What should our hero do
The script is almost lock but the one question which is not leaving us is what should our hero do at the end.
Throughout the film our hero doesn’t do anything special. he is just a next door simple guy and we tried him to keep him as
real as he could be but towards the end we are loosing our sleep over it.(Audience point of view)…. endless discussions…multiple conclusions…continuous brainstorming sessions…still could not figure it out…what our hero should do. And if he remains the same at the end of the film then what’s the core message we want to convey to the audience. Consequently if there is no message then why we are making a film.? I always wonder why the audience comes to cinema hall? Moreover what they prefer to see in the movies? They come to watch a film or want to entertain themselves?(considering film and entertainment as different entities ). They come for a story or a hero or want to hear a message? My view is that audience is more intelligent than us and they don’t come with an empty mind to fill a message but as the film starts they unintentionally follows the hero (the protagonist).Of course they follow the story too but not at the cost of their hero. So they want their hero to win. They never accepted a hero, which becomes a looser at the end and if they did, then it proves the ability of the director. Kundan Shah has proved this with his harmonious “kabhi haan kabhi naa” and a gloomy “jaane bhi do yaaron”. The unethical approaches of “sunil” to get “aana” is justified by the innocence of the protagonist. At the end of the film “sunil” looses the war but nobody complains. Undoubtedly, the filmmaker wins and the
hero looses. Similarly the duos of “jaane bhi do yaaron” looses the front but our audience liked the film. “jaane bhi do yaaron” is
a very rare film that Indian cinema has ever produced. hroughout the film, the filmmaker has succeed to convince the audience
that it’s impossible for the duos to come out of the backdrop in which they trapped. Therefore no complain and it worked. But
his was not the case with “mera naam joker” and “kaghaz ke phool”. Audiences just couldn’t digest the failure of the
protagonist. They always want their hero to win. Moreover if they have a choice between more than one protagonists they
always go with the aggressive ones. They always go for Birju (Sunil dutt) rather than Ramu (Rajendra kumar) in Mother India
They always like Jai and Veeru. They like “Anthony” more than “Amar” or “Akbar”.They like “Sikandar”. They like Vijay in “deewar” and in “Shakti”. Though all these heroes dies at the end but they are always alive in our hearts. A simple reading of these characters lead us to the conclusions that these heroes are special. Their character were well crafted so that the audience could fall in love with the hero and when they die the audience should cry. This concept is becoming irrelevant slowly and the defnition of heroism starts changing. Mani ratnam emerges in the mainstream cinema with his political trilogy “Bombay”,”Roja” and ” Dil se”. Our hero has become an ordinary man.”Shekhar” in “Bomabay” is just another guy, only blurts out when he falls in complete mess..totally ruined…The protagonist of “Dil se” is also very ordinary (except dancing on the roof of train..but it’s ok) dies in the end. I just fall in love with the visual elements used in the film.I loved the “cinema” in “dil se”. ” Dil se” is brilliant but could not figure out why the magic did not worked. may be audience did not liked the end. I always think that “Dil se” is more real than “Roja”. I just could not digest the patriotic overdrive of Rishi, the protagonist in “Roja”. An ordinary man could not see his country’s flag burning. The drama was excess. Otherwise the veteran director is amazing.
The cinema of later 90’s was ruled by protagonists like Rahul, Raj, prem etc…they remain hero throughout the film. After that a superhero enters into the frame and everyone from child to oldies flies with him…and the maker of “koyla” becomes hot all of a sudden..But this era has also witnessed “satya” and “Shool”, maqbool and Omkara, Black Friday.. trying their best to tell stories rather than emphasizing heroism. This era of cinema also comes with a brand new package of slapstick comedy which we can criticize easily but unintentionally they drove us far from this heroism. The heroes of MunnaBhai series, RDB and Chak de India
were unavailable but they all worked superbly. The story, film and the heroes all wins at the end of the film..There is no need to kill them..no need to keep them aggressive…The Hero is still a hero but this time he comes with an innovative story. What
wonders me is that the stalwarts who changed the rules of the cinema were coming up with “Guru” and ” Sarkar” with “Sarkaar
Raaj” equally making stories of real heroes..may be this could be the reason why Adoor and Mrinal doesn’t fit in popular
cinema format…
Anyway at last we decided to keep our hero alive at the cost of the 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
Hi DG,
I m grappling with the same situation myself… and bro u hv provided wonderful insghts…
saala wut to wid da hero in the end…
Farhan Akhtar made the right decision for the climax of Don, which has given him the liberty to make a fiery sequel. But wut am i gonna do still remains the million $$$ question. Besta lux for ur projecta anyways. God bless.
I want to see my Raj, Rahul,Sikandar & Vijay again. Please somebody make these films again as I miss them a lot & I love them a lot.
I think even if the Hero doesn’t win the war in the end, he should win a few battles in the middle so that he proves his point.
I think that’s what happened in both ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’ and ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Na’ and the audience can still feel satisfied.
Another such movie- American Beauty. The protagonist starts out as a total loser but does win a few battles in the middle. He dies in the end but the movie remains beautiful for what could have been.
What I am saying is -kill your hero if he has won your hearts already in the movie. But if he hasn’t redeemed himself till the end, keep him alive.
What do you think?
@dazed…AB is a gr8 film and i don’t think in India we ever have crafted such characters in a brilliant story with a sattire feel…I always feels for AB that it is a philosophical film told in a social language…everyone who watches this just can’t stop relating with the characters(mainly those five odd characters)..every character knows why he is doing this but don
@ magic…soory but that doesn’t work.. farhan is again making the sequel but i fear he is playing with fire…
In earlier movies the hero was the guy who got the girl in the end. Even though he still does, he gets a lot more now and he gets away with much more!
With no real life heroes to inspire,the audiences
have to live out their fantasies with these screen heroes.
Don’t kill your heroes,you’ll kill your chances of making the sequel!
about the hero always winning as the audience wants it…if not they reject it…watch Sethu, Nanda, Paruthiveeran, Devdas[hate SLB but all said and done the audience lapped to the failed hero] any noir thriller…the “hero” never wins and the audience still accepts it…..on one hand you say…those films don’t work on the other hand you say films like Deewar and Shakti work…now me confused :-? What works for you?
It’s the journey of the “hero” in your script which matters…it flows and that decides whether he lives or dies within the given circumstances of your plot. Not discussions and PRODUCER’S analogy of past performances of films where the “hero” dies. FUCK nothing like a film where you live and die with your HERO….thats the ultimate cinematic experience….LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL….you have seen that…what more can I say…would the film have worked as much if the father and son meet the mother….or just the son meeting his mother as it was….the debate itself is frivolous
@ vasan..it’s not a conclusion it’s just an observation. I started my article with examples of “jaane..” and “kabhi haan…”..deewar shakti worked but “mera naam joker” and “kaghaz ke phool “doesn’t works..very few films works and it worked only when the script was strong..plz read the article carefully….don’t be confused..what i felt i wrote…and honestly i m always confused that what my hero will do at end..but will not wrap himself in any flaf for sure…
n thanx for recalling life is beautful…it’s a gr8 film…i don’t think i could ever reach that standard of writing…just couldn’t forget the father nad the son’s last scene walking…
“plz read the article carefully”
sorry, can’t put anymore effort into it.
“very few films works and it worked only when the script was strong.”
whether the protagonist dies or not..the story better be good anyways….live or die….
script is king
There is a difference between a hero and a male protagonist. Hero should always win…and the protagonist should always do what he wants.:)
Which was the last movie (excluding Devdas) in which the hero died ? They used to die often in the 60’s and the 70’s – that was a different time and a different age. With India on a roll,abooming economy,etc- the film makers, the audiences,every one wants to walk out of the theatres in a feel good mood. No one dies anymore in the movies, not even the heroine!
Fanaaaaahh!!
In fact in all the last three Aamir movies, he dies in the end! Except Mangal (It made lot of money too) the rest two are blockbusters.
Mangal Pandey – Hanged!
Rang De Basanti – Shot!
Fanaa – Shot again!!
Wow!
@ machchar so u liked fanaa ? or would u feel anything abt the movie..
I was bored shit in Fanaa and was waiting for the movie to end! These days they don’t even let you get out of the theatre mid way as when you think about the money you spent on the ticket, you think it’s better to endure torture…there are some movies like Naach where your sanity is more important than money and I had to walk out.
In Fanaa, I found Kajol to be desperate and wanting a fuck very badly! HAHA!! And her parents more desperate when Kajol tells them she found someone on the roads of Delhi! “Yaar kisi ko pakdo, humara tension khatam hojayega!!” haha!
And let’s not talk about the second half. It’s straight 1980 Dhoom Dhadaka Masala movie. This was the only Aamir movie which was average. The only saving grace was the music.