Bachche Log Ke Liye Picture…..
[In English: Pictures for Kids]
First of all, when our actors or directors or producer say, ‘Oh, this is a family movie, it’s a clean movie, and you can watch it with your kids’ - that does not imply that the movie is a kids’ movie! Usually those kinds of movies have a romantic theme to it and I do not think little kids would want to watch that, would they? A kids’ movie is a movie for kids; which does not mean that it has to be about kids - it could be on anything, as long as it targets the audience - kids.
So are you able to name dozens of Hindi movies for kids without giving any long thought? No? I thought so. Why is that? When our industry churns out more movies than any other industry and yet we cannot name decent hindi movies for kids; not even one film!
I know, I know you all would have shouted out Vishal Bhardwaj’s both ‘Makdee’ and ‘Blue Umbrella’ (Chatri Chor), as the movie is the recent ones and have left a mark on the audiences. Unfortunately, I have not seen either of those movies, so I cannot make any comments on the movies. However, I wish to tell you people about the reaction the both movies received from the audiences and critics. Makdee is a 2002 release; it’s Vishal’s debut movie. It is our answer to Harry Potter! The movie got mixed reviews from the media and mixed response from the audience: IndiaFM and Rediff - both thought it was a good attempt, but has a few serious flaws. And yet, it won the second prize at Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, so it is fair to say that ‘Makdee’ is the best Hindi movie for kids, right? It was fairly received by the audience and I think kids loved the movie. I reckon, if it was marketed properly the movie would have done a decent run then it did. Where as’Blue Umbrella’ (Chatri Chor) has not been released yet but it has done a few film festivals round and has won rave reviews from the film critics. If any of you have seen either of these movies, then I would be interested in reading a review from you.
Hanumaan and Chota Chetan are the other hindi movies for kids I am familiar with. I liked the former where as Chotan Chetan put me to sleep.
How can there not be a market for kids’ movies when there is a market for teen-comedies played by grown-ups? So why have we not explored this particular genre/market when it would bring family in - it could be made on a cheaper budget and can make decent profit? Beats me!
Filed Under
Movies, People
Loading ...
9 Responses to “Bachche Log Ke Liye Picture…..”
Leave a Reply
(Ref smilies)
Our Comments Policy : The following kinds of comments are troll capped, blocked and/or commenter's identity reported publicly: Verbal abuse, personal attacks, hate statements, spam, trolls, advertising. Please assist us in keeping the comments clean. Use the contact form to let us know if you find unwarranted comments on PFC. Thank you.
-
Advertisement
-
- PFCOne 2008 Day
- Nothing found
- PFCOne 2008 Da
- Dev.D Music Soundtrack Streaming R
- PFCOne 2008 Da
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest(1975)
- PFCOne 2008 Day Four
- Movie Marketing - The Telugu Cinema Way
- PFCOne 2008 Day Three
- Satyakam (1969) - Idealism vs Pragmatism
-
Advertisement
Hottest Today:
Recent Posts:
-HG, thanks for this write up! Brings back some memories.
Late 70 and early 80s was the time when a good number of kids movies were made in India.
Kitaab was the best desi children’s movie I have ever watched. Gulzar! Saashtaang pranaam baar baar!!! The same storyline - boy running away from home and facing the world - was used years later for a malayalam movie - Tarun played Master Raju’s role - can’t remember the name.
I can think of some good Kannada movies made for ids in those days - prachanda putani galu, putani agent 1 2 3, simhada mari sainya, etc (made by Dwarakeesh?)
Gammattu Gudhacharulu was another good movie which had a crime element and kids playing detectives - Singeetham directed.
Akkinei Nageshwara Rao and Adurthi Subbarao made a couple - Sudi Gundaalu, Maro Prapancham. Very offbeat - very revolutionary - way ahead of their time.
Shankar Nag was another maker who wanted to do some good - Malgudi days, Swami, Stone Boy, etc. Had a good strategy too - TV series - but he passed away too soon.
The dogma I believe is with marketing and packaging. The perception is that the movies are not salable and the history proves that none of the above mentioned movies - including makdee - made huge profits. May be because, not much money went into making these movies in the first place?
The only movie that disproved this hypothesis is “Little Soldiers” made by Gunnam Gangaraju on his “Just Yellow” banner. [The same guy who gave us Aithey and AOR]. Made on a shoestring budget - but was hugely successful.
I am sure we can come up with a kick-ass kids cinema leveraging off some of our erstwhile popular desi comics - Chacha Chowdhary (Pran), Shikari Shambhu (V.B.Helbe), Lamboo-Motu (Shaheb), Suppandi (Ram Waerkar was the name of the artist - at school I used to imitate his lines when I doodled), Jasoos Chakram (diamond comics), and hazaar more!
kids movie ??? I never found it enjoyable …
That is the only reason why i haven’t watched Makdee (i feel so guilty now) … I havent seen those harry potter series nor those animation films (i dnt know why … i just dnt like them !!)
Actually kids movies can be made indirectly … i.e by placing kids in strategic positions in a normal film…
eg : Mr India , Masoom , Kannathil muthamital and Anjali (manirathnam), kitaab and parichay (gulzaar) , Rockford
In such a case, it won’t just intrest children but also families… who will want to take their kids to the film …
Actually children film market is huge! The whole family has to go to watch the movie. If given a good publicity and distribution. In India again the film distribution system is so weird. You can not sell a film until n unless u have a star in it.
Hanuman is a big grosser. In US all the animated films r big grossers at the BO. If looked at the record children films would outnumber any other genre in terms of collection at BO.
As Scott Adams says, “To make film for kids, that is without violence and sex, you have to use creativity.” That means, making kids movie is non-trivial.
What surprises the most is the movies like movies from Pixar and DreamWorks which are made for kids as well they have an adult appeal. I just hope, that quality comes to Indian movies in my lifetime, my age being on the right side of 30.
WB,
You are like a Indian Cinema enclyopedia/wikipedia! Your post is quite an insightful. I have not seen so many movies and Kitab is one of them, so I did not know if it was a children’s movie. Gulzarsaab has always done a bit of work children’s; The Jungle Book is one example. You know, you should write one detailed article on children’s movies made in that era.
Anyway, from you article I gather that South Indian cinema has ventured into this particular market far more than Hindi cinema has - why is that?
Karthik Krishnan,
My teen-hoods has been spent in UK, so every during holiday times terrestrial channels would show movies for kids and I used to love watch those kind of movies - it was a time-pass. You should watch ‘The Karate Kid’ if you have not seen it yet. You might like it.
You’re a die-hard Vishal’s fan, so you should watch the movie, and you might find something in common with Maqbool and Omkara.
How did I forget about those all movies you mentioned? I have seen all of them apart from Rockford. The thing with those movies is that it targets family as opposed to kids. I wanted to know about movies that were target at kids and hence would bring the family.. not other way round.
Manjeet Singh,
Exactly! The product has to be marked properly even the product is of top quality. Seriously, our distribution industry is like that?! No wonders.. Will our Indian mentality ever change? Why do people prefer to watch grown-ups in dumb-down movies but not kids cinema?
Shashikant,
Agree with you that. But we have plenty of talented writers and as WB mentioned in his post that we have plenty of desi comics. So why would not a producer be interested in making something different which targets kids hence bringing in family (Kerching!)? Why would the producer want to waste his money making a dumb-down family movie when our market is already diluted of that kind of movies - he is likely to lose money than make.
Hindi films with children in major roles or meant for children: few are as follows
1) Jagriti(1954) - A classic Sensitive film by Satyen Bose. Music by Hemant Kumar - famous songs - Ham laye hain tufan se kishti nikal ke is desh ko rakhna mere bachchon sambhal ke, Chalo chale man Dunia se dur kahin peron kee chaanv mein.
2) Boot Palish- This uncredited Raj Kapoor film promoted Baby Naaj and Master Ratan as child actor but it brought a wonderful character Artist David(Golmal fame) in hindi films when he was around 52 years old. A good film to watch. Famous song - nanhe munhe bachche teri muthee mein kya hai.
3)Akhiri Khat (1966) - A classic film by Chetan Anand.
4) Mera Naam Jokar - First part of this film.
5) Parichaya and Kitaab - Gulzar films, Master Raju and his sister Poornima were a nice enough to watch
6) Safed Haathi (1977) - Tapan Sinha’s film. Today I remember only two things about this film. the painted white elephant and Shatrughan Sinha in snow white dress saying ” My best compliments to you” to that white elephant.
7) Masoom - Shekhar Kapoor’s first film. this film alone needs a full post. Wonderful music by RD Burman and touching preformance by Jugal Hansraj and Naseer.
9) Mr India - Shekhar Kapoor film
10) Koi Mil gaya - Rakesh Roshan
11) Krishh - Rakesh Roshan
You adult may like or not KMG and Krishh but children loved both the films.
The song Mohe ang lag jaa baalma from Mera Naam Joker can really give a hard-on to any kid. this movie should be catgorised as Adult.
Masoom was too sentive for children. Really appealed to my mom & dad when it was released. My 10 year old brain couldnt make out much of the movie other than enjoy the lakdi ki kaathi song.
saw the movie again when i was 10 and loved it.
Mehboob Khan made Son of India in 1962 which didnt do well.
The fact remais that we have never really made any perfect kids movie. As written in the post, any movie that can be seen by whole family is termed as kids movie.
What a waste of talent.
Muzzy: I categorized films on the basis of :
either they have children in lead roles or they are made for children. We have very few films made for children though we have films where children played central characters.
Only first chapter or part of Mera Naam Joker is having children as artists.
Hi,
I have seen Makdi twice and it was very good.
The innocent faces of Shweta (the main child artist) and her co artist called Mughle Aazham in the film impress you. Also Powerful performances by Shabanaji (as witch) and Makrand deshpande ( as kasaai) with dayashanka pande and other artists.
Makdi is perfect balance of Rahasya, Romanch and good message for children.
Also it has very good music by Vishal Bhardwaj and songs