Just made a New Year resolution....I will not watch any run-of-the-mill Desi aka Hindi aka Bollywood movie till June 2007 at the least! Half a year is a good aim given the number of Indian friends I have, one of whom will surely keep trying to break my resolution.
Why?
- 90% of the new Hindi movies that hit the not-so-cool Naz8 theater in Fremont, CA every Friday night are outright (story/script) spineless, have too many mundane songs and are a 3 hour drag with too much melodrama.
- Emotions and love are an integral part of such highly predictable movies and if that is a subject you don't like you better stay away.
But before I completely right off this billion dollar industry, let me recap the few movies I did see in 2006 and what I thought of them:
Really Bad: Dhoom 2, Don, Phir Hera Pheri, Golmaal, Krrish
Could Have Been Good: Fanaa, Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, Rang De Basanti, Pyar ke side effects
Awesome: Lage Raho Munnabhai, Omkara, Dor, Iqbal, Being Cyrus, 15 Park Avenue
On a side note, I had thus far a lot of faith in movie reviews/ratings at rottentomatoes but the fact that a movie like Dhoom 2 has a rating of 80% leads me to believe that something is really wrong with the tomatometer. The flip positive side is that Indian movies are also getting listed on this website.
Added: 1/16/2007 11:18 PM
This just in: As if to prove my point the Hollywood Foreign Press had some bad news for Bollywood. Water makes it to Oscar shortlist, Rang De... out
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- Opasna
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9 comments:
Looks like you are a director... or some sort of technically sound guy in movie industry!!!
It's NOT neccessary that if you didn't like the movie means it;s bad.... Everyone has it's own choice...
I know people who said "Omkara was OK" or being Cyrus was NOT good that doesn't mean those were bad movies... I liked both of them
"KANK" is in your Could have been good list" Most of the people I know couldn't sit in the movie for even an hour.....
Golmaal can be watched just for the good timing of Tushar / Sharman.... Keep your thinking cap aside and one can enjoy the movie...
Sorry if you didn't like my reply...
Hello Ms/Mr Anon!
I have no problems with your comment. It is quite logical. Yes everyone has their own choice and I just presented mine. You have the right to present yours.
Ideally, one would not want to leave the thinking cap or brain at home though. Simply put movies should be made with the assumption that people of all kinds with different moods, brains, etc. will walk in to a theatre to watch!
No I have nothing to do with the movie industry.
just dropped by to let you know the the TOI link is now fixed...
abt movies.. well you should try mixing it up with some foreign films... as in non english and non hindi.... saw this real good french movie yesterday called 'Joyeux Noel'... it draws a thin line between comedy and drama.... and its based on true events that happened during the 1914 world war..
have seen some good stuff by this Iranian director Majid Majidi... many more of other languages...
Will all due respect - and it is completely your choice in every way - I think you made this resolution at a very bad time. There are some very good, very promising movies coming out. Guru for example - no excessive melodrama and good script from what I hear. So yes, perhaps you ought to reconsider..?
hi opasna.
after reading your blog i would really want to sympathize with you. yours is a clear case of the i-know-everything disease or i-hate-indian-movies or i-am-total-hollywood disease. You either hate anything which is by indians. Or another possibility is that you think you are too smart and all indian movies fall short being called good(i.e. your definition of good). i m sure indian film makers will be happy if a few self proclaimed smarties like you stay out of the theatres. Thanx a lot for this decision of yours. Hope you stick to it. And ya another bollywood flick 'guru' released this week. People say its a fantastic movie. SO I hope you don't wanna watch it. Cheers!
Every movie is made to be watched atleast once. Then you get to decide whether it was good or bad. Movie Industrty is an so you cannot expect that each and every movie will be made so that everyone can walk into theatre. Otherwise bollywood wouldn't be numero uno in terms of number of movies made.
As you said Omkara was awesome, do you think that it was a kind of movie where "people of all kinds with different moods, brains, etc. would have walked in to a theatre to watch!??" specially with the obscene langauge they had used.
So you can put aside thinking cap when you take the movie as a time pass.
I have no problem with author's opinion or everyone else who suggested the author is a know it all. But I think bollywood churns out maybe 3-4 good movies a year of the 200 some release, which is not a good ratio. But there is a huge consensus among bollywood movie watchers which consider a lot of movies which are critically and technically bad, as good movies because of their entertainment value (stars, songs, locations etc), But that does not make them good movies, similar false consensus is also seen in cricket fans who've put below average players and average at best team on very high mantle most of the times, but unlike cinema, cricket is not subjective and results show the truth. Bollywood does not need to ape Hollywood, but it certainly can learn a few things from other regional cinemas (bengali, malayalam, marathi) in terms of critical quality and maintaing good ratio of good movies vs number of movies released.
Please do break your vow and watch Guru, it is still filled with (but awesome) song and dance sequences but then there is a story that never relents and this would be one movie that is comparable to the world's best. We need more such brainy movies. BTW I did watch it in naz8 saturday night!!
Sincerely
Krish
Boy am I surprised at the uproar on this lame topic!
Thanks Krish - I will watch Guru when time permits!
And I like variety so I am always exploring movies from all countries - not just Hollywood and Bollywood :)
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