The New Generation Syndrome

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.