Movie this and movie that
The past few days have been pretty chilled out. No shopping or outing or anything of that sort - just family time, which also means no photographs. Sridevi akka and me did go to a meeting with a producer from one of the top Telugu movie production houses and it was an interesting meeting.The crux of the meeting was that Telugu cinema is not ready for new stories and only big movies with big name stars sell - even if the story is the same old; and that there is no space for new directors. Hindi cinema has opened up a little and they are more open to new film directors and new stories as they can recoup the costs from screening at multiplexes. Either way forming contacts here would take ages - 6 months and upwards and if you add on the time for getting a movie off the ground it can be anywhere upwards of 2 years before you can even roll the cameras on set. So not an encouraging sign and will have to start thinking on how to raise money from the market here.We went to see a bollywood movie yesterday evening and the first thing that came to mind was that IMAX was ripping us off in NZ. It costs about NZ$6 to buy an IMAX ticket here while it costs about 3 times that amount in Auckland. And the thing it is no different than the one in Auckland, right down to the seating. Unbelievable isn't it? The movie that we saw was a new release and it was pretty average - all style, not much substance - a masala 'fillum' to the core. I'm definitely not used to the song and dance sequences in movies anymore as they annoy me most of the time they come on as it breaks the flow of the story. If only they moved the story forward or kept the pace going it wouldn't be so big of an issue for me. After watching a couple of hindi movies my impression is that technically they are well made but it is the story and the pacing that they flounder on. In terms of cinematography - most of the movies tend to be shot simply with composed/locked off frames rather than moving image for the most part. It definitely speeds up the shooting rate and probably keeps the costs down. The only place where they go nuts with the camera movement is in the song and dance sequences - to add a dynamic to it obviously.
A noticeable difference in the way movies are now being marketed and sold in India is that the local market is now borrowing heavily from Hollywood style of opening a movie wide and recouping most of the costs within the first 2 weeks. And this is largely due to the fact that Hollywood studios are putting money into Bollywood since the market is huge and they are trying to get a toe hold in the world's largest film producing country. Even 10 years back you would see movie posters boasting that that the movie had completed 100 days or 150 days or 200 days at the cinemas - but not anymore. Now a movie that completes 100 days is a legend. Most of the movies come and go within 3-4 weeks and if it runs beyond that it means that it is super hit. Strange how foreign money has influenced and changed the way indian film industry markets and sells their movies - even though there is not much difference in the product itself.
Reading local newspapers is always interesting. In New Zealand I'd be annoyed that world news wouldn't get as much coverage in print or television and the focus would just be on NZ news but on this trip I realized that it holds true for all countries - the focus is always their own news with foreign news being touched on as an afterthought almost. The only true global TV Channels that I've seen are BBC and CNN as their range of news is worldwide. Reading some of the recent news articles here is worrying to say the least. There are articles like people committing suicide because they are unable to cope with the massive pressure exerted by the system for them to perform according to the system's expectation of them; or that of some farmers using Pepsi mixed with fertilizer to grow a bumper crop at a lower cost as the cost of pesticides is high; or the percieved threat India faces from China in several areas of trade as well as national security; or the increasing internal security threats in the form of naxalites and maoists. It's like the society is reaching a crucial point in time where a major change is bound to happen.
Your best laid plans disappear without a trace in India. I had planned on learning how to cook atleast 4-5 dishes and I had also planned on going to the gym to keep my fitness levels up and also to keep a regulated diet so as not to put on weight. Well the net result of those plans is zilch, nada, nothing. Maybe next time I'll bend the mystical forces at play in India to my will.
It's the last couple of days on this trip with my parents and I'm feeling sad as I feel helpless and useless in doing anything to help solve their worries and their pains. The only thing I can do is take that pain with me to keep reminding myself not to waste the sacrifices they've made ,despite my faults and shortcomings, to get me to the point where I am today.
Till later,
Amit
posted by Amit @ 7:41 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home