A tribute to creativity, A welcome change

Hi All.

There was nothing else to do for me now. I could have slept very early. I tried. A couple of phone calls woke me up from bed. One was from a friend of mine from Canada and the other an office colleague. While I attended the call from Canada as I can hardly afford to not pick calls from the other side of the world, still swearing about the call. I thought I will give a call to my friend from office a little later. I do take calls all the time, but not today. I wanted to sleep very early coz, I have to go to the airport at 2 AM and pick my sister who is coming back from USA after 2 years. So I needed the sleep because the new airport just takes 2 hours to get there.

Once I am up from sleep, I can hardly go back to bed. So its still about 90 minutes for me to start to the airport. I didnt find anything better to do than blog about a stunning movie which I watched recently.

This movie provoked several thoughts within me and most people who think like me. One of the thoughts is:
a. why does it take a westener to make a movie about our country and do a splendid job making it and whats more spectacular is that the movie gets 10 different nominations at the 81st Academy Awards? A movie, that has left most people in the Americans, spell bound and swept the Golden Globes?

b. Are all Indian movie makers creatively DEAD? Braindead, rather?
c. Why do we want to make a controversy out of nothing, just to be noticed and grab attention? Why cant we simply appreciate an artwork, in any form. Not just the movie?
d. Why cant we pay tribute to a foreign national who understands the diversity, the adversity, the cultural dynamics of our nation and can do a fabulous job of putting it up on celluloid?

I tried to find answers for some of the thoughts, I realized that I was not one among the millions who would belong to the 4 groups above. I am simply unfazed by the controversies for I am in total agreement to a fantastic creative work.

I am talking about the movie, "SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE". There is little ecstacy, after you watch it, why it should not be nominated at the Academy OR WHY IT SHOULD NOT HAVE SWEPT GOLDEN GLOBES.

There was a lot of noise which this movie created and I was watching all of it.. I thought there must be something in this movie and I should watch it. Then the golden globes happened, my curiosity increased by leaps and bounds. Then I started swirling for my cousin Ravi, who would have downloaded the movie from some site.. but hes resting in St Louis. Althought I never downloaded any movie off the internet as I believe in admiring the efforts of the crew and the time they took to make a masterpiece. But I could not resist the temptation and then I thought I can make an exception. I will download it and for doing something unethical, I will advocate for this movie and create enough publicity among my friends and ask them watch it in THEATRES ONLY. In this way, I would have covered up my sin of watching it online and also created revenue stream for the producers of this movie by making my friends watch it. Bonus money.

I watched it and a week later, I cannot stop admiring the artifacts in this movie. It raised a few eye brows alright, but it is realisitc. I must appreciate the nerve of the story writer, the screenplay and the direction in some scenes (the entire movie, ofcourse) was breath taking. The guy jumps into shit to get the autograph of this favorite hero, AB. That is life, for most slum dwellers. That is how they lead, that is how they survive untill they discover their death. They face everything from utter poverty to, riots on religion to slavery, to drudgedness and what not.
The script writer has done his home work exceedingly well.

To movie goers like me, its an eye opener, to watch the slum dwellers daily routine. We seldom spare a thought for them and the moment we pass by a slum, we think of, ewwww.. how could anyone live there.. But to millions of slum dwellers its their life. Did we ever spare a thought for them? NOPE~!!!!Nor did I. The movie takes us through various phases of a slum dweller before he comes a full circle. Riots, beggary, cheating, conning..... and then the underworld. In between all this our protagonist has a love tale. This was combed very well into the script. and the lifeline of this movie.

Coming to mainstream cinema, it puts me in a sorry state just to read about the many controversies that are being aired in various forms of media. One of them reads, that India is being presented in a wrong way... and that the slum dwellers stiff and things like that..Well isnt this true? Do NOT most people see it regularly? Is it not reality? If its not and India is only a hub for all outsourcing and hi tech jobs, what made Mother Teresa stick here and do the job that everyone shyed away? Why did the great Australian icon, Steve waugh, has most of his charity activities in Kolkata and India for that matter. Let the guys present what India's other side also. Please do NOT make it political. Creativity has no boundaries, art knows no political thinking and philosophy. Art forms are not totally biased. Appreciate it.

The fact, which I constantly mention in my previous posts, that we cine-goers are so attuned to watching belle dancing, those death defying, unrealistic stunts, that sex appeal, that cleavage show, and those romantic numbers.. For once be different. Watch the real stuff.. admire what is real or what could be close to reality. Watch movies for entertainment, but add a little bit of education to that and make it.. EDUTAINMENT. Watch movies from a artists' perspective and then get the real message. Last but not the least, if you think India is being portrayed in a wrong way and all that darn things, thats your viewpoint and purely your opinion and dont make it political.

The other thought that gathers momentum in my mind right now, is to have an edge towards PHILANTHROPY. Lets give the society something back for what we derived from it. Lets make someone's life a better one. Atleast one day of his life. If we are not in a position to do that, atleast lets not ruin someone's life for a moment and not be judgemental about anything or anyone.

If you are to ask me, which category this movie would win the ACADEMY'S appreciation, I will pick SCREENPLAY. I wish this movie all the best at the ACADEMY AWARDS.

Cheers!
Rajesh

PS: Go watch this movie in the theatres, near you, Do NOT DOWNLOAD.

Blockbuster Effects -2

Hey!

I posted my views about movies and entertainment these days in India and it felt really incomplete about the way I have projected Indian cinema. The ground reality is I am not too educated in the movies or the media bandwagon as such, but they are purely my views and I wanted to express how frustrated I am with the lack of quality in movies and viewership. I also felt I should underline most fundamental problems the movie industry is facing.

This is only an attempt to showcase the other side of the coin. It happened by chance to me that I finally made it to a movie on last saturday evening. I went to the movie because;

We had a cricket game on saturday afternoon and we were playing against the team after a long gap. We had beaten GE Energy almost all times we played except for once when it was a tie. I wanted to score some big runs against them after I was inspired by the way Ricky Ponting played against the South Africans for the boxing day test match. I really wanted to make it big. So I had all warmed up for the game, I went to the gym the night before to get my feet movement on track and also to ease my body so that it doesnt show any signs of sickness after playing the game. I went the gym the next morning to get some additional stretching done and I had an extra 3.5 KM run on the treadmill. So I was really conditioned for this game. Becuase I knew I will have to bowl and also open the batting to get the required scores. Back home from the gym, I was watching cricket again and I was also planning how I would bat and bowl to win again. Finally the moment came and we lost the toss and we were asked to bowl first. I usually open the bowling too, but there are a couple of new guys in our team who can really bowl fast and terrorise the opposition from the start, so I had to make way for them and I came in as first change, because I could also swing the ball. I had picked up 3 wickets against the same in the last game, coming in first change and I also liked to come in at that point. I bowled well, although I didnt pick any wickets, I could control the run rate. My 2 overs went for 8 runs. So it was good to be in that position. My fielding was also good as I affected 2 run outs quickly. I had a chance to do a Jonty diving onto the stumps, but I decided against it as I didnt trust my instinct so much.

We had to chase 120 in 20 overs to win the game. I was relaxed as I was up to the task and I was raring to go. Mind you I had worked out and also planned my innings. I faced the first ball and I spanked it for 4 runs. This is the first time in my cricket history that I opened my account with a boundary. I felt really good as I was making my plan work. But the whole enthusiasm lasted only this ball as I was out the very next ball trying the same shot to the same ball and this time instead of finding the boundary, I found the safest hands of the opposite team captain, he didnt move a millimeter to complete the catch. I could not believe what had just gone by and I was in a state of shock. I had over 24 hours of planning done to play my game. I had done everything right be fit for this game, fielded well, bowled well and lasted only one ball in my batting. Thats why purists say, that although cricket is a batsman's game, a batsman is only one ball away from being at the pavilion. My shot the first ball was a classic, it rolled on the ground till the boundary and through the covers, my next ball a similar shot, but played in the air, went into the hands.

It took me an hour to come out of this grief and in that one hour, my team stalwarts made merry about the bowling, we won the match with over 7 overs to spare. It was a comfortable win for my team. We were all glad, we planned for a party in the evening. But I excused myself from it and I wanted to come out of what happened to me in my batting. I feeling of disgust, guilt towards myself overtook my emotions and I wanted to come out of it. So all I did was find the nearest movie hall and keep myself occupied for the next 3-4 hours, which would have given me enough time to come back home and hit the bed right away. The next morning I would have another cricket match to play.

So I found the movie, its named "Neninthe" (a literal translation would mean, "I am like this, only"). I have watched almost all the movies from this director/actor duo. Puri Jagan is the director, Ravi Teja is the protagonist. They are good friends. I have had the privillege of meeting Puri at the shooting of one of his movies, Super, 3 years ago and I was mesmerized by his charm and the innovativeness that he brought to his way of film making. I met Ravi at a function before the launch of his movie, Vikramarkudu. These both guys were extremely warm and accomplicing and very down to earth. More importantly their level of super stardome didnt really create an air over their human persona. Thats why I remained a loyal fan of Ravi. He also happens to be a very close friend of my room mate in Canada, Durga Prasad, I would call him DP. So that feeling also made me stick to his movies. Puri had both good movies and bad movies. His good movies were really good and for me another reason to stick to him and watch his movies.

This is a part 2 of my previous post "Blockbuster effects." While in my previous post, I had badly criticised the industry for doing nothing to improve the quality on the 70 mm screen, Puri exposes the facts, why the industry is in shambles, well he made an attempt to, in his movie "Neninthe". That movie prompted me to showcase the other side of my criticism about the industry. In other words, I am drawing my reasons from this movie.

There are some key aspects which are highlighted in this movie and those are the facts.

a. The industry is englufed in ego. Egos of producers, actors, directors and virtually everyone who is a part of the movie industry. Egos of fans as well.

b. There is not really any encouragement to creative talent in the industry

c. The image persona of any actor doesnt allow them to accept themes that take them away from their image. And the resultant movie is a canned product. You can recycle it any time and come out with the same thing in different colors.

d. The director is a mere puppet in the hands of the producer and the financier

When you have several discerning facts which are the roadblocks to a good movie and when there are several people who want to a movie made to suit their image/persona/popular belief/what have you, lilttle can you expect the output on the 70mm screens is something that the director wanted to showcase. The director wants to tell a story, afterall cinema is all about telling a story, when you compromise at every level, the plot/story is lost and what turns out to be is a mix of several overlapping tales and escapades. That is how you lack quality. That is how you bring down viewership quality to stooping levels.

This movie also highlights the hardships of aspiring movie professionals and what stops them from achieving what they have set out to. The hardships may be family oriented, may be professional when you bend down to others' dictums. The hardships are when you fall prey to "influential personalities" that dictate the movie industry.

This movie is a whip to everyone whether you belong to the film fraternity or you are an ordinary film buff. Puri has been quite successful at pointing out issues such as piracy, online publicity websites, online movie review boards, to us as viewers at large, to the politics inside the industry and the producers. He unleashed his whip and quite rightly spat on the face of those online movie review sites, who have a reviewer who is not so canny about the way he/she drafts the reviews. He/she is not necessarily a film technician but are only acting judges to the storyline and there are millions of netizens who watch the review before they watch the movie and are quite judgemental about watching movies. A ten minute biased review by some buff who knows no hell about movies and the technicalities just brings down a million dollar movie to its knees. The producers/directors are made a bunch of jokers by the so called reviewers who have their favorrites in every industry and draw their attention by canning those opinions which will bring in the moolah.

In short, this movie exposes the film fraternity's those black holes which are either directly or indirectly eluding the quality levels in movie making.

Those who have dire interests in the movie industry and those who vie for upgrading the quality streaming of movies and those who advocate for viewership quality, may please join hands with Puri. This movie is a must watch, only get educated about the movie industry, not to entertain themselves for 3 hours. This movie is not for them who want to get entertained. This movie is for them who want to get educated about the prevailing system and who get entertained in this process.

By all means, Puri and Ravi have weaved their magic again. They have influenced me to write the sequel to my Blockbuster effects. I am really glad I have written it before I watched this movie.

I cant wait to meet Puri and Ravi again and congratulate them for a splendid effort.

Cheers!
Rajesh