EDIT: PLEASE READ
When I posted I hardly knew there was such a toxic enviornment here that a simple, single post would be used against another group of people so please don't do that and I take full responsibility for in what ever way I have offended people here and apologize for it.
As I said in my original post, I'm a Maldivian and I'm not surrounded by Bollywood at all be it their movies or stars or news about it or them. Hindi movies have been part and parcel of Maldivian entertainment as long as I can remember but for the past 10 or so years TV serials and Hollywood have taken over and Bollywood movies are not of that much interest anymore here except for oldies like me who keeps a mild interest in moves released.
I have little to no knowledge about fandoms or hatred you guys have towards each other.
I am not a fan of anybody. I just try to watch movies that interest me (not at the theatre, but once they come out of theatre...as said originally Dil se is the last movie I watched at a theatre and now Zero) and really know very little about newer actors or actresses apart from the those before 2000 or so.
Anyways down below is my response to the posters here...
Since I don't have time to indulge in explaining my point of view to everyone who responded, I'll just address the overriding opinion expressed by majority in this thread.
I think I rambled on too much that it hardly made sense or came off offensive so I'll try and address that as simply as I can.
My main point which I guess I failed to convey in my initial post, is that the idea of a cerebral palsy patient being a top scientist is kind of dreamy grand and otherworldly as it is about going to mars. (mind you what Steven Hawkins was suffering from was totally different from Afia's condition which is congenital CP or more commonly called mild CP. But still for such people given their disabilities, being a brilliant scientist is kind of similar as being able to go to mars. So is the idea of them having a grand love story for people like them. So for me all these ideas jelled together well enough and I liked that treatment of the story. Which is kind of my main point and the very thing I felt mass majority would not have been able to connect with.
And I especially liked that the makers treated Afia as having a normal life as anyone of us and didn't highlight on how difficult life are for them in reality apart from the very rudimentary parts. Which is why I took my 17 year old son who has mild CP as well which I had alluded to in my post. This normalizing of Afia as any average person is what won me over.
Now its a totally different thing if you didn't like Bua as a character and thought the actress representing Afia was horrible at her act.
We like what we like and there is no compulsion for all of us to like the same things.
I guess my mistake here is that I assumed Bua as a character would have appealed to majority when most of you posters are saying that you disliked it totally and maybe that's what most of the Indain audiance aslo felt like?
In which case there is no way the movie would work because he is the main character around which the story is built on and a major part of the screen presence is devoted to.
Same goes for Afia. If majority felt the actress was horrible at her act the movie would not work at all even for a niche audiance. Let alone getting onboard with the outlandish space angle.
For me the inclusion of Babita's story and the cameos made a kichdhi but again at the risk of offending people here I think it was the makers attempt to appeal to a more wider audiance in light of their main focus and story of Bua, Afia and their outlandish fascination with space.
I hope I made better sense here than my original post and I once again apologize if anyone felt offended or you guys felt I'm offending Indian audiance.
I don't know what to say before I sign off from the forum except that I posted here just thinking I could involve in a reasonable discussion regarding the movie but I can see that would be impossible with the underlysing assumption that pretty much everyone here seems to be that one can't like Zero unless you are a fan of SRK.
Anyways I don't think anybody who is not well versed in whatever is going on here in the forum should post here and I certainly no zilch about it so I'm just gonner go. Take care all of you.
DOWN below is my original post which I am still leaving since it would not be fair to those who had responded earlier.
First of all I'm not an Indain...I"m from Malives and I was around the IF about 5 years ago following an Indian serial which I got a little more involved in than usual...Totally unlike me since I nether have the time or inclination for much entertainment outside my family obligations.
Anyways, the only reason I am here is because of Zero..I haven't been to a theatre since I saw Dil se...I know I'm a total aunty compared to all you young lot here from what I can gather from reading the posts about zero here.
Zero is very close to my heart mainly because of Afia. She represents some one very close to me and though the actress is nowhere close to Kalki in Margarita with a straw, her portrayal is close enough to someone with cerebral palsy that I can identify with her quite easily. I don't want to go into my own personal business here, but suffice it to say that I have absolutely no difficulty in believing that Afia is someone with a degree of cerebral palsy.
And whether we like to admit or not, such people are difficult to identify with for a person with normal abilities. And its depressing and a total uphill struggle to see them try to live as much a normal life as they can with others around them.
As such it requires heart and immense patience to associate with them and see them go through life around others.
I actually liked the fact that Zero did not go into too much details about life as a person with cerebral palsy with regards to Afia, because it kind of made it easy for my special person to not focus too much on those difference as compared to others and just enjoy a gutsy enough character who was not bowing down to Buas antics when he was being a total douche to her, but instead held her own infront of it. I liked the fact that Zero dared to make my special person belive in a grand romance as unlikely as it is for many people like Afia in real life, and made him (my special guy) think and belive in big dreams...big dreams for him no doubt though ordinary and average it might seem to us.
For me the best part about Zero is the second half, the very part that most find boring and an uphill struggle to deal with. I LOVED bua's and Afia's story with all the flaws and suspension of belief involved with the space angle and Mars...
And it makes it more believable in the story of Bua and Afia because Bua himself is a dwarf (yes there are proportionate dwarfs (around 20% of all dwarfs) as differentially abled people could identify better with other differentially abled people than the rest.
Coming to the point of my ramblings here, the point is that Bua's and Afia's story is not meant for a mass audience. Its a niche concept and people generally go for easy entertainment and thats what Zero tried to do with Bua and Babita's story. The character Babita would have more mass appeal and had the movie been about them it would have worked more at the box office.
Bua's has immense chemistry with pretty much everyone, be it his mother, his friend the girls or pretty much everyone he deals with in the film and the diologues are witty yet simple and ordinary at the same time...He is totally realistic in the sense that he is no hero, infact as self centred as any average person and unapologetic about it most of the time but have big dreams. Infact Bua's story alone even without the girls would have immense mass appeal as well though I am not saying everyone would love SRK's acting. Those who have never liked SRK's acting or don't find him charming or having immense screen presence would not like Bua at all...AND that's totally fine.
But the point is that SRK is a superstar because majority did and do appreciate his acting or charm or whatever it is that they like about him, so I feel the movie would have worked if the heavy and depressing (for many) story about Bua and Afia had not been there. And that is even with the space and Mars angle.
I actually want to commend the makers for incorporating Afia's and Bua's story because it is a major risk for a movie intended for a mass audience. I feel sad that the makers could not cash in on the movie because of this very inclusion, but at the same time so SOOO grateful for it because their story, the songs and the picturization of those zero gravity chamber sequence and takeoff scene were just so grand and beautiful I have no doubt that this movie would gets its validation in the future because the concept is totally novel for the current time with regards to Bollywood.
Yes I am aware of Barfi and have seen the movie but PC's character is in no way comparable to Afia with those facial tics, major speech impediments and bound in a wheelchair. Honestly it all looks depressing for the ordinary eye and I can totally understand why people can't find entertainment in the story because its not a pretty sight for the average eye.
Zero makers are right in saying that it's not a film but a feeling...
What the makers and fans fail to acknowledge is that, these type of leads does not have mass appeal and should not have expected it to be hit and it's quite all right for it not to be in my opinion.
Its sad to see even some SRK fans are bashing the makers for the moive instead of acknowledging the concept and their brave attempt to try the new and different from the tried and tested age old themes.
I hope the movie gets more recognition but its alright even if it doesn't. I for one am grateful for it and would love it if my gratitude as a viewer could be conveyed to the makers in any way because I really would like to thank them from the very bottom of my heart.
Once again makers are absolutely right...it takes heart to feel this movie...
And even if one can't identify with it I don't feel its such a bad thing because one should not expect majority of the people to be sold on to novel themes that are not pleasing to the eyes like severly disabled people like Afia, at first try and if both the makers and SRK fans could understand that, there would be no dissapointment with how the movie has fared so far...
PS: The actress who played Afia was completely believable though she might not have been as accurate as Kalki. she did her job perfectly enough. Trying to innact a wheelchair bound cerebral palsy patient is no cake walk and she should be commended for being able to make people like me who witnesses this at close hand everyday, to be able to believe her act.
And PPS, I don't mean any disrespect to anyone here on the forum but just putting my 2 cents worth...
Enjoy the Holidays and be merry with you loved and special ones...🤗
Edited by SheAish - 6 years ago
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