What’s So Good About Bollywood
iView Author: Navinder Singh (Ludhiana,India)
Email: withheld
What’s So Good About Bollywood
What’s so good about Bollywood? This is one question which you should ask yourself before reading this post. Let’s discuss most of the possible answers that one can give about Bollywood movies. Stolen Music from South Korea? Background score? Action that would appeal to a kindergartener? Actresses who don’t know the ABC of acting and are only here to show their skin? Third class dubbing? Script of the movies copied from Hollywood? Ego of top stars? Songs which come out of nowhere? Methods of storytelling which are older than your grandfather’s skin?
Well, that’s what you’ll find in a Bollywood movie with some rare exceptions. From last couple of years, Bollywood has seen a tremendous boom in box office collections, especially in 2008, in spite of the recession which has hit the world below the belt. And to be honest, that’s a very good sign considering there is so much piracy of our movies.
But all of this raises one question in my mind; do our movies really deserve the success that they are getting? Yesterday, I bumped into a site which posts about the pirated stuff for downloading, comprising of movies, music and softwares. After doing a lot of surfing over there, I found a lot of Bollywood movies posted there. And to be very frank, I was kind of happy to see a Bollywood movie there as our movies were getting some exposure. But, after reading the comments of the readers, I finally came to know about the truth.
Many people consider posting Bollywood movies there as an insult to the website because Bollywood movies are third class with stolen stories and nincompoop dance numbers. Few of them were downright racists but others did have a point. Our movies, indeed, are copies of Hollywood movies, and instead of removing this thing, we celebrate this fact like we won an Oscar for that..
Ghajini being the latest example of this was a copy of Memento. It doesn’t matter what producers say or what Aamir Khan says, a copy will always be a copy even if you throw Bollywood masala in it. Remaking a film is not a bad thing at all but if you copy a movie and don’t give proper credit to it then it’s wrong. And this, in turn, put a bad impression of Bollywood on other people, which is not something we should be proud of.
The prime problem with Bollywood is that people make movies for making money; they don’t make movies because they want to. And moreover, we concentrate too much on commercial cinema. But one thing I would like to point out is that making commercial movies is right but it should have some content in it. The Dark Knight, Titanic, The Departed etc were all commercial movies but they also had good content and some terrific performances.
On the other hand, in Bollywood, our commercial movies are Singh is Kinng, Welcome, Golmaal Returns, Om Shanti Om, Ghajini etc which don’t have any good content and became hits only because of marketing and star value.. Had it been done by any small actor, these movies would have bombed at the box office on the very first week.
And this brings me to the actresses of Bollywood. Actresses these days believe that if you marry then your career will be over or showing off your skin is the only way to get movies. I mean, seriously, what’s wrong with you all? If you’ve the talent then there is no way you can’t get movies. If you ask me, this new generation of actresses don’t know anything about acting with some very rare exceptions; those being Konkona Sen Sharma and Vidya Balan. All others are trying to get size zero figure or doing item numbers.
Those who haven’t, please watch London to Brighton. Watch out for the performance of Georgia Groome, she was 13 years old when she did that film and I can honestly say that no Bollywood actress can perform better than her in a million years. As for the marriage thing, Kate Winslet has been married for so long and still her films become successful and she got an Oscar this year.
Rani Mukherjee, on the other hand didn’t marry and see her today, hardly any films in her hand. And that happened because of poor choices she made. While Kajol, on the other hand, can still get any film. Why? Because she has the talent. Actresses like Katrina Kaif and Bipasha Basu have really made everything about looks.
The Slumdog Phenomenon –
We, the people of India, celebrated the success of Slumdog at the Oscars as if a Bollywood movie won the Oscar. Moreover, many actors and directors started calling it an Indian film and the victory of Bollywood. Seriously? Whom are they kidding? If we leave out A.R. Rahman then the victory of Slumdog Millionaire was the defeat of Bollywood. All the directors of Bollywood should do what we say in old Indian fashion “Chullu bhar paani mein doob mare”.
Why? It’s because a director from Britain comes to India and make a better film about India and gets an Oscar while we, on the other hand, are celebrating the box office success of Singh is Kinng, OSO, and Ghajini. Shame on all of you.
And this brings me to the last couple of things; and these are stupid dance numbers and third class dubbing. I mean, what’s the point of a song in a horror film or an action thriller, Aa Dekhen Zara being the latest case. Moreover, this trend of item numbers to promote movies is absolutely disgusting. And what’s with the dubbing? How about adopting sync sound technology? I’ve seen very few films such as Lagaan or Jodhaa Akbar adopting this technology.
But in all this garbage, some hope is coming, especially in the films which came out last year. A Wednesday, Rock On, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Aamir, and this year’s Luck by Chance, Dev.D, and Gulaal are some good movies which save the ass of Bollywood from being a total piece of shit. We need movies like these on a larger scale. We’ve the talent, we can make movies like The Departed, Pursuit of Happyness etc. any day but the only problem is that this young talent needs a chance. And the way things are changing now, I can see that coming soon, very soon.
Tags: "rock on", A Wednesday, aamir, Dev D, Ghajini, Gulaal, Kajol, Luck By Chance, Mumbai Meri Jaan, Rani Mukharjee
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
Everything!
Excellent post. Fully agree with you. After watching quiet a few international movies for quiet a few years, i must admit that i find 95% of the movies coming out of bollywood to be nothing short of garbage. I cant believe that our top stars, in spite of having earned loads of money and fame still don’t have the guts to experiment. Also, i find it hard to digest that the NRIs, in spite of having much better access to quality international movies still prefer watching our bollywood commercial shit making these movies big hits abroad as well.
Terrific post, agree everything you wrote. We need to spread the truth.
Every single word of this is true. Well said, Navinder.
I think we should stop calling it ‘Bollywood’, we should start calling it ‘Plaigarism-wood’
I thought that the obscenity of ‘Zinda’ was the low point, the outright theft of ‘Oldboy’ by Sanjay Gupta.
But ‘Ghajini’ was almost as disgraceful, and it was made by the supposed auteur and example of ‘Bollywood’ cinematic integrity, Amir Khan.
I really hope that one day an American or Korean or European studio that has had its movie remade without acknowledgment and without permission sues the ass off the Indian producers who make their Zinda’s and Ghajini’s. In the modern world, it’s not like the old days when nobody saw what came out of India. Now people are watching and seeing, and it’s only a matter of time until one of these plaigarists gets their asses taken to court for their theft. That might actually make them stop and think before becoming thieves and stealing other people’s ideas. Amir Khan should apologise to Christopher Nolan.
One last thing. ‘Bollywood’ seems to have a self esteem issue, in that many Bollywood stars always talk about getting the respect of the rest of the world. Amitabh Bhachan in his blog never stops talking about this. But here is the thing that they just don’t get. Nobody respects thiefs and criminals. As long as Bollywood is little more than a conveyor belt of unacknowledged re-makes, that doesn’t purchase remake rights, it will be considered an industry of artistic criminality, unoriginality and stupidity. People in Korea, Europe, Japan, America, respect originality, not plaigarism. As long as this does not change, ‘Bollywood’ and its thieving, plaigarist ways will be a laughing stock.
Very well said – your comment and the original post. Can’t agree more!
This is exactly why Bollywood is given no respect and is never considered for recognition at any international forum. It’s a joke these people go to Cannes when there’s Bollywood nominee – these dumb movies get featured in some ‘panorama’ . For shame.
“What’s so good about Bollywood?” Obviously there must be something appealing about the Hindi film industry for it to have millions of followers…
there are many old Hindi films which are very well made such as Lamhe, Pakeezah, Mughal-e-Azam, Bootpolish, Lekin, Rudhaali, Shri 420, etc.
I appreciate that you are trying to highlight the many problems the industry faces, but just writing a rant about how Bollywood sucks doesn’t do much–the audience is as responsible for the current state of Bollywood as are those part of the industry.
“Stolen Music from South Korea?” Even when we do have original music composed by MDs, how many people buy the CD? most people just download it…what a great way to support talented artists, no?
“Methods of storytelling which are older than your grandfather’s skin?” Audiences crib about how the majority of Bollywood films are crap, yet they’ll still prefer watching a film falling under that very category at theaters instead of meaningful films.
“If you’ve the talent then there is no way you can’t get movies.” “no way?” sach mei?
“If you ask me, this new generation of actresses don’t know anything about acting with some very rare exceptions”…but isn’t it the director’s job to bring out the actor/actress within someone? for example, anurag brought out the actress in ayesha in gulaal even though she didn’t have any acting experience.
Thanks for the reply guys.
@Amanda
“Stolen Music from South Korea?” Even when we do have original music composed by MDs, how many people buy the CD? most people just download it…what a great way to support talented artists, no?”
See, music piracy is everywhere, especially in USA. That doesn’t mean they have stopped making original music. People here think that they can copy anything and can get away with it, which is wrong. I’ll talk abour piracy in another post.
““Methods of storytelling which are older than your grandfather’s skin?” Audiences crib about how the majority of Bollywood films are crap, yet they’ll still prefer watching a film falling under that very category at theaters instead of meaningful films.”
Ok, you misunderstood the “method of storytelling” here. I was referring to how you present the movie, be it commercial or meaningful. All our movies start and end in a continuous chain, with no flashback, Chamku being an exception.
See Christopher Nolan’s style of film making in The Dark Knight. Three or four situations are undergoing at the same moment, which builds the suspense and excitement.
On the other hand, our movies either start with an item number or end with one.
““If you’ve the talent then there is no way you can’t get movies.” “no way?” sach mei?”
Yeah, of course. See, we can’t control luck, can we? I believe that success is 90% hard work and 10% luck. We can control that 90% and in most of the cases, people don’t give their 90%.
“If you ask me, this new generation of actresses don’t know anything about acting with some very rare exceptions”…but isn’t it the director’s job to bring out the actor/actress within someone? for example, anurag brought out the actress in ayesha in gulaal even though she didn’t have any acting experience.”
How are you gonna take out the acting talent from Katrina Kaif? She doesn’t have it, accept it.
See, acting talent is something within, director or acting schools only polish it. If you don’t have the talent, no actiing school in the world or any director can make you to act.
I hope I’ve made my points clear.
Vidya Balan??? Really?????
Extremely well written post. But u know what, if you show this to a producer, his one line reply will be “Jo bikta hai, wohi chapta hai!”. So, I guess the change will come only when experimental movies will see people coming into the theatres at least for the first week. From then on, the films can pick up on their merit. A better idea would be to promote piracy for the movies of KJo n likes and promote going to a theater for movies by talented and experimental young brigade!
i partially agree with you but a lot of the things you have written, like commercial movies such as Dark knight, departed etc being good on content is correct but these things have to be seen from a cultural standpoint too. the audience in the west in undoubtedly more sophisticated and educated like urself and hence movies which seem to have “good content” to you are normal there.
In India even the urban audiences are not as sophisticated and hence Singh is King works…but Hollywood to has its Singh is King type movies (the ones made by adam sandler, ben stiller, myke myers etc)
the same can be said about actresses. A married actress is no big deal there but here it is.
@Kunal
Yes, Hollywood too has its Singh is Kinng type movies. And people go to watch these movies, I never said they don’t. They also go to watch the worst movies ever made like Disaster movie, Epic movie, Scary movie series etc.
I think urban audience is becoming sophisticated. All we have to do is more experiments with top stars. For example; Chak De India. Chak De got way below opening as compared to other SRK movies but finally it picked up and became one of the biggest hits of 2007.
Had it been done by small actor, the movie wouldn’t have worked at the box office.
I hope you’re getting my point here. We need big stars to do new age cinema so that people all over the India watch these movies. They’ve to take the initiative.
The young generation comprising of Imran Khan, Ranbir Kapoor, and Neil Nitin are willing to experiment, which is a good sign.
Moreover, SRK is also doing My Name is Khan, which I’ve a feeling that will be a mind blowing film.
We’ve the talent, it’s just about experiments and taking risks.
Bollywood has audience more compared to Hollywood.IF you are looking at hollywood they also produce lot of crap.About Songs that is way of story telling, if a director wants to have songs,then let it be.
I agree with Amanda here. Of course we all want to see better films but then we end up patronizing the over-hyped under-whelming films anyways, because we know those are going to be the popular films that everyone’s going to be talking about and so we go with what’s popular and not what’s genuinely good.
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I remember seeing “Rock On!!” and loving it. I told everyone I knew to go see it, its such a refreshingly good film. Maybe 2 outta 10 bothered. Same with can be said about a dozen other such good films. But then everyone I knew saw Singh is King & Ghajini. I guess the gimmickry worked. Hype prevailed over content.
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But here we are, all bitching about it, but no one bothers to see that we’re part of the problem. “Luck By Chance” flops. Why? How? I was dying to see that film, and I saw it in a theater with like 30 people. I thought it was really good, so again I try to pass on the word. No interested generated. I tell this friend of mine “Go see it, its pretty good, you’ll like it”. She says “It looks to much like a docu-drama. I don’t want to sit there bored. I’ll wait for the DVD”. Yeah, the freaking washed out pirate copy.
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Good films WILL work once the audience creates a DEMAND for them. Another few Rock On’s and A Wednesdays, that merge story and content with entertainment so well, and have the kind of presentation that’s sorely needed, and we’ll be on a role…
The question you should be asking is – what’s so good about Indian audience? An audience that prefers Singh is King, Om Shanti Om, Golmaal or Gajini, but rejects extremely watchable movies like OLLO, Welcome to Sajjanpur, Delhi 6, Gulaal, Luck by Chance, Sorry Bhai, Aamir, Johny Gaddar etc deserves nothing better than Bollywood. We are lucky that we still have directors like Anurag Kashyap, Rakesh Mehra, Shyam Benegal, Sriram Raghavan, Prakash Jha, Dibakar Banerjee etc who continue to make good movies despite rejection at the box office.
what’s so good about Indian audience? Nice questions but seriously tell me the frequency of good movies in bollywood.
what’s so good about Indian audience? Nice questions but seriously tell me the frequency of good movies in bollywood.
“what’s so good about Indian audience? Nice questions but seriously tell me the frequency of good movies in bollywood.”
@Akhilesh, Lets see! In last three months alone, we had Dev D, Delhi 6, 13B, Gulaal, Luck by chance, Little Zizuo, Firaaq, Baraah Anna (that’s almost 3 movies a month)
Last year we had – Wednesday, Aamir, Dasvidaniyan, Jaane Tu, Oye lucky, Rock on, Shaurya, Sorry Bhai, Super Star, Tahaan, Welcome to Sajjanpur. Some other movies that were considered good movies (which I haven’t seen) – Bhram, Sarkar Raj, Jodha Akbar, Fashion, Dostana..
Out of these 25 movies, only two or three were hits. So the frequency of good movies becoming successful at the box office is a miserable 10 %.. Are you aware of any film industry in the world where good movies continue to be made despite just ten percent success frequency?
Amazing post. Amazing amazing post. Posts like this should be mailed to the production houses making movies for money and not for the creative expression of the director.
Of the present generation of movies, only few, those mentioned in the last few lines of the post will stand the test of time. Others, even though earning lots of money, will be just far away memories of very few people.
Oscar Wilde once said, “Everything popular is wrong.”
Dude, the picture is not so dark is it? I mean yes we do have copies, and yes we do have age old stories/item numbers/actors who can’t act and all. But I am sure even hollywood have these problems. THe Departed was an exact copy of a movie called Infernal Affairs. But it is highly praised. Why? Coz nobody know about Infernal Affairs. Similar with Ghajini. How many people do know about Memento you tell me? Look majority of the people go to a theatre to relax and enjoy. Thats what it supposed to be and that’s what it will stay. Hence masala movies will stay too. Mainstream movies like Munnabhai movies are so very much “age-old”, yet loved by everybody right? So good mainstream movies do get released. I think mass production of quality stuff is not possible. And hence we don’t get loads of quality movies. It is true for any thing in this world and will remain that way.
@Arnab
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Yes, The Departed was the copy of Internal Affairs and that’s a point I’m trying to make here. They gave full credit to Internal Affairs and never said that The Departed is original just people associated with Ghajini or any other copied movie say.
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Here is a bit of trivia. When the Oscars were given, one of the announcers or someone called “Internal Affairs” a Japanese movie but Martin Scorsese, director of The Departed, corrected this in his acceptance speech as the movie is made in Hong Kong. Moreover, Warner Brothers sent an apology note to Asian Media.
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This is what I call professionalism. No Indian filmmaker would do that in his wildest dreams.
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I’m not asking producers to mainstream movies. Mainstream movies can be good, too. It’s not that small budget movies or meaningful cinema is a good cinema.
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Movies like The Dark Knight, Titanic are total commercial (mainstream) movies and they involve good film making techniques.
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But this is not true for Bollywood. We’ve to change this thing. Rang De Basanti and Chak De were also somewhat commercial cinema. Dev.D was also a commercial movie (on a small budget), it didn’t have any message with it, but it did have good content along with terrific performances by Abhay and Mahi.
Oops.. There is a typo in my above comment.. it’s Infernal Affairs and not Internal Affairs. Sorry about that.
“THe Departed was an exact copy of a movie called Infernal Affairs. But it is highly praised”
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The difference is that Hollywood pays money for remake rights and acknowledges it, and brings its own sensibility and interpretation to it to a high aesthetic standard. Bollywood is an industry full of theives and plaigarists who steal entire movies without paying recompense to the original creators, and without imbuing the remake with any great artistry.
I said it before, I really hope it won’t be long until some American, East Asian or European studio notices the wholesale theft that takes place in Bollywood and sues them so badly it hurts them and forces everyone to pay more respect to other film makers and be more original rather than being thieves.
With the amount of money that Ghajini has made I really wish that Christopher Nolan would sue Amir Khan for millions of dollars for outright plaigarism in the American courts. That’s the only way this stupidity and lazy intellectual criminality can be stopped. Hit them where it hurts.
The greater interest in Indian movies around the world and the closer ties between American and Indian industries are going to bring this issue to a head sooner or later. Has Amir Khan even acknowledged or given respect to Christopher Nolan for his wholesale theft of his movie? It’s a disgrace, and Amir Khan is supposed to be the standard bearer for credible Hindi cinema? what a joke!
same feelings here too, navinder.
sir i suggest you learn something about the hindi film industry and world cinema, AND being mature before you write this sort of stuff. btw, watch memento, you will realize Ghajni is not a “copy” of it. Certain central features of memento serve as a inspiration to Ghajni, but the plots are nothing alike. Deeming a film “bad” purely because all the aims to do is entertain and tug at the heart strings of people who want some straight up entertainment is not intellect, its cynicism. and “bollywood” can do without cynics for sure.
As of now both Woods(Holly & Bolly), are not doing anything much great IMO. The former makes lousy copies of movies from other countries, and the latter just recycles those copies. Both the Woods have been investing too much in marketing and hype, rather than content.
The best cinema in the world now is from East Asia, Latin America, Iran and Spain.
@Ayush
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You’re getting me wrong here. Films are for entertainment, be it small budget, mega budget or meaningful cinema. If we go by your logic then movies like Drona, Kidnap, Love Story 2050, RGV ki Aag are for entertainment only but that doesn’t mean we’ll not call it bad. Those were bad films, and there is nothing to be proud of that.
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Instead of defending on the name of entertainment, try to improve the stuff and also which can get some respect from west.
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As for Memento, I’ve seen it many times and yes you are right, Ghajini is not a copy coz it can never reach the level of Memento.
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I really wish Christopher Nolan and his brother sue Aamir Khan and company from stealing their script. This will teach these people some lesson.
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Thank God, Warner Bros gave legal notice to Indian producers and thus not allowing them to remake The Departed.
@Navinder Singh,
Is Aamir Khan producer or director of Ghajini?
QT saw Kaante himself but did not sue its maker/s
Money is very important in such legal matters.
Warner Brothers have money to sue and fight the legal battle.
Satyajit Ray did not have money so he could not sue Steven Spielberg (in case of ET).
i agree with each and every pixel on screen
(except for weight losing ads)
“btw, watch memento, you will realize Ghajni is not a “copy” of it. Certain central features of memento serve as a inspiration to Ghajni, but the plots are nothing alike.”
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Only in the sense that a derivative and plaigarised second rate piece of rubbish postures in the shadow of a truly great movie that it has ripped off. But claiming that the turpitude of a movie is a defence against it being the result of thievery is a unique defence…..our movies are so bad it doesn’t matter if they are acts of plaigarism!
I can reel off a list of movies from the top of my head made by Bollywood in the last few years which are direct plaigarised thefts, made by the supposed leading lights of commercial Hindi cinema. When this level of unoriginality and brazen, arrogant theft is the heartbeat of an industry, you really cannot say that it is anything other than a cinema of outright plaigarism and artistic and intellectual criminality.
I will celebrate the day when an Amir Khan or any other plaigarist is sued for millions successfully by an American, Korean, European, Hong Kong or Japanese production house. It may just take this drastic action to force the thieves of Bollywood to write original scripts and not be parasites on the culture and cinema of other countries.
Someone plagiarizes two songs from Korea and suddenly it becomes something to taint hundreds of hard working talented Indian musicians with? What about all the other Indian musicians who’ve created complex, beautiful music, music that, as Amanda pointed out, folks like you don’t even bother to buy.
One Ghajini comes along and now our film industry is nothing but a derivation of Hollywood? Do you even watch Hindi films?
This rant is pathetic. And it is desperately wannabe. Thankfully, despite ignorant, cynical folks like you there are still a lot of talented directors in Hindi films who believe in making interesting, fresh films that are a treat to watch.
Oh, and I finally saw Dark Knight on DVD after missing it when it first came around. The most overrated film ever. I’m absolutely shocked by the hype. The audience that embraced Dark Knight is also the audience that ignored a wonderful, superb film like Children of Men. Wonder what it says about them. But no, we are not to patronize them, because they are the sophisticated, intellectual Western audiences, unlike the ganwars that we Indians are.
@Dewi i totally agree with you…most of this is just a rant of pseudo cynical emotions
@navinder your argument about chak de is fine but and for everyones sake i do hope that more experimentation happens but if u notice all the experiments are carefully balanced by safe and sure shot formula films…no mainstream actor is still comfortable with only experimental scripts (not even aamir khan)
and if “chak de india” and “my name is khan” is your standard of experimental then its not what i would call pushing the bar as the scripts and treatment of these films are still well within the commercial crowd pleasing genre (obviously i havnt seen my name is khan but going by karan johar’s track record)
@ sourya
Posts like this should be mailed to the production houses making movies for money and not for the creative expression of the director.
what are u stupid ?? should production houses ignore business health, market economics and all the effort that goes in keeping a company alive for the sole purpose of producing cinema that satisfies the “creative expression” of a director. Maybe only creative people should run this business then and all movies will stand the test of time. If you are creative so be it but dont rant as if making money is a wrong and evil objective. learn to live with the fact that filmmaking is as much a business as an art or else go paint or something….
@ navinder:
i am not saying those were good films at all. i agree those were terrible films. but what about that made you write this article? BOmbay undoubtedly creates the shittiest films in the world every year…a few of which you mentioned, but that does not take away from the few pieces of genuine good cinema that they make. in fact very few other places can boast of having made the kind of films that india has that have been commercially so successful while being “good films”. think munnabhai, RDB, Deewar (old), Sholay, BOmbay….the list goes on for ever and ever.
and once again, i dont think Ghajni is really “good cinema”, the kind that everyone at PFC seems to be cumming over…but come on! its commercial mass entertainment at its best. and i stick to what i said, other than the basic idea of this man with this illness because of a similar attack, the plot of ghajni has nothing to do with Mememto. Lets respect both film for what they are, for they both have immense appeal in different ways. if one was to say ghajni is a copy of Memento then in that same vein any film which has ‘dinosaurs’ should be marked a copy of Jurrasic Park and any film which has aliens a copy of ET…..right?
no work of art comes from mid air……inspiration can come from anywhere…even from another film….the key is not keep it to an inspiration and not make the exact same film just because you want to make money and its a tried and tested formula….Ghajni was not the same film.
i do see your point, but i think you are being waaaaaaayyyyy too cynical in the manner you are dismissing the industry as a whole. sure there is good and bad, but you cannot let the bad completely block the good from your view can you?
o and more thing, the films you mentioned there, were all pathetic failures commercially, so its not as if people patronize most bad films…sure sometimes a “welcome” slips through. but why collectively insult a big industry for such failures. and as far as respect from the west is concerned…why? why the hell does the west matter so much to you. come here, and you will realize that from the part of “western” people it is not a matter of not respecting our films, but it is rather a matter of not understanding them…because honestly our culture and way of life is starkly different from theirs, and if you are one for still wagging at their approach…so be it bro.
and as someone said……trash makes money and good stuff goes neglected in the “west” too. infact, if you were to name the few (just like here) genuinely good films coming out of america (like memento) you will realize that by American standards they are all low budget films, which either barely or dont recover their money. The films that make the most money here are ones like X men and Harry Potter etc etc etc. Sounds all to familiar doesnt it. sure, every once in a while a Juno comes along and makes decent money….but then we get a Taare Zameen Par every once in a while too dont we? dont be so cynical dude. understand the “west” and the “east” first and then you can go about parading your judgement on works or art and large industries that are wayyyyyyyyyyy bigger than you, me or any individual.
You are singling out Bollywood but the problem is universal in most things Indian. Let me explain. The key issue is that most Indians (and most developing country folks) take up a profession that they are not passionate about. This is motivated by various factors, family business, money, friend circle, glamor, lust, power and many other driving forces. Not that this does not exist everywhere else. So, lets take all these IT folks from India in the US and the rest of the world as an example. I guarantee you at least 50% have no passion for IT (could be 80% but I am an optimist). So we have shitty programmers who make others take their phone interviews and create an image of Indians that they are meek order takers who don’t have original ideas. The other passionate 20% have to overcompensate for these guys and prove themselves 5 times over.
Same is with Bwood, the Tutu Kohli’s and Sharma’s, Priyadarshan’s, Other Darshans, Azmees and Valsadwalas have no passion for art and cinema. And guess what, like the posts above say their cheapass stuff sells to our entertainment hungry audience “Dimaag baju mein rakh ke dekhneka”…
And yes BTW HWood is equally crap, I always have loads of problem picking up a new release at Blockbuster coz I can’t seem to find a decent movie half the time.
So like Ratnakar said, I usually find myself watching a foreign movie with Subtitles rather than from any of the Woods.
Ayush,
Ghajini is nothing but a cheap B-grade masala version of Memento. If Sunny had acted in Ghajini instead of Aamir, all those people who now praise Ghajini would have hated it and said it is a B-grade flick. The movie would still have been a big hit just like Gadar was. Now for the similarities.
1. Both movies focus on a young male protagonist who is extremely focused on extracting revenge for the murder of his loved one (wife in the case of Memento and girlfriend in Ghajini).
2. Both movies have a male protagonist whose short-term memory problems are caused by a violent blow to the head as he rushes to save his wife/girlfriend from a brutal attack.
3. Both movies highlight the use of tattoos by the protagonist on his body as a technique to remember important facts because it’s a permanent way of keeping a note.
4. Both movies have the protagonist using a polaroid camera to take instant pictures of people and objects to aid his memory and organize his life.
5. Both movies highlight a striking and unforgettable tattoo on the male protagonist’s chest – ‘Kalpana was Killed’ – ‘John G raped and murdered my wife’.
6. Both movies display a protagonist who photographs the people he kills.
7. Both movies have a protagonist who keeps the camera inside a coat.
8. Both movies feature a woman who helps the male protagonist in ultimately killing the murderer (Carrie Ann Moss in Memento and Jiah in Ghajini).
9. Both movies present the protagonist using an elaborate paper chart on the wall with photographs to keep track of the bad fellas involved in the death of his loved one.
10. Both movies include a scene in which the protagonist trusses up a person with duct tape and hides him into a closet
11. Both movies make it clear that the last indelible memory of the protagonist is the murder of the wife/girlfriend.
12 h. Both movies have the protagonist beating up someone and then forgetting the guy in the closet.
Memento had just some scenes of his wife reading a book or combing her hair and here you have a stupid love story. He linearized (not completely coz there are flashbacks) the movie and removed the surprise twist at the end.
Even after all this similarities if you still think that Ghajini is not a copy of Memento then you are the one suffering from short term memory. They should have bought the rights from christopher nolan and done as they pleased. Inspiration would be to take short term memory loss and make a completely different movie like the hero or heroine have short term memory loss and how they cope up or some love story not the same revenge drama. (example of inspiration from memento would be the movie 50 First Dates).
By the way the great Taare Zameen Par story is also copied from ‘Thank you Mr Falker’ by Patricia Polacco. Just google it.
RIGHT ON Ayush
@ kunal
“learn to live with the fact that filmmaking is as much a business as an art or else go paint or something….”
—hahahahha. some people would say sad but true, but i say true and thank god for that. If film making was not a very commercial art it would not be the worldwide phenomenon it is today. young minds would be bit exposed to its greatness and NOT a single person here on PFC would actually be here.
Well said.
Adding to that, to the one who are apparently connoisseurs of “good art” please, i beg of you, name one person in the world, look within yourself, who initially found their love for films as a child or whatever from a, lets say 400 blows, than a Jurassic Park—or for that matter from a ‘Ardh Satya’ rather than a Sholay. Anyone?
@
Sputnik
while i do agree with you the Ghajni is a film more befitting a Sunny Deol than Aamir Khan, i also believe it is his presence and performance that stops the film from being crass.
Oh, and since we are throwing insults here anyways…..i might have that same mental illness but you dude….you are a step ahead….you seem to be suffering from something that makes you defy ‘logic’ if you even know what that is, because look back at your own list, you have repeated almost every point atleast twice. Nice and very intelligent way to get your point across bud. “3. Both movies highlight the use of tattoos by the protagonist on his body as a technique to remember important facts because it’s a permanent way of keeping a note.”
“5. Both movies highlight a striking and unforgettable tattoo on the male protagonist’s chest – ‘Kalpana was Killed’ – ‘John G raped and murdered my wife’.”
AND
“4. Both movies have the protagonist using a polaroid camera to take instant pictures of people and objects to aid his memory and organize his life”
“6. Both movies display a protagonist who photographs the people he kills.”
LOL….seriously dude? you really think separating points with one another point in the middle make them separate valid points?? wow
Wait, we are not done yet! here is the best one—Are you ready bud?
“7. Both movies have a protagonist who keeps the camera inside a coat.”
LMAO!! are you serious. dude!!!
anyways, i know i cannot ever convince you. so you be happy in your place, and i ll stay in mine. this is just a forum for people to express opinions, not thrown insults. and i am not calling Ghajni the best film to come out of the Hindi cinema last year….for me it was the best of a particular kind of cinema coming out of Bombay……the type of the pure commercial blockbuster produced just to entertain masses and make money. i hope you understand what i mean.
Peace out.
o wait, you are better than i thought.
Thank you mister Falker?
HAHAHHAHA….maybe you should google it dude. Since when is it a crime to adapt a novel to screen and putting ones own spin on it?
Can you tell me the exact date when that was declared a crime in the high nosed film circles please. because i live in an environment surrounded by film makers and critics who are ten times more pretentious than anyone on PFC and i still am yet to hear of such an accusation. so unless i did not do the google search right, which would make me a moron (and i could have easily done that i guess), you buddy, are nuts!
Now…..Peace out!
ayush,
The points I mentioned were different. They had a common element no doubt but while one was a more generic one, the other mentioned about a scene by scene copy.
I saw the Telugu Ghajini (dubbed version of Tamil Ghajini) before Hindi Ghajini and it was horrible too and mind you both Tamil and Telugu versions were big hits. Aamir acted the same way as Surya, infact Aamir overacted in some of the scenes. The Hindi Ghajini is almost a scene-scene dialogue-dialogue remake of the tamil version except for the ending. The Tamil ending was even more horrible as there was a double role of the villain in it.
Now, its not a crime to adapt a novel to screen and putting ones own spin on it when you buy the copyright from the author and credit the author. Why do you think slumdog millionaire credits Vikas Swarup. Does taare zameen par credit anyone for teh story apart from Amol Gupte? The point is they take someone’s ideas and not even credit the persons responsible for the original ideas and pretend as if they came up with this groundbreaking and path breaking stories.
Do you really believe that film makers of all kinds from all over the world always point out due credit ‘towards the original’ source of their inspiration. Amol Gupte went to Aamir with the story and he made it. as simple as that. Now Amol Gupte might or might now acknowledge where he got the idea from, but that is a writer’s issue. Plus, maybe it was an original idea, many many stories written around the world are very similar. Human experiences can only vary a certain amount my friend.
Priyadarshan when he made billu barber , which is a remake of a malayalam movie called ” kathaparayumbol ” (though its not mentioned anywhere during the big ass promotions done by SRK ) bought the rights from the original script writer,the very talented sreenivasan . Atleast someone is benifited out of it , if not for the credits. atleast thats a fair deal. but the fact is not many film makers in bollywood does this .