Bollywood versus Hollywood, oh yeah! now who doesn't wanna talk about it. I know you do, I know I do, infact we all want to. Some of us share our indifferences and opinions on the same because we are nothing but a product of our environment. Lets categories this- firstly: there are those who have been on both sides and secondly: there are those who have been on either side.
Well, I consider myself as the one who have had tastes from both the "..woods". And I can blindly,just blindly without a twitch can say yes- in terms of quantity of quality cinema- Hollywood is far ahead of Bollywood. Though one may argue about what do I mean by this quality difference: well let me put it this way- quality differs with the audience. The so called "taste" of cinema of the audience here differs from the audience world-wide. The standards for audiences there are well set in Hollywood as they are here. But these standards need to be updated.For example: we need to redefine the action and sci-fi genre according to our taste. We should march towards our exploration towards completeness.Cinema is not about making the same thing over and over and later claiming this to be a little different. Well come on: give me an action movie, give me an action movie from Bollywood which would come as close to the standards of Die Hard. Die Hard brought a revolution in action genre in Hollywood, we need the same kind of revolution here. We, here are not too familiar with actions, sci-fi, fantasy, bio-epics. Actions were an integral part of Indian cinema from 70s-90s but they are extinct right now. We have lost our- angry young man, we don't have our explosions, flying cars, near death saves, yada yada yada. Our buildings don't get blown up while America my friend gets fucked and fucked,over and over and over in every action movie. I understand our obsession with cute romance rather than R rated romance, due to the whole cultural thing but this doesn't stop us from exploring other genres. But when it comes to making action and sci-fi movies one needs money and that money needs to show in quality. The quality and quantity of money spent is easily reflected in Hollywood movies but we got the quantity which doesn't reflect in quality (example: Blue 100cr.), whereas a low budget movie recovers its cost easily. So the latest trend started here is that- the production studios like UTV- spotlight have produced some excellent low budget movies and recovered even double-triple the cost and here the main emphasis is on quality of cinema. But the time has come to play big, gamble, experiment, give us one movie,just one movie for now to blow away our mind- we don't need to cry, we don't need to laugh, we don't need to scare-what we want is to appreciate what needs to be appreciated, and say this one was worth the wait.
We can't define the "completeness" when it comes to movies but we can define our potential to explore the completeness and my friend- while others have shown potential to explore- we still need to.
Let me wrap up by answering a simple question: In a time frame- How far is Bollywood behind Hollywood? and I say- 21 years and still counting- as Die Hard was released in 1988 and we still need to make one, leave behind The Matrix- it will have to wait even longer. I will wait for this magic, i'll wait for my revolution, we will wait for our revolution.
Adieus
DD
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10 comments:
nice observation nd gr8 analysis on a topic of urs ease jispe tu ankh band karke bhi thesis likh sakta hai ......nywez kudos keep up da good work nd start writing 4 numskulls like me....nd yeah dil mange more....
I dont understand, whether you are trying to compare th technological advances of both the woods or are you trying to compare the woods themselves.. Coz, I dont believe that a cinema is all about technology and money involved..
if you are comparing them on the basis of their advances in technology, then indeed hollywood is way far ahead.. lots of money involved... large audiences.. international viewership and all.. every genre gets a target audience..
While bollywood doesnt make movies for international audience.. our target is the home audience... how do you expect a bollywood director to take such a big risk... Masala movies are their lifeline.. the same movie has to cater a large range of audiences..
The immature audience is yet another overhead.. Its clearly visible that al the offbeat movies made in bollywood are low budget movies.. with nearly no starcast.. this is what maybe called risk management..
Inspite of that, Movies like "Mumbai meri jaan", "Mithya".. "Dev D" are made in India... and Directors like Satyajeet Ray, Sudhir Mishra, Tigmanshu, Anurag Kashyap and actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Amitabh Bachcha, Dilip Kumar, Abhay Deol, Irfan Khan etc have ruled the cinema...
My point is that, it would be completely unfair to compare hollywood and bollywood on the basis of money involved and technology used.. a cinema is much more than that..
Who wud have missed the greatness of movies like "Painted Veil", "Pursuit of Happyness" and etc.. no buildings collapsing.. nobody getting fucked..
I rest my case..
Girijesh-I get your point, what I was trying to portray here was redeeming the different genres here. People and audiences here have forgotten about action... they know a little about sci-fi genre...they deserve to know.. how can one say that we as audience have no such interest- action movies used to be great hits in 70s era.. people loved those... that same audience wants the same action to come back but they are not getting it...the success of Wanted with positive reviews shows the same... how can one judge an audience on sci-fi, fantasies when they are not even aware of such genres.... Hollywood on the other hand has always done that... its a practice there... we still need to evolve... we need to touch our basics..come back full circle..
I am not saying we need more money .. what I said was.. when you invest huge amount.. it must show ... and this is whats lacking here...
And my friend.... true cinema is never about money.. oh-no ... its always about audience.. you deliver what the audience wants..what the audience deserves... you aware the audience -"hey, we have something new... take a look" .. then after that its the audience to decide.. whether they accept or reject.... but they do deserve a chance.... I say give them that chance...
They are giving them chances.. "something new" has been a voice since Satyajeet Ray and continued in Rajkapoor's era.. and still going on in Anurag kAshyap's regime..
You mentioned. sci-fi and action... both need money.. so its again the same.. experiments have always been there.. failed and succeeded at times.. give Bollywood some time..
Audience is the one who is in question... We are poor audiences.. beieve it.. Bollywood needs more money for us..
yeah ... these guys have experimented in drama and romance... and even succeeded... audience did accept them... but sci-fi... isn't visible till miles... for sci-fi ... i say introduce .. we do not need to start on a great scale so that it requires more money.. a good sci-fi script will suffice... and in action ... with the kind of potential and money we have ... we can do even better than Dhoom... action deserves to be redeemed, reborn...
great work dude...
looking frwd to read more of this kind...
Here's what I feel about the whole Hollywood Bollywood thing. Firstly, there is no doubt that Hollywood is way ahead in terms of the sheer resources available, not just monetary but creative as well, which automatically translates to more variety. However, as the two have evolved I think there have come to be certain genres that fit each better. For instance, as far as a thriller/horror/sci-fci movie goes, a Hindi movie just cannot provide the same experience as an English one. Same way, no English movie can make you laugh as much as some of the Hindi ones. Important to note is that, this difference is not due to the backwardness of either of them, but rather because of how differently Hindi and English languages are perceived on screen by us. Hence, I believe this difference is there to remain. Thus, to say that Bollywood will catch up with Hollywood when it makes a Matrix does not make sense. Can you actually imagine a Hindi movie giving you the Matrix kind of experience however good the script might be? However, there is no denying that there is a definite dearth of creativity in Bollywood, which is validated by the frequency of 'good' movies. We see a good English one once every month at least, and a good Hindi one, maybe twice a year. That is where we need to capitalize. Going deeper, the problem is much more fundamental, hardly anyone genuinely interested and talented in making/writing movies actually has the conviction to enter the field.
I agree to paroksh upto a certain point.. It's very clear that the movies represent the traditions, believes and aspirations of the society concerned in a subtle way.. We as Indians might not enjoy the full grasp of the movies like Matrix...
But I wont favour the typecasting of the Indian cinema.. I dont believe that comedies are the only thing we are good at... We didnt make Matrix but we made Mahabharata and ramayana.. with more mystical experiences and more philosophical content and a more of drama involved.... and do remember ahabharata was made around 25 years ago... so to doubt the capability of the bollywood of making such movies as Matrix is questionable
We enjoy the Indian comedies more because they are in synchro with our own cultural background and thus easily digestible..
I agree to a certain point with DD that the Bollywood should focus at the Sci - Fi genre... at the same time I think it does involve a lot of risk... and while the movie makers in India are more happy feeding the audiences withe masala crap, they fear any sort of experimentation..
We had action movie back in 70's and we could not move much ahead.. this I think is because the mentality of the makers who are not able to think beyond copying and reusing the proven script with a little camouflage..
Its entirely the risk avoiding mentality of us as Indians which is reflected by bollywood..
-Paroksh .. when i talked about Bollywood making Matrix.. what i meant was .. it is a later phase.... action is much more fundamental in handling for us than sci-fi... what Matrix brought to Hollywood.. changed the perceptive of the sci-fi fans... the special effects reached a whole new level...
I agree with you totally that yes.. as far as the language goes... english and hindi is received differently by us ...one can't imagine .. the actual translation... ie. why the dubbed movies.. try to seem more funny than the original ... that difference is there to stay... but the style can always be altered to suit us ... and this will need a lot of experimentation ...
Girijesh- the major fall out of the audience in 70s-80s on action was because they were getting it in plenty ....in every other film ...same story .. same sequences.... we never had the maturity to grow at that time .. ie. why even the best, mature action movies during that era .. faced consequences..eg. Agneepath (1990) ... one of the most appreciated action movie ... in Indian film industry was a box office disaster... people never wanted to go and see the same thing again and again...it was too late.... so 90s then became the era of romance... with minimal action.. but in between them too... there were some successful action-romance blend.. which worked well.. and then ... the action vanished... romance stayed ....
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