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Shift in main stream Bollywood towards realistic Cinema

Considering the commercial success of recent films (starting from late 90s) Satya, Lagaan, Company, Dil Chahta hai, Sarkar, Black, Rang de Basanti, Omkara, Lage Raho Munnabhai etc. Even the relative success of the small budget films without Star cast at the box office eg. Page 3, Iqbal, Corporate, Hazaron Kwashian aisi, Khosla ka Ghosla, Dor, etc is a clear signal of people liking genuine Cinema.

  Producer Ronnie Screwala quoted, “If the film is good and it given good publicity it would work at the box office”. Some of the prominent actors, who have sensed the changing scenario are making distinct choices, which puts them into a different league altogether. This league would include Amir Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Ajay Devgan . The slection of script by itself makes Amir Khan special. While the other bunch of actors are still reluctant of coming out of the traditional formula driven films. Now the new mantra is to drag the audiences to the theatre by bombarding them with publicity. That’s the trick behind making remakes that people would atleast come to see what the heck the new version has. Needless to say it just a business gimmick and not real Cinema. Most of the players are in the game for making money. These people have very little courage to judge a script on its face value and unfortunately hold the cards. The old directors continue to make films without creating any impacts. Surprisingly they easily get producers and star cast. The actors, directors and producers who continue to make traditional masala films are not courageous enough to experiment, lack vision and lot of them don’t have the potential of going beyond the ordinary. There time is running out. It’s just a matter of few years when the publicity would also not work. Me might be getting pre-views from the critics (like we currently have in the USA) before the movie is released. I think pre-views should be mandatory as films like Don and Janemann are not less than rip-offs.

Audiences have also become relatively tasteful. The long dialogue deliveries have been replaced by clever screenplay. The originality is been appreciated.Never before has the industry seen so many newcomers be it actors, directors, singers, music composers etc. The industry has also never seen the kind of revenues its generating from the overseas collection. Highly educated professionals also joining the pursuit of becoming big in the industry. It might be one of the few trades where people from all walk of life co-exsist.

The future is certainly looking bright!

19 Responses to “Shift in main stream Bollywood towards realistic Cinema”

  1. Chaitanya on October 30th, 2006 1:24 pm

    I totally agree with you manjeet..The scenario is changing for the better and since the audience for sensible films has been more clearly bifarcated thanks to the multiplexes,Crap is not being welcomed anymore..Obviously you will always have bunties and bablies which create box office history because of publicity gimmicks,but this will stop too.By the way,why is jaanemann a rip-off?

  2. Honhaar Goonda on October 30th, 2006 1:31 pm

    however, people still do flog to see movies like KANK/Fanaa/Salaam Namaste/Krrish and those movies win awards. the hype of those people is still around. when that hype is gone i will truly believe that indian audience has grown up.

    Where as those genuine cinema does not get credit or appreciation that they richly deservers.

    Also majority of media would right off those kind of movies by saying it’s not ‘Bollywood’ but good and giving less points.

    bottom line is that the equation is still same but with a few new variables - which hardly affects the equation.

  3. striker on October 30th, 2006 1:48 pm

    i agree that both our audiences and films are growing up with time, which is awesome… and every now and then i do like watching a “typical bollywood,” aka song ‘n dance movie. and hindi cinema’s reputation has been built on these movies for as long as we can all remember, so there’s no reason to mess with tradition. but it’s equally important to come up with new, innovative ideas and films (like the ones Manjeet has mentioned in her post).

    i personally am glad that some of the crap movies release (i’m not so glad that they make it big) because they make the more innovative stuff stand out that much more.

  4. Chaitanya on October 30th, 2006 2:45 pm

    @Honhaar goonda

    You are absolutely right when you say that bollywood doesn’t appreciate these few rare gems and the awards and commercial success goes to the kanks and fanaas..But isn’t this a worldwide phenomena?Isn’t this the case with hollywood and the oscars as well?Even in countries like france and australia,commercial films with major studios backing them hog all the limelight even though some of the excellent films just do the rounds of a few select film festivals.But again,the major difference is that people over here praise absolute crap!That’s not the case in the west.Even their commercial films are defined with a certain amount of intelligence and logic.

    The other problem here is critics like mayank shekhar who, with prejudiced minds lap anything that has big names involved and ice anything that is by a debutant director.I personally love some of his reviews when he thrashes bad films..But how are Kank,Yun hota toh kya hota,Golmaal,Don and Munnabhai MBBS films of the same level? (He gave them all three stars.)Why is Munnabhai a three star film?Cuz it’s by a newcomer?If don is Four stars,then why is jaaneman a petty one and half star?(I personally feel jaaneman succeeds more than don atleast in the commercial arena.)How is k3g a five star film according to khalid mohammed?If the critics themselves are going to be of such bad taste,how will good films ever be critically acclaimed?

    P.S.;I strongly doubt that either fanaa,kank or Krrsh are going to bag any major awards this year.That will be too much then!

  5. Chaitanya on October 30th, 2006 2:53 pm

    Correction for the above post;Don was given 4 stars by mayank shekhar.Also,according to him,Hum dum and satya bol are as good as munnabhai mbbs.

    P.s.;Times of India had given kya kool hai hum and Main hoon na three and a half f**king stars!

  6. Manjeet singh on October 30th, 2006 10:04 pm

    What I meant with rip-off was not copying a movie as this term is sometimes used but kind of looting people. I was talking of imense publicity which brings the people to watch the film. If the films had an average publicity box office collection might have decreased (just an opinion).
    Shouldn’t we have previews of the films before they are released? Atleast people can listen to the critic they have faith in and then decide to spend there money. Offcourse there might be some drawbacks but it would make a lot of difference. In the USA the previews do give u a good judgement, which always does not go with the box office results. Atleast it will put pressure on the film makers to deliver something impressive. If say people like Anurag, Vishal, Sudhir start the trend it will hugely benefit them. A film maker who does not agree would obviously be afraid of his film. Just imgaine what would have had happened if there was a preview of DON:)
    I personally also enjoy a good commercial hindi film but let the film be judged at its merit.
    I am a big fan of old movies. Theres nothing like listening to old songs. I listen to Rafi, Talat, Hemant Kumar, Mukesh……Those are the jewels of our cinema.
    Talking of Mayank Shankar he writes for Mumbai Mirror, which is published by TOI. TOI has its own review. I think they gave 21/2 star rating for both Don n Janeman.
    The best review was on CNN IBN channel. I forgot the name of that guy. He is pretty good. He gave 1 star to Don and 2 star to Janemann. He said,” naye Don ko Zelna mushkil hi nahin na mumkin hai”.

  7. Manjeet singh on October 30th, 2006 10:22 pm

    Honhaar,

    If you look at Oscars they have a prejudice for that particular year if observed. There was a year when all the black actors won awards. Last year mostly low budget independent movies got toms of awards. You have a film like ‘Million Dollar baby’ winning awards wheres as a far better film ‘Cindrella Man’ not even getting nominated the next year. So I agree Oscars may not be the best awards so might be the case of the popular awards.
    A film maker should care less about winning awards or box office results (which one however cant control) and try to be honest towards the profession of film making, giving people a relishing cinema. The results would follow.
    In present day if you have a huge star cast with a regular masala film people would watch it once atleast, which assures good collection. But if the same star cast gives something new and entertaining people would watch it more than once hence making more money. If our stars realise this angle and may be expriment few films we would have lot more quality films coming out.

  8. illuzon on October 30th, 2006 10:48 pm

    For the critics and film stars one has to understand the symbiotic affair between them. The critics need ‘em for the sale of their mags and stars for their BO status. I don’t say it is the only thing that determines a critique but it is a predominant factor. And then let’s agree that critics are no different, they too are like the average cinegoers. Thus beyond certain point one should stop taking them and their star rating seriously.

  9. shitij on October 31st, 2006 6:59 am

    The best reviews are given from Rajeev Masand (the CNN IBN guy)…

    Rediff Guys also give good reviews…

    The worst reviews are given by Taran Adarsh…that indiafm guy…his sole aim is to butter those big production houses by giving them good reviews(so that he can get exclusive’s for his site, and these big production houses reciprocate by giving him exclusive Teasers,Trailers,Wallpapers from their movies).

  10. tushar on October 31st, 2006 7:24 am

    masand might write well but he is annoying to the core on camera with his I HAVE A POINT BEFORE YOU CAN EVEN THINK OF ONE attitude. he needs to contain himself down and curb the irritating enthusiasm. if you dont agree with me, just see him interviewing shahrukh or any other unfortuante celebrities invited in his show n u ll know what i mean.

    Raja Sen from rediff is much better.I remember he had written a funny letter to Sanjay Gupta when Zinda came out.

    Taran Adarsh and that old Komal Nahta guy should try their hands at selling carpets instead.

  11. sammy on October 31st, 2006 2:53 pm

    duhh..i think it will seriously tk some time for indian audience to mature…from what i see these days better screenplay is directly proportional to better better outcome(on box office)..but ofcoz theer r exceptions(any srk,salman movie turns out to be hit..dunno for what reson)…but our audience is gradually acceptin offbeat in mainstream..even our film mkrs r taking efforts to blend both the genres quite well..so i really wish that more of the high budget directors get inspired frm this small movement n churn out better movies than AAP KE KHATIR(i fucking watched that movie for 15 mins half n hr back n i swear i hv a headache ri now)..so kudos to all mavericks frm our industry

  12. hitesh punjabi on October 2nd, 2007 9:25 am

    i am a script writer singer and an actor want address of producers phone numbers email ddress also

  13. turrtle on October 2nd, 2007 9:33 am

    Can somebody please direct me to the website where Rajeev Masand publishes his reviews ?

  14. striker on October 2nd, 2007 9:48 am

    turrtle, masand’s reviews can be found here…

    http://features.ibnlive.com/indepth/film-reviews-masands-verdict.html

  15. abhi on October 2nd, 2007 10:00 am

    The best critic by far is baradwaj rangan(atleast from what i have read).
    Entertaining and enlightening in the same article.

    http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/

  16. Tushar on October 2nd, 2007 10:30 am

    Rangan is my favorite critic.

  17. Anurag Kashyap on October 2nd, 2007 1:11 pm

    rangan is the best

  18. turrtle on October 2nd, 2007 1:48 pm

    Read Masand’s reviews. Found Rangan to be much much much better, the man writes so well.

  19. Tushar on October 2nd, 2007 2:02 pm

    His reviews are often the final word for me on any film, he is the guy who stands by the film irrespective of all the lobbies. read his take on eklavya, jhoom barabar jhoom, gandhi my father, and you will know the man knows his cinema. I personally cherish his other articles too, like a brilliant nostalgic post on 15 years of Rahman,
    http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/2007/08,
    or a tribute to Bergman, his vies on Guru and Black Friday are few of the most detailed ones outthere, or even some hilarious ones like hey baby and fool n final.
    The man writes on music, films, politics, travel, heck! even fiction.
    check out something which he calls flash fiction:
    http://www.desipundit.com/baradwajrangan/category/flash-fiction/

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