Understanding the film medium has become an essential prerequisite. Usually most of us see a film purely for entertainment. The entertainment value in all arts is always there, but its emphasis varies in terms of its purpose. The purpose again is manifold. If we take the film medium as an art form, we find that there are basically three kinds of films: The entertainers termed commercial films, the arty films which are creative and personal statements of filmmakers and the middle cinema which is neither too arty nor too crude as a banal commercial film. Therefore viewing a film can be in many ways. But the real enjoyment of seeing a film can be derived only if we understand the medium thoroughly. Cinema too is a functional art meaning that every component in the film has a definite purpose. Such is how K S Sivakumaran sees cinema. Reading Sivakumaran is significant as he takes us a few decades back.