Captain's Log:- Koramangala Forum
Mission:- To Watch a Kannada Movie
This is not Captain Picard's log from the Star Trek Enterprise but a software engineer's journey to an entity he had long forgotten, the entity being Kannada Movies. Yes, my friends, it does sound weird that I am emphasizing it in such an adventurous manner for it is one for me atleast.It has been almost hmmmm...., heck I can't remember the last time I went to the nearby theatre to watch a Kannada movie. Infact long time since I have done the same on the television at home. To top it I couldn't think of any reason why I would like to change my thoughts on the same. If you are in the same boat as I am, hop in...I mean read on.
This being my viewpoint on watching Kannada movies, I was dumbstruck when my friend invited me to watch a Kannada movie. Being a good friend of his I complied, reluctantly I must add. It was set then. We would set out on Thursday evening for the 7pm show. (I was hoping for some rain at this point)
I had heard of Judgment Day, but this was Judgment Hour and that too three of them...gulp. The movie was named "Rama Shyama Bhama" (what else can you expect). I decided to go along, munch a few popcorn's, fake a few laughs and be done with it. I had actually gone through the reviews of the movie on TOI but didn't bother to give it a second glance. I mean how many of us actually do? Every Sunday we run through the ratings given for the recently released English and Hindi flicks but never attempt to see the ratings of our own regional flicks. And if we do, by chance happen to have a glimpse of the ratings how does it matter? For whatever be the ratings, we surely are not going to even attempt to watch it. One begins to think, who actually does watch this movies then.
These very thoughts where floating through my mind when we entered PVR cinemas. Just a glance around was enough to let me know how many people of my age group where actually watching the movie. I was surrounded by Uncles and Aunties with their families. Clearly visibly were the frowns on the faces of the children that they had been pushed to the theaters to watch a Kannada movie, just because Grandpa or Grandma wanted to watch it. I figured, they would have rather preferred staying at home and watch some or the other Shah Rukh Khan flick for the umpteenth time. My thoughts at that point of time where no different.
The movie started while I began cursing myself to being lured into sitting there and wasting 3 hours of my life, while I could have been doing the same watching some Hindi or English flick on the other screen. And if I was lucky, I could have found some nice looking female sitting next to me. But Alas...I was doomed!!!! Dejected I continued to watch the movie pretending to have a good time.
3 Hours went by and the movie ended. And you know what??? I have never thought I laughed so much while watching a movie. It was an absolute out and out, fun and frolic, total time pass, paisa vasool movie.
This made me wonder, why people aren't going to see such movies? I have seen full house crowds for movies like 'Neil 'n' Nikki' and 'Home Delivery', but in reality I cannot recall watching a worse movie than these two (no offense). People prefer to watch crap like that for double the rates but don't prefer to watch a Kannada movie. The problem I feel lies in the mindset.
The major business of any movie industry lies in the 16-26 age group. The people of Bengaluroo falling within this category claim to want to watch only good and sensible movies. And they are adamant in their thought process in labeling Hindi and English movies as representatives of good and sensible movies. Consider my case for example. Given an option to spend on a movie of my choice, the choices being English,Hindi and Kannada, I would surely prefer English first and then Hindi. If both of these don't catch my interest, I would rather go home and read the newspaper than waste money on a Kannada movie. Here is where the mindset comes into picture. I agree there was a time in the Kannada industry when there weren't any good movies made.But that doesn't mean we rate every other movie made to be senseless. Given the same scenario in any other regional industry, the question arises why are they doing so well? The answer lies in the same Age category I mentioned above. They give their regional language movie flicks first preference over the others.
So my sincere request to the Kannadigas, please give the Kannada industry a chance....
Go watch a Kannada movie.
There are two problems
ReplyDelete1) It isn't a pride for a kannadiga to talk in kannada. And watching a kannada movie will be the last sought option, ( where not watching any movie is also considered as an option)
2) Agreed that there are good kannada movies, But, there is a lot of plagiarism in the industry.Creativity and innovative ideas suffer painfully in the industry. Dynasty politics rules. Talents go out of focus.
So and so forth, there may be umpteen reasons we can find to reason out the escapism.
But, I agree that when there is a talented person trying his/her hands on a movie. We should go and watch. Else, there will be no second try from his/her side.
@Spicy sweet:- Valid points, but my point being these problems of dynasty politics,plagiarism and lack of ideas exist in the other South Indian movie industries as well, but still they manage to be very popular and successfull.Trying to find out the reason for this.
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