Another Golden Opportunity… brutally wasted…
Disclaimer: This is NOT a post about Love-Story 2050.
I haven’t seen that film, and won’t until maybe when it releases on DVD.
But I must admit, there was one thing about the film which intrigued me a great deal. And no, its not the special effects. Those I think we’ve got a good idea of from the trailers (and films like The 5th Element, I-Robot, AI and others).
What I found exciting was the concept, and what a good director could do with it in an Indian film.
Think about this. An Indian film merging sci-fi with mythology. A film which dares to simultaneously tread the paths of the paranormal, supernatural, religion, advanced technology and quantum mechanics, all complete with commercial film trappings like romance, suspense, and the thrill of discovering the unknown. This could have been classic Yash Chopra meets Dr. Deepak Chopra meets Stephen William Hawking. This could have been a groundbreaking, philosophical, sci-fi romance with strong elements of fantasy, thrills, drama and faith. It could have had it all.
The concept, as I understand it, centers around a young man who has just lost his lover. Guided by religion and faith, he believes that she will be reincarnated, and therefore conceivably she would still exist, albeit in the future. So there are two ways he could re-unite with her. The first being death and his own subsequent reincarnation. Even if he does believe that they would both be reincarnated as humans, the chances of them meeting would still be remote. Then there’s option #2, that of traveling into the future to find his ladylove. This is by far the more interesting as it comes with a lot of intriguing questions, which if explored to their potential could have resulted in a very exciting film. Is time travel possible? Is reincarnation in fact a reality? For both, if so, why and how? What would the future be like? How would he adjust, or even exist, in the future? Once he got to the future, would he remember his past? Could he ever come back? Would he find his lost love? If so, what would she be like in her new reincarnated form? Would they even recognize one other? How? Through body, mind, spirit or soul?
Imagine a film which would ask all these questions and more? Imagine what could have been if they had taken the time to intelligently, creatively, philosophically and scientifically tried to find prospective answers to these questions. And not just the answers, but the potential ramifications, the consequences of these answers?
Imagine an Indian film combining the fantasy elements of “Back To the Future” with say a “Karz”. Imagine the limitless possibilities given the Indian context, the mindset which accepts both reincarnation and modern technological advances as equally rational in their own space.
Imagine who would be more qualified than us to try and pull-off such a film. India is home to hundreds of gods and intricate mythology, as well as the nation producing the highest numbers of doctors and engineers… and films. We have diverse values and beliefs, ranging from the supernatural to the academic, combining these can potentially make for far more compelling stories than most of the stuff Hollywood has to offer. All we really need to do is come up with the right mix of research into what’s plausible, and creativeness into what could be possible. Considering the basis we have work with, we could have been expecting something incredibly engaging on an assortment of exciting different levels, from the cerebral to the emotional, the mind-bending to the heart-warming, all in one epic, visually and psychologically enticing film experience.
My heart sank when I read that Harry Baweja was to direct the film himself. Harry “Dilwale/Diljale/Deewane” Baweja? Why? Why waste such a golden opportunity? Why not be content to just produce it and bring in a director who’s more capable of achieving the immense potential. I mean, he’s done that before with Karam, and that wasn’t half-bad.
Sadly, I can’t even name a director who may have pulled it off. Rakesh Roshan is the closest one, if only because he’s dealt with both subjects of reincarnation (Karan Arjun) and sci-fi (Koi Mil Gaya/Krrish). Well, maybe Ashu Trikha. Alag was a decent effort at a mutant/supernatural tale, especially given the budget limitations. At least that film had some depth to it’s lead character and some innovative story-telling.
Can anyone else think of any other writers/director who could’ve done this concept justice?
Ashutosh Gowarikar maybe? I mean, if he can delve into the past so well, he might be equally adept at venturing into the future.
The saddest thought of all is that, given that Love Story 2050 has been made with a such a big budget, and has had so much hype associated with it, it’s disasterous results will likely only deter other filmmakers from venturing into this futuristic/supernatural/mythological territory and exploring what could have been…
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
isn’t rgv planning to restart his shelved time machine? amongst indian directors who could have done something with this, mani shankar would have been a decent option.
I saw love story 2050 ,3/4th of it actually,at any rate.
Yes, the possibilities are indeed endless for such a subject.And indeed Indian audiences are ready for the subject.Even the poorly imagined future scenes of 2050 were being lapped up at the theatre I was at.
i think before attempting to mix digital or nanotechnology with mythology we should go through our mythologies and bring atleast them in a presentable.. i mean, just read them and you will feel cheated by all this mythological films and tv serials.. they have not able to create even a tenth part of the drama or the thrill or the action in these unlimited and unfallable stories.. recently in srilanka ancient helipads were discovered over a range of hills. they are touted as launching pads for kuber viman and alike machines (ravana was supposed to have an fully equipped airforce).
just imagine the technology which narada muni used to disappear from one place and reaching to a second one.. you have more matter than a sci fi.
Ravi: With all due respect Mani Shankar (who’s 16 December was just awesome) had his chance with “Rudraksh”… I’m not sure if I just wasn’t intelligent enough to, you know, “get it”, or if the film really was that damn confusing, chaotic and abysmal. If he didn’t screw up an equally provocative concept as Rudraksh, then yeah he’d be a great candidate for such a film…
Pranay, that’s the irony of the situation. Audiences are totally ready for such a film *if* its presented well. This film seems to use the future and all those cool FX merely as a gimmicky background to showboat Harman Baweja. Talk about having your priorities out of whack.
3/4 eh? Was it really that bad that you just walked out?
Golgosh, you obviously know a lot more about this subject matter than I do… but that’s just it… there are endless mystical, enigmatic tales to be told… someone just needs to step up and tell them…
Hmmm… I wonder if “Talismaan” is based on one of these tales or if its purely fictional…
As far as this topic goes, I believe that one needs to focus on a particular mythological tale, research it thoroughly, pick out the right elements and then weave them into the central plot so it all comes together well… but that takes time, and work, the 2 things most of our filmmakers seem to find too tiresome to bother with…
Ravi – I haven’t heard much about Time Machine lately… I think RGV would do a kickass job though… really looking forward to “Phoonk”… that looks disturbing..
@ Tony Mera Nam
research is already done man!! grab a copy of kathopnishad and check out d matter you will get.. yes time is needed to contemporise it.
Talismaan is based on classic novel -Chandrakanta from which TV serial was also made.
Shailesh bhai – Oh that’s cool. I haven’t read the novel but I’ve seen the TV serial… that sounds pretty cool… the “look” of Talismaan is awesome…
Golgosh, I live in Canada, so getting a copy of Kathopnishad may be a slightly tougher task for me
Is there an online version?
tony bhai if once you read “chandrakanta” then you will have same option for “serial” chandrakantaas now you have for harry baweja… it is great novel…perhaps best is Hindi literature in fantasy…but they killed it…
That doesn’t surprise me Shatrughan bhai… most screen adapdations are not as good as the original novel..
What do you think about the Talismaan trailer? You think they can pull off a good film, or do you think it will be just as gimmicky as LoveStory 2050?
First of all…lets talk about the so called concept. If the hero loses her heroine, why cant he use the time machine & go back in time and avoid her death??? Maybe there wouldnt be enough of plots in doing such a thing.
There was a film called THE LAKEHOUSE (Sandra Bullock, Keanu Reaves) in 2006. I had never heard about this movie until I saw it on HBO. Its a romantic love story meets fantasy meets science fiction (there is no attempt to clarify or justify science). I thought it was a brilliant idea & quite fairly excuted.
The story is of two people who share the same house (Lake house) but there are in different periods! Keanu is in a period which is running two years behind. So if she lives in 2006, he in 2004. The only communcation is a mailbox (ones that are put on a pole outside a house, donno whats it called). Sounds interesting na? Whats interesting is that they share the same dog!
The film puts many questions unanswered & you want to go back & see it over again. I guess thats the biggest success of a film. I hope this film is not copied and made into a Bollywood dud. I was talking to my bro once and said to him ‘HITCH, this film has all elements of a Bollywood movie & could be well made’. And we got this pathetic ‘PARTNER’. Meri zabaan kaali
)
Tony bhai find out correspondance address of Gita press, Gorakhpur from net and then order a copy.. they ensure a fast delivery
Hey Love story 2050…finally a story about the love life of 2050 generation as if we have not had much earlier. I have not seen that movie as yet and will not till 2050!!!!
hi,
I want to take the participate in phoonk movie