It feels
good to be back to blogging ways. Exactly 2 years after my last post, I finally
got over my blogger’s block J; felt the urge to put my thoughts
into words. All this is due to my love for cinema or movies or feature films or
whatever you want to call it.
For the
past couple of years, any interview of a film personality is never done without
a discussion on one topic- their thoughts on the emergence of “new generation” movies. Is this the name
possibly given to the movies which are created by up and coming directors or
script writers, or is there really something that exists. A genre called The
New Generation. The fact remains that this has been incongruously used in
Malayalam media more than anywhere else in the country or the world for that
matter. Frankly, I fail to see anything “NEW” in the movies that have released
in the recent past. I have been part of various film festivals and watched lot
of movies in different languages to say that this so called “new” was old stuff
(tried ‘n tested)10 years back – even the boredom that accompanies it.
The
current trend in Malayalam movies seems to be to show real life from seemingly
impossible angles. No doubt, these are visually captivating. However, for
someone who sees movies purely as a form of entertainment, I find it difficult
to accept the overdose or abundance of reality injected into them (Unless of course, the reality itself is more
entertaining than fiction). If you want to portray what is happening in the
real world, might as well do a documentary. Save the cinema going public their
money. Forgive me for being so honest, it is my blog after all. Take it or
leave it should ideally be my motto, but I would really appreciate an honest
attempt to understand my point of view here. I recently had a huge argument with
one of my ex-colleagues over whether movies are merely entertainment or whether
it is a true reflection of life in real. I was hell-bent on my argument that
movies = entertainment. In hindsight, I was wrong indeed. The fact that this
ex-colleague of mine is a “new gen” himself makes his argument logical as most
of the movies that come out in Malayalam nowadays are reflections of life as a
whole. Whether it is a good reflection or bad reflection is fodder for another
argument. Then again, it all lies in the mind of the audience. To be brutally
honest once more, I somehow see reflections of a foreign language movie in most
of the movies now made rather than that of real life. It might be coincidence
too. Like thinking minds are spread across the world – so that can explain the
similar frames too. As some Malayalam movie director said, there are only 18
basic story threads in the world (or is
it 8?). All the stories are spun out of these threads. It is a difficult
proposition, don’t you think?
Now let’s
come to the “new gen” actors. There are a bunch of them, apparently the brave Davids standing up tall and fighting the
two mighty Goliaths (Mammotty and Mohanlal).
The question however is whether there is a need for a fight at all. Do these two
stalwarts need to win against them to prove themselves? I think not. This fight
is actually non-existent. I have not done enough research on the topic to
comment on who spread this or whether the new gen actors are, in fact, in a
race with Mammootty and Mohanlal. I believe in one thing though. Deep down in
their minds, every one of them will any day be willing to swap their lives with
either of these two Big Boys of Malayalam cinema. As director Ranjith said in
an interview recently, “it is not easy to weave a story for and make a movie
with Mohanlal or Mammootty in the, but a challenge to use these huge talents in
a movie and turn it into a success.”Well, face it guys, they are super-talented
and none of the new ones can come within miles of these two. And I am not some
middle-aged man frantically trying to support his generation heroes. They were
stars way before I started to understand movies.
Comparing
Malayalam movies with movies made in other languages reveal interesting facts. Take
the example of Tamil. Tamil movies too have turned a corner. Lot of new
directors, actors, script writers and a whole different way of story-telling
has changed Tamil movies for the better. There are real life stories in Tamil
too. For example, the strangely unimaginable true story or Naduvila Konjum
Pakkathe Kaanum (NKPK). The fact that the actors and some of the technicians in
the movie themselves had such an experience add credence to the movie. I
genuinely think that they will not be able to make another movie of such
quality in the future though, with all due respect. Such is the impact of this
true life incident that when it was portrayed on silver screen, it turned out
to be both entertaining, enchanting and surprisingly feel-good. Sometimes,
truth is stranger than fiction. Having said all these, it is a fact that these movies
are not considered “new generation” but merely another movie which is
entertaining. How simple! It is strange that sometimes, we Malayalis just don’t want to see things as it is or in a simple
way. We usually like to complicate things. We like seeing the Sun as a star
that is at the center of a solar system which in turn is a part of a galaxy
called the Milky Way and God-knows-what. In simple terms it is just a ball of
fire which can give us a tan. Apologies, again for being so crass!
I was
forced to express my thoughts about Malayalam movies because I felt saddened
with the fact that I don’t enjoy going to the theaters to watch Malayalam
movies any more. I went and saw a Laljose movie last week as it was
surprisingly entertaining. Two hours of solid fun. Isn’t it what we should be
looking for? In these days of a plunging rupee and ever climbing cost-of-living
and tensions in office and lot more! Having Fun? Nowadays, people say that they
love a movie not because they really loved watching it, but because of the fact
that their intellect might be questioned if they said otherwise. The fact
remains that we are sadly hypocritical. At least don’t be so when it comes to
entertainment. Deep down, we all want to come out of a movie theater with a
smile on our faces and the satisfaction that we have had a couple of hours of solid
entertainment.
P.S: I don’t expect everyone to
agree to my POV. There are people who genuinely see movies as a piece of art
and intellectual brilliance. To them, I can only say, forgive me for being so naive.
