Most of the movies that come out of
Bollywood are nothing but cheap
imitations of Hollywood flicks and
movies like Munnabhai are really an
exception. Leave alone the run of
the mill movies. They are worthless
and God knows why we even watch
them. May be because they are on TV,
Cable or in the theaters, we watch
them. Even very very successful and
cult movies like Jo Jeeta Wohi
Sikandar (Breaking Away), Dil Hai ki
Manta Nahin (It Happened One Night),
Akele Hum Akele Tum (Kramer vs
Kramer), Sholay for most part (Butch
Cassidy and Sundance Kid), Kaante
(Usual Suspects for the first half,
Reservoir Dogs for Second Half),
Satte pe Satta ( Seven Brides for
Seven Gentlemen), are nothing but
cheap, scene by scene imitations.
Most of the dialogues are Hindi
translation of the original English
dialogues. If you don't believe me,
please watch these movies and then
make the comments.
The directors who always claim to
make "hatke" movies will appear so
hollow and bankrupt that you would
begin to wonder isn't there any law
to prosecute these directors for
copyright infringement or wonder why
these Hollywood studios don't
bother. I mean the striking
resemblance would leave you
bewildered.
I also agree with Rajesh that most
of the actors out there in Bollywood
are there just because they were
born into Bollywood. But still there
are quite a few talented actors but
for the most part, what ails
Bollywood, at least the mainstream
and commercial movies, today is lack
of talented writers. They are just
bereft of any ideas and would just
come up with a cocktail of scripts
of all these Hollywood movies.
Now, these writers are going even
further. They have started to
imitate the Korean and German
movies. What offends most is that
these writers/directors wouldn't
even acknowledge that the movie is
inspired, copied or whatever from
some other movies. I mean they just
treat the audience as so dumb that
they claim anything of their own. If
you watch Magnificent Seven, in the
very beginning the director mentions
that this is a remake of Seven
Samurai... I mean then I know that
the director is not claiming is his
own something that is not his
original idea. Given this
environment, I was so pleased to see
Munnabhai MBBS and I admire the
writer and director for coming out
with truly an original script and
entertaining movie. I am already
looking forward to his next project
and I hope there would be more
writers and directors like him.
About actors and actresses of
current crop, basically the
philosophy is that throw enough dung
on the wall, something is gonna
stick and make enough money for the
media to claim him/her as a
superstar. I don't need to list them
here. I guess the readers are
intelligent enough to know which
actors/actresses can really act and
who can not. - Ravindra Kumar -
Sept. 28, 2006
I think when we become over
–critical about Bollywood, we run
the risk of over-looking the decent
work of film-makers. I agree the
number of flops or mediocre films
have increased but that is because
we produce more number of films
these days. As far as quality films
are concerned, Bollywood has given
us some very good movies in the last
decade or so.
Here is the list, in no particular
order:
Iqbaal, 1942 – A Love Story, Hum Dil
De Chuke Sanam, Khaaki, Dor,
Hyderabad Blues, Lagaan, Hera Pheri
(1999), Page –3, My Brother Nikhil,
Mr. & Mrs. Iyer, Rang De Basanti,
Yuva, Sarkar, DDLJ, Pinjar, Damini,
Parineeta, Vaastav, Astitva,
Mrityudand, Sarfarosh, Maachis,
Gangajal, Munnabhai MBBS...
Well, this is my list and whether
all the movies are good or not is
debatable but I am sure most of them
will pass the litmus test. Agreed,
the list is small and this is a
concern but there might be few other
movies not mentioned here because
they either didn’t find favor with
the media or I have chosen to
overlook them.
Main, Meri Patni or Woh is a classic
example. I won’t be surprised if you
have not heard of it.
We should acknowledge that amid the
culture of copying the “tried and
tested “ formula, we also have lot
of experimentation being done by the
likes of Madhu Bhandarkar, Vinod
Chopra, Rajkumar Santoshi, Bhansali
to name a few.
Moreover, I wouldn’t mind a copied
product if the result is “Black”. I
haven’t seen the original (Miracle
Worker?) and would probably never
see it but I don’t see any harm in
coming up with a beautiful movie
like Black for the Indian audience.
While paying due respect to movies
and music of 60, 70s, we should keep
in my mind that they were
made/composed with that era in mind.
We may continue to be nostalgic and
appreciate Madan Mohan and Dilip
Kumar, but the truth is we have to
move on and realize that
movies/music only try to represent
the changing times. Having said
that, I agree with Mr Rajesh and Mr
Ravindra Kumar that there is ample
scope of improvement and there is
still a long way to go. I just
wanted to highlight the “kamal in
the mud” J
Speaking of quality of acting, I beg
to disagree here. I don’t think we
have dearth of good actors
(literally speaking). Aamir, Saif,
Ajay, Abhishek, Manoj Bajpayee,
Irfaan Khan, Raani, Preity, Kajol,
Tabu, are very good at portraying
the characters they play in the
movies and I haven’t spoken of Big B
yet. Does it really matter if they
have inherited the profession, are
born actors or have come up the
ranks? - Ravindra Shahi - Sept.
29, 2006
Rajesh and Ravindra,
I can understand how offended and
disturb you guys are with couple of
bad movies. I don’t blame you. I
appreciate your concern for this
form of entertainment.
But I don’t completely agree with
you guys on the quality of movies
that is being produced in Bollywood
nowadays. In recent years Bollywood
has produced some masterpieces. For
example movies like “Rang De Basanti”,
“Omkara”, “Lage Raho Munnbhai” are
mind blowing. You will have to
appreciate the brain that directors
of these movies have put in. I don’t
think Bollywood has ever produced
movies like “Black” till now…hats
off to Sanjay Leela Bansali. Nagesh
Kukunoor’s “3 Deewarein” , “Iqbal”
and now “Dor” are treat to eyes. The
count is innumerable and so is the
brilliance of this genre of
directors.
The point which I want to drive in
is that it is not fair to compare
these two generations of Bollywood.
In yesteryears, there were very few
directors and as many writers,
singers, lyricist and actors. In
those days there wasn’t competition
like we have now. Technically we
were backwards. But now technically
we are almost at par with Hollywood
and other countries’ movies. Take
the example of a recent flick-
Hrithik Roshan starrer “Krrish”, it
was brilliant in every aspect of
movie making. Nowadays, the
competition in the market is cut
throat. There so many movie makers.
Each year more than 300-400 movies
are produced in Bollywood. There are
ought be some good and some bad
produce. After all, Bollywood
doesn't practice Six Sigma!!!!
Bottom-line, there are both good and
bad. We the viewers will have to
select between them. - Jayant
Singh, Glendale, AZ, USA - Oct. 1,
2006 |
