These days the most common occupation in INDIA is to become film critic; switch any news channel, surf any site and u will get some orator giving his/her monologue. It is still a vivid memory when I use to wait for Sunday’s TOI review and I must say that reviews in those days were actually readable. Apart from being genuine it was surely mitochondria of knowledge; illustrating the technical aspect of a given movie which seems quite bereft these days.
Khallid Mohammoad, the famous film critic In B Town circuit and an infamous personality for his review and rating for shiva(1989) and Rangeela. Honestly, till this date I never miss his reviews, it’s not that I am fond of his point of view, but it’s his reviews which are so hilarious, absurd and sometimes shallow actually they are not reviews but his personal confrontation and resentment. There is some sense of insensibility which gets exude from his article, and if I don cult classics directed by Khalid himself; Fiza will be at top followed by Tehzeeb, and Silsilay (don’t know probably missed some, doesn’t matter).
Then there are other bloggers and commenter’s (Rajiv Masand, Raja Sen, Subash Jha..etc); some known- unknown critics, which plagiarize Khalid’s mannerism in terms of writing some of their rude comments. There is list huge list and has one thing in common; quest for logic.
Cinema is an art not a science which will be driven with logics and some equation, it requires the degree of conviction in the reasoning not the degree of rationality, we don’t have any mathematical equation of people falling in love or love at first sight, it simply happens; still I can’t make why these so called critics try to make cinema as a step sister of Rocket Science or Quantum Mechanism.
In the making of cinema, different forms of arts are amalgamated and canvas (celluloid) is painted with different colors. While doing so some of the inconsistencies happens and we accept it as a whole product. I am not advocating that any crap scene (Welcome or Singh is King or APKGK) can be accepted, but bashing entire movie for one scene is simply unethical, we can easily label them as mindless.
Any form of art will have its own inconsistencies, like in Baghban Amitabh calls Hema Malini from STD booth with one rupee coin and he sung entire song; for me it was sentimental, emotional and defiantly very reasonable but there are critic who try to fathom out the LOGIC. Similarly there are movies where actor has kaleidoscopic hairstyle or makeup (costume), these inconsistencies can be easily avoidable but still are pointed out as if it’s a faux pass. If they really want to question then why don’t they questions the sensibility of killing of Defense Minister in RDB or common man having RDX from A Wednesday, or for that matter blind man driving Ferrari in Scent of a women; no we don’t question them as degree of conviction overtakes logic. The above mentioned movies were widely accepted by audience as well as critics because they were judged as a complete movie. Critics dissect every scene and pin points the inconsistencies and while following the process they lose crux.
Primary job of a critic should be reviewing a movie, which includes lightning positives as well as negatives about the movie, but these days they prefer only negativities, because it sells and makes there channel or site an instant HIT.
Movie depicts the vision or the understanding of the director about a particular theme but critics watch them as if the movie was made from their perspective; which eventually turns out to be a clash of titans and when they write their perception which is further either misinterpreted or perceived by viewer from their own sensibility; and the final product is a disaster. The best cinematic example could be NOSMOKING, which is still considered as Space Odyssey of Indian cinema.
Having said that, I don’t want that critics should eulogize movies like Kambakth Ishq, or Billu barber but they should not bash till its maker claims it to be a Masterpiece or a great cinema. . If there is something to condemn in everything then there is something to praise in everything.
Giving ratings is another jugglery and has become a telesmatic virtue which often leads to the confusion. Since every product (movie) is a different one but still we can compare them and credit goes to critics. Since they rate them that’s why we compare them.
LAK (love aaj kal) was rated as 2 star and so was Agyaat, heros, NewYork, No Smoking and Wanted which was further compared to Ghajini ( 2 and Half), Bhool Bhulaiya (1 star) and Shiva ( 1 star).
So I believe that critics should follow some ethics, simply dithering is not there job. If they assume themselves to be a learned cinemagoer; then they should maintain some dignity and shouldn’t be bias and write both aspects of cinema.
Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bollywood. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, September 14, 2009
What is wrong with Bollywood?-Part 1
What is wrong with Bollywood?
This is the question which indeed has become question for our contemporary cinema. In the past two decades, i have been grown up watching Chopra’s, Barjatya’s, Johars, Roshan’s….etc and there is one common characteristic which binds them; they are all same.
There is another type of cinema, parallel cinema, cinema which has Hrishekesh Mukherjee’s simplicity and Shaym Benegal’s style of story telling; cinema which is more of abstract and hence is tabooed; at its fore front, we have RGV and his one time assistant Madhur Bhandarkar; Amit Shamin, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashayp …etc too belongs to the same league.
I can’t fathom how our choices have deteriorated so much; we are living in a constant façade that we are making a choice for watching a quality cinema, and on top of that this graph is ascending and linear. Out of TEN Bollywood movies, NINE are influenced from foreign films; out of NINE, barely one or two follow the suit and tag of being Influential, like Sarkar was loosely influenced from God Father Trilogy; but what about remaining seven?
Out of SEVEN, FIVE copies the theme and add their own stuff, Nishabd had the same theme as that of Lolita but was dealt in a different way; even this is acceptable if the output is not a crap unlike Deewane Hue Paagal, which was the disastrous version of Something About Mary and Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai, an irritable version of American Pie-I.
Out of these FIVE, TWO follows Copy-Paste technique. The technique is very simple and even a dud can practice it, use a writer who knows English and then translate all the subtitles into Hindi, Zinda, Frame by Frame copy of Old Boy and Murder, which is a Scene by Scene copy of Unfaithful; and the KING of Copy-Paste technique is the man with the multiple Bio-Pics; Zakhm, Kaash, Aarth, Woh Lamhe …….etc are few of those; and he is none other than Mr Mahesh Bhat; you name it and he has it.
I have no intention of writing about remakes; however I have one doubt; are we really incapable of making some descent cinema? I have made a sincere attempt to understand the psychology of our craftsmen ship, the so called Directors; who are losing their sensibility about Film Making and soon will be bereft. One who tops the charts is Satish kaushakh, director of Tere Naam. One question which baffles me is; why the hell he remade Karz with some extra zzzzzz’s and that too with H.R, and my next question is for a well renowned Director-producer Vipul Shah; I just want one answer, one justification, one simple reason about what he liked most about such an imbecile stuff like Singh is Kingg; was this a real Master piece as per him; why he became the producer of such a movie?
There is huge list of questions, especially for Johar’s and Chopra’s and I can’t write those right now. From all these unanswered question I have realized one fact, if Aap ka Saaroor can become an Instant hit and Movies like Welcome, Singh is King and Kambakth Ishq can rule the box office then why I should not I remake Karz with HR and try my hands on CC2C.
It’s not the Film Maker who should be considered responsible for bad cinema; it’s the audience who appreciates such movies and is the real culprit for such disastrous cinema. Bad cinema does not mean a Copied movie, to qualify for bad cinema the only parameter is the lack of conviction. Maan Gaye Mughle-Azam, one of the worst torture; I have ever been through was actually the copied version of classic, Black & White English movie, so just copying is not the holy grail.
We have been copying movies since we had accessibility to their cinema, I remember Nargis Dutt’s Raat Aur Din was first hindi Sci-Fic; where the protagonist has a Multiple Personality Disorder, this movie was copied from 1960’s Alfer Hatchcock’s Psycho. As I said I don’t have intention of criticizing this habit but my clear intention is to focus on the sensibility of the audience.
I believe that audience in 1970’s been much more mature and had a far better taste than the audience of this millennium. There was a time when Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Goolmal, Chupke Chupke, Bawarchi… etc were considered as descent comic capers and Silsala, kabhie Kabhie, Pyaasa, kaagaz ke phool set the rules for romantic films and finally there were thrillers like DON, Deewar, Kaala Pathar, Kalicharan, Chinatown, Shaan which elevated the standards of Hindi film Industry. Now time has changed, these days movies like Phir Hera Pheri, Goolmal Returns, AapkaSaroor, Jawani Deewani, Kamabkth Ishq, welcome, Partner, Aapna Sapna Money Money ……. … etc tickles our funny bone.
This revelation occurred when I saw Vivek Agnihotri’s Chocolate and i liked it as it was bit different from others; chocolate, a copy of Usual Suspect except some non sense song sequence. To my surprise, this movie was a flop and audience find its story (writing & Screenplay) quite arduous ; well I guess there is only one reason for its failure; director forgot something, something which cost him too much, he forgot about the audience, he forgot that we are Indians and we only understand the language of Chopra’s and Johars. We can only appreciate Sharukh’s Sobbing and Aamir’s yet to discover ACTING. No offense for SRK and AK’s fan, I do remember Chak de, Swades and Sarfarosh but I am going with the majority.
To describe Aamir Khan i think Ghajjni is enough, Ghajjni, a real dud , a perfect shame and the best spoof of Christopers Nolan’s Memento till date and for such an audacious attempt, Murgadose the director and Aamir Actor cum Director should be rewarded with some SPECIAL AWARD; as he says Every Director is special – Tare zameen Pe.
It’s not about being a flop or Box Office disaster, movies like No Smoking, Nishabd, Katha, Suraj Ka Satwan Goda, Mammo, Nishant, English August …….. Were never intended for any commercial success, indeed they needed some appreciation.
Throughout the thread I was quite pensive, for me these film makers are just like jezebel, who contemplates accordingly. If cinema has to evolve then it’s the audience who has to evolve first; same is the case with System or for that matter our Country.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence - Albert Einstein
This is the question which indeed has become question for our contemporary cinema. In the past two decades, i have been grown up watching Chopra’s, Barjatya’s, Johars, Roshan’s….etc and there is one common characteristic which binds them; they are all same.
There is another type of cinema, parallel cinema, cinema which has Hrishekesh Mukherjee’s simplicity and Shaym Benegal’s style of story telling; cinema which is more of abstract and hence is tabooed; at its fore front, we have RGV and his one time assistant Madhur Bhandarkar; Amit Shamin, Mani Ratnam, Anurag Kashayp …etc too belongs to the same league.
I can’t fathom how our choices have deteriorated so much; we are living in a constant façade that we are making a choice for watching a quality cinema, and on top of that this graph is ascending and linear. Out of TEN Bollywood movies, NINE are influenced from foreign films; out of NINE, barely one or two follow the suit and tag of being Influential, like Sarkar was loosely influenced from God Father Trilogy; but what about remaining seven?
Out of SEVEN, FIVE copies the theme and add their own stuff, Nishabd had the same theme as that of Lolita but was dealt in a different way; even this is acceptable if the output is not a crap unlike Deewane Hue Paagal, which was the disastrous version of Something About Mary and Yeh Kya Ho Raha Hai, an irritable version of American Pie-I.
Out of these FIVE, TWO follows Copy-Paste technique. The technique is very simple and even a dud can practice it, use a writer who knows English and then translate all the subtitles into Hindi, Zinda, Frame by Frame copy of Old Boy and Murder, which is a Scene by Scene copy of Unfaithful; and the KING of Copy-Paste technique is the man with the multiple Bio-Pics; Zakhm, Kaash, Aarth, Woh Lamhe …….etc are few of those; and he is none other than Mr Mahesh Bhat; you name it and he has it.
I have no intention of writing about remakes; however I have one doubt; are we really incapable of making some descent cinema? I have made a sincere attempt to understand the psychology of our craftsmen ship, the so called Directors; who are losing their sensibility about Film Making and soon will be bereft. One who tops the charts is Satish kaushakh, director of Tere Naam. One question which baffles me is; why the hell he remade Karz with some extra zzzzzz’s and that too with H.R, and my next question is for a well renowned Director-producer Vipul Shah; I just want one answer, one justification, one simple reason about what he liked most about such an imbecile stuff like Singh is Kingg; was this a real Master piece as per him; why he became the producer of such a movie?
There is huge list of questions, especially for Johar’s and Chopra’s and I can’t write those right now. From all these unanswered question I have realized one fact, if Aap ka Saaroor can become an Instant hit and Movies like Welcome, Singh is King and Kambakth Ishq can rule the box office then why I should not I remake Karz with HR and try my hands on CC2C.
It’s not the Film Maker who should be considered responsible for bad cinema; it’s the audience who appreciates such movies and is the real culprit for such disastrous cinema. Bad cinema does not mean a Copied movie, to qualify for bad cinema the only parameter is the lack of conviction. Maan Gaye Mughle-Azam, one of the worst torture; I have ever been through was actually the copied version of classic, Black & White English movie, so just copying is not the holy grail.
We have been copying movies since we had accessibility to their cinema, I remember Nargis Dutt’s Raat Aur Din was first hindi Sci-Fic; where the protagonist has a Multiple Personality Disorder, this movie was copied from 1960’s Alfer Hatchcock’s Psycho. As I said I don’t have intention of criticizing this habit but my clear intention is to focus on the sensibility of the audience.
I believe that audience in 1970’s been much more mature and had a far better taste than the audience of this millennium. There was a time when Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, Goolmal, Chupke Chupke, Bawarchi… etc were considered as descent comic capers and Silsala, kabhie Kabhie, Pyaasa, kaagaz ke phool set the rules for romantic films and finally there were thrillers like DON, Deewar, Kaala Pathar, Kalicharan, Chinatown, Shaan which elevated the standards of Hindi film Industry. Now time has changed, these days movies like Phir Hera Pheri, Goolmal Returns, AapkaSaroor, Jawani Deewani, Kamabkth Ishq, welcome, Partner, Aapna Sapna Money Money ……. … etc tickles our funny bone.
This revelation occurred when I saw Vivek Agnihotri’s Chocolate and i liked it as it was bit different from others; chocolate, a copy of Usual Suspect except some non sense song sequence. To my surprise, this movie was a flop and audience find its story (writing & Screenplay) quite arduous ; well I guess there is only one reason for its failure; director forgot something, something which cost him too much, he forgot about the audience, he forgot that we are Indians and we only understand the language of Chopra’s and Johars. We can only appreciate Sharukh’s Sobbing and Aamir’s yet to discover ACTING. No offense for SRK and AK’s fan, I do remember Chak de, Swades and Sarfarosh but I am going with the majority.
To describe Aamir Khan i think Ghajjni is enough, Ghajjni, a real dud , a perfect shame and the best spoof of Christopers Nolan’s Memento till date and for such an audacious attempt, Murgadose the director and Aamir Actor cum Director should be rewarded with some SPECIAL AWARD; as he says Every Director is special – Tare zameen Pe.
It’s not about being a flop or Box Office disaster, movies like No Smoking, Nishabd, Katha, Suraj Ka Satwan Goda, Mammo, Nishant, English August …….. Were never intended for any commercial success, indeed they needed some appreciation.
Throughout the thread I was quite pensive, for me these film makers are just like jezebel, who contemplates accordingly. If cinema has to evolve then it’s the audience who has to evolve first; same is the case with System or for that matter our Country.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence - Albert Einstein
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