What
rankles me when I read articles in the media that reports of a film having made
100+ crore businesses in less than 2 weeks of its release is the question on
how these films go on making such huge businesses? Case in point being the most
recent traumatic disaster like Agneepath having made 100 crore business within
11 days of its release.
I
may attribute this trend to some lackluster cricket performance, miserable TV shows
and excellent marketing gimmicks by film makers. It is often said that good
advertising kills a bad product but this concept doesn’t seem to apply in Hindi
Films. Reason, there is no product. It’s like advertising for an advertisement of
a longer duration. Simply an ad of heavyweight stars in Bollywood. Unfortunately,
the junta is buying it. Slick advertising, promotion and marketing gimmicks
seem to be working for them. Peddling a poor product on the back of deft
editing is doing the trick and narrowly escaping the technical-specific film
critic as well.
The
100+ Crore business films club has got a few remarkable films of the recent
years, 3 Idiots, Dabangg, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) aside, none of the others
seem to be deserving of this scale.Golmaal
3, Ready, Singham, Bodyguard, Don 2 in the list is nothing less than shocking
to me. This outrage is because when we talk of progress and moving on, on the
one side, the junta is asking intelligent film-makers to bring us back the 90’s
masala oriented, slapstick comedy and thrills that made Shaktiman an action
hero. I mean, when progressive films like ZNMD, Rockstar and Delhi Belly were
embraced, why ask for shit like Ready and Bodyguard from the same group of
film-makers and artistes?
It
is appalling to see that action, slapstick and melodramatic agony aunties of
the 90’s are finding space in today’s theaters while Academy nominated films
like The Girl with the dragon Tattoo are being pulled up. I waited for over 4
months to see a classic like The Descendents and was thoroughly overjoyed (Boy,
what a classic!) but it was hurting at the same time because the rest of the
educated, city-bred Hinglish speaking crowd walked out of half a dozen theaters
screening ‘Ad’neepath. Today, with innovation, the idea is to embrace
technology, checked with Ra.One. With Ra.One, the movie as a whole is a
disaster but the whole idea of film business is applaudable because Ra.One
brought in technology to Hindi Films and Indian Cinema that is expensive and
state-of-the-art. Kudos to SRK to have that kind of courage and taking the risk
of making a film that did not have an iota of a concept to take us through its
runtime. Again, slick marketing and extra-mile promotions worked for SRK and
team.
Other
than technology, good script and real top notch acting is essential, checked
with ZNMD. ZNMD brought in that breath of fresh air in an otherwise uninspiring
2011. Changes are required, Dilwale Dulhaniya, Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti,Taare Zameen Par were some path breaking Hindi films and expectations
keep growing with such films but the purpose is defeated when film-makers are
encouraged to produce more films like Ready and Agneepath which are nothing but
re-makes of failed films of the past. Hence, audiences are quite easily foxed
to run to the theaters and spend nothing less than Rs. 500 per visit (everyone
pays for the popcorn, nachos and Coke).
This
angst is simply because I do not enjoy watching shit on a multiplex screen
after paying so much. Sometimes, I’m so disgusted even the popcorn taste like
puke. The ideal satisfaction and delight factor for an audience/customer is
when he feels “So much for so little”, but in the current season, all I get to
say is “So little for so much”. This is not going down well with a marketing grad
myself. I wish audiences would get some sense and this would stop soon, just
like a fad.
