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Matching Hollywood: More than just ‘size’
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How
do we define growth? Getting bigger or getting
better! Balanced growth has to be a bit of both.
Before this starts sounding like an article on
nutrition and balanced diets, let me clarify that
this is only about cinema. The Indian film industry
sometimes seems to function with the frame of
mind that growth only means getting bigger; the
‘better’ part is not taken care of
enough. The media too has played its part in perpetuating
this attitude. The definition of ‘going
to the next level’ of Indian cinema has
always been in terms of budgets and release strategy
more than anything else.
Of course, budget, publicity and the final gross
figures are very important in defining the growth
of an industry. After all, don’t we measure
the worth of companies by their annual turnover,
quarterly reports and share value! But, this pre-occupation
with size must not occlude our vision of a very
important facet of film making – the concept
(or) the heart of a film.
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Over
the last decade or so, most experiments in Indian cinema
have been based on ‘size’ more than anything
else. Yes, there have been experiments that have tried
new concepts too; but they have rarely been given the
status or recognition that they deserve. From 2001-2010,
there has been more than a 10 fold increase in the budgets
(also star salaries), but Indian cinema cannot claim
to have had a proportional enrichment on the ‘concept’
front. We still are occupied with the same ‘triangle
love story’, the ‘revenge saga’, ‘family
drama’, ‘political tug-o-war’ etc…..
While there has been tremendous confidence shown by
the industry in terms of increasing expenditure, a similar
or comparable zest towards new concepts has been missing.
One fact about the Indian film industry is that (though
many have denied it) is that it aspires to be as good
or better than Hollywood (the big brother of world cinema).
While we have been trying hard and relentlessly to get
there in terms of budget, scale and global presence
there has been a failure in realizing that experiments
on the concept front too need to be on par with Hollywood
standards.
The biggest and best laboratory known to man is his
own mind; though many don’t realize it. There
are no limitations that the mind and imagination know.
It is in this laboratory that all the wonderful things
of this world were first conceptualized. While Hollywood
has always given the mind and imagination enough and
more room to work wonders, Indian cinema gives an impression
that it does not allow imagination to take flight as
much as it needs to.
Look at the kind of experiments that Hollywood attempts
on the concept front! They often wander into the realm
of fantasy crossing over to the realm of the crazy and
outlandish; surprising and fascinating us all at once.
And, all of these films really don’t demand a
huge budget; they are huge in terms of ideas that are
being attempted. A few examples are given here –
not many of you would have missed the Adam Sandler starrer
‘Click’ which told the story of a man who
chanced upon a remote that could control his life. It
certainly did not require a higher than normal budget
but was an enormous experiment in terms of novelty of
the subject. Or take for instance the ‘Jim Carrey
starrer, ‘The Truman Show’ (which is perhaps
the craziest concept that one can come across). Here
too, there was no great action, great sets or animation,
yet the concept made the movie one hell of an experiment.
Or, consider movies like ‘Fifty First Dates’,
‘Jumaanji’, ‘Night at a Museum’,
‘Castaway’, ‘Fightclub’, ‘Phonebooth’
(we have a pale imitation of this movie on screens now)
etc. All these moves have played their part in making
Hollywood cinema more popular all over the world, but
not a single one of them was made on a huge budget or
relied on cutting edge technology; all the sweat broken
over the making of these movies was at the writing table.
It is the mind and imagination that makes such movies
possible.
There have been instances where after watching a huge
movie like ‘Avatar’ we have wondered whether
Indian cinema can ever match up to Hollywood because
of the kind of money that is required. But, give the
mind enough scope and we will soon be churning out immensely
popular movies without having to resort to gigantic
budgets.
This is not to say that Indian cinema has never tried
extremely novel and crazy concepts. We have some very
good examples; the recent Ishqiya, A Wednesday, the
two decade old Iyer the Great, the Malayalam flick Paleri
Manickyam are all examples of cinema where concept was
the driving point more than anything else. The only
complaint is that at present there seems to be too much
emphasis on ‘size’ overlooking the potential
of the mind and imagination.
And finally, a footnote on one of the bravest contemporary
experiments in Indian cinema–Endhiran! Please
do not see this as a nitpick or as a ‘wise in
hindsight’ view. Endhiran is definitely a landmark
movie in Indian cinema that has leveraged us to a new
level. But, there is one aspect where it could have
been better. Here it is -in spite of being the first
robot- based theme of Indian cinema, it was basically
a ‘triangle love story’. Look at Hollywood;
while making such movies they explore themes like ‘annihilation
of the human race’, the ‘machines vs. humans
war’ etc. These kinds of concepts have a larger
and deeper impact on the mind of the viewer. Endhiran
too could have been one such film, that too at almost
the same cost; if only the willingness to experiment
a bit more with the concept (the courage to do away
with a love angle).
Give the mind its space; believe in crazy ideas; it
might just work wonders.
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