I grew up watching movies with my dad. And those are the memories I hold close to me. Movies are an education on the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s an education no child should be denied along with Enid Blyton, Tarzan or Superman. Allowing him or her to grow and create his own set of values from the heroes on screen, the heroes he reads about. We eventually want to be the superhero we grew up admiring.

We learn something new from every movie and every comic we read. We learn to be better people. We learn to be strong like Lothar, magical like Mandrake and invincible like the Phantom-The Ghost Who Walks. We learn from the flaws of the superheroes.

Let the girl set her heart to be the fearless Ellen Ripley in Aliens or an unbreakable Imperator Furiosa. We need heroes in our lives. Let them go on adventures like Indiana. Let them learn about love and let them fall in love with people they want to be and people they want to be with. Let them aspire to be Jane Austen’s unforgettable heroine Elizabeth Bennet. Help them grow up to be curious and inquisitive like Nancy Drew and prodding like Hergé’s Tintin.

Let them learn about loyalty and what it means to love a family like the Gladiator, Maximus Decimus. Let them learn about friendship and what it takes to stand-up against bandits from Sholay. Let them learn to judge the right and the unsound like Jean Finch and why it’s vicious to kill a mockingbird. The movies we watch, the books and comics we read make us who we are. So, serve them well and serve them always.

From every movie, every hero and every villain there was a lesson to be learned. And my father served those stories well. At times, he turned into The Count- The Prince of Darkness to keep one in line. He did it the best way he could. There were no monsters under my bed. For me, he will always be the Charles Bronson with shades of silver and grey with a Death Wish, my dark hero, and nothing can ever change that, nor can anyone steal it from me. He remains an indelible part of who I am.

Memorable Movies We Shared Together

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Ten Commandments	1956	English	Charlton Heston, Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter	Cecil B. DeMille

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Ben-Hur	1959	English	Charlton Heston, Jack Hawkins, Stephen Boyd	William Wyler

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Magnificent Seven	1960	English	Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson	John Sturges

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Psycho	1960	English	Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles	Alfred Hitchcock

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Absent Minded Professor	1961	English	Fred MacMurray, Nancy Olson, Keenan Wynn	Robert Stevenson

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Guns of Navarone	1961	English	David Niven, Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn	J. Lee Thompson

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Lawrence of Arabia	1962	English	Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness, Anthony Quinn	David Lean

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Dr. No	1962	English	Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bernard Lee	Terence Young

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Birds	1963	English	Daphne Du Maurier, Evan Hunter	Alfred Hitchcock

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World	1963	English	Spencer Tracy, Milton Berle, Ethel Merman	Stanley Kramer

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Great Escape	1963	English	Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson	John Sturges

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
A Fistful of Dollars	1964	English	Clint Eastwood, Gian Maria Volontè, Marianne Koch	Sergio Leone

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Dracula, Prince of Darkness	1966	English	Christopher Lee, Barbara Shelley, Andrew Keir	Terence Fisher

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly	1966	English	Clint Eastwood, Eli Wallach, Lee Van Cleef	Sergio Leone

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Jungle Book	1967	English	Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, Louis Prima	Wolfgang Reitherman

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Once Upon a Time in the West	1968	English	Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale	Sergio Leone

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Mackenna’s Gold	1969	English	Gregory Peck, Omar Sharif, Telly Savalas	J. Lee Thompson

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
They Call Me Trinity	1970	English	Terence Hill, Bud Spencer, Steffen Zacharias	Enzo Barboni

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The French Connection	1971	English	Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey	William Friedkin

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Godfather	1972	English	Marlon Brando, Al Pacino,James Caan	Francis Ford Coppola

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Exorcist	1973	English	Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Linda Blair	William Friedkin

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Day of the Jackal	1973	English	Edward Fox, Terence Alexander, Michel Auclair	Fred Zinnemann

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Death Wish	1974	English	Charles Bronson, Hope Lange, Vincent Gardenia	Michael Winner

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Jaws	1975	English	Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss	Steven Spielberg

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Deewaar	1975	Hindi	Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Nirupa Roy	Yash Chopra

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Sholay	1975	Hindi	Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan	Ramesh Sippy

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Message	1976	English	Anthony Quinn, Irene Papas, Michael Ansara	Moustapha Akkad

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Superman	1978	English	Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman	Richard Donner

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Muqaddar Ka Sikandar	1978	Hindi	Amitabh Bachchan, Vinod Khanna, Rakhee Gulzar	Prakash Mehra

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Alien	1979	English	Sigourney Weaver, Tom Skerritt, John Hurt	Ridley Scott

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Moonraker	1979	English	Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale	Lewis Gilbert

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
The Burning Train	1980	Hindi	Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Jeetendra	Ravi Chopra

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back	1980	English	Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher	Irvin Kershner

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Friday the 13th	1980	English	Betsy Palmer, Adrienne King, Jeannine Taylor	Sean S. Cunningham

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Escape to Victory	1981	English	Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Pelé	John Huston

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Raiders of the Lost Ark	1981	English	Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman	Steven Spielberg

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Shakti	1982	Hindi	Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Rakhee Gulzar	Ramesh Sippy

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial	1982	English	Henry Thomas, Drew Barrymore, Peter Coyote	Steven Spielberg

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Poltergeist	1982	English	JoBeth Williams, Heather O’Rourke, Craig T. Nelson	Tobe Hooper

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Never Say Never Again	1983	English	Sean Connery, Kim Basinger, Klaus Maria Brandauer	Irvin Kershner

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Mazdoor	1983	Hindi	Dilip Kumar, Nanda Karnataki, Raj Babbar	Ravi Chopra

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Coolie	1983	Hindi	Amitabh Bachchan, Waheeda Rehman, Rishi Kapoor	Manmohan Desai, Prayag Raj

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Ghostbusters	1984	English	Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis	Ivan Reitman

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Shree Krishnaparanthu	1984	Malayalam	Mohanlal, P.K. Abraham, Mala Aravindan	P. Bhaskaran, A. Vincent

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Back to the Future	1985	English	Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson	Robert Zemeckis

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Karma	1986	Hindi	Dilip Kumar, Nutan, Naseeruddin Shah, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff	Subhash Ghai

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Rajavinte Makan	1986	Malayalam	Mohanlal, Ambika, Ratheesh	Thampi Kannanthanam

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
August 1	1988	Malayalam	Mammootty, Captain Raju, Prathapachandran	Sibi Malayil

Film Title	Year	Language	Lead Actors	Director
Batman	1989	English	Michael Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Kim Basinger	Tim Burton