I can only question. Isn’t that what most artists also do!