Wednesday 14 December 2011

Recent Bollywood movies and us

               I know the blog has been dead from the last 3 months or so. Blame it on the writers block or blame it on my laziness. Also the fact that I visited my country India and spent some quality time with my family kept me away from blogging. I do wish to write on my experiences on going back to India and the city of Mumbai but that would need serious thoughts and the perfect writing mood. Nevertheless I decided let me start by writing on some less serious topic and that is when I decided to write the reviews on Bollywood movies.

               If you know me, I have always been a big Bollywood fan. I would always defend SRK doing stunts in Main Hoo na by stating that if you can enjoy them in Matrix , you should enjoy it here too. Also the classics that Amir Khan throws at us makes me admire him the most. But these days after watching a few movies that grossed the maximum amounts I was shocked. Yes I am talking about movies like Bodyguard or Dabangg or Ready.

              Lets for starters talk about the movie Bodyguard. It was the most pathetic display of Direction. A classic example of how not to make a movie. From the start till end the movie never raised and kept making new lows. The character 'Tsunami Singh' was irritating and hardly funny. In the first scene he sits on a women's lap and the women reacts by silly comic dialogues to insult him. Highly unrealistic. In the entire movie Salman hits every person and it made me think of Superman with his undies inside and topless. There has been no definite end to small stories running in the movie. Same could be said about 'Ready'. The attempt to comedy was too lame.

             Still the fact that this movie became one of the biggest grosser in the year makes me think what kind of audience are we turning out to be. Is it that the inner turmoil that the common man faces combined with his inability to change anything makes him come forward and enjoy the movies which are a one man show. Where one man does it all. Be it Bodygurad or Singham or Dabaang. Is it that the common man sees himself in that position and enjoys it. Or is a serious lack of great movies like Tare Zameen Par or RDB which makes us use our brains and heart.

             The most recent movie that touched my heart was 'Chillar Party'. A classic movie of a few kids fighting for what they feel is right. Irony is that such a classic also came form the production house of Salman Khan. Greater irony in the fact that the movie did not get the response from audience that it deserved. Its time the audience turns mature again. They show us what we want to see. Its time we tell them what we want and its definitely not movies like Bodyguard .

Would await responses from you guys.
Cheers!



8 comments:

  1. Mood swings of audience and catering them must be a tiring job with crore of money at stake.
    Most of the Bollywood movies are made for serious commercial success. They are not made for content and this truth has been known for at least two three decades now. In fact, The Khan's, Kapoor's are/were born, raised and thrived in this kind of money minded market.

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  2. Let me be clear at first place that this reply is not defending any of the movies listed above. The reason being I haven't watched them at all. The reason most of people go to watch a movie is for some ENTERTAINMENT. Now how entertainment should be and what should they show is upto individual. What most people want i feel is some change from their routine life. some go to watch/hear songs, some go for romance (i mean watching not doing even though thats another reason :P), so in all they want to see something which they cannot do in day to day life..or dont get to see it day to day life...thats the reason screen media is much much popular than print media..you will see people who are on daily wages going to movies by spending 50+ rupees rather than buying a 2 rupee news paper and reading it.....i feel they definately want to see out of real....out of box....people have been appreciating one hero hitting 10 people and jumping up n down, same one singing songs..crying, doing comic scenes etc..even thought it is not practically possible.....they dont want to see a hero travelling in BEST bus...standing in grocery shop queues..they want to see BIG....and ofcourse...it is a BUSINESS..there are very less people who want to spend money and make a realistic movie....i haven't seen a art movie coming in last 10 yrs..may be i didnt even know that there was one....so the point is it is people's decision what they want to watch....it is always unfortunate when there is a larger crowd at the other end where we are not in terms of opinion ..but that's the way life is...Chill buddy...waiting for your experience with the trip back home...Take Care...

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  3. Bodyguard and Ready are exactly the movies i quote when i want to talk about the sorry state of Bollywood. And as you said, the fact that they become the biggest grossers just shows how low our mass mentality is. Tera one man show wala explanation acha hai waise. I would add another point to it. The Indian Male's EGO. Gundo ko maarna, desh ko bachana ye sab hum mard akele kar sakte hain. Bah! This is the parameters on which the typical Indian Male judges himself. Just Brawns. Pity. We don't have a mature male population. And they don't let the females grow out of insecurity. That makes us a stunted nation.

    Chillar Party btw was directed by an advertising man. Mere profession ko gali dena band kar :P

    AND Pleeeeeaaaaassssseeee do not compare Main Hoon Na with Matrix man!!! Ya to tune Matrix dekhi nahi hai ya to tu pagal hai. I'm a Shahrukh fan myself, but please Matrix ko itna chota mat bana yar. Apni jagah pe rakh dono ko. SRK is leaping on a godforsaken cycle rickshaw yar. Aur Matrix ke leaps to sabko pata hai.

    Chal anyway, your writing has improved. Carry on. :)

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  4. lol.. usne matrix dekhi hogi.. lekin samaj me nahi aaya hoga usko.. otherwise there is no reasonable explanation as to why a person wud ever even say the names 'Andy Wachowski' and farah khan in the same sentence, leave alone comparing even a small stunt from andy's movie to farah's home video..


    did bodyguard n ready really make tht much money.. man i wudnt even watch it on TV n ppl paid to watch those movies...


    RDB, DCH, Chillar party on the other hand may be gettin the highest trps wenever aired on Tv... chillar party is a real classic..

    n y blame srk... he tries from time to time.. but look wht hpnd with swades.. thnkfully chak de had a better fate..

    havent seen singham, but dabang was enjoyable, whts ur problem.. it wrked coz salman character ws very different..

    talking abt different isnt that the key word these days.. just using the word "hatke" for your movies doesnt do the trick anymore.. u actually do have to have 'hatke' scripts.. but then again top of the rung rubbish is dished out under the pretext of being hatke.. rockstar(ws rlly looking fwd to this).. by far the biggest disappointment of the year.. desiboyz.. supreme bullshit.. raone.. give it a "c" for 'children only' certificate..


    bottom line.. a good movie stems from a good director otherwise even intelligent scripts end up being royally screwed up..

    n lastly wht inner turmoil r u talking abt.. the audience is varied and a larger part have really silly sensibilities.. else y wudnt a slick movie like badmash company not score much..

    wen ppl begin to look at movies as just entertainment and not c themsleves in it we may get some quality cinema like dev d and not devdas

    ps: i had a frnd who watched jodha akbar for the grandeur!!! 3.5 hrs and a couple of hundreds just to stare at the walls and the cieling.. do u need reasons any sillier

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  5. @ Luvurlife : Agreed

    @Umesh: I understand we do not want to see the real man in movies but it is so immature to see all the hype. The whole one man army thing is ridiculous when it becomes a hit.

    @Uma: Please dont blame the male ego for this. Only the male population does not make a film hit. I know girls who want their BFs like that. They would want him to be everything but common man. He should be a rockstar, A car racer , A fighter everything that they show the hero as in such movies.
    I agree about the immature population but it is not just males. Females are equally responsible

    @Harshada: I agree that we do not make movies like swades and Chillar Party hit who deserves it more. Blame it on the fools

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  6. girls dont need all tht. they would make do with normal guys. but yes they do need tht normal guy to not be sucha sad soul n in constant need of ego pampering.. n talk abt fighting, people (in general n not just guys) with spines are preferred over the spineless ones

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  7. I shouldn't be here but now that I am , let me ask you a question, were you reviewing Movies or the Audience's choice? Every Tom, Dick and Harry knows how pathetic Bodyguard was, but WHY do you think it was a huge success. There has to be a reason, Right? I'd request first have a deep analysis about the success of such movies which makes you label its fans as FOOLS. Once you do that , You'd realize your folly and I am sure you'd make certain alterations in your post If your ego allows you to do so... Secondly, I'd like to give you a feedback here.... Your Language and narrative isn't upto the mark. Keep the language lucid and let words flow rather than stagnate in a pool of chaos. Cheers!!

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    Replies
    1. You are right...A fan of movies like Bodyguard shouldn't be here...The blog is for mature minds..I am sorry if you do not fit the genre..
      I stand by what I say with my name on it..I do not post anonymous comments and so I will not change anything in the post..
      As far as the feedback goes..There is always room for improvement.. I will try to be better..TO make even the fans of Bollywood like the narration ;-)

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