Returning from a long hibernation – not sure why but was lazy to even look at my blog leave alone posting anything new. It’s been a little more than a year since I last posted here. In between saw some great movies and also experimented quite a bit in the kitchen – two activities (cinema and food) close to me and on which this blog is based; but given the sluggish frame of mind I was in never got to write anything about them.
Never mind the delay, the actual trigger that brought me back was an interesting controversy unfolding in my good old “mallu” film industry. About couple of months ago a lanky young man with dreams of making it big in films came up with a novel theme (purely in terms of the treatment and has got nothing to do with the actual content). What started as a video in one of the popular video sharing portals soon went viral prompting the filmmaker to release the movie in theaters.
What happened after that was sheer sensationalism, people especially youngsters (the college bunking crowd) thronged cinema halls to catch a glimpse of the latest arrival in the film industry, to garland the hero one may think but no they were there to throw the choicest of abuses at the person who dished out the one of the most ridiculous and rubbish versions of pure adulterated cinema. But what surprised the entire film industry was the number of people visiting cinemas to abuse the said film. The numbers were so huge that it had a reverse impact and the movie instantly started getting the required numbers to be termed as a super hit film.
The movie in question is “Krishnanum Radheyum” and the person in the middle of the controversy is “Santosh Pandit”One look at the trailer or songs of the film would make any discernable movie buff to get a churning in the bowels. “Trash” will be an under rated word to be associated with this excuse of a term called cinema.
This brings us to the question of the day – do we watch cinema for the love of it or for pure entertainment or time-pass? The answer may vary with every individual but am sure that for each varying reason the underlying fact remains that the only good cinema is appreciated. But if that is the case, then why do some good movies flop at the box office? The reason is simple – the concept is not accepted by the majority. But is the acceptance by majority good enough to term the film as an excellent movie? Not necessarily I would think, case in point being the aforementioned Santosh Pandit’s film. In terms of the attempt, however, credit should be given to the man for donning 14 hats (lyrics, music, fights, art, editing, back-ground music, effects, singer, story, dialogues, script, costumes, production designing and title graphics) apart from playing the protagonist. But at the end of the day it is the final product that matters – whether it is worth being called a piece of art. Depending on the individual’s preference the art piece may be liked or scorned at.
Off late there is a growing gap in the films that are being made by Bollywood and other language films especially the South Indian ones -Bollywood’s biggest competitor. I feel this difference is due to the fact that both industries have different definitions of cinema. Agreed the end objective is to make money but at what cost, Hindi film industry is no longer star obsessed, it is treading a path where new subjects, innovative ways of narration with fresh characters are being explored. E.g. Rocket Singh, Shaitan, Life in Metro and of-course all the Aamir Khan movies. This according to them is an integral part of cinema evolving as a medium of entertainment. On the other hand there is the South Indian film industry which still have subjects written with the superstars in mind, hardly any change in the narrative style and actors who continue to ham their way to glory. The reason for this sticking to old style is simple – we want to make cinema for the masses. What it fails to realize or is simply plain lazy for that is the fact that even the masses have evolved and they need a fresh input. With very little option available they have no choice but to lap up whatever is being dished out.
