The Hopeful Transition of Bollywood(from clichés to riches) & the age old comparison with their English Counterparts

 When we stumble upon the word “Bollywood”, accidently or not, what comes to our mind? Is it Govinda dancing in front of a large crowd in Switzerland, hence making a fool of himself? Is it Shah Rukh Khan sticking his arms out in a really corny romantic flick? Or is it Sunny Deol screaming “Tareek Pe Tareek” in a courtroom? Dont worry....im not going to restrict your option to one like KBC or any other such show. All the above mentioned options can be the correct answer.

Now don’t you get me wrong, im not an anti Bollywood species or a sycophantic movie critic. Im just an ordinary person who has just completed his college studies & wants to share some thought provoking thoughts with you, the reader. 

Since time immemorial Bollywood has been spawning the most lacklustre films to hit the screen. Unfortunately many of these pathetic films have been dubbed as “classics”. With this particular “infamy”, i am sure that the creators of the Oxford & Merriam Webster dictionaries will have trouble digesting this particular food for thought on how their favourite word has been degraded so obnoxiously. The actors of the yesteryear simply couldn’t act! As simple as that. The olden day films made as much sense to me as those banned(thankfully) Saas Bahu serials. 

Getting back to the present- What breaks my heart is that directors have the audacity of making films like Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, I Hate Love Stories, Singh Is King, Rajneeti, Dostana, Anjaana Anjaani, Break Ke Baad etc etc etc...& calling them films for the “youth”. Wonder which section of the youth they refer to-maybe between ages 1-10. Plus, the worst part of this comedy is that most of these films actually become hits! I literally wanted to visit every theatre premiering those films & just SCREAM OUT ALOUD!

Now comes the catch. People actually compare Bollywood to Hollywood (even though the only Hollywood films they have watched are Clash Of The Titans, Step Up & other such useless films). There was one incident where i was discussing films with one of my colleagues, and what he said was, “Who wants to watch The Godfather, when we have our own godfather in the form of Amitabh Bachchan in Sarkar”..........Really?... & i had this debate in college where a classmate of mine said out aloud ,”in Bollywood we have films like Race which oust the Hollywood films”....again......Really?

Hollywood has many great classic films like The Godfather Trilogy, Shawshank Redemption, A Clockwork Orange, Citizen Kane, Goodfellas, One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, The Good.. The Bad.. and The Ugly, Pulp Fiction, Psycho, Casablanca etc , & also many new age greats like The Departed, Inception, The Black Swan, Mullholand Drive etc......and by the way, im NOT trying to be snobbish. I just wanted to get some things clear which im pretty sure many people were pretty hazy about. Most Bollywood films are rip offs of their counterparts because the main idea here is “if a movie is a hit in the west, it is bound to become a hit in India” For Example, the recent film Rajneeti was a complete copy of The Godfather, & unlike Ram Gopal Varma who actually had said that The Godfather inspired him to make Sarkar, the film makers did not even have the decency to admit that they had copied it. Instead they stuck onto their idea of the film being “original”.

Then on the other hand, people like Akshay Kumar get celebs from Hollywood to do a cameo in their films. After he does that, people again start the inevitable comparison between the two. Instead of making incomparable comparisons with their English counterpart, i feel that Bollywood should wake up from its long ignorant slumber; It should concentrate on making “movies” & not money.

                                                           (Below): I am an ardent fan of The Godfather ( i have watched it at least 25 times, only second to Scarface, which i have watched 67 times)

                                   ^  Al Pacino's magnificent performance in Scent of a Woman

Nevertheless thankfully, not all is lost. Bollywood has surprised me in these past few years. Some directors & producers are actually paying heed to the criticisms Bollywood is facing today & making very good films. A few years back, a film called Kaminey was released. I was surprised as to how good the cinematography was. It reminded me of a Quentin Tarantino flick. Very nicely crafted.  After that, 3 Idiots also had a very iron-clad & heartwarming theme which was directed towards the youth of the country. Then came Delhi Belly; This film really took me by surprise. I was delighted at the bold step that Bollywood took in crafting this film. Don't go by the cussing, my friends (Goodfellas uses the F-Word more than 400 times & its one of the best films ever made). Everything, from the cinematography & the script to the acting & the direction was perfect for a Bollywood film. In fact, i felt it was one step ahead of Bollywood. I feel that films like these should be made more often so that one day i may even delete this blog & post another one saying how much Bollywood has improved.

Peace.

References:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUE4v1rUpSM