Why Make Raavan When You Can Make Housefull?

The box-office report of Raavan and Housefull is out there for everyone to see and infer what they want to. And when I say Raavan, I actually am talking about movies like Dil Se, Gulaal, Firaaq, Parzania etc; and when I say Housefull, I actually am referring to movies like Welcome, SiK, Kambakht Ishq etc. Obviously, these are movies of different genres but the one thing common is that, they were all on exhibition in theatres, multiplexes etc and we know the fate of all of these movies.

So, what lessons do we learn from the BO reports. I don't know because I am neither a critic nor a movie maker or a trade analyst; just an avid movie watcher. And here are some of the things that I have come to realise, over a period of time.

Story & Screenplay Why bother writing about problems of people in the relief camps of riot affected victims or the inspector trying to track down the goons involved in Bombay bomb blast or a radio-journalist trying to interview an ULFA terrorist or the caste/class divide in red-alert zones of Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh? We don't want to see such non-existing issues which are hyped by media. We want to see what issues a common man faces. We want to see how a bartender in London handles the visit of his father-in-law, we want to see how a 'panauti' copes with life and wife, we want to see whether Uday Shetty is able to find a suitor for his sister, an intelligence agent walking around with a lie-detector and how a bumbling sikh becomes King of Australian mafia. These are the real issues we are plagued with.

Characterisation This is one area where Mani, Anurag and others really need to work upon. I mean, why take pains in writing the character graph of Dukey Baana when people are happy with Aarush; why write Meghna and Preeti when people actually want bimbos like Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta, why sketch Amar Mathur and Beera when Riteish Deshmukh is able to make people laugh at his stupid antics? Who is watching the growth and maturity of a character! People are busy sniggering at the immaturity of the 3 hunks with a baby, and the reverse growth of stars like Akshay Kumar. And then, someone like Anurag comes along to give us Rananjay SIngh. What! Is that a real name? What happened to the Raj's and Rahul's and Gupta's and Malhotra's. Give the characters a real name, please!

Locations & Cinematography Why does someone like Mani Ratnam go to all these beautiful locales in North-East (Dil Se) or the Malshej Ghat and Athirapalli Falls (Raavan)? Why did Anurag Kashyap make a movie in backdrop of Rajasthan in Gulaal? To bring a level of authenticity to the story-telling! But who needs that? People are happy watching an entire cast camped and cramped in a rented mansion (Housefull, SiK, Welcome). So, what if the mansion only has a few rooms, a big dining hall, a grate, huge portraits of prententious people and some make-believe classic paintings. We want to see that, nothing else. Please don't show us serene environments, breath-taking views and sceneries of visual pleasure. We neither want authenticity nor aesthetics. We are not concerned about how scenes are shot because we are not here to appreciate beauty and splendor.

Music & Lyrics Someone really ought to stop Gulzar from penning songs. What were the lyrics of Satrangi Re, Ranjha Ranjha and Thok De Killi? We don't want songs that make sense, force us to think, create visual imageries. And Piyush Mishra be damned with the Ranaji song and his stupid take on Ye Duniya Agar Mil Bhi Jaye To Kya Hai. See, that's exactly what everyone these days are telling, ye duniya agar mil bhi jaye to kya hai! So, please stop penning such outdated songs and give space to the new breed lyricists who say 'O Girl You Are Mine' and 'Hush Hush Hush, Papa Sleeping'. See, now these sound like some real song and are so convenient to sms our friends. And what was Rahman trying to prove with his tunes in Dil Se and Raavan and many others; that he is Mozart From Madras! Has he not heard of Pritam and his ilk who struggle day and night to create original tunes which leave a lasting impression! With whom is Rahman, Vishal and others competing? Take a break dude! We want songs like Bhootni Ke, Bebo Mai Bebo and not something silly like Behne De, Dil To Bachcha hai Ji and Aarambh Hai Prachand!

Direction This definitely is the most over-rated job. I mean, any Tom Dick and forget it, can become a director. We have had action directors and stuntmen become directors, choreographers turned into directors, photographers and ad-film makers took to direction; and sometimes we have had entire movie being ghost-directed. So, who the hell needs the sophistication of Mani Ratnam or the detailing of Anurag Kashyap or the perfection of a Bhansali or the hardwork of Ashutosh Gowariker, please call on a spot boy to take the next shot.

Production/Finance This has to be the toughest job of all. I mean, if you approach Nadiadwala with script of Swades or Gulaal, then he will need so much time to mull over it because the movies are so unchallenging and silly. And what about all the criticism he will have to face for a good product. Its so much easier to produce a 'Housefull' where you have your friends and relatives on the sets having a party; my God, its such a stress-buster. No wonder SRK was so relieved when he produced OSO & MHN but was so tensed about Chak De and Swades because he was not producing such tacky works.

Actor/Actresses The last piece in the jigsaw, did I say last! They ought to be the last, but they are often the first ones to be onboarded in a project. Everything else revolves around them. With my limited knowledge, I assumed that a bound script, location finalisation, camera angles are decided first; and then actors/actresses come into picture. But no, actors make the movie their personal statement; often changing lines and locations to suit their needs. After all, its so difficult to extract good performances from Nandita Das and Seema Biswas; but its so much easier to cast Deepika Padukone and Katrina Kaif. Oh! please don't wonder and let me explain. Whatever be the movie, the set, the location; they are consistently bad. They can give you the same expression in the bedroom/bathroom/drawing-room with such perfection, 100% strike rate. They don't even have to get into the skin of the character, they are the character. Imagine how difficult it would be if actors got so intense that they cannot get the character out of their head. Its so much easier to cast Tushar Kapoor and Fardeen Khan who can walk in and out of characters as if they were changing clothes.

Coming back to the quote on statistics, what it reveals is the changing taste buds of the audience and what it conceals is a dangerous trend of dumbing down the audience as they lap up bad movies without blinking.

A Question To The Movie Critics And Reviewers I know you guys did not approve of Kambakht Ishq and Housefull and gave it 2 or 2.5*, maybe more. But, didn't Dil Se and Raavan also get the same stars? So, don't you see any difference between Raavan and Housefull! Was Raavan all that bad or was Housefull all that good? I am actually amazed that all the great performances in Housefull was neglected, all the fantastic music and lyrics went unobserved, all the pains taken by the film crew to shoot in such difficult location of the various bedrooms of the mansion was ignored. And in Raavan, we promptly noticed camera slip-ups, shoddy performances and the carelessness with which certain scenes were shot. I mean, how can you compare an auditorium filled with intellectual dignitaries rolling with the effect of laughing gas and a silly shot where Ash is just falling down a waterfall, clinging onto a branch and then slipping again; how tacky! Shouldn't both movies have been reviewed without prejudice and bias, based on their individual merits and using the same yardstick. Then how did both these movies get the same kind of rating?

A Question To The Movie Go-ers Do we watch a movie to have a good time and nothing else? Even if we are looking at entertainment, was Housefull all that entertaining and Dil Se all that dull and boring. Did the movie Welcome make more sense than Gulaal? Why don't we watch movies which go beyond the obvious, which makes a point and brings an issue to light. Or are we merely looking for cheap humor and titillation, hollow entertainment and slipshod quick movies.

And Finally Why should someone make a Raavan and be lambasted when he can easily make a Housefull and get away?

- Passionforcinema.com

Loved this article.

In Bollywood as much as people like celbrating their success people are equally jubilant in celebrationg someone else's failures.

One more- Why comment on an interesting article like this when you can be discussing more important issues such as Ranbir & Deepika's relationship troubles, Sonam's designer outfits, Shahid's cuteness and so on and so forth.

Originally posted by: pragya0

One more- Why comment on an interesting article like this when you can be discussing more important issues such as Ranbir & Deepika's relationship troubles, Sonam's designer outfits, Shahid's cuteness and so on and so forth.

The present ratio of views:replies to this topic, pretty much sums up ur comment 😆 Good one..ok back to topic: I dont know if any one of you know about this movie called "Lamha" which is releasing in the coming week or so (see I dont even knw the exact date..more on that later) but I'm sure we all know about pathetic movies like "Milenge Milenge" which even the stars are ashamed to endorse/promote. Why? Only answer I can think of is lack of publicity and enough agony in real life. Look, such movies cannot have colorful, eye-catching ads across the city with the leads in designer labels. The only way they can publicize, is by having agony stricken faces. Nobody wants to go out on a weekend to chill under the pretense of watching a movie and come out traumatized, they have enough of that in real life, as it is. I'm no way saying there should be more like Housefull, SIK, KI (Actually, I hate all those Akshay Kumar movies) but its normal human psych to tend towards something that would relax and unwind at the end of a long week rather than get agitated. A good solution to this would be presenting such movies in a novel manner..like perhaps, Avatar. The movie shows us the harm we are doing to nature and its repercussions...n its all presented metaphorically n in 3D..draws in more audience=more awareness. Its made attractive so you see ppl talking about it, young ppl buzzing abt it on forums like these...ohh yaaa n this brings me back to realease date of Lamha..wonder why I don't knw the release date? cuz nobody has a topic for it, even if a person thinks of opening a topic for such a movie, it'll be pushed back by all the other trendy movie topics. Oh also, you might need the backing of a huge star to pull the audience to the theares...eg. Peepli Live and Aamir Khan.

I dont feel like re-reading my gibberish, I dont even know if I'm making any sense 😆..so yea, I may be wrong but this is what I think is the reason for most ppl accepting KI,SIK,Housefull and rejecting thought-provoking cinema. Nice topic..we need more like these 👏

P.S: Firaaq is under-rated. Loved it.

Originally posted by: ShadowKisses

Something else I would add to the article above in defining the differences between movies like Firaaq and Houseful is their usage of dialogues and other literary techniques (the onomatopoeia in Kaminey's lyrics, color symbolism in Gulaal, foreshadowed parallels between Lenny and Chandramukhi's life, contrasting imagery of beautiful backdrops with ugly reality in Dil Se and so on). Movies like KI interpret themselves for you since everything is explained through dialogues and don't leave much room for "critical analysis" unless it is to criticize the movie for being racist and sexist. Conversely, a movie like Gulaal and Firaaq is up for interpretation on the visual and subtextual level because of the rich detail.

I think the difference in people liking potboiler movies like Houseful over more thought provoking, literary-feature-rich movies like Firaaq stems from the difference in their definition of escapism. Personally, the height of escapism is watching a movie that speaks to me on a profound level, not a superficial one. A lot of people sign up for slapstick or farce in movies as they don't want to use their brains and want everything to be explained via dialogues - and to be honest, that's fine as well because you can't expect everyone to look for the same thing in a movie. The thing that isn't fine is that most directors nowadays only cater to that part of the audience. It's also frustrating to see the directors who differ from the masala-no-brain norm be put down and/or ridiculed because they dared to think when directing/writing the movie.

Would you recommend Firaaq then? I havent watched it yet.

With regards to the topic I'm sure escapist cinema has its place too- Infact I do like some of them. However whats disappointing is the way media, most critics come down and hard on film makers who try to do something different and are not very succesfull. Either we go totally gaga or we throw brick-bats, there is no middle ground.

Whats the other interesting point is- Most classica were never appreciated when they got released. Kagaz Ke Phool, one of my all time favourite was so badle thrashed and was a big flop when it was released.

And today its regarded one of the best movies to be made.

We should encourage our film-makers to do different things even if the results are not always succesful?

Agreed Raavan was not Mani's best work, but in no way was it as bad it is being made out to be. Some of the things in the movie are truly breathtaking, the canvas, the location, cinematography, the way Santosh Sivan has played with lighting, the different intepretation of Ramayan.

it is not just about raavan.... raavan had a lot of stuff except good acting..and a flaky script.... It was probably not manis best work(but it has been declared a hit in the other languages)


When mindless comedy works..why bother at all with doing a little more...it is probably not worth it..

a lot of the serious movies are categorized as art movies and hardly enter mainstream

parzania was heart rending..it didnt come out well..so was ammu...


why does idiocy win over serious movies