Friday, October 27, 2006
Coming for a movie...?
i ain't a movie buff. i mean, if it's a really good one, i'd give it a shot...especially if i have nice company, if you know what i mean;). but otherwise, especially when it comes to bollywood, far from being a mode of entertainment, it's really a turn off for me!
i'm notorious among my friends for not going to the movies and being a 'spoilt sport'. and quite expectedly, i got a shocked face from CB when i told him that i went for a movie last weekend...but jokes apart, the fact is that i'm not a spoilt sport, i'm just much more selective in the modes of entertainment i choose. and when it comes to the attribute of humor, frankly, i think bollywood sucks big-time, no offense meant to my fellow enthusiasts.
let me try to explain, to defend myself against any accusations of throwing baseless criticisms. and let's just confine the critique to the element of humor...or rather, the lack of it herein. i think it's been quite a while now since bollywood came out with a release that really made me "laugh my head off". i think, and woefully so, that the general "level" of sense of humor portrayed in indian movies, leaving out a few exceptions, is quite pathetic. the goofy/slapstick genre of humor so often resorted to by the humor-illiterate movie creators might amuse a 10-year old, but that's besides the point.
and important digression that i'd like to talk about is what constitutes media, and in particular, movies or even television. media, as i proposed in an earlier post, is basically a platform for exchange of ideas among members of public in any community. again, let's narrow down the discussion to the humor element. the kind of humor presented in the movies or TV, is basically a reflection of the humor that the author understands and wants to present to the audience. now i use "author" here as a generic term to mean whosoever is responsible for creating and directing the humor in a movie - it could be the director or some other person. so basically, the humor presented by the author is * his perception of the humor understood and enjoyed by the mainstream audience * (no, i'm not sexist, so please interpret "his" to mean "his/her" at all points of mention herein). it is his understanding of what would appeal to and tickle the average movie-goer. now here comes the crucial point that needs to be further understood. if the author hopes to produce a hit performance - in this case a comedy that will make the audience laugh their heads off - then the critical thing for him to ensure is that he * understands well-enough the "humor language" most spoken by his target audience *, failing which, he risks producing a piece of "humor" that simply won't make the mainstream audience laugh enough for being qualified a hit.
to illustrate my point, let me, without loss of generality, talk about hindi movies running in the metros. it doesn't require a public survey to assume that the average viewer is likely to be in the age group of 20-35. i admit this is my personal estimate but i'm pretty sure i won't be much off the mark even if i'm wrong. the average person of this age group, living in a metro, in today's time, is pretty much smart. he has a decent educational background, is well-read and has a productive social and professional life. he watches "friends", has read english fiction, and in many cases might have had chance to interact with people from the west. in summary, my hypothesis is that this average individual has a sense of humor that is quite mature, and which i fear is significantly "higher" than the average level of humor present in bollywood. this is what the "author" has to realize. the hopeless level of humor so often portrayed in hindi movies is testimony to the fact that the author is either not aware of the above mismatch, or he is simply not being creative/competent enough to match up to it.
i might be criticized for using a notion of "level" of sense of humor that is not clearly defined. well i have read a modest bit of american and english fiction (including p g wodehouse), have watched "friends", "sienfeld", seen a few hollywood comedies etc. even with my limited exposure, i am certain that there exists humor that is intellectually stimulating, and then there exists one that would amuse no more than a highschool kid. the humor that a person understands, jokes about, enjoys with friends etc., is basically a reflection of his intellectual and educational level. and for the age group mentioned in the previous paragraph, i think it's a pretty decent level...at least to the extent of being underestimated by the bollywood author.
what pisses me off big-time in the average bollywood movie is this. firstly, as i suggested earlier, the author doesn't do enough of homework to investigate what humor language his mass audience speaks. with the hopeless kind of humor that he then presents in most of the productions, it also appears that he doesn't even care to educate himself upto a decent humor "level", so that he can impress the audience - who have come with such high expectations, only to be put off by a damp squib. the author seems to continue to hold on to his arbitrary sense of what constitutes the "popular humor", and then goes on to portray to the viewer that this is what your humor is! i mean, come to think of it, it makes me feel as if my own sense of humor has been somehow hijacked!
i don't know whether people would agree with me on this or not, but this is where my standing is as regards the present bollywood. i do have a love for my country, and believe me, i feel almost ashamed to speak in these terms for the indian film industry in general. but i'd rather speak a self-derogatory truth if i am to make a point. that said, i'd be most willing to catch a movie if it doesn't make me feel all the same...like to come along? ^_^
i'm notorious among my friends for not going to the movies and being a 'spoilt sport'. and quite expectedly, i got a shocked face from CB when i told him that i went for a movie last weekend...but jokes apart, the fact is that i'm not a spoilt sport, i'm just much more selective in the modes of entertainment i choose. and when it comes to the attribute of humor, frankly, i think bollywood sucks big-time, no offense meant to my fellow enthusiasts.
let me try to explain, to defend myself against any accusations of throwing baseless criticisms. and let's just confine the critique to the element of humor...or rather, the lack of it herein. i think it's been quite a while now since bollywood came out with a release that really made me "laugh my head off". i think, and woefully so, that the general "level" of sense of humor portrayed in indian movies, leaving out a few exceptions, is quite pathetic. the goofy/slapstick genre of humor so often resorted to by the humor-illiterate movie creators might amuse a 10-year old, but that's besides the point.
and important digression that i'd like to talk about is what constitutes media, and in particular, movies or even television. media, as i proposed in an earlier post, is basically a platform for exchange of ideas among members of public in any community. again, let's narrow down the discussion to the humor element. the kind of humor presented in the movies or TV, is basically a reflection of the humor that the author understands and wants to present to the audience. now i use "author" here as a generic term to mean whosoever is responsible for creating and directing the humor in a movie - it could be the director or some other person. so basically, the humor presented by the author is * his perception of the humor understood and enjoyed by the mainstream audience * (no, i'm not sexist, so please interpret "his" to mean "his/her" at all points of mention herein). it is his understanding of what would appeal to and tickle the average movie-goer. now here comes the crucial point that needs to be further understood. if the author hopes to produce a hit performance - in this case a comedy that will make the audience laugh their heads off - then the critical thing for him to ensure is that he * understands well-enough the "humor language" most spoken by his target audience *, failing which, he risks producing a piece of "humor" that simply won't make the mainstream audience laugh enough for being qualified a hit.
to illustrate my point, let me, without loss of generality, talk about hindi movies running in the metros. it doesn't require a public survey to assume that the average viewer is likely to be in the age group of 20-35. i admit this is my personal estimate but i'm pretty sure i won't be much off the mark even if i'm wrong. the average person of this age group, living in a metro, in today's time, is pretty much smart. he has a decent educational background, is well-read and has a productive social and professional life. he watches "friends", has read english fiction, and in many cases might have had chance to interact with people from the west. in summary, my hypothesis is that this average individual has a sense of humor that is quite mature, and which i fear is significantly "higher" than the average level of humor present in bollywood. this is what the "author" has to realize. the hopeless level of humor so often portrayed in hindi movies is testimony to the fact that the author is either not aware of the above mismatch, or he is simply not being creative/competent enough to match up to it.
i might be criticized for using a notion of "level" of sense of humor that is not clearly defined. well i have read a modest bit of american and english fiction (including p g wodehouse), have watched "friends", "sienfeld", seen a few hollywood comedies etc. even with my limited exposure, i am certain that there exists humor that is intellectually stimulating, and then there exists one that would amuse no more than a highschool kid. the humor that a person understands, jokes about, enjoys with friends etc., is basically a reflection of his intellectual and educational level. and for the age group mentioned in the previous paragraph, i think it's a pretty decent level...at least to the extent of being underestimated by the bollywood author.
what pisses me off big-time in the average bollywood movie is this. firstly, as i suggested earlier, the author doesn't do enough of homework to investigate what humor language his mass audience speaks. with the hopeless kind of humor that he then presents in most of the productions, it also appears that he doesn't even care to educate himself upto a decent humor "level", so that he can impress the audience - who have come with such high expectations, only to be put off by a damp squib. the author seems to continue to hold on to his arbitrary sense of what constitutes the "popular humor", and then goes on to portray to the viewer that this is what your humor is! i mean, come to think of it, it makes me feel as if my own sense of humor has been somehow hijacked!
i don't know whether people would agree with me on this or not, but this is where my standing is as regards the present bollywood. i do have a love for my country, and believe me, i feel almost ashamed to speak in these terms for the indian film industry in general. but i'd rather speak a self-derogatory truth if i am to make a point. that said, i'd be most willing to catch a movie if it doesn't make me feel all the same...like to come along? ^_^
# posted by Ankur Sakhuja @ 10/27/2006 09:40:00 AM 
Comments:
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my 2 bits-
Please stop referring to 'Friends' as the bible of western TV humour... IMHO it definitely doesn't fall into the "intellectually stimulating" level of humour... at least not for most people out of their teens...
Also, try out "Pyar ke side effects"... might just change your perception from "Bollywood humour sucks" to "most of bollywood humour sucks"...:)
As for the rest.. i'm with you man.. it's high time they stopped "dumbing down" the movies (to the mythical and R K Laxman-ish common man's level).. especially with a busload of movie ticket revenue coming from the pseudo-metro crowd in over-expensive multipexes(is that the plural?)...
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Please stop referring to 'Friends' as the bible of western TV humour... IMHO it definitely doesn't fall into the "intellectually stimulating" level of humour... at least not for most people out of their teens...
Also, try out "Pyar ke side effects"... might just change your perception from "Bollywood humour sucks" to "most of bollywood humour sucks"...:)
As for the rest.. i'm with you man.. it's high time they stopped "dumbing down" the movies (to the mythical and R K Laxman-ish common man's level).. especially with a busload of movie ticket revenue coming from the pseudo-metro crowd in over-expensive multipexes(is that the plural?)...
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