Skip to main content

Pabulum: Bollywood stories and fans

I am not a fan of Bollywood movies, for most of those don’t tell good stories; they just brand actors. That is probably the reason why production houses spend so much on promotions. There is nothing wrong with that. A majority of Indian movie watchers don’t step into the cinema halls to fry their brains on some twisted storyline; it's more often a hangout, an escape from the already tensed everyday life.
This is a reason why, generation after generation, people fall for fairy tales; everyone feels out of the world for some moments. A lie, so blissful that we find it hard to leave behind unless we run a risk of being a laughing stock. All this would prove to us why fancy is the food of cinema, a motion picture of the daily life of the common man would fancy no one.
But my complaint today is not about viewers but filmmakers. It's easy to cash in on popular stars. Easier to get some cars blown and hired fighters beaten up. But all these are Pabulum. Your visitors will like the dish, but they won’t cherish the taste. Here, I don’t ask you for cryptic plots and esoteric sciences. But could we give our viewers a soul-touching glimpse of life?
I would have sounded contradictory in the last line; on the one hand, we know our audience wants to escape the miseries of life, and on the other, I am urging for a glimpse of ordinary life. So let me clear the air. All our lives are extraordinary; we just miss out on the good things in the run. So what if someone stood by our side and relived those moments with us? The Idea of fairyland is still in our minds, we have buried it under our mundane life. We know there is no perfect love story. But that does not stop us from expecting a perfect one for us.
So if I confused you enough, let me leave with these final lines. I want films to touch upon the daily joys of humane life, to keep inspiring people for a living every day beautifully, so that we don’t have to bury our films (those one-man army, those eternal love over million births or superhuman) like we had to do with our fairy tales. So that we could live a movie in our lives.

Popular posts from this blog

Election afterthoughts

The unfolding of the Indian election might have come as a surprise to many, for one is the BJP who steamrolled the campaign seasons with slogans of "400 par". While it remains 240 seats popular in a house of 520 members, a few stories should not go unnoticed. First, the BJP's popularity and the win for a third term is no ordinary feat. Only a few leaders of the past have managed such an elusive feat. This, indeed, is the trust that the brand Modi has built over the years. In politics, we often get acclimatized to the situations, in certain aspects too critical of it. When the young generation looked at Indira Gandhi's cabinet, they vowed never to again let such a solid mandate to a single party that its chief could declare an emergency, and no structures would be able to prevent that. This, however, ended up in fragmented colours in the Lok Sabha, the era of coalitions and surprise prime ministers. Needless to say, the horse-trading of MPs and the mindless corruption ...

Birth of a flood - a poet's admire of rain

The sky is almost dark, save for those last golden tinges that would fade in no time. As palm trees mark the oblivion, a muddy reflection forms the ground. The last few days were mostly rainy. So profound is our love for rain. And why wouldn't we? Unlike most other seasons, rain is so tender. A drop of patience which is about to reach its final destiny. Every time I look at raindrops, they remind me of a struggle. A journey that begins with summer in an aura of dry and burning heat. And in no time, the drop loses its sources. The long-held identity of its mother. With the loss of identity, an awakening awaits. The pleasure of reaching out and bonding. As our drop moves up and up the end of the sky, it realises the futility of pride and the necessity to bond. This comes with age. Not until it is near Earth does it agree to meet with other wanderers of the new world. And finally, all our drops reach the cold atmosphere. The coldness makes life dreary and lonely. As the youthfulne...

Consulting Constulting

Consultants are the most rampant, yet the most sushed topic in corporate. There are enough consulting firms today, to make one wonder if we need so many of them. And if the conundrum of needing to hire consultants was not big enough, here comes the issue of what they actually do. Over the last few years, many in the media have reported consulting firms to have held too much power for far too long to have become corrupted. Firms have relied on shady practices to keep their business afloat and, on many occasions, have walked out without much consequences. However, I find the above conclusion misrepresenting, if not incorrect.  The need for consultants doesn't arise from corporate's need to implement change or resolve issues. Corporations today are locked in an environment of constant change, be it in business models, products or even markets. The law forbids two companies from coming together and promising on a "happy ever-after". The consequence of this is action and r...