mI'd seen trailors, chat shows and the promotions even in London! I've realised as long as you are the czar of Bollywood (read: SRK), you can get away with just about anything. This movie made it to the UK Top 10 releases recently and Leicester Square had thousands of people thronging to get a glimpse of him!
I wonder if the crowd'd be just as crazy if a George Clooney or a Brad Pitt had to walk the red carpet for a premiere. Or maybe, it's just us! Indians trying desperately to cling on to something or the other that they can remotely be proud of!
Anyway, my curiosity had to be curbed. I had to figure out for myself what the hullabaloo was all about behind Om Shanti Om. So I wasted a precious Saturday evening (indeed weekends are important for me!) on this mindlessness...yes that's the only apt word in my vocabulary that can closely express my experience.
The innocuous question is: what was it all about? A spoof on Bollywood flicks, an ultra glamourisation of the'retro look' (which I firmly do agree is 'in'...for a change something I agree with in the movie), conspicuous references to pooh old classics! It had melodrama to the hilt, resurrections, ghosts etc etc etc...everything that constitutes the making of a commercial movie.
But is mainstream cinema mindless? Where was the movie headed? What was the focus (other than a parade of stars of course)? What was the message? Or was it merely about spending hundreds and thousands of rupees coz someone managed to arrange that kind of finance in a country where a considerable population is below poverty line for some 'time pass' as they say!
So you have a famous name with the banner, a gorgeous new face, some more famous people (because of networking and connections!) and you make what is called a masala movie.
And what flabbergasts me the most is the fact that people (including some who can claim being 'intelligent') thoroughly enjoying themselves. The simple quest: How?
I shudder to think that my cohort actually liked the movie. So am I the cynic here? Or is it that the others no longer care about the difference between sagacity and stupidity? The debate continues...
1 comment:
god.. no debate there. i got to the point where they reincarnate, there i had a visceral reaction. i just had to get out.. and yeah,. my cohorts liked it too... it was the second time they were watching the movie. i think i am sworn off that lot for a while...
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