Thursday, September 09, 2004

Filmy chakkar: Ban - galore

Its a boring Thursday morning here at work, and sipping coffee and thinking about a plan for the weekend. I dont usually have to plan for weekends, cos I am either hanging out with friends, or chilling at Javacity, or getting cosy at home with my PS2. But as good fortune would have it, I met this amazing woman who , in a fit of absent mindedness, agreed to tolerate me for a whole lifetime (and another 6 lifetimes as well, if the elders are to be believed), and so I cant afford to not romance her during the weekends.

Now, as any Bangalore dude with a life would tell you, movies are really where it's at if you are looking for some clean romance, which brings me to the real point of writing this blog.
What is it with Kannada film makers and good movies? Why do they always run parallel without ever meeting? Why is it that every other language can churn out atleast some decent stuff once in a bluemoon, but Kannada films never manage to get out of the rut?

Well, I dont intend to evoke any fanatical sentiments because I myself am a Kannadiga, and have enjoyed several good Kannada movies in the days of yore when movies were made with a brain, heart and soul.While I would like to remind everyone that there have been some very good Kannada movies in the recent past, they form a very miniscule minority of the total lot.

In general, Kannada movies suffer from poor production values, bad direction sense, unattractive packaging (read as "heroes that would put villains to shame in terms of their appearance"), bad publicity, negative image, and bad music. As an upmarket viewer of movies, I also despise the mass adulation that is reserved for some totally uncharismatic non-actors who make larger than life movies that demand audiences to leave their brains home while all the time advertising "For intelligent people only". For this, I blame the audience for not knowing what good cinema is about.

In short, Kannada movies are in total chaos. But sadly, the Kannada movie audience deserve the kind of movies they are given. That brings me to another point I am trying to highlight.

The Kannada movie audience is mostly the lower middle class suburbans, or the highly conservative, and non-cosmopolitan upper class.These are the people who , more often than not, do not speak or comprehend any other language and therefore, are resigned to watch Kannada movies alone, and as the saying goes " Beggars cant be chosers". And so you have the coin throwing, catcalling, whistle blowing Kannada audiences enjoying the disgustingly insipid and absolutely senseless movies that are doled out to them.
Point to be driven home: Kannada movies have their audience, and the audience have their Kannada movies.

Now, if the producers of these movies cannot reach out to a larger audience by making better movies, they cannot and should not hope to cut into the audiences for movies made in other languages. And they certainly have no right to demand that theatres dont screen any non-Kannada movie till they are atleast 7 weeks old ( and viewed on TV, thanks to the booming piracy business). If you cant win a race, you shouldnt try to get everyone else to lose. It just means you wont have any winner at all. And thats exactly the case here. People who watch Kannada movies continue to watch them. People who watch non-Kannada movies will just not watch any movie at all.
Will someone tell me how it helps improve the Kannada film industry in any way?

Last heard, all the theatres have stopped screening Kannada movies as well.

Conclusion: My weekend movie date just went outta the window. Any multiplex screening secret cinema? Puhleeeze....

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