a very well written article on the truth behind.irrespective of whether 'bollywood',which claims to churn out commercial blockbusters,which in reality are nothing short of junk,these little known(in home)directors and producers will bring glory to our country.
I agree to the fact that regional films arent given so much publicity..especially when it comes to the glamour and fame of Bollywood.I feel very sad when actors like Aishwarya Rai are given so much importance...especially when she cant even act....and has been giving flops day by day..ofcourse other than HDDS and Devdas...where we all agree to the fact that Madhuri and Shah Rukh did a perfect job. Media should focus on the regional talent and give them more coverage other than just promoting Aishwarya Rai and her rusty affair with Salmaan Khan..Thankyou
In Bollywood, film making is not an art, it is making money. directors like mani ratnam, ram gopal verma are the ones who make decent sensible stuff. Bollywood is total crap, nothing is original... not even its name, Bollywood derived from hollywood. pathetic!
To go further, any Hindi movie gets reasonable attention from the Media...but the other languages, even the good movies dont get any attention... Regional Actors like Rajni,Kamal have good Fan Following, but the Media writes Eulogy after Eulogy for every "Bollywood" Star or Starlet. It would be much better if the Media just focusses on the Movies and not give us these Stories about their personal lives etc...i dont think the Audience is interested in all that...but, does the Media care. Worse, the Media has given us ENOUGH reason to doubt their professionalism; The Extent to which Devdas, a VERY ORDINARY movie, was hyped up, by the Media, gives us enough reason to doubt that they were paid to write those articles, by the movie maker(Bhansali). And look at the other Reviews, on Rediff...the Review on "1+1=11" trashes the movie totally...but the movie was quite entertaining, IMHO...well, the Media is doing a good job of discrediting itself, wont be long before the rest of the Audience reaches similar conclusions as i do, NOT to trust the Media.
It is an accepted fact that even if you do not have the Stuff, people will notice only how loud you blow ones trumpet. And Bollywood is great at that. How will the small time movie makers get publicity when there is no mafia backing them? The underwolrd gets legitimate publicity through Bollywood. The real filmmaker gets it through small time writers like Deepa. Commercial films have a larger audience anyday. It is upto the media to give some attention & focus to the true laureal winners. But the irony is that their hands are also bound - their customers do not wish to read about Murali Nair's triumph but about where Aish was bruised during her filmkaing. Sad........
I fully agree with your closing comments. Media in India is fully focussed on 'bada' things and do not care of what is happening regionally which could have brought us much pride. This leads to the question if the media is truly neutral or if it is also being capitalistic?
Whatever it is, even the common man is more interested in what happens to Aishwarya Rai or to Sachin Tendulkar than what is happening in his local hospital where a certain someone is trying to save the life of a child. And the media fuels it by not covering it.
I agree that media ignoring people other than stars of bollywood. But there are our own constraints to that, even if a good movie is made in malayalam, how many people will understand that language. And we all know that if we watch a movie in a language we dont understand with subtitles the impact will not be there.
Leave the subtitles, even if the same movie was remade in our own language the originality will not be there.
You have given a lot of examples of good malayalam movies not getting noticed as they deserve, but instead of that if you would have made a note that good films not getting noticed then it would be more appropriate criticism. There are many good films in any language which are going unnoticed. And I personally think there are much better movies than Devdas which are worth to send to Oscars
I so completely agree with your views ! Its high time the people of this country start to recognize and appreciate real talent . Its indeed unfortunate that even to this day quality films have to wait to get recognition in its own homeland until an American or a European jury rewards it !
Thank you for a thought provoking article...I guess in every stream of life it is left to the person to differentiate between the wheat and the chaff...the media, and all who seem to matter, are all (barring exceptions which prove the rule) to fulfil their own interests...
Though I donot get the time and the opportunity to see most of the "other cinema" movies, I donot see Bollywood movies either, unless I have sensible people like you advising to do so...and you will agree that the mainstream gives very few...
Well, had not Satyajit Ray got the "consolation" Oscar, I am not sure how many Indians would have heard of him. There are still onlya few who would have seen his movies, other than Agantuk and Shatranj Ke Khiladi, maybe...
Is is a celebration that people like the directors you mention (and many others such as Rithik Ghatak, Shyam Benegal) still strive in this mad world, keeping the low profile and continuing to do good genuine work...it just is another boosting to the rapidly shrinking lot of genuine people...that there is hope...
