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The recent crops of movies made on supposedly bold themes are nothing but feeble attempts in trying to tickle the gullible Indian male libido. Blatantly plagiarized from tastefully directly foreign films, you almost think that everyone in India is on a cheating spree. Filmmakers fail to place the movies in an appropriate Indian context, and concentrate solely on the picturization of songs and explicit love scenes. Heck, the soft pron flicks have better love scenes than the ones we have seen in recent Hindi movies. I rather see the famed flower-bee interlude frames. You find yourself with a disgusted feeling rather than being turned on.
Movies like Boom, Murder, Julie, Hawas (what the…), and Girlfriend to name a few are nothing more than stupid attempts to pander to the lower stall crowds. But strangely enough such movies do well at the box office albeit at the cost of better movies like Lakshya or Maqbool. We really can’t blame the film makers because I don’t see any incentive to treat movies like a product and not some shoddy intermediary to make a quick buck. Do the directors think that we are insane idiots ready to swallow any stupidity on screen? The trend of latest hits however does indicate that we indeed are idiots. All the recent hits make me shake my head in disbelief because I simply cannot see how those movies could even pass the sanity test. I do not see myself waiting for any new movie in the near future, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black might be the exception thanks to glowing reviews. But I won’t be surprised if it struggles to break even at the box office, further coaxing moviemakers away from making better movies. Its not that such movies have newbie actors who are blackmailed into dishing out crap, they have mostly notable actors who in the past have wowed us with brilliant performances. I would just burst out laughing if I have to act out a stupid scene; the fact that I would never be up there notwithstanding.
Is it that I analyze them too much or I just try to look for something more than popcorn fun for brain dead cells? David Dhawan made some crappy movies too but at least raised a few laughs although most of it was slapstick comedy. “You should watch the movie without thinking too much” – was the common advice doled out but outright deficiencies in the story or direction in supposedly thriller/drama movies are not funny anymore. Whenever we watch some crappy movie on a serious theme, it just makes me want to tear my eyeballs out, although the simultaneous ridiculing of the movie does ease the pain a little.
Someone please tell me that the tapes are being doctored and movies aren’t really that crappy.
by Patrix | on Monday, September 13th, 2004 at 11:05 pm | 
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September 14th, 2004 at 1:24 am reply
:) The movie ka name is Girlfriend, not boyfriend. Also, watch “Phir Milenge”. Very nice movie, sensitive issue handled well. Have you seen Yuva? And what about Dhoom…? Timepass popcorn movie hai.
cheers
September 14th, 2004 at 1:47 am reply
Toinks - Guess my posts badly need fisking these days..Hope Boyfriend isn’t your kinda movie. Yuva was ok..too cliched..heard about Phil Milenge..will catch it soon.
September 14th, 2004 at 4:44 am reply
Patrix feedback on your last line - the movies are not being doctored and are REALLY very crappy.
but Phir Milenge is supposed to have some positive feedback. but guess what? it’s playing to empty theatres.
September 14th, 2004 at 5:19 am reply
Patrix, the movies are generally bad but there have been some exceptions. You can’t call Yuva too cliched. It did have a nice idea and was different. Check out Dhoom and Phir Milenge.
And are you sure Black would be a well-made film? Remember Devdas? More well-dressed than well made :)
September 14th, 2004 at 7:42 am reply
@ Rash: The point is that the exceptions are too few! Especially for an industry which turns out so many films in a year. In recent times, savvy marketing has ensured returns even on ‘flop’ films. So the hackneyed plot continues to rule.
September 14th, 2004 at 9:17 am reply
Phil Milenge? (refer comment to Toinks)… dr. Phil..or cute baby way of saying ‘phir’?
September 14th, 2004 at 11:03 am reply
Alphu..i would say the cute-baby-way of saying ;)
September 14th, 2004 at 11:22 am reply
Pompy - Shaay!I was giving the directors some benefit of doubt..
Rash - I didn’t expect mediocrity from Mani Ratnam so found Yuva cliched..Devdas although is a cliched story (now), SLB’s visual treatment made it worthwhile.
Leela - Absoultely..have you noticed how professionally some songs are shot or how innovative the opening credits are? Makes you wonder why they fill all that crap in the middle…show the credits and songs, rather go home happy and disappointed than wanting to kill urself for wasting 3 hrs.
Alpha - Gosh!I should be appointing you as my official proof reader (even for the comments)…but then mere foot-in-the-mouth syndrome ka kya hoga?
September 14th, 2004 at 12:15 pm reply
I’m still recovering from the trauma of watching the movies you listed! I wonder why I put myself through it! Heard good things about “Phir Milenge” but the thought of Salman is making me puke - so we’ll see!
I went into documnentary mode for a bit..liked hari-bhari.
September 14th, 2004 at 12:40 pm reply
Reality bites Patrix!! The tapes are not being doctored and if you go on watching such movies, you are definitely doctoring your brain ;-) I havent watched many desi movies lately after Ab tak Chappan, but was really sad to hear that Maqbool went flop!! By the way if you want some permanent head damage, watch ‘Chalte Chalte’….Ooooohhh what an ‘Awesome’ movie ;-)
September 14th, 2004 at 1:36 pm reply
Soleil - Sadly we don’t get many documentaries here…Maqbool arrived here after ages…and yup, exactly Salman in that movie is keeping me away but now will watch it since I have heard about it from almost everyone.
Pseudofreud - I am already brain-dead these days so anything else is not going to make it any worse.