A while ago, one of my friends remarked – “All interesting stories have already been written and made into movies. There are no new stories anymore. At best we can expect a new treatment to the same old story. But don’t get your hopes too high.”
He has a point. This is called Creative Bankruptcy in story writing. Looking at the storylines of the movies released in India in the last few years, (save a movie or two here and there) this is pretty much a conclusion any third grade student could come up with.
We either have Korean movie rip-offs or Hollywood movie mash ups. They are all delivered in a slick package – with “style” oozing out of even the toilet paper used in the movie making you, the unsuspecting audience, swoon over people who, if run into you on a busy afternoon in Anna Salai, do not even warrant a cursory glance.
But the camera angles and the makeup philosophy ensure that they are a pleasure to look at on the silver screen. Amidst all this brouhaha of making the movie slick and stylish, the all important part of a movie – “The Writing” takes a back seat… and in some cases, completely disappears off the radar of the crew.
Creative Bankruptcy is a nice phrase. It is easy to brand Xollywood (Replace X with your own movie industry letter) as a has-been. However, it must be understood that making a bad movie also is an art form nonetheless. The effort that goes into making a Parama Veera Chakra and the effort that goes into producing a Rang De Basanti is probably of the same intensity. While in one case, the writing is spectacular, the other one had no writing at all. The writing on the wall is hence clear to everyone – including the audience.
All hope is not lost though. The latest Tamil movie “Ko” is an apt example of what good writing can achieve. While the first ten minutes of the movie gives you a familiar “Been there seen that” feeling, the next two and a half hours keep you firmly rooted in your seat to enjoy the twists and turns unfolding on the screen at a rapid pace.
The concept is wonderful and the execution is amazing. It is a movie where the hero is the story and everyone else is a distant second. There are sequences in the movie – quite lengthy sequences – where there is no trace of the leading man. But you don’t even notice that he is absent. Let the leading man take a hike – the real hero, the story, has an authoritative presence in every frame of the movie – That’s the power of writing a gem of a movie.
Acting in this movie is top notch. Jeeva earns more than a pat on his back for his subdued but determined role as a Press Photographer – who knows what photography is all about.
Jeeva blends into the role effortlessly and in more than a couple of scenes, he is just a photographer capturing pictures even when something bad is going on in front of him. He does not jump into every situation to save the world for a change.
Kartika acts well and has a good screen presence. However you do yearn for some glamor from the leading lady. Unfortunately she falls quite short of expectations in this department. The other girl Piaa is a treat to watch and steals quite some hearts with her bubbly presence.
Ajmal, as a young educated Indian, trying to reform the dirty politics of Tamil Nadu, walks away with all the laurels. He carries this all important role with an effortless ease. He has a great future in the show business.
Post interval, you can easily guess where all this is leading to. The suspense element is pretty easy to guess especially if you are a seasoned moviegoer. But the end is really unexpected and is a pleasant surprise.
This could have been a great movie – one that would have been the talk of the town for years to come. In a classic case of squandered opportunities, the movie just stops short of being a classic – for a variety of reasons.
K V Anand, the director of the movie, impresses us in one scene and immediately manages to extract groans by resorting to age old screenplay practices. Take this for instance, the leading man running on the streets with a car behind him firing incessantly at him. The man dodges all the bullets and comes out squeaking clean. It may work in a regular masala flick but it sticks out like a sore thumb in this movie. The problem is, such scenes could really have been avoided with no impact to the movie.
The first ten minutes which feature a bank robbery is again full of unbelievable stunts and is as cinematic as it gets. The climax too starts off on a really dumb note. I can’t explain why it is dumb because that would give away the end. It almost ends up as an anticlimax to an otherwise wonderful attempt but the last leg of the climactic sequence ups the ante again resulting in a totally satisfying movie experience.
While I do believe in the cliche – All’s well that ends well, here’s three tight slaps for the director for his insane song placements and a pathetic flashback episode that has no real weight in the movie. Second song in the second half – part of the half-baked flashback episodewas really unnecessary. Had me wondering if he did it just to increase the length of the film. Really.
Soundtrack is well done. The background score blends seamlessly with the narration. Editing by Antony is crisp and the songs by themselves are quite melodious and shot extremely well. Sadly they don’t fit into the overall scheme of things.
My rating of the movie: After the movie ended, everyone stood up from their seats and clapped. That’s pretty much my rating of this movie. Don’t miss it.
He has a point. This is called Creative Bankruptcy in story writing. Looking at the storylines of the movies released in India in the last few years, (save a movie or two here and there) this is pretty much a conclusion any third grade student could come up with.
We either have Korean movie rip-offs or Hollywood movie mash ups. They are all delivered in a slick package – with “style” oozing out of even the toilet paper used in the movie making you, the unsuspecting audience, swoon over people who, if run into you on a busy afternoon in Anna Salai, do not even warrant a cursory glance.
But the camera angles and the makeup philosophy ensure that they are a pleasure to look at on the silver screen. Amidst all this brouhaha of making the movie slick and stylish, the all important part of a movie – “The Writing” takes a back seat… and in some cases, completely disappears off the radar of the crew.
Creative Bankruptcy is a nice phrase. It is easy to brand Xollywood (Replace X with your own movie industry letter) as a has-been. However, it must be understood that making a bad movie also is an art form nonetheless. The effort that goes into making a Parama Veera Chakra and the effort that goes into producing a Rang De Basanti is probably of the same intensity. While in one case, the writing is spectacular, the other one had no writing at all. The writing on the wall is hence clear to everyone – including the audience.
All hope is not lost though. The latest Tamil movie “Ko” is an apt example of what good writing can achieve. While the first ten minutes of the movie gives you a familiar “Been there seen that” feeling, the next two and a half hours keep you firmly rooted in your seat to enjoy the twists and turns unfolding on the screen at a rapid pace.
The concept is wonderful and the execution is amazing. It is a movie where the hero is the story and everyone else is a distant second. There are sequences in the movie – quite lengthy sequences – where there is no trace of the leading man. But you don’t even notice that he is absent. Let the leading man take a hike – the real hero, the story, has an authoritative presence in every frame of the movie – That’s the power of writing a gem of a movie.
Acting in this movie is top notch. Jeeva earns more than a pat on his back for his subdued but determined role as a Press Photographer – who knows what photography is all about.
Jeeva blends into the role effortlessly and in more than a couple of scenes, he is just a photographer capturing pictures even when something bad is going on in front of him. He does not jump into every situation to save the world for a change.
Kartika acts well and has a good screen presence. However you do yearn for some glamor from the leading lady. Unfortunately she falls quite short of expectations in this department. The other girl Piaa is a treat to watch and steals quite some hearts with her bubbly presence.
Ajmal, as a young educated Indian, trying to reform the dirty politics of Tamil Nadu, walks away with all the laurels. He carries this all important role with an effortless ease. He has a great future in the show business.
Post interval, you can easily guess where all this is leading to. The suspense element is pretty easy to guess especially if you are a seasoned moviegoer. But the end is really unexpected and is a pleasant surprise.
This could have been a great movie – one that would have been the talk of the town for years to come. In a classic case of squandered opportunities, the movie just stops short of being a classic – for a variety of reasons.
K V Anand, the director of the movie, impresses us in one scene and immediately manages to extract groans by resorting to age old screenplay practices. Take this for instance, the leading man running on the streets with a car behind him firing incessantly at him. The man dodges all the bullets and comes out squeaking clean. It may work in a regular masala flick but it sticks out like a sore thumb in this movie. The problem is, such scenes could really have been avoided with no impact to the movie.
The first ten minutes which feature a bank robbery is again full of unbelievable stunts and is as cinematic as it gets. The climax too starts off on a really dumb note. I can’t explain why it is dumb because that would give away the end. It almost ends up as an anticlimax to an otherwise wonderful attempt but the last leg of the climactic sequence ups the ante again resulting in a totally satisfying movie experience.
While I do believe in the cliche – All’s well that ends well, here’s three tight slaps for the director for his insane song placements and a pathetic flashback episode that has no real weight in the movie. Second song in the second half – part of the half-baked flashback episodewas really unnecessary. Had me wondering if he did it just to increase the length of the film. Really.
Soundtrack is well done. The background score blends seamlessly with the narration. Editing by Antony is crisp and the songs by themselves are quite melodious and shot extremely well. Sadly they don’t fit into the overall scheme of things.
My rating of the movie: After the movie ended, everyone stood up from their seats and clapped. That’s pretty much my rating of this movie. Don’t miss it.
3 comments:
Dude.... Awesome Review! :)
Imma download..... =)
Nice way of putting things :)
Thanks... and Thanks! :D
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