Creativity at Its Best - 2007
iView Author:
Srinivas N(Mumbai , India)
Email:
Withheld
Creativity at Its Best - 2007
Another year goes by and we are left wondering if we were any better than the last. In terms of fresh ideas and unique concepts, we seem to be totally bankrupt. Our Hindi film industry seems to look no further than love, comedy and action. Most of these ideas are anyway copied from foreign language movies. Let’s take a look at some of both Hollywood and Hindi movies released this year and calculate our creative ruin. (Not necessarily in the order of release dates)
Coming in early this year in Hollywood was “Happily N’Ever After”, a story about an alliance of evil fairy tale-doers, who wants to take control over Fairy tale land.
Well, sometimes I wonder how the heck those guys think about such fascinating ideas. Our Indian animation movies don’t seem to look beyond Ram, Ganesh and Hanuman! Well, that’s a different topic anyway so let’s move on.
Next in the list of fascinating concepts is Transformers, a movie about war between two robotic clans! I was just speechless when I saw this movie and all I can again say is “Whoa! Looks like creativity is patented by Hollywood Inc!” Okay don’t blame our budgets. Even if we are given $100 million dollar budgets, all we will do is make Hrithik Roshan fly over the moon in search of his lost girl friend.
Let’s not spend too much on some amazing movies like Pirates of the Caribbean: At world’s end, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or The Bourne Ultimatum.
How many rebirths does it take for a Hindi film company to come out with a movie like “300″? Mani Ratnams and Rajkumar Santoshis have been talking for long about making Ramayans and Mahabharats, but when and if they are really made, how would they end up? Would Mani Ratnam’s Ram Bachchan be dancing near the stream to the music composed by AR Rahman while Aishwarya Sita joins him in the duet?
Take a movie like I Am Legend, the last man on earth. We should admire the writers for even coming up with such an idea, forget the execution and for the studio to support and make it. Just imagine you going to Yashraj with the same concept and telling Aditya Chopra “Sir, this is a story about the last man on earth”. I am sure the first question he will ask is what the heroine will do.
Okay, here is one movie that just makes me smile. A bee unhappy with its career choice! “Bee Movie” is again an awesome story about Barry B Benson, a bee unhappy with just one choice for his career, i.e. collecting honey! When he discovers on a trip to NYC that humans eat honey, he decides to sue us!! Hahaha!!! :D
Eddie plays himself, his adopted father and his wife all in one movie called “Norbit”! I see only Kamal Hassan doing something of this kind. We are all eagerly waiting for “Dasavatharam”!
I was mighty disappointed with “Ghost Rider” but still commend the makers for the premise.
“Fred Claus”, Santa’s brother who moves to the North Pole again is a totally unconventional story. You got to admit. The Americans push the envelope on creativity.
“National Treasure: Book of Secrets” is such a mind blowing concept, that I wonder what do those guys eat? Let me paste the plot outline from IMDB. “Treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage) looks to discover the truth behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, by uncovering the mystery within the 18 pages missing from assassin John Wilkes Booth’s diary.”
Did I hear anyone say thrillers? Vikram Bhatt? Pappu Pandey? Well, watch “Vacancy”, a real thriller that keeps you on the edge throughout.
Okay, there are many more great stories that were told this year by Hollywood and the rest of the world. Let’s now take a look at some of the masterpieces of Hindi film industry.
”Aap Ka Suroor” Himesh Bhai Zindabad! Well, they did take auto rickshaws to Germany!!
There is this great movie called “Aggar”! According to IMDB, this is what the movie is about. “A woman discovers that becoming attracted to the wrong man can have deadly consequences in this taut and tense thriller”. I sometimes wonder how producers invest money in such movies. I really want to see how directors pitch such projects!
“Apne” is actually a movie I enjoyed but looking at the big picture, I am not too proud of this movie.
I am talking about original creative ideas so I won’t really bother writing much about “Bheja Fry”, “Dhol”, “Hey Baby” “Partner” etc.
I really don’t consider “Chak de India” as an original and a unique product of Hindi cinema. You must keep in mind I am not talking about the box office success here but about unique plots.
“Cheeni Kum” comes a little closer and the story was quite fresh.
“Eklavya” had potential but I was disappointed. But nowhere near the International standards!
The list of stupid movies is long like “Honeymoon Travels”, “Jab We Met” “Swami” etc but the couple of movies that come close to “could-have-been-interesting” are “Khoya Khoya Chand”, “OSO”, “Life in a Metro” & “Traffic Signal” but something did not work.
Well, the only original piece of work I see in 2007 is undoubtedly “No Smoking”.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
P.S: If I missed anything, please do enlighten me. 
PROJEKT iVIEW
 15 readers recommend this post  Loading ... |
 Email This Post To Friends
|
|
Related Posts | |
47 Responses to “Creativity at Its Best - 2007”
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
-
- Random thoughts on Yuv
- Dev.D- Emosional Aty
- An Interview With Oye Lucky Lucky Oye’s Dolly - Richa C
- SORRY
- The story of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi Reve
- Ajay TG- Man With A Camera.
- Maharathi: Murder is in the Details (Zero Spoiler Review)
- Mukhbiir Versus Chamku – A toss-up between two lone rangers
- Random thoughts on Yuvvraaj
- Little Zizou - Not a review, Just reactions.
-
Advertisement
Hottest Today:
Recent Posts:
pirates at world’s end was too complicated and much below level of curse of the black pearl… but special effects were very good.
u can also consider BEOWULF for mind blowing CGI.
BLACK Friday was master piece.
Saawariya was not great but good.
happy new year to all of the PFCites
:d/:d/:d/:d/
guru couldve been really good … was a different premise .. but made the same
black friday .. but then …. if it qualifies for this year …
TZP …
and wat else …. hmmmm
srinivas
you spend 2007 film calender watching movies like ‘transfarmers’ ‘ghost rider’ and than you complain that quote we seem to be totally bankrupt. Our Hindi film industry seems to look no further than love, comedy and action” unquote
can you digest anything above than that!!!!
you are just smitten by hollywood nothing else. wahan ka sab accha, apna sab kharab.
i am enlightening u :
hollywood guys with amazin budgets end up creating craps like “300″ “transformers” they just get too excited abt the money that they have that they over do it !!!
Pirates three was born just because jerry had so much money that he dint know what to do !!! it wud have been better is there wasnt a third part !!!
its really unfortunate that u see only good things comin out of hollywood and see only the negative side to our own films …. really a pity …
evry 100 kms to any side of urs in india and u end up being a stranger .. so imagine the market that indian movie producers have .. they can never generate the budget that the hollywood guys can do !!!
still we end up making
Johnny Gaddar
chak de
paruthiveeran
polladhavan
no smoking
Bheja Fry ( man how cud u ever include this movie in teh list of “partner” “dhol” “hey baby”)
u called JAB WE MET a stupid movie !!!
Gandhi my father
Tare zameen par
Mozhi
Kattradhu Tamizh
Evano oruvan
ore kadal
naal pennungal
and i have included just 3 languages .. so imagine the body of work that we guys have done !!! we r good man .. i am not sayin that hollywood is bad .. but we r good !!! and we have miles to go but still we are not inferior !!!
You guys did not get the hang of what I am trying to say. I don’t disagree that we also produce some good movies. But here the article is all about unconventional plots and creativity at its best. George, by the way I was just talking about Hindi Film Industry. I did not generalize and say Indian.
Johnny Gaddar? What was new in this? We have seen dime a dozen pics on this genre world wide.
Chak De? Again a sports movie with a very predictable plot? I am not saying its BAD! I am asking if it did anything unconventional? No…
I guess you did not read my article carefully. I included Bheja Fry in the list because it is NOT an original piece of work.
Jab We Met…Can you tell me whats so creative about the plot? If you still don’t get it, then I can’t help it! I’m NOT talking about good movies from India. I am talking about movies where plots were really whacky and funny!
The only movie you mentioned which I included in my list is No Smoking. This is A STORY which is unconventional. DID YOU GET IT?
What about creativeness in sense… the treatment of a film?
some more personal favs,
manorama 6 ft under,,awesome…
ek chalis…yumm…
holly…
1408..scary..!!!
Not sure whether we can call the ‘amazing list’ of Hollywood movies you’ve quoted as creative in any sense. Can’t even figure out if you’re being sarcastic or serious. Assuming you really liked all those movies, here’s a little background on each :
1. Happily Ne’er After: A modern retelling of fairy tale lands is new? Read through (to take just one example) the Fables comics from Vertigo.
2. Transformers : 60’s era comics and TV Show. The show and comics were created as a part of promotion of a toy range.
3. Pirates of the Caribbean. Agreed, sort of original, even though the basic fundas all come from a Disneyland ride - full marks for development of story.
4. Harry Potter, Jason Bourne: Both licensed from books by J.K.Rowling and Robert Ludlum respectively.
5. 300 : Adaptation of a comic by Frank Miller.
6. I Am Legend: Third remake of a classic novel by Richard Matheson.
7. Bee Movie: Entirely the brainchild of someone not associated with the Hollywood industry, Jerry Seinfeld. Seinfeld actually had to struggle to get this movie made.
8. Norbit: NORBIT? Any and every Govinda movie ever made is better than this movie. Please go see it first, and read the reviews on IMDB for starters.
9. Ghost Rider: Licensed from a Marvel comics character. The makers’ so-called premise is available at any comic shop.
10. Fred Claus: No comments since I haven’t seen it. But this strikes you as original while every Indian movie is dumb? That seems to be stretching it.
About the only thing one can infer from the list you’ve made is that Hollywood is good at finding movie ideas from other original content popular in the market, and they’ve got big budgets. Nothing else.
One question about the list of Hindi movies you’ve listed. How come they’re in Alphabetical order? And how come the list stops at E?
Sure there were some very good American movies made this year - but many equally good movies were made here, too. If I had to choose a favourite for the year, it’d be Manorama. And Manorama’s a much better made movie than those warring robots and skull-headed motorcyclists.
TZP ya
A story idea from Quitter’s inc. reworked,howsoever metaphorically, can’t make No Smoking a completely original film..It is well crafted though..agreed.
theater is dead. don’t beat the dead horse
it is there only upto the time the current snobs survive
The article itself was as uncreative as it can get.. the usual cynicism!!!
wow… nice discussion here… lemme see what i can get out of this…
1) In Hollywood, wars between robot clans or between groups with very funny names are as old as our song and dance routine. So lets not pull creativity and originality into this concoction.
2) Like it or not, No Smoking IS truly the most original mind fuck movie of the year, any language; period.
3) Hollywood is open to making movies out of novels, comics and what nots which is a very very good thing. All credit to Robert Rodriguez for taking the original graphic novel as virtually his Bible. If Bollywood decides to make Chacha Chaudhary into a big budget movie I will beat the retreat.
Overall, Hollywood churns out a very varied mix of movies every year. But lets see, what will be the most different, Bollywood making Hollywood kind of robots or super heroes or crazy, mind fuck, way over the head thrillers; or, Hollywood going ahead and actually making an out and out Bollywood-ish musical. No no, am not talking about Moulin Rouge, Chicago and the likes. Comeon all those are set very theatrically. You dont suspend your sense of reality. When Kurt Russel breaks into a perfectly choreographed dance number with 50 extras in sync coming out of no where, right at the center of Times Square trying to woo lets say Kiera Knightley with special appearance by Tom Hanks, Elton John and Julia Roberts; then I would say Hollywood has come up with a musical; an ‘original’ musical.
@ someone above
and i am going to get brickbats for this…
Paruthiveeran is the most over rated movie of the year according to me. The director goes from one scene to the next… story takes its own patient time… flashbacks were corny to say the least… and the climax was so bitter-tonic-down-your-throat. And somewhere along the road I really stopped caring for the leading man and his lady.
it semms that u r big hollywood fan.
and u said “Honeymoon Travels
@someone above
Paruthiveeran is probably the best movie of this year ACCORDING TO ME!!! me not bothered if u felt for the lead and his lady !!! i was Happy !!!
Though I can’t deny that we are miles away from hollywood standard , u make it sound like “Norbit” and “Fred claus” as good/great movies.
By hollywood standards, most of the movies you listed are trash and the rest are just acceptable.U listed no smoking as the most original film but what about omkara (the basic idea may not be original, but wasn’t everything else just mind blowing)…
Though I can’t deny that we are miles away from hollywood standard , u make it sound like “Norbit” and “Fred claus” as good/great movies.
By hollywood standards, most of the movies you listed are trash and the rest are just acceptable.U listed no smoking as the most original film but what about omkara (the basic idea may not be original, but wasn’t everything else just mind blowing)…
What I am trying to say is that you have chosen very very bad examples of showing hollywood’s creativity. Most of the acclaimed critics agree that the mainstream hollywood just follows the trend and best original films come either from the independent movies or from european cinema..
Dear Srinivas
You are amazing. You love No Smoking and Transformers. I wonder if Anurag Kashyap ought to feel insulted.
What was Transformers really? A comic book concept which was murdered by Michael Bay (remember Pearl Harbor?)
Some more Gyaan…Do a google search on I am Legend(not the movie…the BOOK) and you’ll see what the phrase “I am Legend” actually stands for and how Hollywood dumbed it down.
“What do those guys eat?”
It looks to me that you love to pay money to watch the same movie over and over again..Why else would you even THINK of watching National Treasure 2? But if you do, then why do you find flaws in a Shahrukh Khan + Karan Johar movie?
I admit Bollywood(Bollywood ONLY not the rest of India) isn’t going to win any awards for creativity but for heaven’s sake wake up. Have you even heard of Pan’s Labyrinth?
Very poorly researched article. More aware minds have already posted about how those very “original” hollywood movies you quote are not original at all and hence bad examples. So i won’t repeat that, oh wait, i just did.
And i think jab we met was quite fresh and original too, if not in its content, then at least in its treatment, which i’m sure is a part of the whole creative process.
And i’d second AngelEyes. Please do watch Pan’s Labyrinth. I won’t say its completely original but its a cinematic treat for sure.
Also, i think someone like Shekhar Kapoor should attempt a Mahabharata or Ramayan. The concept art of Buddha was absolutely mind blowing. It can be made into an awesome vfx treat, on the scale of LOTR if done right, with less melodrama of course.
And you say J Gaddar isn’t original for a Hindi movie? Please…
bande…tu pro hollywood sound kar raha hai…and i guess hawaa mein baat kar raha hai….lot of the films from ur list were very very well made…2007 had a very good mix of films…with very unconventional plots….unconventional way of story telling/direction….lot of films with non salebale starcast managed to do good business…it was a gud yr for bollywood
Well…..
Isn’t No smoking based on a Stephen King novel?
and u do seem to be a hollywood freak. liking all those macho special effects movies where ugly creatures battle against abnormal creatures. i think we have too much of tradition and mythology to follow than re-create such creatures.
my fav movies of 2007 would be Honeymoon Travels, Jab We Met, Johnny Gaddar, No Smoking, Bheja Fry, Taare Zameen Par and Om Shanti Om for entertainment value. Dhol and Bhool Bhulaiyya were decent. Guru, Eklavya, Saawariya disappointed w.r.t expectations.
Good topic but bad research, you need to spend a month or so watching the real good stuff that came out this year, Hollywood or elsewhere, and restart this discussion.
Srinivas
You need to start watching good films. RIGHT NOW man. You are bankrupt in that area. I can’t believe you had the words TRANSFORMERS & GOOD in the same sentence.
Have you seen CHARLIE WILSON’s WAR? GONE BABY GONE? etc etc
Sigh…The whole point of this article is about “Unconventional”, whether it becomes good or bad is not the topic. I guess I wrote it badly or you guys did not understand, I wanted to write about the ATTEMPT Hollywood makes at DIFFERENT types of subjects.
I NEVER said Johnny Gaddar was BAD. But tell me, after watching JG, do you get a feeling that you saw something similar sometime, somewhere?
See, If you still don’t get the point, let me elaborate. This was never meant to be well researched and the message I am trying to convey is totally different. A Bee unhappy with its career choice is “UNIQUE” while Jab We Met is NOT.
I am looking at these movies totally from a different perspective if there is anything NEW in the PLOT!!
Let’s say a movie about a Prime Minister quitting his job to become a Taxi Driver….Well, that’s different. A gangster trying to join a medical college…Again….
Hindi Film Industry does not seem to be too interested in subjects that are non-formulaic….For example, there was this “Galli-Cricket” movie “Chennai 600028″ in Tamil…
“Transformers” might be a bad movie or its uncool to like it…But I liked it…But the point here is not whether “Transformers” is a good movie or a bad one. It is about the plot. Let’s go back to the drawing board simultaneously for both “Transformers” and “Jab We Met”.
Let’s imagine how the writers approached both these movies. “Transformers”…Okay, We made stuff about Aliens attacking us, space travel and almost everything…But here is something…Two Robotic Clans fighting against each other….Okay? How does earth figure? Okay, Something the Robotic clans want is with a human, one side trying to protect him and the other trying to destroy him….Okay….So how do we make these robots? Well, lets make them “Transformers”!!
Okay, let’s go to Jab We Met.
Arre Yaar ek super hit love story hain…..What? Boy meets girl in train, boy hates girl and somehow has to leave her back at her house and on the way falls in love with her! WAH! But tsk tsk too late, girl likes another boy. Okay…Boy now takes the girl to her boyfriend and leaves her there with a heavy heart and goes away. tsk tsk. After one year, the boy is forced to find the girl and now love blossoms again!!!!
P.S: I am NOT talking about if the movie came out good or bad. It might be a superhit movie. All I am saying is, Why can’t we also make a movie about a dog trying to save the world? Why does ALL our movies have to have love stories, action or copied comedy?
If you still did not get it, well….
Srinivas,
We always had good scripts , what we don’t have is more
Producers like Ronnie Screwvala.
(Rang De Basanti, The Namesake, The Blue Umbrella, Life in a Metro )
Directors like Rakeshya Omprakash Mehra
(Aks, Rang De Basanti )
Actors like Aamir Khan
(Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par), who will actually make these scripts see the light of the day. And when I say script. It’s not just the unheard story. The treatment and story telling is a part and parcel of creative medium. Agreed, the percentage of people who dare to swim against the tide is very less. After all box office collection is the bottom line and that is directly proportional to the audience response. And what I see is new directors on the block are making a very good effort to connect the audience with new ideas and I am very hopeful we will see more Rakeshya Mehra’s and Aamir Khan’s in the coming years. Today we are struggling to make audience connect with “Cheeni Kum” and “Jhonny Gaddar” so it’s way to early to compare with hollywood ideas. ( Honestly some hollywood ideas are quite bizzare, though they make for a good visual treat. ).
I think both mainstream Indian and “Hollywood” cinema is intellectually bankrupt in terms of creativity of both original concepts, storylines as well as treatment. In a sense its inevitable, since mainstream cinema in general sees films as a commodity to be sold and marketed for profit, so it relies on visuals, big name brand stars, familiarity
Its my contention that truly original cinema in the last year has emerged primarily in the inde section of both indian and other cinema, such as “the bothersome man”, “Once” “Lars and the real girl” “I’m not there” “There will be blood”
etc etc etc.
On the other hand, the originality of a film’s premise, though it sounds like a great idea, doesn’t necessarily translate into a good film. I recently saw “the gospel according to Harry”, a mind-numbingly annoying movie that made me want to rip someone’s head off. It was, however, extremely original. And thank God for that, if more people attempt to do movies like that, I shall be moved to violence.
The post is flawed, as many have already pointed out. The movies you have listed are not as original as you make them out to be.
But think of the larger issues here.
Do we have a comic book industry?
Do we have a magazine which promotes short stories written by newbies? Where is the Black Mask and other pulp publishing houses. How many of us here have heard of the 3 or 4 graphic novels published in India?
How many of us have read Vikram Chandra’s ‘Sacred Games’. The book remains criminally ignored - will one of our directors make it into a TV series with the production values of a 24 or Lost?
Where is creativity in TV in India?
Where are our child actors (the believable ones - not the ones who ooze saccharine)? Who are the role models for our teens? A 40+ actor wooing an 19 year old Miss India? Where is the Veronica Mars? Where is a Brick? Where is our Manga?
CREATIVITY is not the responsibility of film as a medium. It has to be fed and fostered by the whole eco-system. We need forward looking producers, publishers and businessman for that. Someone with the vision of a Disney, a Weinstein or a Robert Redford.
(The mainstream is lacking here - vernacular is much much richer)
And for people who accuse Mr. Kashyap of plagiarism - whatever the follies of No Smoking - the story is as different from Quitters Inc as it can be. (I havent seen Cats Eye).
And for those who acclaim Omkara - great though the movie is, please try and catch a Malayalam version called Kaliyattam.
And hope someone makes a movie out of the Calcutta Chromosome.Buy the rights out from the UK company - we are supposed to be a fv@king financial superpower.
And for those who cant include Manorama SFU in a Hindi movie list. PLEASE watch the movie. Barring a couple of scenes, would have made Polanski proud. Hope you are read this NS. Please get rid of the “umar ya kamar” scene in the director cut.
Transformer was a ridiculous movie with nothing unconventional..although a good regular storyboard and CGI.Its probably the only movie i had slept through in a hall in my entire life..dont know if it was fatigue/stress or the movie? I think latter makes more sense. I personally believe there have been no movies where creative juices did make any difference. Yet to see TZP but i guess it should have a predictable storyline.
ITs been a year of good treatments given to a film.
Thats all folks!!
@Angeleyes
I was thinking about mentioning Pan’s Labryinth..but was not quite sure of its year of release.Now thats what we call creativity.We are lagging behind…terribly.Sorry state of creativity in Bollywood..Cannnot say the saem for regional cinema.
@Srinivas
we all know the point that u r tryin to make !! its loud n clear !!!
bring to life a comic series on celluloid … u find it innovative and new concept !!
bring to life our very own Ram, hanuman (we bring the smaller version) still u say we have ntn new to show !!!
dont expect indian producers to go sfx in LOTR way and do the hanuman !!! its just not feasible with the money we can generate from the market !!!
but i am positive we will surely have a day wen we bring out our very own mahabarata, ramayan in LOTR way !!!
Yaar, just an observation - the quality of articles on PFC is tumbling down like anything! Koi bhi, kuch bhi likh raha hai.. koi editor wagerah hai ya nahi? Transformer..lol. And what a time you have chosen to write this article, never before Bollywood has such amazing scripts and ideas than this year.
amit
so what you suggest
lets discuss ‘mimansa’
i take it for grantend that you know what mimansa is, it is one the six philosophy system of ancient india.
:-w:-w:x:o
i hope you will start write something which will make quaility standard at pfc zoom
i am waiting ~o)
I think on both fronts (Hollywood and Bollywood) creativity lacked in different aspects. Take “300″ for e.g. That movie was based on Frank Miller’s comic book so nothing new created. Just shown in different format makes it landmark of crativity?
I don’t think so. Sin City was also of that kind.
You can’t (in this way perticularly) compare both industries and say HOllywood is better and Bollywood is shit.
Can they make (tough useless. still….) a movie like Karan Johar? They can’t. That doesn’t make Hollywood shit or Karan Johar shit.
According to many, he might be creative in own way. It’s matter of individual perception.
This whole thing is total crap. Please! NOT ON PFC at least!
@Srinivas
As people have pointed out both Hollywood and Bollywood lack the creativity you are asking for (there are occasional bursts of creativity but majority of films do not have new ideas), reason being viability etc. but things are changing for good. Meanwhile, a suggestion: start watching short films.
Charlie Kauffman (Eternal Sunshine, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) is the only writer today who goes and creates something new everytime he comes up wid something. And because, he sets his movies in a world which has such a parallel existence to the real world we inhabit, we dont care to validate the truth in his movies. He is genuinely creative…
So, creativity wrt thematic developments or basic human emotions, isn’t actually happening anywhere. An Ammores Perres wasn’t saying something that had never been said before. It just was putting it with some novelty and truth.
But, where our cinema sometimes fails, is in this self-conceived defn that we have of entertainment here. We just, both us viewers and our makers, seem to have self-conjured that our personal lives are too morose to be captured on screen. Even when we try putting in a slice of life on celluloid, we wish to distance ourselves as much as we can from the truth that dictates those moments in our creations..
We dont see the truth in us, like it is. So, creativity should not actually mean going ahead and doing something new. It shud actually mean going ahead and doing something we have been doing but only a l’il better…
charlie kauffman — just one thing, different is not neccesarilly better >-)
@Srinivas
As you can see on PFC these movies are not considered creative. May be unconventional…. I dont think they are. At first I though that the post is sarcastic and witty. Then I felt that no…..this guy is real serious. You could have as well have written “Bad hollywood movies of 2007″ and I think most of PFCian would have no objection on this title
I kept on lookin for irony as I was reading the article..par nahi.. he was all serious
The movies you are talking about are the masala “blockbusters” variety. almost all of them have 100 Mil + gross..
Norbit I had the misfortune of watching 5 minutes of this movie i could not take it
praneet
how dare you insult partner :-??
i love david dhavan govinda movies. they are honest.
its the third rate psudo intelecutality 3:-o that i can not digest %-(
and what you expect from a single screen theater owner. that he should stick to his gun and starve 8-x
There are two types of film makes in the industry, firs kind for whom film making is a passion and they seriously are not bothered about the outcome of the movie(take Ashutosh Govarikar etc) and there are people who are here to make money. Well at the end of the day, demand needs to be met by supply for business to thrive. Who we are to comment about the movies like Jab We Met, Om Shanti Om - their mediocre plots and lack of nuances in the script till the time it is being liked by the masses and all associated people with the movie are getting returns for their money. It is a simple math, no body wants to take risks with a working formula, be it any business. Not Coke or Pepsi will come out with a new flavor every couple of weeks for they want to be innovative or Rowling wont venture to write about something else till she sustains her success with Harry Potter. It is the same, movies like Partner, Welcome etc will continue to hit the board till they are able to do good business.
Comparing Hollywood movies with Hindi movies is simply preposterous. Both the industries evolved differently, in totally different cultures. The examples we take from Hollywood are only top 0.5% of the movies that come out in the entire year. Rest 99.5% of the Hollywood movies too suffer from stereotype syndrome.
the easiest thing to do if you want to sound cool is critise bollywood and worship hollywood. So Srinivas stuck to that formula and wrote about lack of creativity in Bollywood.
have u srinivas, thought about India, its culture, its stories and its audiences? you talk of transformers and pirates, both unoriginal, both over budget mega-money spinners. and then ofcourse u talk of potter-films, and other adaptations.
Like someone above rightly pointed out, have u seen or researched the real gems churned out this year at all? or is ur opinion based on what the hollywood tabloids think is cool?
Pan’s Labyrinth,Spirited Away, Closer, Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind, Manorama, TZP…these are films made by people who had something to say. a story to tell. and they told it in the best and most creative way possible. How does that compare to the mega-budget plotted studio churn outs like pirates and potters?
You talk of not giving budgets as an excuse and I won’t. Anurag is experimenting with animation in Hanuman Returs, Goldie is making Drona in 1/10th of Pirates’ budget… Rajnikant’s daughter made an animated film recently, technology that is required to make such films is beginning to be available to us only now, so yes, experiments are happening and inshallah will work.
Yes, we churn a lot of crap, a lot of formula, with very little creativity. but who defines creativity? How is the remake of a novel, or a comic strip or a disneyland ride, creative and the story of an emotionally unstable yet vulnerable movie star not?
Its very easy to make sweeping statements, very difficult to back them up. I hope for your sake that you can tell the difference.
Vishrant
Im just lamenting the lack of avenues for alternate cinema..There is no indie culture in India..indie movies are seen more at foreign fests outside than in indian cinemas. I just wish some more “psuedo intellectuals” like me and genuine fans like you would throng to buy 20 Rs tickets at Siri fort auditorium on a sunday afternoon to fill the empty theater showing an unknown gem.
David dhawan is a genius and always liked his movies but hw is his cinema “honest”? Partner was trash and trust me i know his cinema.. must have seen raja babu 7-8 times.
I completely disagree with comment on Traffic Signal. One has to spend at least 10 years in Mumbai to appreciate the level of research and details that went into creating the movie. It was a master piece.
I agree with Jayesh.. Although i have seen the movies in bits and pieces.. I liked what i saw .. The only problem i have is that the sets are obvious sometimes.
10 Years i dont knw..But the movie is very much Mumbhaite and ppl from Mumbai can relate to it completely..how many times we have met that ranvir character in real life..
@ karan “the omkara was released last year ,so u cant include in 2007:d
well according tome
1. the biggest problem in bollywood is their are very less producers n directors(atmost 5%), who are ready to experiment with new ideas , concept ,script etc.
2.in making films like tranformers , ghost riders(all crap)u should be ready to spend truck loads of monety , n our india cinema market doent have so much scope and yet to have a good market globally(CAN ANY ONE POINT OUT HOW MUCH WAS KRRISH 2 LOVED BY AMERICANS N EUROPEANS)MAY BE VERY SMALL)
so the point in making multi billion money film full of special effects, stunts ,technology etc.. u have to first have a good chunk of international audience…then only u could think of making such movies..
@Srinivas
Sir, I think everybody here does get ur point. You keep mentioning that though you don’t like those movies, you listed them as they are unconventional. Let me assure you, movies like Norbit, transformers are not unconventional per hollywood standards. They are tried, tested and have been done to death formula movies, again per hollywood norms.
There are countless movies of a man getting dressed up as woman to get the vulgar laughs from audience and hollywood produces these movies, not because they are unconventional but because as per their research, such movies have worked in the past.
Though everybody agrees that even if we spend $100 million, we will not get rid of usual song, dance, fights stuff..the examples that you chose to make your right are not right.