At Times You Don’t Need Love..You Need Luck.
At times some dialogues have a weird sense of irony in them..In Love 2050 Harman Baweja is made to say at least four times “ I don’t need luck, I have love”..And to justify his conviction he goes into future to bring back his lady love Priyanka Chopra.
In Jane Tu Ya Jaane Na (JTYJN) Imran Khan and Genelia D’souza are not even sure what love is all about and whom to love etc.etc.
To be fair Harman Baweja in Love 2050 did a good job..He is is earnest, enthusiastic, camera friendly..Ditto for Imran Khan in JTYJN.. He is earnest, enthusiastic, camera friendly..Both are cute..Ok Imran Khan is more cute.
Harman Baweja is tom tommed as clone of Hrithik Roshan..Imran Khan of his illustrious uncle Aamir Khan..Harman Baweja is touted as next super-star..Imran Khan is brazenly written about as next super-star by many reviewers..
So what’s the problem man?
Have some dheeraj(patience) and read on..
In both the movies the leading ladies have been given a short shrift during promotional campaigns…Priyanka Chopra did not need any publicity..Rather she was the vehicle that was supposed to take Harman Baweja on his starry flight..Genelia D’souza was not considered important enough for publicity and she could no way prop up Imran Khan..He was being propelled by his market-savvy uncles Mansoor Khan and Aamir Khan.. At times it pays to be Khan..(Kahan se ho ki farak painda—how does it matter where he is from)..
Have I anything against directors Harry Baweja or Abbas Tyrewaala..No way..With an experience of almost thirty years in the industry Harry Baweja till date has not been able to carve a distinct identity for himself..With almost thirteen years experience in the industry Abbas Tyrewaala has fallen short of measuring upto his credentials ..There were hardly any expectations from Harry Baweja and he lived up to that sentiment..Abbas Tyrewala had generated lots of expectations and he belied them imo.
Almost a week later where two sons of the film families made their debut to get their share of shine under the sun, what struck me most was the kind of response JTYJN evoked ..Before both the movies were released the buzz was definitely in favor of JTYJN..I had asked on purpose many youngsters ( my teenage niece and nephew and their circle of friends), which movie they were planning to watch on a weekend..Majority voted in favor of JTYJN..And on being asked what about Love 2050..The response ranged from “ Pleeeze, No Way, Yikkees..”
And this made me also decide to go and surreptitiously see JTYJN (without telling my girlfriend)on Friday afternoon itself..Cinemax, Versova –House Full..Rushed toFame Adlabs..House Full .. Fun Republic..Ditto for JTYJN..Maybe I was tad bit unlucky not reaching in time..Whatever.. By default I had to watch Love 2050 in the company of hundred others in a capacity hall of 350 or so at Fame Adlabs!
Yes it was an ordeal sitting through this three hours of yarn that was supposed to transport me from Adelaide in 2008 to Mumbai in 2050..Somehow, somewhere I had this nagging feeling that things were not jelling and then the signs glowed to show why it was so.. In the skyscraper dotted skyline more like Shanghai, the skycars whizzed past and the buildings in some CG business district glowed with ads of Tata Indicom, Lux, Ceat et al..And what do I notice.. In 2050 the logo designs had not changed!(They were as pedantic and banal as in 2008—infact Vodafone has done a better job of its makeover from Hutch in 2007 then these in-film branding companies could do in 2050!)..The ads somehow symbolized the sorry state of screenplay..
It was not even an ad- mad world..It was bad-bad and going worse..(Though Omung Kumar’s interiors were hi-tech enough)
If sitting through Love 2050 was an ordeal, getting to watch JTYJN was proving to be an odyssey..I went to watch JTYJN on Saturday, this time of course with my girl friend( I did not tell her about my earlier attempt the previous day)..This time I was getting two tickets at Cinemax but in different rows..And I had no intention of sitting away from my girlfriend– JTYJN or NJYTJ ( till seats do us apart—no way)..So instead of popcorn and coke and corny going- ons we settled for lunch at Kailash Parbat across the road wondering about this house full phenomenon in recent times in Bollywood!
Finally two days ago on wednesday we got to see it at INOX at Nariman Point (that being closer to my GF’s workplace), where at the ticket counter we were shown the computer screen that glowed with all blue..That meant except for few tickets of the highest denomination being available it was all full..I hate to bow down to such extortion but.marta kya na karta( Had no choice), we took the tickets and went in..And seventy percent of the hall was empty! And it remained so even after first fifteen minutes of the running movie !!..There were no late comers or stragglers..
And while watching the movie I was wondering if this was hip, zingy,campus, coming-of-age, rom-com then our country instead of wondering about nuclear deal with uncle SAM should seriously mull over what is the deal with our Gen. XYZ.
Both the films did not work for me..If JTYJN is Bush Sr. then Love 2050 is Bush Jr..A case of dumb and dumber..(we are indeed living in times of dumbing-down )..
This brings me to a point that I want to make without further analyzing or reviewing both the movies..
Paape, It’s perception..
It’s positioning
It’s promotion
It’s publicity
It’s pitching for right reviews
It’s getting the star ratings
It’s marketing..
It’s the whole package.
In an era where first three days of the movie release ( a weekend) decides the fate of the movie it’s the buzz that makes or breaks the box-office..
Imagine there was not even fifty percent of occupancy in Love 2050 on the opening day…On the other hand all the youngsters and teenagers were excitedly queuing up for JTYJN..Why so? It’s matter of further research by our film pundits.
Somehow the diarroehea induced by barrage of banal comedies in the recent past, JTYJN may be a “pudinhara” to producers..It is supposed to race past the so-called hit RACE in its gross collections..Love 2050 could cause constipation..Atleast to the distributors..
I wish to tell Harman Baweja..At times lineage is not enough, love is not enough..You need loads of lucre and lots of luck ! Better luck next time.
Tags: JAANE TU..YJN, LOVE 2050
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
i wonder how these guys are going to recover 55 crores…
they had lux.sun micro,cartoon n/w,etc as in-house brand placements.they would have recovered some costs at least.
i believe tat a whole lot of money will be recovered through sales of cd/dvd. i m quite sure tat the dvd will be out in a couple of months. also the satellite rights will bring in revenues
I have not seen the movie Love 2050 and would not till 2050 !! (if i live). I promise to PFC !!!!!
I can understand 55 crore – you want major sci-fi effects, you got to pay for all that cgi.
I cannot understand 30 crore. Why 30 crore for Jaane Tu ? Hero unknown, heroine unknown, topic same old love story, location not switzerland but our own south mumbai, regular 35mm flick, why 30 crore ?
@Lucker…
Good question.
1) Probably to evade tax
2)to get the Max out of the distributer.
3)Probably it takes that much money these days to make a movie. Inflation?
@Lurker–I don’t know how accurate this article is, but it mentions that ARR charges around 25 million. http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20080628/914/ten-bollywood-musicians-hike-prices-prit.html
So, maybe a significant amount of the film’s budget went towards the music?
Amanda, yeah ARR gets 2 crore in south so 2.5 for north is reasonable.
http://entertainment.oneindia.in/tamil/exclusive/ar-rahman-puli-040807.html
But 30 – 2.5 = 27.5
Are you saying Jaane Tu cast & crew minus ARR are worth 27 crore!!! Our Shekhar Kammula etc making movies for a few lakh rupees, these people wasting 27 crores on same old same old love story.
btw there’s a parallel Satyajit Ray thread going on at pfc – Ray used to beg producers for 2 lakh rupees to make a feature film. 2 lakh * 1000 is still less than 27 crores!
I will go listen to Hard Kaur paisa phek tamasha dekh
@Lurker–haan…that is true…27 crores really is a lot for the cast n crew :-)
I highly doubt that the actual production/print cost came to anywhere close to 30Cr, even if we factor A.R. Rahman in. A big chunk may have also gone into publicity… but 30Cr? Didn’t Ishq Vishk cost like 7-8 Cr to make? Similar set up…new hero/director… inflation did NOT go up 4x in 4-5 years
So much for a duplicate, agree with zest 100%.
@krysh
Jaane tu is definitely much much better than 2050 ,public itni bhi chutiya nahi hai…..Jaane Tu is already has a cult following among the youth(teens and early 20’s)……
Jaane Tu is cult movie.. u r either in it or not… very much extreme reactions evoking… i loved it though..
“Atankwadi meow-meow kar raha hai”
and btw i dont think Jaane Tu was made in 30 Cr, it made 30 Cr.. MAYBE.. not sure!
@Parth
I don’t consider it a cult movie……I consider it good entertaining cinema…..go and check out the young pune university crowd or the youth brigade in Bangalore……you’ll understand why I called it cult …
@vineet
yaar u confusing me. Ru ironic??
atleast last week or so, me n my frends are trying to wove in dialogues from the movies in our day to day. plus humor of the movie is very PJish, tht too clever… and works a lot for me!
No I am not being ironic ,but you certainly sound sarcastic ,anyways I don’t use the dialogues in day to day life……I certainly have recited the scenes from the movie in front of my friends who are yet to see it…..and they enjoyed it….hallmark of a good movie IMO.
i havent had teh guts to watch love story …but i did watch jaane tu which is by any standard a very ok film …i think hype works ..and jaane tu is the perfect example o fthat . people said it had great performances , i dont know how . also i dont know what worked for people . or may be i dont know cinema . jaane tu was a big time bore. it bord me to death and it pained me to know that people loved it . i read a review here where someone replied in comments , i liked socha na tha . sure , i loved it . even ishq vishq ..not bad …and jab we met ..why not?! …but i cudnt get myself to like jaane tu . i agree completely . i tried hard to like it . but cudnt. did u people actually liked jaane tu ya jaane na ?????
krysh , i completly agree iwth you if you are talkinga bout jaane tu in the end . cult following or not …i think the public is chutiya if they just go by hype and develop a cult follwing for a film like jaane tu ..
i loved dil chahta hai …and thatr was a cult film …but jaane tu is just not it .period.
krysh , you are the man …you talk sense ..you are just airing my views here . i am depressed , i just watched jane to …you have cheered me up . ‘if this is hip , zingy , campus coming of age rom com ‘that develops a cult folliwng the public i sure chutiya or i am .
@sid
It takes more than hype to get someone to see a movie twice or thrice when a ticket sets you back by 150 bucks ,and I have seen plenty of such chutiyas…..and if you didn’t like Jaane Tu it’s your personal opinion why call the public idiot ,simply because they don’t conform to your opinion ,very nice……
@Krysh, @Vineet, @ sid
personally i dont agree that its a cult movie, but who knows. may be in near future, proposing to ur GF by singing in ur own fate-dholak-ki-aawaj can become a big trend.And there is definitly a good chance as people r already talking abt it.
but one thing is sure, its a good movie. i m no teenager or college going boy, but i loved the movie.Its a movie that need not be judgeded on cinematic points, this one has to be judged by its soul.No matter whatever shortcoming r in this movie, but its a lovable movie.Doesnt matter its a cult or not, its still a good movie.
And I think I will like it in second time as well.
A few word abt Harman’s movie. I am not going to watch it as I dont go for bad movies. I have not seen any good movie coming from Harry baweja ever.He shud have choosen someone else to launch his son.