Not Rohit Shetty Or Salman Khan, WE Are The Real Reason Bollywood Is Stuck In Mediocrity

It seems as if the average Indian prefers average Indian movies.

I went to watch the movie Arrival two weeks ago. The whole row in front of me was booked by what seemed like college students. They came in after the movie started – nothing wrong with that if you come in silently. But this group came in noisily and kept laughing and sniggering well into 5 minutes after they should have settled in. I found it very unpleasant and irritating – more so because the movie did not have subtitles. One rogue comment from them and I would miss a piece of a dialogue.

Arrival is a heavy film.

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Not really casual fun – the movie demands commitment. Commitment of attention, concentration and some brainpower. Maybe that is why the whole row that seated the college peeps just disappeared after intermission. The theater looked even more vacant now.

And this is exactly why good movies are not working in India. People want to have fun with friends. Arrival is not a fun movie unless you love movies that make you sweat trying to figure out what’s happening – basically, movies that make you think.

 

The atmosphere completely changes when you step into a Rohit Shetty or Salman Khan movie.

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The crowd is unfettered and raucous, and no one seems to be bothered by the noise. Actually, they quite enjoy it. The crowd here is entertained. In one of these movies, even if you are not a fan, you might catch yourself smiling too. And later, when you watch the same scene on your TV or laptop, you think –

“Did I really smile/laugh/enjoy that scene back in the theater? How?”

That’s when you realize the importance of atmosphere and ambiance while watching a movie. Everyone around you was ecstatic when Salman Khan walked in and did the thing with his belt buckle – which probably made you happy too. Maybe that’s why these movies get 3/4 star ratings by film critics in newspapers. Can’t really blame them for being carried away by the atmosphere in the theater.

 

Maybe that’s all the audience is happy to get too. 4-5 song sequences with a couple of item numbers and item girls thrown in.

A very theatrical fight sequence and a dramatic entry by one of the A-listed stars. We are not really demanding as an audience. No one goes to a Salman Khan movie and comes out saying,

“Yaar, the acting was below par! Thoda aur dedication dikhana chahiye tha!”

We are very happy with the mediocrity Bollywood throws at us. And no, it is not about the “unrealistic” action scenes in Rohit Shetty movies, because Hollywood also has a fair share of them. We do not notice them because they are well executed, so well that it doesn’t look like a sham.

We are happy with the poor jokes they throw at us. Case in point the cringeworthy jokes in Dear Zindagi. SRK could have written better jokes in there.

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“When your jokes are beyond repair, recycle them.”. Cringeworthy.

 

We are happy with the blatantly “inspired” storylines and copy-paste scenes they throw at us. Case in point the scene in Barfi where the mother shows her daughter how she made a good decision – directly lifted from The Notebook.

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We are happy with the poor romance too. Sometimes there is just no chemistry between actors. Remember when Govinda was partnered with Katrina Kaif in Partner? Or when Aishwarya Bachchan was paired with Rajinikanth in Robot?

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We are happy with the recycled, west-aping music today’s Bollywood throws at us. Just go and listen to the best songs of the 90s. The movies were bad, but the songs were at least memorable – even Vikram Bhatt gave us good songs.

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Today Pritam, a celebrated music director who makes decent money has lifted almost all of his “hit” songs. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed. There are news pieces, Quora threads, and social media articles highlighting his “inspirations”.

Yet he keeps composing as we and as a result the producers keep turning a deaf ear at his works.

 

We are happy with the filler item numbers they throw at us. Which is them basically saying, “Hume pata hai tum log sex-starved tharki ho. Yeh lo!”

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And this is why movies like Gulaal, Black Friday, Maqbool, Shaitan, Hazaroon Khwaishein Aisi, Udta Punjab, Swades, Aamir, Maanjhi, Parched, Waiting, Udaan, Ugly, Paan Singh Tomar, Dor, Iqbal, Ankhon Dekhi, Byomkesh Bakshi, Masaan, Aligarh, Parzania and many more have been box office disappointments.

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In contrast, the top 15 highest grossing movies have movies like Sultan, Chennai Express, Dilwale, Prem Ratan Dhan Payo, Kick, Happy New Year and Dhoom 3 – a group of names that would have been forgotten if they were not on this list.

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When the directors and producers of good movies do not make money back, how are they supposed to keep on making good movies? We, as consumers do not encourage them at all. If we keep on going as we are, there will come a time when Hollywood will take over our cinema, and watching only Hollywood will be the sane thing, because mainstream Bollywood still doesn’t give a crap about a quality script. They will peddle it disguised as quality, like Dear Zindagi did and we will fall for it, thinking it was actually good cinema.

When on the contrary, it was just a mediocre script with a couple of smart lines thrown in with 2-3 star actors.

And voila! The producers mint money.

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And we, the people do nothing, and then make fun of Bollywood when the topic of Rohit Shetty and Pritam comes up.

We are as culpable in this as much as the creators are. It is high time we wake up and set standards – just like everything else in our life.

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