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
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