BOLLYWOoD LOVERS AND AMITABH ADMIRERS AVOID THIS BLOG
A friend of mine who has been aspiring to make it big in Bollywood tells me that whenever he meets a producer or director with a script he is asked ‘Show me the Hollywood or Madrassi original !’He is now in his fifteenth year of striving to make a break into Bollywood and has no hesitation in stating that ‘ we are a shameless people with no self respect’. He was especially pained at the blatant plagiarism and contempt for originality that pervades the film industry. Not many know that there is now a group of youngsters which spends considerable time and effort in identifying the original movies from where our ‘ hit ‘ films are copied. Some so- called blockbusters are not just copies but copies of a copy. The box office hit ‘Om Shanti Om’ was based on the 70’s film KARZ by Shubash Ghai and that film was in turn based on the Hollywood film ‘ The reincarnation of Peter Proud.’
The all time hit SHOLAY was ‘ inspired’ by –hold your breath—18 foreign movies beginning with the all-time Japanese classic THE SEVEN SAMURAI !Sholay could have been named THE TWO SAMURAI !
The much touted BLACK was based on a Hollywood flick about Helen Keller .
Come to acting. The ‘icon’ Amitabh Bachahan has made billions and earned the admiration of people all over the developing world. But when you examine his acting unemotionally you may admit that his was a perfect example of over acting, of melodrama of the kind which was carried to extremes by the thespian Shivaji Ganeshan. When I recall some of Amitabh or Shivaji films I feel like screaming. I am sure I will incur the wrath of Bollywood fans if I say that Bachchan’s dance steps have been the same over three decades and more. He has no variety even in shaking his feet.
When I was told that TAARE ZAMIN PAR was a ‘ superb’ movie I dashed to the theater. I am sorry to disappoint you but I felt that a rather simplistic approach to a serious problem of dyslexia was the hallmark of the film .No doubt many ladies used their handkerchiefs to contain their emotions but love of children is a constant in our movies and culture and any film that attends to this emotion will be a hit. I recall that a certain movie hall in Mumbai gave away free handkerchiefs to all ladies streaming in to watch a bollywood movie which was based –as befits most bollywood films – on a movie made in another language called MAHERCHI SADI.
The film was an execrable tale of the trials of a daughter in law the sort of film that is supposed to motivate you to pay money to be motivated to throw stones at your mother in law.
Actor Irfan is now of the few who has the guts to tell the public that he finds most actors hamming their way thorough any role Now we have the authority of Naseeruddin Shah –one of those actors who holds out hope of sensible acting—that the hit films like CHAK DE and TAARE.. are silly films. Now in the autumn of his career he has been largely wasted by mindless film makers.
When it comes to music the website I referred to earlier may convince us that most music directors carry wads of music cd’s of western pop music Thus we are told -as if we need to be told—that Anu Mallik may be among the worst offenders and Rehman the least.
I recall reading in my childhood the Hindi film AAN being screened to some Hollywood bigwigs including Cecil B Demille of TEN COMMANDMENTS fame. As he was emerging from the theater Demille was asked what he felt about the movie. ‘It goes ANN AND ANN ‘ was his reply.
I quote Naseerudun Shah —
I’m utterly bored of acting. I’ve completely given up hope about a decent film being made in the film industry. I don’t think Chak De India or Taare Zameen Par are great films. They are average. We are light years way from international standards. See a film like The Lives of Others and we send a film like Black to compete with it at the Oscars. We should be ashamed of ourselves. It’s like the famous story of the late Sohrab Modi (I don’t mean to run him down, he was a great filmmaker). He got a German cameraman to shoot his film Jhansi Ki Rani with an army of 10,000 people. He turned around to the cameraman and asked, ‘What do you think of the spectacle?’ He replied, ‘The spectacle is all fine but where is the drama?’
Talking of Oscars I am always amused by the way we hold our collective breaths for the results to be announced as if , given the kind of films we send to the Oscars we stood any chance at all .In the end of course some film form Tunisia or Chad walks away with the awards.
About ten years ago I asked a bollywood director why we had not come up with a decent suspense film. I had in mind Hitchcock .
‘Who says we do not make suspense films. Almost all films are suspense films. Whenever the hero and heroine meet we know they are going to burst into a song, there is no suspense about that, but the suspense lies in guessing which tree they would run around!”
Oh for a serious film made with respect for the audience . My bollywood friends tell me that the public wants entertainment and ‘that’s what we give them.’. My film viewing friends tell me that given the stress-filled lives they lead they do not wish to see ‘serious cinema.’. They wish to escape from reality. There may be some point to that but then I remember that in the past such ‘ entertaining films’ were dubbed as ‘ escapist fare’ and meant for people whom we contemptuously referred to as ‘front benchers’. It seems that we are all front benchers now even as people and film directors of Chad, Mali and Tunisia are emerging as makers and lovers of sensible cinema. As far as I know most educated Indians would be loath to be found in the company of those countries. We are an emerging superpower ,are we not?
K.R.RAVI
USA