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Hi Folks,
So in my limited time with this group I take it that most people, at least who air their views in this forum, consider Yash Raj and Karan as business people first and artist second. I respect their views and also totally disagree. Films in my view are about mass communications (no surprise that it is taught in that department in most universities) so see no problem in communicating with the masses. In Yash Chopra’s defence if it is all about “business,” why then were these below “artisitc” products made. Most if not all of them did not do that well in the box office. This was a post I did in 2005 (in another group), but still believe in the thoughts expressed here——————–Read on

 Hi Folks,

As mentioned in my prior post, it is not about marketing, it is about
making brilliant films and long before the MBA’s decided that they
had a handle on marketing films (despite running to the ground, the
studios in LA - before better sense prevailed, to ABCL in Mumbai and
really not having any impact whatsoever on the bottom line of films),
Yashraj was churning out some amazing films.

Analyzing 5, which made an impact before the self styled gurus of
marketing even had started their discourses on “it is marketing that
Yashraj is all about.”

Again this is not about being super hits, it is about creating a
brand that is today the hallmark of Indian films:

(a) LAMHE - Yes it was a financial dud and yes it forced a super hot
model of that era, Deepak Malhotra, to go for an entire new name and
identity thereafter- hotelier Dino Martelli of Mumbai- all for
saying “Pallo”- history has never been harder on one spoken word
before or after-But what a film and what a theme. Indian cinema and
it’s plots took a giant step forward. A man aspired to marry a woman,
he could not achieve that, the woman’s daughter fell for the same man
and the class in which this whole movie enacted this theme, is what
Lamhe is all about. Only a man of true sensitivity, only a man who
understood love as the ultimate emotion, could enact that on the
visual medium. It made an actor out of Anil Kapoor and it lifted
Sridevi to legendary status. A movie, which had a sense of
realism…let’s face it, in true unadultrated love, when does age
come in to play? and who decides what age should marry which? nobody
but the prople concerned. Brilliant songs too.

(b) KABHIE KABHIE - People say Yash makes movies which appeal to the
masses, I disagree!!! Yash makes movies with all his emotion and
people see that in his movies and they like that. Consider this, in
Lamhe the boy does not get the girl, he has to settle for a
compromise. In KABHIE KABHIE the boy does not get the girl (AB and
Rakhee), yet none of these movies had any sense of negativity in
them. In fact they broke the myth that is prevalent in Indian movies,
love and marriage is synonamous? is it? are they? Brilliant
performance not only by the couple who do not make the alter, but
also by Rishi/Neetu/Waheeda and the poetry….wow!!!! if that is not
raw emotion what is? Tell a poet to write for the market and see
him/her throw the pen out. Ask a poet to feel an emotion, market
nothwithstanding, watch magic come alive.

(c) DARR - Subhash Ghai and Yash Chopra have ONLY ONE thing in
common. Because of their utmost command of their craft, they can make
the Villian, as the most compelling character in the movie. Subhash
did that with Khalnayak and Chopra with Darr. In scriptwriting and in
mythology we are taught that there is a protagonist and there is his
opposite the antagonist. Darr threw out every rule !!! “”"Kkkkkiran”
became the protagonist, at least that is what the audience thought,
when he stabbed the alleged protagonist. The credit went to SRK and
rightly so, but the real credit whould go to Yash Raj Chopra, because
he was so non judgemental in branding a person a psychopath, because
he gave that person a reason for his behavior- refer opening
lines “Love is a powerful emotion, sometimes when it crosses that
limit, it can become obsessive.” To me that was the positive spin to
the movie. A negative character was also be the most positive in his
emotion, irrespective that the world percieved it to be negative. The
film drew it’s energy from that. You tell me what marketing strategy
dictates that…you tell me what emotional sense negates that!!

(d) KALA PATHAR - Chopra has always been accused of telling tales
that had no element of reality in them. I disagree and so did the
audience after Kala Pathar. A movie inspired by the real life tragedy
that hit the coal mines in Bihar, due to the lack of safety measures
by the careless owners, hardly has an element of Swiss romance in
them. Chopra’s tale spoke about the lives of everyday people who
become heroes when circumstances force them to be that
way…something emulated by Lakshya much later. The protagonist
actually plays a loser, a coward who is running away from his past
and perhaps that’s what gives him the emotion of “I couldn’t care
less” If Chopra knows the emotion of love, Chopra also knows a thing
or two about characterization and the element of realism in it.
Shatrughan Sinha was a gold medalist of the presitgious Pune
Indistitute -IIFT. It was not apparent because nobody gave him a role
that required him to really act,a s opposed to shout…nobody that
is, until he was cast as the “Aarthi Ke Phool” convict. A performance
where he truly emerged on top. Again only something that a brilliant
director, not a brilliant marketeer, can enact from his characters.

(e) SILSILA - Again, that was an era of “we are just good friends”
Nothing was out in the open. Till date nobody knows whether there was
something on between AB and Rekha, if not then let them be, if so,
then good for them. But despite all the press, for them to come
together on the screen, along with the woman who allegedly was going
through hell, Jaya and for them all to do it for ONE person, requires
them to totally TRUST that one person, in his ability not to exploit
the situation, but to tell a story the way it is meant. Again back to
the point, to CHOPRA it is not about, is it right? is it wrong? it is
a celebration of an emotion that we as humans cannot help, but feel.
SOmetimes it is locked away, sometimes it is expressed, but always,
it is felt. The dilemna was enacted by the actors and narrated by the
poems of the poet laureate of India. Even for him to do this on a
film medium required him to totally be inspired by the filmmaker. I
cannot imagine Yash Chopra going up to the late Harivanshrai and
telling him he was using that as a marketing gimmick!!!!Brilliant
film where the conflict was not an antagonist, but the emotion
within. The enemy was not a person, but the environment.

Sincerely,

Vivek “if it’s mystery it has to be Hitchcock, if it’s comedy it has
to be Chaplin, if it’s romance it has to be Yash Chopra” Kumar