Bear with me

I cringe at the thought of them, as I am sure so many of you. After all, it’s for the masses. Everyday, we try and avoid the cliché. At work, in the way we appear with our friends, even the way we write and talk.

So caught up are in this zealousness to get out of the formula, so to speak, we generally lose the plot. What we end up with many a time, is a mess that is unrecognizable by us or by anyone else. A series of incoherent ideas. Good execution, people and acting yet lacking a soul. Hollow in every sense of the word.

No. The cliché isn’t dead. For the fundament basing of all cliché lies in human emotions. And that can never be redundant. No matter how many times we see two lovers miss each other, or a son dying on a mother’s lap, it works. The cliché works.

The thing to note however is that clichés are time bound. Each generation come up with contemporary ones. Taking the case of cinema, film makers today are vouching not to repeat the formula. But what are they doing if not discarding the old clichés for some new ones. We maybe saying goodbye to the scenes and images that had the power to bring to halt an attack, start a revolution, sell countless packets of tissue. But I say we are doing so at our own risk.

For the future holds no special answers. And evolution is a slow process. For in the matters of the heart, the cliché never fails to deliver.