Misconceptions/Stereotypes

When one thinks of Hollywood, there are a number of stereotypes that come to mind: car chases, robots, bikini babes and of course, the white kids that save the world.

Over in Mumbai, there are a whole different array of stereotypes that Hindi cinema is trying to fight off.

1) "They Dance and Sing around fields"

They left that behind years ago, people (minus the occasional dream sequence)! And even when the actors do run around the hills of Switzerland, is it really that bad of a thing? Instead of depicting love with raunchy sex scenes, Hindi cinema depicts love with a dance and song. As Abhishek Bachchan famously stated on Oprah Winfrey's talk show, "—snap, cut—you're in the mountains singing and dancing!". All it does is enhance the experience. Other film industries don't spend the time and energy to create new music and choreograph dances, do they? 

2) "I saw a Bollywood film once...Slumdog Millionaire"

If there was an award for repeating the same sentence, the most number of times, "This is not an Indian movie" would most probably make the cut. Slumdog was simply a British movie about Indian people. There was nothing "Indian" about it, either. Any movie can be shot in a country, but it doesn't make that film from the country. For some reason, people in the West just cannot seem to grasp that concept. Plus, the story of a young boy, who lives in poverty and strikes it rich, while romancing a girl, has been done a million times. Back in the '70s, every other Amitabh and Dharmendra film was made with the same premise. The only difference is that Slumdog is missing that magic element. It is much more crude and has much, much more poverty. However, the misconception of it being an Indian movie may be a benefit for Bollywood, in the long run. People, for some reason, are enamored by Slumdog. Though they are wrong about it being "Indian" cinema, they have started to open their eyes to the force named Bollywood, which means more money for the markets. While saying that, I do not think Indian films need validation from foreign audiences. Indian films just deserve more money, that's all.

3) "Aishwarya Rai is an Indian Goddess and...Actress"

Aishwarya is a huge star. She is a global celebrity too. Nevertheless, she has evolved into a stereotypical image of what Bollywood is. She's always being called "the most beautiful woman in the world", a statement that has indirectly evolved into becoming an image of Hindi cinema. She is a good-looking individual, no doubt. However, Hindi cinema should be known as more than a "pretty face". In Hindi films, there are beautiful girls, but first and foremost, there is a story and how can we forget...a film.

4) "Aren't those movies, like ten hours long?"

Absolutely not! Hindi movies aren't ridiculously short like the 1.5 hour long Hollywood rom-coms, but they are also not the films from the '60s, which lasted more than 3 hours (I doubt anyone has sat through the whole duration of Mera Naam Joker). This is just one of the stigmas of Bollywood, which people are just not ready to let go of. It's all the '80s fault! The movies of the '40s, '50s and '60s were riding high, with great music, stories, actors and directors. They were pretty damn long, but nobody said anything. Then the '80s came around and the movies were terrible: horrible costumes, overacting, disco dancers and just too much masala. Now, who wants to see a bad movie for three hours? Despite cinematic improvement and success, people are still complaining about the length of Bollywood movies.

5) "Bollywood makes a billion movies a year" 

Bollywood is not the only type of Indian cinema. It's a portion of Indian cinema, which despite being the popular choice, stands next to the Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu film industries (to name the least). India, as a nation, does make the most movies, but Bollywood does not. The other industries are worlds apart from Hindi films, in sensibilities, language and culture. After all, India is one of the most diverse nations on earth, as well as one of the most populated. I wouldn't even be surprised if Bollywood produces less movies than Hollywood does! Regardless, people are always going to use this stereotype against Hindi films; it all helps the pretentious, Hollywood lovers saying, "quantity, not quality".

Year in Review

December 2011. The year is finally coming to a close and it's again the time, to sit and ponder on what the year was like for our beloved Hindi films. I think we can all agree that in comparison to 2010, the quality of cinema was not the greatest. I was just waiting for a film to be OBSESSED with. I wanted to see that one film, that I would just go crazy over after watching, not before watching (like we all do). Basically, this year was a colossal disappointment.

Earlier this year, I made a post on my most awaited movies of the year. Not even one of the movies fulfilled my high expectations; some of them were okay, some of them were good, but none were worth the wait. Rockstar left me thirsty for Imtiaz Ali's romantic direction. Mausam put me to sleep and Bodyguard made me re-examine whether I even like masala films or not. Last year, there were those hidden gems, like Band Baaja Baarat and Udaan, that shocked everyone and defied the rules of big stars and budgets. Again, there were no such "hidden gems" in 2011. With the exception of maybe Mujhse Fraaandship Karoge.

Back in 2010, even Daabang pleasantly surprised me. Despite being a huge Salman film, it was worth the cult-status it garnered. Raajneeti was brilliant; it was high tension and action, which I think everyone had missed in Hindi cinema. The icing on the cake was probably Band Baaja Baarat, which had me dancing to it's tune for most of 2011 as well.

In 2011, the directors who made those popular 2010 films, made some more films. Unfortunately, none of them could compete with their previous works. Like I was saying, Raajneeti was greatly loved. Though it was an adaptation of the Mahabharat and The Godfather, it had it's own certain spice, which was intertwined with Indian politics. Prakash Jha did good. This year, his Aarakshan not only burned and suffered at the box office, but was missing the thrill that the trailer depicted so articulately. The box office numbers suffered and the movie-goer did too. Band Baaja Baarat director, Maneesh Sharma, also returned to the big screen, with Ladies Vs. Ricky Bahl. Again, just like Jha's Aarakshan, that movie has been written off by the public and critics alike. Daabang, which gave me hope in Salman's film choices, was also replaced with Salman starrer's Ready and Bodyguard. No hard feelings, but those movies were not as good as Dabangg in any way. Dabangg is what revived the Masala film genre in Hindi films! Bodyguard and Ready are, for the most part, parodies of Dabangg. They are basically three hours of Dabangg allusions. There is even a separate Wikipedia page devoted for the list of accolades received by Dabangg. I don't see such pages for Ready and Bodyguard, which both got poor to mixed reviews by critics. Overall, the expectations that film makers and actors had set for us all in 2010, were murdered this year. Why do they do such good work, just to fall back down again?

While looking at the films from earlier this year, I also found a rather shocking statistic ..."As of December 01, five releases of 2011 have made it into the list of highest-grossing Bollywood films" . In 2010, only four films made it into that list. That's great news monetarily for the industry, but I wanted that to happen with even better films. Enough of my ranting though...let's talk about who made the most money this year

Here is the list of this year's Top 10 Grossing Films (Don 2 will most probably be a part of the list by January):

1) Bodyguard

Probably the billionth remake of a South Indian film by Salman Khan, this movie made approximately 230 crore at the box office. Thus, beating Dabangg's record by a couple million. I thought the movie had a great premise; a bodyguard unknowingly falls in love with the girl who he protects, but unfortunately, marries her best friend. It had a lot of potential. The problem was mostly because the director did not have the ability to do justice to the project. The script was also very weak. The movie made such big money solely because of Salman Khan, who has evolved into a brand by himself.

	2) Ready
	This Masala pot-boiler is reminiscent of the movies that every Hindi film watcher was happy to leave behind in the '90s.Despite being a huge Salman fan, the two menacing uncles, run-away bride and evil villains of this film ruin any chances of it being anything more than time pass. The story is so cliche! How many times have we watched that storyline unfold? Salman, himself, has been in at least ten movies with the same storyline. The difference, like I said earlier, are the unrelenting Dabangg jokes. Forget the storyline, the one-liners aren't even original. It's after a movie like this, that makes me think that people would even pay to watch Salman sleep for three hours straight. Sad, but most likely true. 3) Ra. One I would NOT want to comment on this movie...seeing as I've not seen it and I've already posted on why it doesn't excite me. 4) Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara This film mostly sold itself as a coming-of-age journey, but I saw it as more of a tourist advertisement of Spain. Though Hrithik, Abhay and Farhan are on a life-changing journey through the country, there is not enough excitement in the movie to keep the viewer interested. It unassailable that Zoya Akhtar, the director of the film, is very talented. However, she needs practice on how to make a film engaging. I love a meaningful film, but there still needs to be that entertainment quotient. Adding some short, erratic funny scenes is not going to interest the viewer...the film just needs to get going! Surprisingly, despite using superfluous amounts of English and zero Masala, ZNMD managed to make more than 150 crore. 5) Singham "Ajay Devgan? Solo-hero? Hit?...Blockbuster?! WHAT?" That was precisely my reaction when I found out that Singham was a hit. I would have never thought that Ajay Devgan could garner more than 150 crore at the box office by himself. I still can't believe it. I watched the film with pretty low expectations and I am glad I did because it, therefore, exceeded my expectations. It was so absurd that I actually enjoyed it. I, surprisingly, had no problem watching thirty men kicking some guy's ass. I laughed about it too. I like the crazy South Indian style films! However, let's not make it a habit. It looks good in moderation. We don't want more Salman pot-boiler situations!

My thoughts on The Dirty Picture

I hate long reviews. So let's cut the crap and go straight to the good stuff. The good stuff: What I thought of the "sexy" Silk Smitha...

The movie was okay. However, I still think it's kind of path-breaking.

The acting by every actor was fabulous, including Tusshar Kapoor (who really isn't that bad). Vidya is the only actress, who can be overweight but still look hot. Emraan is awesome, as usual (though his role wasn't meaty enough) and Naseeruddin was sleazy. I loved that. The music was good and the dialogues were particularly witty. Regardless, I think the film could have been better. I think the same story could have been told, probably with even more efficiency, if one of the male leads was gone. Her equation with Emraan was the most important, since he was the only man who loved her as a person, not an object. Despite that, Emraan needed more presence on screen with her. I greatly missed it, though the scenes they did have together were phenomenal. On top of that, the movie could have been more gripping. The story was so good, but it did start to get a bit "boring" after the interval. Basically, I have some complaints and compliments, which everyone has for every movie.

Now that's what you call a breathtaking poster!

The reason why the movie was "kind of path-breaking" because it is the ONLY film, I have ever seen, that has created such a buzz, despite being a fully female centered movie. Anyone who has seen TDP can say, without a hint of doubt, that the film was a biopic about a WOMAN a.k.a Silk Smitha! Naseeruddin, Tusshar and Emraan are merely characters in her story.

The movie has created hysteria. There was a whole "maha" episode on the hit TV serial Bade Acche Lagte Hai, in which Vidya came and danced. Then, she performed at the Big Superstar awards (I think that's what they were called) and had the media running all around her. The song promos, the dialogue promos and the theatrical trailer have taken the TV and internet scene by storm.

The movie has made a whooping 52 crore, in the first week alone. This makes TDP, not only one of the top 5 openers of 2011, but one of the top 10 openers of all time. Movies like Bodyguard, Ready and Ra. One are in that list. Those movies just scream male personality. They work because of Salman and SRK's personas. Kareena and Katrina are huge superstars, with just as big personas, but they can never bring in the crowds that their male counterparts do. Thankfully, Vidya finally did.

I'm not sure whether female-centric films will ever make hundreds of crores at the box office, but this week, The Dirty Picture did prove that woman are powerful figures in cinema...at last!