Indian movie industry has changed a lot, just in last 20 years. We have better technology, directors, actors and concepts. Our directors no longer think it’s cool to insert songs and fights at predefined places. Neither they think we are idiots to watch anything they make, nor do they think we need to be fed with every minute detail, just in case. Having grown up in “last sane generation”, the 90s, I have seen this transition happening, and I am pretty much happy about it.
Having said that, it’s still worth having a look around on what needs to be changed further, to provide feedback to our directors, just in case they dint figure it out themselves J . I have listed few things where Indian movie industry still needs correction. Feel free to add more.
180 minutes: What’s this deal? Take a thumb rule: “90 min is OK, 120 is pain and anything above 150 is harassment”. Directors need to learn this, quick.
Copycats: Things are not improving even after few law suits. It’s embarrassing. “Dil bole Hadippa” is latest I can name.
Songs and dances: Oh come on! Such a pain!. These days it’s comparably better. I still recall the nightmares of those heroes of 80’s and early 90sheroes who danced like pregnant buffalos.
Slow motion: Overused technology. Never ever use it again. At least not for the scenes where actors are walking, sitting, running etc.
Age limit: Actors need to take self discipline here, not to take role of below their age. Those “three idiots” dint exactly fit there, did they? Come on,! We all have all studied in the universities and we know how exactly first year students look like
Action: What’s all these flying around please? Just with a punch? People never fly around for simple punches in real life. They’ll punch you back, that’s all.
Happy ending: really? Are all things happy? There is a famous stereotype that Telugu movies never end sadly, if they do, they flop. I am not sure how true it is, but when enquired, my friends couldn’t name a single recent tragedy movie.
Camera: Recent thing our cameramen picked up from Hollywood war (action) movies. Now they are overdoing it. I just saw recent Ajit movie where he is talking to a girl (in slow motion!) and camera is shaking like cameraman had mice in his pants. Silly!
Overacting: Inherited, but diluting slowly.
Details: Directors need to keep a close eye on this, it could go insult the movie. For an extreme example: No one can type commands and hack systems using “windows media player”, and everybody know that and we have movie doing exactly this.
Genre: The type of movies made in Indian Industry did not change much. We are still spending our time in making Romcoms and on social issues. Again, just in case our directors don’t see out side, I would like to suggest a few:
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- We haven’t seen a good war movie since “Border” If we were Hollywood we would have filled our screens with wars with all the neighbours we have, even lost ones.
- Historic: We have some here, but not good ones to brag about.
- Sci-fi: Never explored this, was “Jaadooo… “a sci-fi?
- Horror: Few bad ones, we call them B-grade.
- Sports: “Chuck de” was good, but that’s one. What about cricket?
- Animation : Question mark. [tweetmeme]
The Bach 
Very well written, enjoyed reading it and couldn’t disagree with it although I watch and enjoy Hindi movies a lot.May be they are made keeping in mind people like me who hate tragedies and live in a not so real world 🙂
You opinion on comedies,the Munna Bhai series and what do you think about Vishal Bhardwaj’s films?
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Thanks very much 🙂
Of course I like Munnabhai Trilogy and many other good hilarious ROFL movies. But my point is we shouldn’t bring only these.. there should be variety.
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well written, but why do we have to ape the west? Movies are made for what 60% of the population like, not the remaining 40%.. love it or hate it, we cannot come out of a movie theatre within 3 hrs, without watching a heroine sob bucketful of tears and without the hero and heroine dancing in a song!! And if I were to goto a movie and feel sad, I wouldnt go at all.. I go so that for 3 hrs, I can be transported to a different world, whether believable or not..
Watsay bach? neway, just my opinion 😉
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PT, before I answer all these questions of yours, I want to ask one. I write on so many topics but why is that you read only “movie” category ?
We do need to, because they had advantage of starting it early, so they are very good at it. Hollywood is at least couple of decades ahead of us in all sense. Be honest, how many Hollywood actors did you see overacting ?
Agreed on tragedies, but that does not mean we wipe out one genre from our entertainment industry. Did you not enjoy Bazigar and Amrutavarshini? They are not exactly happy ending, right ? Still they were fantastic entertainers.
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good one bach… as you say, even am happy with the some of the changes. but then, i feel 90% among the so called different movie makers, are still giving the same old shite masala movies but now only now in hollywood style. while the trailers look so promising with a new idea, they all deliver the same formula. but my hopes bank on the likes of anurag kashyap & vishal bharadwaj. hope more directors come up like them.
oh btw, you might wanna change your thumb rule. i am ok with any length as long as it is interesting. The Godfather for example is 3 hours long. would you term it as a harassment? but if make a movie 3 hrs long just for the heck of it… its a big NO.
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Thanks sire.
On Godfather, point taken. I did enjoy few movies like that (Godfather, Lord of the Rings etc). But they are all exceptions.
But our three hours don’t get spent like that. we have six songs, three fight (starting, middle and climax), one kidnap, two love breaks . so many. we need three hours.
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Well written. I agree to some extent. I have watched every Bollywood production from Jan 2009 (including craps like Deshdrohi, Trump Card and Swaha). There have been very few that can make you sit till the end. 3-Idiots stand out. Paa and New York were goodish. A few like Wake Up Sid were decent. The rest are all Mumbai sewage. Horror movies are actually horrible (but, that’s the same for most of the Hollywood horror movies, too).
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Raja, welcome to my blog.
I totally agree with you… except for the statement “Mumbai” 🙂 I feel its same for all movie industries across India. Chennai, Hyderabad,Bengaluru etc
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