Vaibhav, I think your piece on Hindi Film Industry was well written but you need to understand that we as a filmdom are divided into 3 parts.... Chopra and Johars, Bhatts and Dhawans, Verma and Gowarikars. Our audience loves to ESCAPE ... ... we love to have our fill of nonsense with a pack of popcorn. 90% of our population may never step out of their residing towns leave alone the country!!!...So whats the harm if we like to sooth our eyes watching our buxom beauties dance in Swiss Alps without a scrap of woolens. The cost involved for an average family in a metro to watch a decent movie say is Rs 500 i.e. in the Metros!!! Step into the countryside mister, in southern India safe drinking water is still not a reality and electrification is still on papers but one would be surprised to find numerous Air-conditioned halls in the remotest villages. We love it when Rajnikanth and SRK play larger than life roles!!!!!!! we whistle when then dance, we cry buckets when they die(KHNH). The bottom line is all our genres co-exist and we see what we want to see. After all what is the purpose of cinema?? to inform or entertain?We just love them just as they are!!!
When I read this article, I felt like I was reading exactly the same thing that runs through my brain everytime I watch a KHNH, or KKHH, or K3G. All these movies have the same repetitive characters, the same kind of songs, the same type of storyline and the same garbage. These movies are an assault on the senses of a decent brained intelligent human being.
Movies are a way of entertainment for us but movie making is also an art and as such, it should not be taken lightly.
Filmfare awards is a bunch of crap. For it to be compared to the Oscar's is , like someone said, an insult to what the Oscar's stand for: Talent.
I, myself, feel the same way about item songs. How can one item song make or break a hero/heroine's career is way beyond me. I dont think that dancing, wearing ghastly make up and loud clothes is "a disply of talent" or " a ground breaking role".
The best films I have seen in some time are Khakee, Company, Tehzeeb.
The rest are not even worth a mention as they carry no content, no story, no realistic screenply.
most NRIs are stuck in a different era and are happy to see anything representing their culture when they are away from it. And their kids, the American Desi, feels he/she is participating in "indianess" when the watch these movies. Luckily for some Indians, esp from places like Kerala there are a handful of very good movies and always have been (although they also make some real b.s. movies). The Hindi film industry, the maintream, is far far behind any common sensical thinking, and seems to submerge itself in superficiality, pretension, and tastelessness. I don't feel I'm watching a movie when I occassionally rent a hindi one in hopes of changing my mind. I am shocked at how bad they are--really! Shocked! They reek of a wannabe society trying to prove things and tying hard to immitate. Nothing is original. The author has done a good job of examining such issues...more people like you joining the industry will allow changes..even if the issue is much more complicated.
Kuddos to the writer of this article...this article is like a tele-prompter.often we get carried away by big banners and there larger than life stories...but as far as awards are concerned-i think they are only meant to make quick money through the tickets and trp's without critical appriciation.
Nice article with almost each argument rational and logical... but one point that I would like to make is:
It is not fair to assume that directors portraying a "good" Muslim character is trying to be politically correct. I would like to make this point especially in the case of Sarfarosh... because unlike Qayamat which was an out and out entertaining(?) thriller Sarfarosh (both were not war movies) atleast was a more sincere effort to portray reality. Also, in Sarfarosh the characterisation reflects more of discrimination/doubts on integrity faced by some section of Indians (predominantly Muslims but not only) from their brothers. This is a reality which Vaibhav you may (please note.. may) not apppreciate being so far in New York. In Sarfarosh it was never about good muslims of India and bad muslims of pakistan unlike most of the Sunny Deol movies. The movie shows a just picture of the arms trade that happens (belive me it does!!) to stoke separatism in India. And if Bollywood spreads the love message for Pakistan in war movies I dont know if they should be blamed... wasn't there a phase in US and other western countries where every bad guy was a Soviet??
i feel khnh was simply the boring movie i have ever seen. i don't why i don't like shahrukh khan movies. take the eg. of chalte chalte, what was there in the movie. i feel sathiya was better. i feel shahrukh was better in kabhi ha kabhi na,daar rather than he is in devdas,ddlj,khnh,kkhh etc. this is where ajay devgan,amir differ, their choice for roles, their acting, their looks. and why do we forget govinda, our chi-chi.what i like about govinda, is the way he does his comedy differently in various movies. and there is something special in govinda's movies which is not to the other actors--there no. of times u watch govinda movies, the more u enjoy.
how can we ensure that this article reaches Karan Johar, Subhash Ghai (since Pardes) and Aditya/Yash Chopra (DDLJ onwards). I would let go Karan Johar (the last time KHNH) that he is trying to establish himself so he wants to use only tried and tested formula but not from our seniors like Ghai and Chopra. They have made versatile movies like Karma, Karz, Darr, Mashaal and now we only get to see is love stories and love triangles BS. Our audience just want the same too so it is we audience have to reject such movies as we did for Main Prem ki diwani.....only then these big banners will do something different. I will give full credit to Rakesh Roshan (KNPH, KMG) and Raj Kumar Santoshi (The Legend, Khakee, Damini, Ghayal) who come out with different subject movies everytime. We audience should definitely appreciate and support this effort so we can get to watch more of them.
Good article. I have always been thinking in similar lines. I remember the film Yaadein which was advertised as "The story of an Indian family!" and thought the same.. 'how many are so rich.. like princes..' and how i wished that audience treat them a lesson for making such crap and claiming it to be a "great" work. One "HAHK" is enough. I loved that. but certainly not K3G. i dont know why.. it was an irritating film... might be because of that too much "senti" stuff.. the "la la la" hum. For the comments on "reality", films must show the problems of a common man and the way he solves it and comes out successfully.
