Passionately written..I feel for the guy!
By: Pratim D. Gupta
PFC
Friday the 21st of September, 10am, INOX (Kolkata), I am sitting with five people sprinkled in different parts of the 250-capacity audi and watching Navdeep’s Manorama. By the time the interval comes one of the multiplex personnels have joined the lonely gang and by the time move ends, even the cleaner is completely hooked. Head count: 7.

Same day, same time, FAME (Kolkata), my colleague is sitting with four people in an even bigger audi watching Manish Acharya’s Loins of Punjab Presents. My friend, she wants to laugh but she finds it odd laughing alone. The only time she can’t hold her laughter is when one of the musical show contestants in the film sings the national anthem and one of the four audience members stands up in respect.

I am worried. I really am. And even though Anurag’s posts and his sheer optimism (ask him about the chances of Paanch releasing even after all these years and throw the same question to Kay Kay and you will know what I mean) cries out to hope, to keep faith, to just believe sorry I cannot. I cannot see what he can see and let me tell you I am trying.

I sincerely believe Manorama is one of the finest pieces of cinema to have come out on the Indian screen in all of 2007 (My review in The Telegraph). And almost 90 per cent of people coming on PFC believes that. And surprise, surprise even a handful of critics this time acknowledges that. They may not understand the deliberate pacing of the film and call it slow, they may misconstrue the lovely homage bits and call it plagiarism, they may not see that for the first time a very foreign cinematic form has been adapted to an Indian milieu with aplomb, but thankfully they can at at least realise this is genuinely “above average” or “3/5″ fare.

BUT WHERE IS THE AUDIENCE? Where is the casual movie watcher who will stroll in to watch Manorama? Where is the viewer who can gamble 200 bucks on a Manorama ticket and walk in the theatre with an open mind? Why do they warm up to Dhol and not to Loins of Punjab? Why Heyy Babyy, why Golmaal, why Dhamaal and why not Loins of Punjab Presents, why not Black Friday and why not Manorama?

What happens to the debutant director who cannot afford stars in his first film? What happens to the intelligent maker who has no say on how his well-made film is promoted on the telly? What happens to the thriller movie maker who just cannot have three hit songs to get the audiences in? It can be a sureshot high but if it doesn’t do a Murder or a Zeher or a Kya Kool Hai Hum, how can a Navdeep Singh or a Manisha Acharya make his second film like the way he wants to? Like the way Anurag Basu, Mohit Suri and Sangeeth Sivan have been able to call the shots?

Gone are the days when a big star will work with a new director backed by a small producer. Will a Salman Khan or a Shah Rukh Khan or a Hrithik Roshan do a film with a new director’s script like a Bruce Willis did with Shyamalan’s Sixth Sense screenplay? Yes, Aamir has done it on more than one occasion but he does one film in four years. How many directors will he bail out? How many directors will cineastes like Vishal Bhardwaj bail out? No Smoking would never have been made because Black Friday despite being what it is wasn’t a box office success. Now, Anurag has at least John in No Smoking but will even he get a big audience in? Look what happened with Kabul Express. It looked different from the usual Yash Raj films and people just didn’t turn up.

There’s nobody in this country to take note of a Fargo. William H Macy? Francis McDormand? They were even less popular than Abhay, Gul and Raima. It’s in the movie watching sensibility. Forget the critics, I can assure you that 9 out of 10 people have found Manorama slow. Bring it on, they must have thought, stop making them watch Tom and Jerry and play saanp-seedi… Can the majority of the plex junta ever truly appreciate a good film? Forget a film, can they ever appreciate a good moment, like the way the two neighbours are sitting symmetrically with chairs lined up against the wall, when Abhay and Raima come out in the morning? Navdeep, doesn’t it hurt man? Honestly, didn’t you believe that maybe just maybe the brilliant detailing would find more appreciation?

Everybody talks about word of mouth and good reviews. Who goes in to watch a movie after reading or watching a review? Writing reviews for a newspaper which reaches out to more than 10 lakh people, I myself seriously doubt it. They decide in their minds what to watch and what not to and yes it is almost always dictated by who’s in the movie. Arey bhai, word-of-mouth toh tab hoga jab koi dekhke aur phir jake kisiko bolega. If the opening is too weak, it’s usually all downhill from there. Chak De opening was average, not bad, and that’s why it picked up with word of mouth. A non-starter can hardly recover.

I am feeling really, really guilty for writing such a gloomy piece but I have been thinking about this all of last weekend and I am really disturbed. Is there a solution? Do you put Indian audiences in some machine and change the way they watch movies? Do you kidnap stars and force them to do good films and not the safe ones? Or do you just let the show go on? Myself, I am six feet under.