PROJEKT iVIEW : Of Movie Trailers and Reviews
iView Author:
SUBRAT
(Bangalore, India)
EMAIL:
withheld
I am often proved wrong with my hypotheses and it could well be the case
here. But when has that ever stopped me from grandstanding on them? I am
aware of only two spheres of activity where the foreplay and the after-play
(to coin a term) draw as much attention as the event itself. Since one of
them nestles itself securely at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
(along with hunger), it is the other one that will be possibly found
suitable for PFC audience.
What is it about movie trailers – the thrill of a discovery, the eternal
desire for clairvoyance; a glimpse into the future? Or about reviews – the
vicarious pleasure of watching others being evaluated, the satisfaction of
finding your own thoughts being articulated publicly to trash or praise
others? With that little tip of the hat to behavioural scientists, let’s
proceed.
It was tough for an eleven-year old movie buff growing up in pre-cable small
town India. The state-run television gave you little indication of the
celluloid fantasies readying for release and lack of railway connectivity
meant little access to movie journals. Movie watching was facilitated by a
delightful videowallah who would conjure up videos of new releases week
after week through some deft management of supply chain which I haven’t
still been able to comprehend. It was a delightful roulette; you didn’t know
what to expect as the credits rolled at the start and later had no idea
whether it made it big with audience. Simply put, the power of information
was not upon us.
It was during this Dickensian best of times and worst of times that I
discovered the new barber shop (no, they didn’t call themselves hair
stylists then). Not so much discovered as was forced to discover. Till then
my monthly hair-cutting ritual coincided with my father’s with a barber who
he patronized. This was a drab Sunday morning routine with the only
highlight being the tempting possibility of a candy or a cookie from the
nearby bakery while waiting our turn. By the time I had turned eleven, I
felt it was necessary to jettison this tradition. I had my own expectations
from the monthly snip and the incumbent had firm views on what he wanted to
do with my hair. So I rebelled and shifted my allegiance to a new
establishment one Saturday afternoon. And it was here on a January winter
afternoon I discovered Screen. And I found myself staring at a spread which
read “Who is Aamir Khan? Ask the girl next door.” And I was hooked. And
there I discovered mahurats, reviews, jubilee celebrations and box office
collections. And the visits became more frequent for you could never bring
Screen home. And much to the dismay of friends (and to the delight of my
parents) I kept my hair short against the prevailing trend of the day.
I discovered a whole new world where my imagination would run riot based on
the poster which read ‘Forthcoming Attraction’. Parinda – dripping with that
dark ruminating mood and a white pigeon at its centre, and a tagline – the
most powerful film ever made. What’s this going to be about? There’s Jackie
and Anil tussling over a gun and who is this bearded chappie? Paap ki
Duniya? There’s Sunny and Neelam and the other guy who was also in Aag hi
Aag. Wait a moment, there’s Pran, Danny and Shakti Kapoor as well. Jeete
Hain Shaan Se? Wow!! Mithun, Sanjay Dutt and Govinda all in a single film!!
Zalzala? What does the damn thing even mean? And for the rest of the week, I
would tell my friends breathlessly about a movie which would reunite
Dharmendra, Shatrughan and Karan Kapoor after Loha (the gold standard of
action movies in the 80s and reprised in a much slicker way years later by
Rajkumar Santoshi with Khaki). Toofan? Amitabh’s back? What’s the big idea
with the bow? Tridev? Naseer in the same movie with Sunny?? And the tagline
– A volcanic saga of three angry men!!
The trailers all played in my head. With just the poster, tagline and the
actors to stoke my fevered imagination, I devised my own plot and my own
denouement. And this continued through till early Nineties. The original
Karan Arjun poster released way back in 1992 as Kainaat or the pristine
white DHKMN poster with Aamir in that cap (is he playing an office in the
Navy?). Other media started intruding in early 90s. Lehren, a movie video
newsmagazine, would give us a glimpse of how the mahurat shot really looked
like or a sneak preview to the music of Khilaaf (Chunky and Madhuri in a
two-hanky tearjerker with that Suresh Wadkar lament “Aaja Sanam Meri Jaan
Chali”). Chitrahaar, that icon of Wednesday evening entertainment, started
playing a song or two of movies to be released the week after. This was a
T-Series innovation, a precursor to today’s tiresome habit of song promos
being played months in advance of the release. So we would suddenly stop in
our tracks as ‘Nazar ke Saamne, Jigar ke Paas’ played on the telly and
wonder who this funny hairdo and gawky gait duo is. Or wonder what has come
over for T-Series to promote Lal Duppatta Malmal ka and its hundred other
progenies (Jeena Teri Gali Mein, Aayi Milan ki Raat et al) every week.
Slickness arrived with the advent of Cable Television and with it the first
of film based shows. DD spruced up its act and we never had it so good.
Movies and song promos became possibly more important than the centrespread
in Screen. And then Darr arrived. I remember watching the first TV promo of
Darr just after Diwali of 93. Love…Passion….Obsession and that amazing line
about a jazbaat which has never come in any prem kahaani till date – Darr.
And all this with the Shiv-Hari number ‘Jadoo Teri Nazar’ in the background.
In the midst of the ragging season in my engineering college, I sneaked out
in the middle of the night and stayed at a hotel overnight to watch Darr the
next morning. That was the power of that promo. You might be forgiven for
not believing in YRF brand of movies, but YRF knew even then how to push the
envelope in promoting a film. A notion which was strengthened with the
promos of DDLJ a couple of years later.
My love affair with trailers continued through the nineties. With the
proliferation of TV channels and dearth of quality programmes, film based
shows became the staple fare in the new century. The much longed for promo
became ubiquitous. She wasn’t the girl who you longed to sneak a peek at
when she came on to terrace that one time in the afternoon. She was everyday
at your home, in your face, inanely loud and mortifyingly unimaginative. You
sometime even wondered if your long-forgotten passion for her was real.
These days I avoid her consciously though she does surprise me with a sudden
bout of passion. I take notice of her then but we are no longer bound as
before. We are mere acquaintances.
You might wonder what happened to other part of my title – reviews. Well,
the above article was only a trailer. I will wait for your reviews before I
will know if I am worthy sending the piece on review. That as well is a long
story……
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
Excellent Article buddy,You truly brought back memories of childhood.Looking forward to the main reel :D
“She wasn
subrat// loved your stephen leacock-ish tone. keep writing.
what a post.. my teens were exactly this.. awesome
lovely!
Awesome… still remember waiting for wednesdays to watch chitrahaara.. infact I think it used to be sunday nights which then got shifted to wednesdays…the only time I was aloud to watch tv… very nostalgic post… waiting for more..
This was a trailer and now the main course..waiting for a sumptuous feast on reviews..Amazing Subrat!
Great article dude. Keep ‘em coming.
Subrat!
Thanks for the nostalgic trip to 20 years back… am still fond of promo’s, and that what I watch mostly when I get to see TV.. and I still try to predict the film
..
The path breaking promo that changed the style of TV Promotion to what we see today was of Lamhe.. prior to Lamhe, DD used to play full song of the latest films in Wednesday Chitrahaar and not the scenes.. It was AIR and Radio Ceylon used to feature sponsored promos on sundays morning and nights on weekdays with dialogs and storyline..
The promo of Lamhe featured a collage of the various scenes from the film, playing “Kabhi main kahoon” in the background..
As far as full dedicated slot of half an hour (or an hour) started with the advent of Zee TV, who used promos as fillers to cover the time slot of telecasting as they were not having enough content.. and it was titled “Ek nazar”.. still remember initial days, they used to feature promos of “Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na” (film got delayed and released about two years later though).. In early 90s screen started Hindi edition too and there was just one pace in Jaipur where Screen used to be available.. and I remember to go walking a few kilometers or by tempo to get screen every friday..
BTW I dont know if you know.. Aaja sanam meri jaan chali was initially sung by Sukhwinder Singh (yes his first song way back in 1990-91) and all radio promos and farmaaish programs played this version.. and I loved the energy with the guy sung.. It was only in the film that it got replaced with Suresh Wadkar version…
I dont think Loha can be compared with Khaki in anyway be it the story line or the treatment.. The two films are poles apart.. Loha was a poor poor version of sholay… and no different than a Anil Sharma film.. still remember Shotgun catching a bomb like amazing collingwood does at the point..
Thanks again for the trip down memory lane..
Pavan
This was an amazing article. Funny, emotional, real. And these are the highest compliments I can give. I wait eagerly for the next one.
Vikram, Ogleonist, wb, Anurag Kashyap, Pratim D. Gupta, suchita b, krysh, turrtle, Manish Acharya: Thank you all for the encouraging words.
Pavan – some amazing info in your comment. Yes, I do remember the Lamhe promo and of course Ek Nazar from Zee (there was another programme called Gaane Anjaane as well). I am glad you still try and predict the film.
I am delighted that the post brought back some happy memories for all of you. The 80s indeed fell in the twilight zone of our doomed affair with socialism and we discovering the forbidden sins of free market. This resulted in some fairly warped childhood memories for all of us. I believe there is a market out there for a defining movie depicting the 80s.
Subrat, aaja sanam from khilaaf was sung by sukhwinder singh. nice post. i have grown up on the films you talk about.from the day i picked up screen i have become an addict. an addiction i love living with.wednesdays are incomplete without screen.
Subrat:Wow, i was same as u were in your teens.
excited even showing posters of the film. sometimes i used to go to theatres and video parlours just to see posters.
also i used to collect pictures from theatre ads in newspapers.
i have lots of memories of those days regarding my moviemania. shall write sometimes….
btw, great article…
sorry read it a lil late that pawan had already mentioned about aaja sanam.
hey fab article. it was a trip down memory lane…. btw, i m in b’lore – wud like to meet u some time… i m a filmi keeda
a late remark but it gave me an advantage of goin thru everyones comments. When i read the post i felt connected. But it seems everyone here are connected too.
I was not lucky enuff as the barber used to come to my home and he did not bring screen along. and i never bothered to know the meaning of zalzala but still remember the scene where shotgun and kimi roll over each other. then i had thot what a brilliant movie [:D]
I’m from bangalore. anyone else on PFC from Bangalore. We surely can meet some time!
Subrat, reading all your posts in peace finally!
My memories are much the same as yours and Pavan…. ek nazar, gaane anjaane, jhalak,
Darr, incidentally, was my entry too into this maze called passion for cinema(the phrase). It was a turning point I would say that just happened to coincide with my growing up too. Here I saw a yash chopra film with balls, the exposing heroine, a good miles away from the mummy-didi-friendly-main-sasural-nahi-jaaoongi-Chandni…For me, the fondest memories of that film(Darr)(and the entire pre-film waiting days) was that theme music, I used to trip on that tape, the holi song, tu mere saamne….aah can’t sum it all up…Then I would wonder whats the reason behind calling it DARR and not Dar, must be something ‘cinematically intellectual!”.
I had this thing for skecthing those titles in my school notebooks, I particularly remember Hum, Darr, Khiladi(another BIIIG nostalgia trip). And I can never forget this particular occassion when the girl of my dreams actually came to talking terms with me. she happens to see Baazigar FDFS, and I call her up, and she tells me the WHOLE(fuckin’, didnt know the F word then) story verbatim, and I didn’t mind it. Times have changed, now I am used to break-ups on conflicting film choices….
some other KF session stuff…:-)