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24 FRAMES PER SECOND Newsweek magazine called last week. The journalist wanted to put together an article on trouble in Bollywood, how films were flopping like nine-pins and how box office-wise, 2000 was probably the worst year in recorded film history. After half an hour of picking my brains, he asked: "Really, what does the audience want to see?" I don't have a clue. But they are smart as hell. If the film is bad, not all the hype and marketing in the world can get, in Hollywood parlance, bums on seats. Four films flopped last Friday: Astitva, Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar, Aghaaz and Shikari. This Friday's release, Govinda's Jis Desh Main Ganga Rehta Hai, didn't even get an opening. The film's publicity was good. It also had a catchy song, 'Kem chhe'. But they didn't even come in. They knew it was a shoddy product. Perhaps they can, as pundits say, smell a bad film. Nobody knows what the audience wants. But I do know what they don't want. They don't want to see rehashes of earlier blockbusters, even if they have trendy stars and expensive songs shot abroad. Raj Kanwar's Dhai Akshar Prem Ke had strains of every hit made in the past five years: a big family with Amrish Puri as the angry patriarch and Himani Shivpuri as sweety bua, Karvachauth, havans, a storyline lifted from the Keanu Reeves-starrer, A Walk in the Clouds and Aishwarya Rai romancing Abhishek Bachchan. It didn't last a week. They don't want to see Govinda's standard issue bargain basement comedy anymore. In films made by directors too lazy to write a script, they just place the talented actor in a series of situations and expect him to single-handedly carry the load. He can't. So even the Midas touch combo of David Dhawan and Govinda hasn't worked this year. Kunwara, the first remake of A Walk in the Clouds, sank. They don't want to see top-heavy fluff: films that boast big names, carry big hype but turn out to be all icing and no cake. Big star movies have been flopping with astounding regularity this year. Starting with the first film of the year, Mela (Aamir Khan), to Shah Rukh Khan's Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani to Salman Khan's sleepwalking exercise, Chal Mere Bhai. The equation is clear. Mega-watt presentation (stars, locations, clothes) minus story equals flop. And they definitely don't have the patience for films that have intellectual pretensions but no soul. Kamal Haasan's Hey Ram, an ambitious exercise done in by the actor's insistence on being in every frame, was a miserable flop. Astitva, done in by director Mahesh Manjrekar's belief that he can efficiently direct four films at a time, suffered the same fate. With a little more care, both could have been memorable films. What works? Going by the small, sleeper hits of the year (Kya Kehna, Hera Pheri, Fiza in Mumbai only), the masses seem to want films that are hatke (different), in the real sense of the word. They aren't overly demanding: some good writing, some good acting will do. But laziness won't be tolerated. With over 90 per cent of films flopping, the writing is clear: old wine in new bottles make for hangovers, not box office. ( Anupama
Chopra is Special Correspondent, INDIA TODAY. Write
to Anupama Chopra) |
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