I was just chatting yesterday with some friends, and somehow the flow of talk got diverted to celebrating festivles outside home. We were all just recalling our Diwali experiences of 2007. They were all surprised as I told them that this would be my 6th straight Diwali outside home.
As I pondered , I found a couple of things that I am most likely to remember in years to come about this Diwali. Maybe the fact that we had to cook our own meal late night because the cook refused to come at the 11th hour, and it was too late to check out any restaurant/home delivery (we made an almost edible pasta).
But definitely the next thing on the list would be the movie 'Om Shanti Om'. I'm not even going to discuss the much touted 'Battle at the box office' between OSO and Saawariya, simply because I don't like Bhansaali's movies (His love stories are such a drag on my psyche... BLACK was good; HDDCS had Aishwarya looking stunning, and a brilliant performance by Ajay Devgan.)
Anyway, we booked tickets for Saturday 10th Nov in advance and went in to see the movie... Now, I knew beforehand what this movie would be like. But still I decided to give it a try, because no matter how much disgust I feel for typical Bollywood movies, with OSO I felt that a phenomenon was unfolding around me. And I didn't want to miss being a part of a phenomenon.
And now as I look back, I feel I did the right thing. Why? Not because the movie was any better than what I expected it to be. But there were several things that will make me recall the experience in years to come...
First of all, the MARKETING. I mean, simply WOW !!! I have never ever seen any Bollywood movie being promoted so aggressively. For about a month or so prior to the release, OSO was omnipresent. It all started with SRK's 6 packs. It was for all to see that they were not as good as they can get (Remember the Spartans in 300??), and were a result of extreme diet control. But hell, who cared... It was the King of Bollywood, and everyone went nuts. SRk levereged his presence at the T20 matches, and team India chipped in by bringing home the World Cup. OSO team was everywhere. Sometimes I feel that even the Dhoni-Deepika connect was a publicity stunt.
This promotional blitzkrieg is a harbinger of things to come, and how mega bucks are changing the rules of the game in Bollywood, primarily along western cinema's lines.
Then therer was the music... Vishal-Shekhar did a splendid job, churning out beautiful melodies, and even pulling an ace with Dard-E-Disco to complement SRK's 6 packs.
Next, was the dazzling debutant Depika Padukone. She looked stunning in the movie, and made the movie worth watching.
Another pleasant surprise was the willingness of Bollywood stars to laugh at themselves (Barring Manoj Kumar, Of Course). In fact, the script has an element of Spoof in the first half. The brilliantly scripted cameo's by Akshay Kumar, Hrithik Roshan, Bappi Lahiri, Shabana Aazmi, Abhishek and Amitabh Bachhan were worth a laugh. Even SRK made a fool of himself, through his typical Raj-Rahul roles. Also the Rajnikanth style "Anna-Rasscalaa" scene deserves a mention.
The coming together of 31 stars for one song was also something new. Of course, it included duds like Tushar Kapoor, Zayed Khan and Dino Moria, and there was absence of Aamir-Amitabh-Abhishek-Kareena-Aishwarya, but still it felt nice to see so many of them together, especially the veterans like Dharmendra, Jeetendra and Mithun doing their trademark dance steps. It must be the contacts of SRK and Farha Khan that got them together. Or was it fear and apprehension that united them, as the rival release Saawariya was a Hollywood backed project (Sony Pictures).
Today's movie goers have a pretty easy access to world class cinema, from Hollywood to Latin America to France to Hong Kong. We are well acquainted with world classics like Casablanca, Schindler's list, Godfather and so on. I have been part of the group which unabashedly criticise Bollywood for it's idiotic stuff.
OSO's entire first half provided glimpses of idiotic Bollywood cliche, like the unnecessary song and dance sequences, the height of melodrama, the unprofessionalism industry survived for so many decades and utter insult of any attempt by the ordiance to use his brain and apply logic. However, the portrayal helped me change my perception a bit. It made me appreciate the journey of Bollywood as an industry. It dawned on me that precisely because Bollywood stuck to it's formula, catered to mass appeal and not to intellegestia, it wasn't crushed by Hollywood like it has happened everywhere else. Arjun Rampal even tells his movie director in OSO, "Picture chalaani hai to ek Manmohan Desai angle bhi rakhna".
I understood that local movie industry thrives on local culture. Bollywood imitated our culture of festivals, song-and-dance, extravagant portrayal of emotions, and stunts defying all laws of physics. It made extravagant movies for the poor, malnourished, depressed, disillusioned and illiterate India, and so it survived and grew. It grew on this ridicule. It became strong. And now, as it is poised for the next big leap we can already see the changes. Last year we had character artists give us movies like "Pyar ke side effects" and "Khosla Ka Ghosla". This year we saw big Bollywood stars taking the leap: Abhishek Bachchan in GURU, Shahrukh in CHAK DE, and Aamir in TAARE ZAMEEN PAR... and Hrithik-Aishwarya are coming this year in JODHA-AKBAR.
All said and done, the movie was a staunch breed which is getting extinct in Bollywood; a complete paisa wasool masala movie. I liked one scene in particular... when SRK is drunk, giving his speech with a beer bottle in hand... and that line which will be remembered in years to come... The line which truly reflects the gist of the philosophy of an average Indian, despite differences in region or religion...
"Hamari zindagi me bhi hamaari filmo ki tarah aakhir tak sab kuchh theek thaak ho hi jaata hai... Aur agar theek na ho, to matlab Picture abhi baaki hai mere dost..."
No comments:
Post a Comment