Seven Percent of Excellence
on November 25, 2008
Modern office cubicles are defined by strong walls, sound-proof glass doors and hushed conversations. Amidst the reigning modern discipline there are specimens of creative power in the form of the Laughing Buddha, cartoon sketches on walls and casual attires.
Starting from the collar, snake-like curvaceous patterns dominated his shirt-design. My interviewer announced.
“Seven percent”
That’s the average success rate of Hindi films in a year.
Precisely the reason to infuse excellence into the story and the screenplay; avoid copying stories and styles from International cinema; never compromise on quality…
“We need whacky stories, something out of the ordinary, and at the same time the audience must connect with it.”
We need the best scripts. The writer must give the script shape, form and logic; abstruseness can be the negation of logic, but the writer must decide its contours, its colours and its non-logic.
Then the director must translate the words into a visual kaleidoscope; another immortal form but connected in quality with the script; or one with the script, the oneness defined by consistency in quality. Like colours added to a sketch; the sketch being a paradigm of excellence and the added colours being consistent with this excellence.
The story of the princess and the three men excited the children. Fantasy, flying and fun. Lots of magic. But they slept early. Sure, the princess flew and there were magicians. And the animals were cute. But the story had no soul. The princess was uninspiring. She talked like princesses in all fables were supposed to talk. The three men had a good body and deep-blue eyes but there was nothing more to them. The magician was funny but his jokes were not really required.
The children were young, but not so young.
The interviewer smiled as we shook hands. He seemed good and honest. He is trying to appease the masses and make films that will tickle their senses. Such films are called masala films by journalists. The script is bended and altered in an effort to suit the tastes of the masses. 93 out of 100 attempts to do so have resulted in financial failures.
He will make the film and sell it to the distributors on the promise of a good star-cast and popular music. The exhibitors will face the financial consequences.
Some centuries ago, palaces were considered modern. Strong walls and impeccable decorum. A poet wrote beautiful verses for the king in the palace courtyard. Then he went to the jungle and wrote…
Perhaps I will tell this tale another time.
I entered the elevator and left the citadel.
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Comments
What is with Shakespeare? I read a book called 1597 or something like that. It told the life of Shakespeare at that particular year.
He seems to have been neck deep in masala productions of plays: how did he manage to write such stuff?
Is it that his times was good for strong verbal material and racy script, and ours are degraded by gaming, hysterical serials punctuated by classy advertisement breaks, and the callertunes of cellphones?
No one seems to be paying attention for any amount of time to anything these days.
So people try it play it safe… Regrind the same material with the same faces…
Regards,
[Reply]
@Baskar,
Yours is a worthy response.
In Hamlet, the dead king’s apparition appears immediately upon the opening of the play. Similarly, the action in Othello is immediate.
Shakespeare’s stage-play was exciting. When people copy or adapt his tales and add songs and dances to it, the script assumes the title of ‘masala’.
Shakespeare faced the pressure of quickness. He had less time to finish his work. Also, he was not the most erudite or skilled practitioner of grammar.
“We need whacky stories, something out of the ordinary, and at the same time the audience must connect with it.”
I don’t think Shakespeare was whacky. His stories were simple and the legends were borrowed. His stories contained nothing ‘out of the ordinary’. They were ordinary. What gave them credence was that they were quick and unpretentious. As I told you, the guards in Othello don’t bring out their personal culture and character before describing their fear about the dead king. They immediately describe the action. Thus, the audience connected with the events.
Shakespeare hurried through many of his plays. He wrote and tore pages. But somehow he has managed to attain an audience that speaks highly of his literary skills.
I believe that it is possible to write an artistic stage-play/screen-play within a fortnight.
Every successful play/movie is broken down into a formula. So Shakespeare’s skill is nothing but a formula for many Indian practitioners of cinema and stage. Hence the term ‘masala’ is attached to his writings.
[Reply]