Lets talk about films. We Indians love films, be it blue or any color. We have our own taste. Appreciate it. We have our own set of collectibles that we watch more than the number of repeats of Sooryavansham on Sony Max.
This article is not about filming failures, neither is it a tribute. It is about the confusion we have about the cinema our country produces. A stigma that neither lets a good film earn its worth, nor lets a potboiler entertain
I am not an expert. I am writing this as a fan who loves this element of human life; entertainment.
“Abey yeh kya bekaar picture hai. Christopher Nolan kaisi filmein banaata hai, aur yeh dekho. Bakwaas!”- One expert in every group.
We have a bad habit. We compare every film with what Hollywood does. First of all, the logistics they afford is much broader than what we have. Second, it might sound harsh, but they are tighter in content and don’t follow a set formula for making films click. Third, they master the art of conviction. They will have Thor jump from another planet with a hammer and make it look believable. And fourth, they do not have the skill to make great films with a mere budget like our filmmakers do.
The generation that has passed by us isn’t that much of a cribbing cat like ours. They weren’t overexposed to the internet like us. They were happy and satisfied with whatever they were offered. Limited access to things made them treat everything as luxury and every item as a delicacy.
Ask your father to rate or review Yash Chopra’s ‘Trishul’. He will have a very receptive and positive view about it. And many of you, who might not have even heard about the film, would first Google it and then download the film to match your father’s view. And as predictable as it sounds, you will find 50 flaws in the movie. So, that makes you great critic, right? Wrong. It doesn’t. A good critic will always try to evaluate every aspect of the product and pass judgment accordingly.
Our generation is on the internet every minute. Access to everything has made us really condescending in nature. We think we have the facts to cross question everything. But if you are underlining something with the red ink, you have to see what has gone into making this mistake, which might not even be a mistake in the first place.
Theory apart, Trishul might not be a technical marvel, but it was the first of its kind of love cum revenge drama films in the country.
You might ask why this guy is vouching for the movie so much. Much because this is the movie where the Indian values and the transforming generation converged at that time. That was modern film making in 1978.
Coming back to our generation, Lakshya was declared as a flop commercially. Ask anybody about this film and they would be all praises. Why? Because Lakshya became a cult through television and DVD. Oye Lucky Lucky Oye is another gem by Dibaker Banerji. But the film bombed at the box office? The film had an ill fate, being released during the 26/11 attacks. But it picked impetus through TV and DVD too. Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein was an utter flop, but contrary to reports, it is again one of our favorite films.
Why am I saying this? What has this to do with the taste of our generation? Simple. We believe in word of mouth. Most of the things we do are out of peer pressure; most of us. We try to develop a taste which our peers have and vanquish the choices we have. People didn’t watch Lakshya in the theaters because it looked like another war movie. While it was a takeaway from Rang De Basanti. There a group of youngsters realized the motive of their lives and here a young lad found out the reason to live. Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein had no SRK-Kajol, SRK-Kareena, or, SRK-Whoever to anchor the ship. Most of us didn’t even know that RHTDM’s original Minnale was a blockbuster. We love these films just because somebody said they were really good and we gave these flicks a watch.
Now, our present, flamboyant, smartphone-lazy people generation. Or should I say the 100-crore club generation? We have social media and the entire internet to tell us what we should do. I won’t be shocked if the internet suggests ways to meet God soon. Coming back. We are the generation of national integrity. We travel to other states for further studies, jobs, etc. There we meet people of varied nature. Their laptop becomes ours. We transfer films from their devices ranging from Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Korean, Italian, etc. We are the people who have a global taste. We should be the people who should push film makers to bring quality films to the screen, right? Wrong again.
We have a fixation. Anything except Hollywood films is jazz or utter bullshit. We might watch Krrish 3, but we would end up calling it cartoonish. The budget in which the film was made is the budget of an action sequence from Superman- Man of Steel. We are the educated and informed population. Why don’t we fix it then? Because we have lost the passion of watching Hindi films. We don’t even appreciate good films in reality. We are hypocrites.
Hindi film makers haven’t produced good stuff? Where were you when Haider released? What were you doing when Identity Card, Lamha, Paan Singh Tomar, Bubble Gum, Pizza, Ek Hasina Thi, and many other low profile films released?
We love quality films, but only and if only they are available on torrents and DVDs. We were helping Bang Bang reach 100 Crores when a marvel like Haider just managed to rope in 30 Crores. Money however shouldn’t be our concern. But if we do not encourage good films, the producers and makers of such films will have no motivation to make something worthwhile again. This is where businessmen in the garb of film producers sweep the glory away along with. Since we don’t invest time in good films and are more concerned about a hit and hot pairing, they like the opportunists they are, chalk down a marketing mix of attracting the masses with raunchy content and the classes with a multi starrer which translates nothing but artificial brand value.
We blame India for not producing legendary filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, Francis Coppola, Steven Spielberg, and a few more. But what we forget is that India has produced Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee, Ramesh Sippy, Subash Ghai, Rakesh Roshan, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Rakyesh Omprakash Mehra, Vishal Bharadwaj, Anurag Kashyap, Shoojit Sircar, Sriram Raghavan, Anurag Basu, Imtiaz Ali, Vikramaditya Motwane, Mahesh Bhatt, Jhanu Baruah, Dibaker Banerji, David Dhawan, Rajkumar Hirani, Ramgopal Verma (Yes, he has made epics like Satya and Shiva), Madhur Bandhakar and Yash Chopra to name a few. Phew!
Each of the makers above is not just people screaming, “Action…Cut!” but people who have classics to their name and claim. When we get awestruck by Hollywood and other woods, we forget that we have our own home grown stalwarts who have made films in a country where the economy is as fragile as a newly born’s neck.
Ask your favorite Hollywood director to make a film with a budget of 50 Crores. He will shit bricks for a month. We are Indians and just like we understand and analyze the overview of every other trade or sphere, while watching films we should be aware, “Ok, the animation is 100% smooth. But my country is marching towards a better cinematic future.”, “Ok, Jai and Uday are sent abroad to catch a thief. I shouldn’t apply the logic of why-better-officers-weren’t-called because this is the lead pair and the logic here is a set cast. Cool.” Wait, this film is Indian. I cannot expect the imprints of the western culture in this flick because it is made for a Pan-India audience.”
To conclude, while watching a comedy film, we cannot expect everything to be logical. If everything is logical and practical, what is so funny about the film? And we cannot expect a serious film to have all the sorts of masala and singing-dancing-smooching each other. It is a serious story and it is apt for its genre. Had it been for an uneducated pocket of the society, I would have complained. But we are educated, groomed and informed people. If we start being more receptive about the films we watch, we shall be able to put over the offerings with content and diminish the things which are actually baseless. “Taali ek haath se nahi bajti.” Films like Happy New Year are made because we are confused about what we want. If you want good content, don’t opt for potboilers; they hardly have it. If you like Masala films, go ahead, but don’t complain. You were served what you wished for.
A film changes nothing. Had the films been social revolt ammunition, Manu Sharma would have been pummelled for Jessica Lal’s murder case after the release of Rang De Basanti, and suicides would have stopped happening after the release of 3 Idiots. And religions would have stopped bending heads after the release of PK. They don’t increase the national literacy rate. Neither do they deduce the national income. They don’t change anything. However, if we respect quality cinema, maybe, bullshit in the name of film making might get eradicated. Let’s watch good movies and avoid abusing Indian Films.
