I have seen endless debates on why Bollywood is so shallow and why there isn’t more number of smarter films being released these days. More often than not, these discussions and arguments have not resulted in any conclusion whatsoever.
The answer is simple; we don’t need innovative and original cinema.
Salman Khan ripping off his shirt is more than enough to quench our thirst for entertainment. I am not a big movie fan, but yes I do enjoy an occasional 2 hr break from my regular life to sit down for some thoughtful cinema. But seeing the way movies are being made today, I think I have to figure out a better way to spend those two hours.
Enough of me now, let us come to the point. Why are movies like Dabang, Happy New Year, Bang Bang and Chennai Express being even made in the first place? From the look of it, I don’t see myself getting out of this berserk crap anytime soon and here is the reason why.
Here are those 10 stereotypes which prove the fact that Bollywood is still a million miles away from bringing in originality and authenticity in mainstream cinema.
#1 Brain should be used for work, not for movies: Movies are made to watch for fun, why to waste energy in understanding it? This is what the general mindset of the people is. Hence we keep our brain in a locker safe before we proceed towards a movie theater. Something easy to with kind of crap is all what we crave for.
#2 The demand and supply chain: The simple reason why we see so many idiotic movies being made is that people are there to accept these movies with both hands. Every new piece of garbage breaks the record of the older piece of garbage then why should the producers stop manufacturing such movies. These people are there in this business to make money, they are only selling it because we are buying it.
#3 It’s not a movie if it doesn’t make you smile at the end: A notion which has been developed about our Hindi movies over the past few years is that everything has to end perfectly. No matter how complex the situation is in the movie, it all resolves down to a happy ending. If I always know that the movie is going to end on a happy note then am I not limiting the creativity of the artists to bring in an element of surprise.
#4 Acting doesn’t matter but name does: Let me ask you a very simple question. Whenever you hear the name of an upcoming movie, what is the first thing you want to know? It’s always, ‘who is playing the lead?’ and never ‘what is this movie about?’ Big names have always played a pivotal role in Bollywood movies. It’s not about acting, if you are a star in Bollywood then people are ready to hit the screens just for your face value. This is the reason why small names are not being credited for their contribution in Indian cinema.
#5 Until and unless it’s not overly dramatic we are not convinced: Life is a drama. This statement couldn’t have been truer anywhere else than Hindi cinema.
I just don’t get it, why does everything always have to be over the top. Shouldn’t the content be effective enough to convey a message rather than a lavish outfit, foreign location and, heavy background music. It is become our habit to only believe in things which are said out loud, subtleness is a long gone thing.
#6 We need something to hum while leaving the theater: The first thing which is promoted in a movie is its songs. For me it makes no sense at all, how can songs decide whether the movie is going to be good or bad. People just blindly walk into the movie theaters if they find the songs of that particular movie catchy. Songs are more of a distraction in almost every movie. If at all there is some sense going around in a movie then that is also lost by random songs which holds no meaning at all.
#7 Movie is always incomplete without a hero, a heroine and a villain: Bollywood has always stuck with the most basic form of script writing, that is, a hero falls in love with a heroine, the villain tries to jeopardize their relationship but fails, and ultimately the hero wins over. This is what we have become accustomed to and because of this very fact, experimental cinema falls flat on their faces on most occasions than not.
#8 Sex sells in the form of item numbers: Girls dancing in skimpy outfits with hundreds of guys drooling over her body has become the latest hit in the movies. A huge chunk of budget is kept aside for this part and the makers promote these item songs as the USP of the film. I don’t see cinema going anywhere until our society stands out against objectification of women, but for now it’s all about munnis and sheelas.
#9 Stupid one liners gives the oomph factor rather than the story: In the recent past I have found myself repeating dialogues in my mind to figure out if there is any sense coming out of it. There is no focus on the story of the movie, it’s the stupid dialogues scribbled by the writers which rule the heart today. People absolutely love this aspect of a movie and as long as you hear claps in movie theatres on such meaningless one liners, expecting a change is just not possible.
#10 It has to be a total paisa vasool – Last and the most important thing which anyone looks forward to in a movie is that it has to be an all round package. Public wants to see each and every emotion overflowing in those 2 hours, be it comedy, drama, action, romance, dance, or tension. Only if the movie succeeds to fulfill all these criterions, people have the satisfaction that their hard earned penny didn’t go waste.
If we hold back movies in such chains then there is no way a change can be expected. I think there is a frame created by this industry and all the movies are a product of that same frame. There are these set of ‘formulas’ which gets modified in bits and pieces once in a while and everything else remains the same. I don’t see cinema going anywhere in the coming decade or two, where do you see it going?
