Leave Your Hearts at Home!

For the longest time I have heard this term "Leave your brains at home" used to describe a movie. After hearing it for such a long time I have come to see a pattern in the movies for which people use this term. But what do people really mean. What does leave your brain at home mean. I believe what they mean is not to question blatant holes in the plot? or unrealistic characters? or silly looking locations? or broadly speaking just don't ask any questions.

Om Shanti Om was one film that falls under this category. It is a LYBH film according to a lot of people. It started alright, silly humor, some of it really funny and I thought this was one of those films which are meant to be stupid all over. But then mid way it became serious and expected me to start caring about the characters which were originally set up for a spoof. So if someone dies in a spoof the audience tries to laugh at that too, but this was not funny. Then a bunch of other things happen which are sad but not funny and eventually you realise that these guys are serious about it. So coming back to my point, half way through the film i had started finding flaws in the characters, locations, dialogues and pretty much everything with the film. Some other films were Singh is Kinng, Welcome, a lot of David Dhawan stuff back in the 90s. But does this mean that these "flaws" that we point out in a film do not exist in other films we adore. Actually they are all over the place, its just that we don't notice them because the director was successful in keeping us focused on what he wants us to focus on. According to the definition above of a LYBH a lot of classics should be categorized here. Have you ever heard anyone asking you to leave your brain at home when they talk about say Andaz Apna Apna. No you don't; they all say "its awesome", "its a cult" etc. This is because the humor keeps us engaged, same goes for Padosan, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. There are "flaws" in the basic plots of these films if you compare them to reality but we never feel the need to leave our brains at home. I am not even considering GolMaal, Chupke Chupke, Lage Raho Munnabhai because you might argue that they clearly don't fall under this category and are bad examples. But if you really think about it, they have flaws too, maybe not as obvious but they are there. Is it really practical for a guy to pull off what Amol Palekar did in GolMaal, can you imagine what Aneez Bazmee would have done to the same story, I cringe. But you buy it, this is because of the treatment, because how you care about the character. Do you really think what happens in the Munnabhai films is possible, the protagonist himself is an unreal character, a lovable bhai. They conveniently don't show the dirty side of what he does for a living for him to stay lovable. But what works for GolMaal, Munnbhai is that people connect to their protagonist, the viewers care when he has a problem and feel happy when he wins, which is the biggest victory of a writer or a director in my opinion.

Most people don't go to a movie to ask questions or to analyze it, they just want to have a good time. I do analyze films but never when am watching it for the first time, i consciously forget about film making and try to have a good time and in fact give the director a chance by trying hard to feel what he/she is trying to convey. A film might be from any genre, but one thing every film needs to do is engage the viewer in any which way. If the film does that, you don't tend to analyze the locations, characters, flaws in the plot etc, because you are engaged in the characters life, his/her predicament, happiness, or by the film's humor or simply its visuals. So whenever you feel like too many things in the film are not right while watching it, its probably because the director has failed to engage you, obviously this assuming that you were diligently paying attention to the film.

But the films which get tagged this certainly have something in them, otherwise why would someone feel the need to defend it, its gotta have entertained the person at some level. So OSO, Welcome, SIK have all succeeded in entertaining some people at some times during the films. Also they were packaged brilliantly and were a marketing success. These films would have failed miserably in the 70s as then films had to run for 20 weeks to be called a hit. Unfortunately today the first weekend is enough. Ne ways, coming back to the most important thing missing in these films, it is the connection with the audience. Its one thing to give ppl some giggles and another thing to make them laugh so much that they bring the film home into their lives and keep it there forever as a part of fond memories. Also such films consistently fail to make you relate to the protagonist. How much did we care if Akshay Kumar gets the girl, or brings the don back to the village in SIK or if SRK really got his revenge in OSO (were the directors even trying, he he). As opposed to that, we still remember Nasseruddin Shah and Ravi baswani's earnest fight for justice in JBDY or Amol Palekar's struggle to keep his job in Golmaal. So really speaking the way you would enjoy LYBH films is to not expect to have a great time but just about OK time, expect to be a little bored and wait for a few laughs, expect forgettable characters who don't connect with you, in short leave your hearts at home.

Living a Dream

I am making my first film. No, not just a home video, not with a cell phone camera or a just another handy cam, not a spoof, not a video of my fav song, an actual, real, living, breathing, dreaming, ass kicking, world rocking, mind blowing narrative short film! (phew!)

I will write another post explaining exactly how I am doing it. But I have finally made the switch. For years now I have heard filmmakers saying "don't plan to write a script, write a script, don't plan to make a movie, make a movie". Apparently that is the best way to learn. So what stopped me? A mental block, yes with me, probably a result of listening too much to people around.

How can I make a film? How would I do it? Its not really a great industry to be in. Its years of struggle. Most people never make it. Its just a silly craze, it'll phase out. But now you're an engineer etc etc

I don't have answers to any of these, and I honestly don't care. I guess every person has to go through this process of deciding what he/she really wants to do in life. It takes conviction, passion to go for a less travelled path. People have advice, a lot of them may tell you not to do something and often with good intent. But they do so from their own travels and experiences. They cannot possibly imagine what it takes to make it or if you have it in you. So how do you know if you have it or not. Well that's the million dollar question, ain't it? That's something a voice answers, from deep inside and that voice makes more sense than any person telling what you can't do. So after making sense of all this, the only thing left was to get over my inertia. 18 years of education has slowly but surely sucked every bit of instinct out of me. I like most others am incapable of taking any risks. We are trained that way, in an assembly line, living everyday to make a "good" living with an imaginary family. But I don't wanna get noticed in the crowd I just wanna leave the crowd completely. The people who follow their goals some how manage to do this successfully. A lot of such people just don't have a choice, they don't know how to do anything else, its their only option. But what about someone who is doing something else and strangely is successful there. It takes something more for such a person to look else where.

Then recently I lost a dear one, actually my dearest. After I got over the shock, the pain hit me, like a train. I have lived with it everyday since then. Even when I am happy I can feel it deep in my gut. But along with the sadness the pain did something else, it amazingly dragged me out of my 18 year coma. It has forced me to get a perspective of life. I feel that it forced me to see what really matters. I take my mind more seriously. It has has slapped me in the face. Its not just theory anymore, its not just in the movies anymore, it has happened to me, I saw a loved one die in front of me. So anything can happen to me, so then none of those things are just imaginary, they all happen to real people like me, even the dreams coming true part. And now, I want to try, no matter what happens, the will is finally getting stronger than the fears. I believe I have gotten there, I can take risks again, I got my instinct back.

So I am making my first film, because I don't want to wait anymore. I don't wanna go through life wondering why I didn't. All the time i put into watching movies, analyzing them, critiquing them, obsessing over them came to just one conclusion, "it would be fun to make one myself". Not for becoming rich, not for winning awards, not for the fame, just for the process. And I was right, its not just fun, its like a dream

The Impending Implosion...

(Inspired by the Grammy Nominated Song by NIN, 'Every Day is Exactly The Same' and off course life)

He sulks,

He goes for long angry walks,

He hates his space,

He hasn't shaved in days,

Disheveled,

Its like nobody can hear him scream,

But hes a nice guy,

Hes a dreamer,

He loves loud music,

He drives fast to calm down,

And he waits,

He knows. one day he will snap,

The impending implosion,

And he cant wait for it...

--Onkar

"There is no love here and there is no pain, Every day is exactly the same..."

Turn it up, way up, 2:54 - 4:54 - My world goes into slow-mo and I cant hear anything but the music...