December 7, 2011

The Science of Moviemaking

Like all the office going people, I too have plenty of time to kill on the weekends. And very much like most of them, on most weekends I end up watching at least one movie. We don't plan too much before choosing one, usually just download the latest ones for the week.

The whole freedom on internet debate made me think along these lines. Are these public figures really so dumb, or there is something we are missing here. I mean, inspite of all the allegations, most of the current ministers would get re-elected as well. There is a similar parallel in movie making business as well. Almost all the directors, with just a possible exception of Raju Hirani, make movies to cater to just a few segments of the population. Given the diversity of our country, its really difficult to make movies which would be received well by everyone (the reason why I excluded Raju Hirani). Karan Johar and Yashraj movies cater to a particular class, Farhan Akhtar and Aamir Khan to another class. Which brings me to Salman Khan.

Most of his movies are senseless, and have more holes in the plot than roads in India. And yet, nowadays each of his movies are crossing the 100 crore mark. And inspite of what the sane film goer or the critic says, the small town mass just love him (also true for other similar movies like Golmaal, no Entry, etc). So while on surface it may seem to be an undercooked movie completed in a 15-day shoot, in reality it may be a calculated and rational move. May be the public just doesn't care, and don't want a sleek and better product. To them, movie where Salman kicks 20 villains in the climax i the definition of pure entertainment and paisa-vasool.

So next time you see a mindless an leave-your-brains-behind comedy, just don't assume that the producer and director really don't get it. May be they do, and perhaps better than all of us.

2 comments:

Nightflier said...

ha! you know even I wonder sometimes I take the science of movie making for granted. with marketing being the buzz word these days, I am sure the producers/directors/actors are one step ahead of us when they make senseless (for thinkers like us ;)) movies. And sometimes I (who judges these people as shallow), wonder if they have a point when they are at least minting money!

SK said...

Yes...now I am convinced they are not fools...given that most of these guys are decently smart in real life, they can't be so dumb while making movies...and that too when hollywood movies are so easily available these days..