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| INDIAN
CINEMA POST - ENDHIRAN |
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| By
Behindwoods Visitor Vishnu Sarma |
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views expressed in this column are that of the visitor.
Behindwoods.com doesn't hold responsible for its content. |
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In
Endhiran there is a scene immediately
after Chitti and Ash dance to the brilliantly
composed Chitti dance showcase, in which
Vaseegaran develops a jealousy towards
the Android. In that scene, Vasi lets
out human emotions in the form of anger,
irritation and jealousy forgetting the
fact that he is dealing with an Android
which he himself has created. It is the
moments like these that we as an audience
feel that Chitti is very much part of
the whole plot of the film and not just
be there to be a part of only the special
effects in the climax scenes. So if a
film is made with well defined characters
, no matter what the budget is, which
can support the flow of the story, then
there is a seldom chance that the film
will fail. Shankar has been proving this
point all these years since Gentlemen
and yet again in Endhiran he sticks to
his basics inspite of the big names, record
production cost and above all the most
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thing, living upto the hype and expectations. That
is going to be my whole point of this article. In
the sense, the question is what does the success of
Endhiran mean to Indian cinema especially Tamil cinema?
After
coming out of the cinema hall watching Endhiran especially
after experiencing the breathtaking special effects
in the last 40 minutes of the film, audiences might
have felt that there is going to be no other film
made in the future to match the quality of Endhiran
. But I feel Endhiran should be looked at as an opportunity
or a license to shatter all the production cost notions
in Indian cinema. Production houses should now be
able to think beyond the 60-70 crores margin to increase
the quality of the film. But if that has to happen
there is a huge responsibility on the filmmakers.
Unless they come up with an exciting script and well
defined characters there is absolutely no point for
a production house to invest 100+ crores in a film.
Because production houses want to play safe and that
isn’t a sin because they are in a business.
For example, factors such as star value, songs, exotic
locations, director’s or producer’s reputation
in the film industry will be significant enough to
contribute to atleast the grand opening of the film
but if the script of the film isn’t well knit
then the film’s BO performance slowly dies out
after the first week craze. Those way Hindi films
play safe even with a wafer thin story/script in their
films. All they need to do is get any of the top 3
Khans/Akshay kumar, with trademark ‘dhinchak’
music, directed by a renowed name in the industry,
produced by a renowed production house, a 60-70 crore
for the film is a safe bet. The film gets a worldwide
opening and it gets back 75-80% of the investment
in the first week because the big names sell. Nothing
wrong in it because after all filmmaking is a business
and every producer wants to see his films make more
money than that invested.
But how long are we going to play safe? Filmmaking
has 24 crafts and each craft has no limits to try
new things. Playing safe will only restrict the scope
of filmmaking. Endhiran could have well been made
on a 60-70 crores budget margin because the name ‘Rajnikanth’
is enough to sell. But it would have been just another
run of the mill film. This is where Shankar comes
in to contribute a decent story, script, well defined
characters, which meant that the film will hold the
audiences interest for more than a week. This also
means that a production house can safely invest more
than the safe margin. If ‘Chitti’ becomes
a cult character in the future it will be because
it had a well defined role in the film, very much
a part of the plot and not just because it turns into
a giant ball/python/demonic robot during the climax.
Since we have this inferior feeling of comparing everything
to Hollywood, I rate Endhiran’s success on par
with Rahman’s Oscar wins. So filmmakers, get
busy working on script and compel the production houses
to increase the safe margin from 60-70 crores to 150+
crores.
Vishnu Sarma
vishnuv.sarma@gmail.com
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| Tags
: Endhiran,
Rajinikanth,
AR
Rahman,
Shankar,
Aishwarya
Rai |
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