The Class or The Mass !!

After a grueling week of workless ness I sought some fresh air and grabbed one of my friends to go to the latest Bollywood flick "Bheja Fry". I was totally mesmerized by the comic act by Vinay Pathak who reiterates the fact of being an excellent upcoming comedian. It seems that The Ranvir Shorey and Vinay Pathak Combo is grabbing everyones attention these days. Man!! They gave me a total recall of Khosla ka Ghosla. I had the loudest of possible laughs while i was watching the movie and so did most of the people around me. It was an entertaining 90 min show, and it managed to grip me throughout. The best thing about it being that it was a very vegetarian comic flick unlike many of its bawdy counterparts, the ones like Apna sapna money money , Golmaal , Bhagam Bhag etc etc... Clearly testifying the fact that "There are No Shortcuts to Success". So all you David Dhawans and the Priyadarshans of Bollywood do get some time to watch this movie!!

But as I was leaving the hall it came to my mind that "will this movie be a hit ??", "will it get what it deserves ??" of course not was the instinctive reply. It wasn't the first time that this thought had come to my mind. I now remember plenty of occasions when this has happened, i thought on similar lines for Kabul Express, Khosla ka Ghosla , Swades , Lakshya , Yuva etc etc. I keep wondering why movies like Dhoom2, Krishh , KANK and many others have flourished in terms of their box office collections and they manage to do so without any remarkable performances , stories , screenplay and innovativeness. May be I am being naive when i wonder about it, coz everyone around me seems to know the answer and each one tells me a unique version of his\her theory.

There are times when i think may be what’s "Entertainment" for a well educated IT professional with cosmopolitan tastes and open mindedness of a trendy city dweller like me isn't the same for many others OR may be that I am not looking at these movies as they are ought to be looked at. As often cited "We Don't see things as They are but We see things as We are !!".

Looking at the bigger picture I think that some movies are actually targeted for "The Class" section of the society while others are just meant for "The Masses". (Hey did i just say that i belong to "The Class”, What a bloody braggart i am!! damn me!!) But then is a successful movie the one, which is liked by The Class or The Mass?? The optimal solution sounds much better. But then how many of the successful movies will satisfy the optimum criterion? After giving it a thought i conclude that A successful movie is the one which does what it is meant to do, the one which fulfills the hype which it created, the one which satisfies the expectations either of the Producers or the Consumers. But like most things in life they can't always satisfy us all. Poor filmmakers they will always be criticized no matter what. Its true then that success doesn't come for free you have to pay some or the other price for it.

But then what’s the point of this whole blog ???? The problem i see with many of The Mass appealing movies is that they are released with the sole intent of making profit rather than the "ideal" motive of making movies, which has to be "Entertainment". So the masala makers will get a star-studded cast and a go for a hit formula based strategy to achieve it. After all The Masses definitely belong to the idol-starved section of this nation, and these stars surely dominate the Indian mindscape. Though there isn't a shortage of ideas and scripts here but the masala makers won't risk into these ventures by putting their millions at stake when plagiarism seems to easily yield what they seek.

There is no doubt that at the end of the day when it comes to evaluations (which are a plenty full these days) it will be the masala flicks which will receive all the accolades while "my favorite lot" will have to be satisfied with a trickle of critical acclaims which hardly counts :( .

"The way I see it" there is something definitely wrong with the products of Indian Film industry and most of its Consumers. May be that’s the reason that The Class like to seek solace in Hollywood!!