Monojit Lahiri investigates B-town's latest, booming bimari!
Film critic, Anupama Chopra had lamented about this earlier when Sallu bhai was on the rampage with his monster hits, - Ready, Dabangg, Body Guard – but the obsession with this figure took on very sad, disappointing dimensions when recently the release of the late Yash Chopra’s swan song, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, was completely hi-jacked by how soon this dazzling SRK-Katrina-Anushka rom-com would blast the Rs 100 crore mark; and not whether the film was the perfect ending to a filmmaker’s magnificent obsession of using love as a passionate leitmotif of all his films. Not whether SRK, despite his 45 years age, managed to wow and charm the mickey of his zillion fans with his matchless, stylised body language and histrionics; not whether the two heroines, in their own respective ways, fleshed out their roles with the sense of abandon and sensitivity demanded and not whether the Gulzar-Rehman magic, the spectacular locales and canvas out-excelled Yash ji’s earlier efforts. Whatever happened to old-fashioned movie-going experience - the thrill starting from the time the lights dimmed, submitting to magical willful suspension of disbelief right through and returning satiated and enthralled?
Even up till a few years ago, life was different. Mainstream publications and TV channels did reviews. Hits were defined by Silver, Gold and Diamond jubilees, with dazzling, glamorous parties marking the occasion, with reports splashed across film mags. Details of daily/weekend/weekly/monthly collections were restricted strictly to the ‘trade magazines’. In recent times however, this Rs 100 crore disease has spread like a fungus and today, in crass, blatant and brazen manner, First day/Weekend/Weekly collections – real or fictional – are blitzed across mainstream and film publications with depressing regularity! Has the fun and enjoyment of going to the movies reduced to an IPO-watch? Have the merchants taken over from the mavericks and magicians?
Many heavyweights of B-town share this concern. Rajkumar Hirani (Director of Munnabhai and 3 Idiots) is extremely uncomfortable with this fact and articulates it in no uncertain times. He suspects it is a chilling sign of a consumerist and market-obsessed time when people are encouraged to know the price of everything and the value of nothing! “For God’s sake, it’s not an IPO but a film! Sure I understand and am concerned about the ROI factor, but for me audience appreciation is the key. People loving your film and recommending it to others remains a matchless high. For me, the shoe-string-budgeted Jane Bhi Do Yaro, made three decades ago, is way beyond any Rs 100 crore movie because even today it is remembered, loved and given cult status.” Both Anurag (Barfi) Basu and Kabir (Ek Tha Tiger) Khan agree. Basu – returning after a big budget disaster, Kites, admitted he was apprehensive about the commercial viability of his movie. “Transforming young, hot, popular, glam stars like Ranbir and Piryanka into sexless deaf-dumb-artistic creatures could be risky. The content, too, was anti-glam. Would the audiences respond to the soul to the film? I guess I got lucky! If you go with your heart, chances are, it will find another.” Kabir agrees. “You can’t sit down with the self-created agenda of writing a Rs 100 crore film! Stupid! You have to go with your sense of self-belief. I did exactly that for Ek Tha Tiger and God was kind. It worked.” And how!
Film critic, Anupama Chopra had lamented about this earlier when Sallu bhai was on the rampage with his monster hits, - Ready, Dabangg, Body Guard – but the obsession with this figure took on very sad, disappointing dimensions when recently the release of the late Yash Chopra’s swan song, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, was completely hi-jacked by how soon this dazzling SRK-Katrina-Anushka rom-com would blast the Rs 100 crore mark; and not whether the film was the perfect ending to a filmmaker’s magnificent obsession of using love as a passionate leitmotif of all his films. Not whether SRK, despite his 45 years age, managed to wow and charm the mickey of his zillion fans with his matchless, stylised body language and histrionics; not whether the two heroines, in their own respective ways, fleshed out their roles with the sense of abandon and sensitivity demanded and not whether the Gulzar-Rehman magic, the spectacular locales and canvas out-excelled Yash ji’s earlier efforts. Whatever happened to old-fashioned movie-going experience - the thrill starting from the time the lights dimmed, submitting to magical willful suspension of disbelief right through and returning satiated and enthralled?
Even up till a few years ago, life was different. Mainstream publications and TV channels did reviews. Hits were defined by Silver, Gold and Diamond jubilees, with dazzling, glamorous parties marking the occasion, with reports splashed across film mags. Details of daily/weekend/weekly/monthly collections were restricted strictly to the ‘trade magazines’. In recent times however, this Rs 100 crore disease has spread like a fungus and today, in crass, blatant and brazen manner, First day/Weekend/Weekly collections – real or fictional – are blitzed across mainstream and film publications with depressing regularity! Has the fun and enjoyment of going to the movies reduced to an IPO-watch? Have the merchants taken over from the mavericks and magicians?
Many heavyweights of B-town share this concern. Rajkumar Hirani (Director of Munnabhai and 3 Idiots) is extremely uncomfortable with this fact and articulates it in no uncertain times. He suspects it is a chilling sign of a consumerist and market-obsessed time when people are encouraged to know the price of everything and the value of nothing! “For God’s sake, it’s not an IPO but a film! Sure I understand and am concerned about the ROI factor, but for me audience appreciation is the key. People loving your film and recommending it to others remains a matchless high. For me, the shoe-string-budgeted Jane Bhi Do Yaro, made three decades ago, is way beyond any Rs 100 crore movie because even today it is remembered, loved and given cult status.” Both Anurag (Barfi) Basu and Kabir (Ek Tha Tiger) Khan agree. Basu – returning after a big budget disaster, Kites, admitted he was apprehensive about the commercial viability of his movie. “Transforming young, hot, popular, glam stars like Ranbir and Piryanka into sexless deaf-dumb-artistic creatures could be risky. The content, too, was anti-glam. Would the audiences respond to the soul to the film? I guess I got lucky! If you go with your heart, chances are, it will find another.” Kabir agrees. “You can’t sit down with the self-created agenda of writing a Rs 100 crore film! Stupid! You have to go with your sense of self-belief. I did exactly that for Ek Tha Tiger and God was kind. It worked.” And how!
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