Rant.. rant.. rant

The reviews of Veer are out, and it's declared a flop (while in some other article, it was reported to gross higher than WANTED.. huh? WANTED is supposed to be a BB hit.. so I'm confused now). Why am I writing about Veer here in my SRK blog? Coz I increasingly find this 'fight' between which movie does better in gross than the other entirely ridiculous. I'm writing this because 3 Idiots was reported to be reaching the 400 crore bracket and I have a hunch (more like a premonition) that MNIK revenue will be compared severely to it. If MNIK scores better than 3 Idiots, will it make the latter a worse movie? No. It's as nice a movie as it was before MNIK's release. Shah Rukh gave a bullseye analogy about this when he talked to India Today Conclave 2009 (it's in there somewhere) on the story of two artists and a painting. Some people should listen to that and reflect before they froth at the mouth arguing over unnecessary things.

I'm not a student of economics, but even I know that for an industry to do well, more films should do well. Be it produced by whoever, acted in by whoever..if only a handful of (big) films work consistently, without any care being given to the small ones, the thoughtful ones, even the cliched ones...the future of films from that industry will be affected. Why? Because businessmen hate to lose money, and they will follow the formulas of the films that worked, not the ones that failed.. which is why we have Transformer 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean 3 (can I go off-tangent by asking why oh why has my dearest Johnny agreed to the 4th installment?? Enough already!!). Did the films flop only because they suffer from bad plots and untalented actors? Not necessarily. Sometimes the money game just didn't work. Remember what KJo said about Kurbaan?: "It was a cinematic success, although a box office failure."

Would 3 Idiots work that well without Aamir at the helm? Despite it being a nice story, I doubt it. This tradition of supporting only a cluster of popular actors has broken the hearts of many talented hopefuls and in a world that's increasingly becoming too open where entertainment is concerned, the younger generation may soon feel restless and start searching for new types of cinema from outside of India. Heck, with the click of several buttons I can watch any movie I want: thai, french, chinese, hong kong, english, japanese, korean.. anything. For FREE! Who cares that it's only 425 x 344? I just want to know the frelling story. In a perhaps-not-too-distant future where domestic products may no longer hold monopoly over cinema halls across India, will the industry face the danger of collapsing? Complaints are already voiced out over the double-bladed effect the multiplexes are having over the fate of small movies. Which is why I think the 'call' from fans to avoid certain films and go for certain films.. ONLY to support their favourite actors!!.. is at best childish and at worst destructive.

Let all films be successful! Let them all earn big bucks! If it grosses 200 crore less than the next one (e.g. Ghajini vs. 3 Idiots) or 30 crore less than the next one (RNBDJ vs. Ghajini), rejoice that the combined gross will go back to the industry for the next filmmakers to produce better films. Stop comparing hindi movies to Hollywood ones too. The western filmmakers do turn to Asian cinema for stories, you know... and the adaptations suck big time. So don't tell me: Hollywood = lotsa talent + great stories. And stop saying that "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" is an excellent chinese movie! Are you out of your friggin mind?? Have you watched Once Upon A Time in China (the first one)? Or Drunken Master (the first one)? Or any of the kung fu drama from Hong Kong? I'm telling you.. even the suckiest VFX from a small HK drama is preferable to CTHD..at least to me. Let's forget the reason (if there is any) why Chow Yun Fat was cast as the lead, shall we? Or I'd go off on another tangent here. And don't get me started on Hollywood adaptations of Korean & Japanese horror movies...grrr. There's something in hindi cinema that the western cinema will never capture. That something made me cry, laugh, angry, etc. at exactly the same scenes even after the 10th watch. Which I've never experienced with a western film, or any film from other countries actually (yep, including my country). Find that something and emphasize on it. You will have yourself a great movie.

This habit of obsessively comparing one actor to another, one movie to another, one country's film industry to another.. it takes the fun of just enjoying a good story out of the equation, dude. I cried when I watched Wake Up Sid. I laughed so hard I nearly fell off my chair several times when I watched Partner. I stared unblinkingly in awe at the scene where Krrish meets his father face-to-face for the first time. Good stories are there to be enjoyed! ENJOYED, you hear me??! Trade pundits can discuss BO flops or hits of films for all their worth coz THEY GET PAID FOR IT! Us fans, all we should do is just go watch the movies and have fun discussing them later. We're not having fun with all the stupid brawling we're having on and off the internet over who's better: Shah Rukh, Aamir, Salman, Amitabh, Hrithik, Ranbir, Akshay, etc. ad nauseam. And lemme tell you this.. to put Amitabh Bachchan in the same clause as those other names is an insult to the legend that he is. Come back to me 20 years in the future and tell me whether they are still hard at work doing movies, the way Amitji is still doing now. Until then, shut up.

Ok, I'm done. Dunno when the next rant will be, though.. :P

UPDATE: Aha! Just found this. I must be psychic.