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