Spoilers ahead…
The first hour is wonderful, but slowly, a sense of dullness sets in. The film, though never unwatchable, gets into repeat mode.
The Forrest Gump character is like the feather we see at the Hollywood film’s beginning. He is tossed around this way and that, borne along by the winds of chance. There is not one deliberate act he does. Everything in his life is like what his mother said: a box of chocolates, where you never know what you’re going to get. Advait Chandan’s Laal Singh Chaddha uses the feather metaphor and many other structural elements from Forrest Gump, with some small tweaks. One of these is the insertion of Pritam’s songs, like Kahani, the lovely waltz that plays over the opening credits. The lyrics have heft: Hum samundar ka ek qatra hai ya samandar hai hum? Are we mere drops in the sea or are we the ocean itself? But the tune is simple and that hefty line is followed by a nursery rhyme-like phrase: Pum para rara rum.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/hindi/movie/review/laal-singh-chaddha/
And you can watch the video review here:
Copyright ©2022 GALATTA.
Baradwaj Rangan 
Aman Basha
August 11, 2022
I remember MANK sir saying somewhere that SRK is the most talented actor of the three Khans and everyone, including myself, disagreeing vociferously, but Aamir’s ridiculous act here vs SRK’s act in MNIK (say what you may about the movie) proves him dead right. Irony being that Aamir’s performance is being widely criticized as the worst part of the movie, and how does the young Laal who’s got the whole thing dead right turn into Mr. Bean? So much for Mr. Perfectionist.
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brangan
August 11, 2022
Aman Basha: The younger Aamir, sure — but the older Aamir really worked for me.
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KS
August 11, 2022
Seems like that irritating bug-eyed expression of his in the trailer wasn’t just a blip. As Kirk Lazarus famously said “Never go full retard”. Oh well, guess the filmmakers can now bring out the “intolerance” excuses to explain away the failures.
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Voldemort
August 11, 2022
Yet to read the review but wow, the wide eyed PK Aamir worked for you? I found it extremely off putting.
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vijay
August 11, 2022
I wish our audiences developed more ‘intolerance’ against star-vehicle mediocrities..
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Zeeshan
August 11, 2022
BR .. how do you compare Aamirs performance of such characters like here n dhoom 3 to that of Kamal hasaan sir’s swathi muthyam
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Indira Ambur
August 11, 2022
In an interview to a telugu channel long ago, kamal Haasan compared Swathi Myuthyam to Forrest Gump… the sweet natured man meeting this woman and child and taking care of them. And how he had made it years before Tom Hanks did.
Forrest Gump is my favorite Tom Hanks movie and I can’t imagine anyone else in it , expect maybe a younger kamal Haasan .
Do you think Amir khan should have remade Cast away instead ?? He has a beard in it all through !!
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Arvind
August 11, 2022
@voldemort – BR meant the older Aamir with the beard, not the PK Aamir
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Voldemort
August 11, 2022
Fantastic fantastic review saar. Was eagerly waiting for your review ever since watching in the morning. I was vivaciously nodding at every sentence.
I loved Kahaani a lot too. The entire album is great IMO.
“hum mein hai kahaani ya kahaani mein hum hai? ” and some other line about knowing and not knowing was also nice. It was like hearing LSC ask these questions.
I thought Naga Chaitanya wasn’t the best choice for the role. The madness didn’t translate well. He was probably brought in only for the “PAN Indian” factor. If that were the case, someone like a Guru Somasundaram would have hit it out of the park.
Unlike America, each state in India is so different, and I wished they’d done more than just register a few token scenic shots. That might have Indianised this adaptation a little more. Laal’s run could have rallied together the nation: I’m just thinking aloud.
Yes, this so much. We see that he is in beautiful places in different states, but it didn’t register at all and felt very gimmicky.
On the whole, I enjoyed the film. It probably would have worked more if Aamir had not overacted and gone all goofy expression as in PK. But there is this calm, whimsical quality that I found appealing, and yes, my hope that AK’s films are somehow always immensely watchable was not let down.
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Voldemort
August 11, 2022
Arvind – BR meant the older Aamir with the beard, not the PK Aamir
Yes, I realised that after sending. My bad.
The Forrest Gump character is like the feather we see at the Hollywood film’s beginning. He is tossed around this way and that, borne along by the winds of chance.
Ah what a lovely way to put it.
On a side note, I remember reading once in a Reddit thread on FG, that someone thought the feather represented chance and opportunity, and how since FG was very receptive and open minded, he noticed it while the others didn’t.
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gnanaozhi
August 11, 2022
That “ummm” even in the trailer got on my nerves, wonder how it is in the full length movie.
That being said, Bollywood has been having an atrocious year, SHAMSHERA, now LSC, Prtihvi Raj Chauhan, Rakshabandan…it’s funny that it’s top commerical hits this year are all dubbed movies. RRR, KgF2, Pushpa (the later 2 were really really bad though).
Our Kodambakkam has been doing good though, Vikram (yaay), Beast (oh my god no), Valimai (BR needs the Param Vir Chakra for sitting through the whole movie), even smaller movies like Don have done well.
Can’t wait for Sept 12, Ponniyin Selvan! After Kabali, this would be the first movie I plan on calling in sick and watching FDFS.
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brangan
August 11, 2022
Zeeshan: Actually, the best performance in SWATHI MUTHYAM for me is Radhika’s. She’s simply phenomenal and the character goes through so many emotions.
Kaml, IMO, was decent — but I prefer Sappani to this one. That is also an “innocent” character with low IQ, but Kamal played it so real. But yeah, even SWATHI MUTHYAM was much better than Aamir in this or PK, because Aamir is not really a “versatile” actor like Kamal, who can do things with his whole body and not just his face.
Though within his zone, Aamir is damn good. There are films like RANG DE BASANTI and LAGAAN where I have loved what he did. DIL CHAHTA HAI, not so much — though I love the reconciliation scene at the end.
His zone is a serious zone. He cannot do “light” easily. That is why he is so fantastic in a TALAASH and not so much in a PK.
Here, the beardless Laal was cartoonish — but the older version really worked for me. And again, the older version is in the more serious zone.
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sanjana
August 11, 2022
Talaash was his best film.
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Akhilan
August 11, 2022
Just to add to gnanaozhi’s comment, when words like “competent”, “watchable”, “easy-watch” are being used to describe super-star-vehicles such as this, I guess that further reflects the rather pitiful state the Hindi film industry currently seems to find itself in. On the one hand, I do see it as a positive. The audience is evolving rapidly, with only “good” content getting rewarded at the box-office. Not star-worship. But on the other hand, how sustainable is this going to be before the Hindi film industry plunges into a serious crisis (if it already hasn’t), with duds after duds left, right, and center…
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kaizokukeshav
August 12, 2022
Thanks for calling it Advait Chandan’s Laal Singh Chaddha and not Aamir Khan’s. I guess Aamir Khan will love to forgot this experiment entirely given the artificiality of the entire premise. He is just coming out of a dark zone and trying to be Indian Tom Hanks or acting like a student in Kamal Hassan’s school is sooo not him. His zone definitely is dealing with social taboos like Taare Zameen Par, Satyameva Jayate, Dangal etc. Touching sentimental issues like religion and politics (on-screen and off-screen) will only make him a scapegoat in the bigger narrative.
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ivan
August 12, 2022
Khans are unfit for mentally challenged roles… MNIK, Tubelight, LSC. Please spare us from your horror performances.
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shaviswa
August 12, 2022
Theaters running empty here on a long weekend. Looks like the film is a super flop.
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shaviswa
August 12, 2022
Here = Bangalore
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H. Prasanna
August 12, 2022
Even in Talaash, for me, Rani outperforms him easily, especially in combination scenes.
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Madan
August 12, 2022
Brammastra is now a metaphor for how badly Bollywood needs it to succeed. If it tanks, they’re pretty much gonna shut shop. It’s a total wipeout. There were terrible years during single screen days but the industry wasn’t emerging from a pandemic then.
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Senthil S
August 12, 2022
@Ivan
Even if he’s (fairly or unfairly) seen as the overactor of Bollywood, I thought SRK did a terrific job in My Name is Khan. It wasn’t a “fussy” performance at all.
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Nimmi Rangaswamy
August 12, 2022
Aamir does cheeky roles pretty damn well too- since JJWS; the first half of RDB and not to forget the comedic AAA- he has a range- BR gave a great chit to PK. Here’s some praise “… and Aamir plays the character beautifully. I wasn’t too taken by the controversial nude poster for the film – he came off too muscled, too chiselled. But this look suits the character, making him look a little otherworldly in the midst of the portly men in Rajasthan, which is where pk lands. His wide-open green eyes and raised eyebrows (he looks perpetually astonished) and even those protruding ears look just right, and he’s amazing in a song sequence (Tharki chokro) where he robotically replicates the dance steps of a newfound friend (Sanjay Dutt, as a bandmaster named Bhairon Singh). https://baradwajrangan.wordpress.com/2014/12/20/pk-funny-yes-but-now-its-begun-to-feel-like-formula/
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An Jo
August 12, 2022
MNIK is SRK’s worst performance, driven by religious-ferocity and controversies galore. One of the MOST dis-honest acts of film-making EVER. Aamir’s performance in LSC is wonderful here.
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vijay
August 12, 2022
On to Tankistan..
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An Jo
August 12, 2022
Coming to the performances, Mona Singh is quite good as the mother; though it’s script-wise baffling as to why she would try to hide religious violence as ‘malaria’ from her son while in one scene, teaching her son not to be dependent on anyone when a guy offers to lift ration bags. Kareena, as in ‘Talaash‘ acts out as a sort of vision for Aamir’s character. It was a joy to see Kamini Kaushal. Aamir pours his heart out in this movie and it shows. This is a wonderful performance from Aamir; one that is consistent throughout in regard to his emotions and reactions. [By the way, whoever cut the trailer needs to be sacked right-away.] If one carefully observes his performance, there’s a method to his ‘umm’ space-fillers. Whenever a difficult line or emotion is thrown at him, he is quite ill-at-ease in capturing and processing the thought and what ‘ought’ to be his response; hence, you see and hear multiple ‘umms’ from him. If it’s a simple line, he has straight ‘umm’ response. He never loses sight or memory of this pattern. When he beats the hell out of the gansgter, and Kareena reprimands him, observe his performance post Kareena’s departure; the confused nature of his feeling, which is natural to him, but confusing to others around him. That is how he was supposed to play, independent of the reactions around him, and that’s how he plays: This is NO PK/D3 redux. This is a fine performance and his performance in the climax just stuns.
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sanghi india
August 12, 2022
Oh no! your sub par film with borderline offensive and horrendous portrayal of autism didn’t make you all da moneys?? How dare Indians not go and watch your bug eyed act and heap fulsome praise on it? Khans are entitled to superhits with every movie they make – flop means whole country is bigoted. Your sage words many years ago about how India is intolerant have come true! Your buddy Erdogan from Turkey will lend a helping shoulder to cry on. Man, India needs to learn from secular paradise Turkey. Or free and fair China will help make this a blockbuster worldwide. Who cares about what Sanghi India thinks anyway! bigots!
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Yajiv
August 12, 2022
@sanghi india: Sir this is a Wendy’s
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sanghi india
August 12, 2022
@yajiv i deserved that
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Sreehari
August 12, 2022
//His zone is a serious zone. He cannot do “light” easily.//
I hold the exact opposite opinion.
There’s an Aamir Khan who can do impish beautifully well, who can play the half-thug, who can play someone who when frustrated doesn’t hide it (That’s the Aamir we saw in JJWS, in Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin, in Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke, in DCH), whom I kind of adore, and expresses something human. And then there’s an Aamir Khan who seems out to prove that “life is quite simple, if only we didn’t complicate it so much,” who is a mere sentimental construct, and who is excruciating on screen.
It’s quite interesting to note that it’s the human Aamir who regularly appears on Koffee with Karan — and his episodes are a hoot, because his frustration at not being on the same wavelength as Karan Johar always makes for the most interesting episode in each season he has appeared in.
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therag
August 12, 2022
I was disappointed by Laal Singh Chaddha. It is not a bad movie by any means, but I kept remembering the Every Frame a Painting video about editing. No scene was allowed to breathe and play out. Consider that scene where Laal visits Mohammed’s place and Mohammed sadly says that he never went back to Pakistan because “Unko Zaroorat Nahi Padhi”. They could have extended that scene, driven that emotion a little further, and made Mohammed more important to Lal’s journey. But no, we immediately cut to Rupa, then cut to Laal starting company,, then cut to….
This movie was LONG, yet I thought it did not use its runtime effectively at all. Since Laal was simply a spectator to all the events that were happening in the country, I don’t think there was any point in Laal being a low IQ person (where in the original, this leads to Forrest doing some pretty consequential stuff). They could have simply made him a simple kind-hearted person (to a fault) who sees the positive in everything. That way, we would not have had to bear all those painful expressions Aamir was trying.
I thought the movie also lacked a sense of purpose. Like, is this just the story of a low-IQ man and his love, or is it a story of India through the last few decades, or is it the story of a man who succeeded in life despite his deficiencies? A better and more opinionated director could have fixed this and the other issues as well. There is the seed of a much better film in LSC, but LSC is not it.
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brangan
August 13, 2022
therag: I was disappointed by Laal Singh Chaddha. It is not a bad movie by any means…
Absolutely. It is not a “bad movie” at all. Just a disappointing one. But that’s the price you pay. When people attain fame and a “brand”, then even their “not bad” films begin to get hysterical downvotes. As though the film is utter trash. It’s almost like a shark feeding frenzy, where people just want to tear the film to shreds.
Like, is this just the story of a low-IQ man and his love, or is it a story of India through the last few decades
Absolutely. I mentioned this in my review.
“Even the historical moments Laal finds himself in are mostly tokenistic, like a mention of the Rath Yatra or Anna Hazare. Laal just happens to be standing there at that point, or running across at that point. He doesn’t actually participate in history, like how Forrest Gump inadvertently ended up a key figure in the Watergate scandal.”
Later, I felt maybe Indian censorship rules might have had a part to play in this. (In the sense that in the US, Saturday Night Live can openly roast public figures but here we cannot.)
Imagine if Laal ends up in the house of a principled old man in Delhi. He is offered food, but he says he is fasting because “Meri mummy kehti thi, fasting makes you listen to your body more loudly, more strongly.” And that gives Anna the idea for the hunger strike at Jantar Mantar — to make the government listen “more loudly, more strongly”.
This scenario would never be allowed in Indian cinema.
But if this is indeed the case (i.e. censorship), then why makes this movie at all? Because all you can do is show Laal’s influence on “soft targets”, like that charming SRK scene!
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abishekspeare
August 13, 2022
Looks like this will collect even lesser money than thugs. Probably because of two reasons – maybe the boycott stuff really has an impact, like adds a negative vibe, as scary as the thought is? And also because of AK’s unbelievably caricaturist portrayal which was difficult to sit through even in the trailer. How did no one point this out during the making, did they think the audience was that dumb to think this was genuine ‘acting’?
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krishikari
August 13, 2022
And also because of AK’s unbelievably caricaturist portrayal which was difficult to sit through even in the trailer.
This is what would prevent me from watching. The mawkish expressions are unbearable. Maybe nobody had the guts to point this out during the making because at some point of acting/writing/directing fame, they get surrounded by sycophants and nobody has the nerve to be honestly critical.
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Akhilan
August 13, 2022
Well at least with Dhoom 3, PK, and now LSC, Aamir Khan can be proud of giving India it’s own version of/answer to Gollum. Like the LOTR trilogy, a Gollum trilogy.
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karzzexped
August 13, 2022
@abishekspeare: Looks like this will collect even lesser money than thugs. Probably because of two reasons – maybe the boycott stuff really has an impact, like adds a negative vibe, as scary as the thought is?
The only possible way for the collections to increase is if the theatres receive increased footfalls from 13-15 August- the three day long weekend. If the drop rate continues with this trend, then this is going to be a loss for the distributors. My guess is since AK has produced this film, he may well have recovered the costs already, by selling the distribution rights to the respective regions and the OTT rights to Netflix at an eye watering price.
I am not at all surprised by how much the Boycott trend has affected the film – though this is not the only reason for the movie’s underperformance. As I mentioned in the previous thread, positive word of mouth was critical for this movie’s success. The initial mixed reviews and the not-so-great reception of Aamir’s acting have negatively contributed to it’s lacklustre performance.
Also, personally, for some reason, it was really off putting for me to see a 57 year old Aamir Khan act like a manchild in the trailer. Added to that I really don’t dig remakes that much. Call me a purist, but I have an anti-remake stand. I like to leave the originals alone.
Regarding the Boycott calls, it is a classic example of how cancel culture has become a double edged sword in today’s world.
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Namit
August 13, 2022
There is a weird demonization of normal money paying public going on social media by some intellectuals from bollywood. Isn’t the freedom of expression of people if they want to watch some movie or not? I may disagree with them but I know people who have joined boycott movement, their argument is that why none of these lecture or social message movies talk about issues in other religions, why only one religion is targeted? They are people who can afford 2k movie tickets and they are seriously asking these qs. May be bollywood intellectual should introspect.
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vijay
August 13, 2022
” But that’s the price you pay. When people attain fame and a “brand”, then even their “not bad” films begin to get hysterical downvotes.”
.the flip side is even okay movies like Vikram can get hyped up reviews as well..so lets not overlook the other side..Many reviews I have read of LSC hasnt really torn the movie to shreds..if anything they have criticized Aamir’s acting, but overall they didnt think this was a bad film. Thats a much more balanced take than saying Vikram was a historical Tamil cinema effort..
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vijay
August 13, 2022
here is one :
https://www.indiatoday.in/movies/bollywood/story/laal-singh-chaddha-movie-review-aamir-khan-is-the-worst-thing-about-the-film-1986582-2022-08-11
hardly would qualify as a ripping to shreds review..
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vijay
August 13, 2022
“maybe the boycott stuff really has an impact, like adds a negative vibe, as scary as the thought is?”
not quite..Raksha Bandhan is heading towards Tankistan as well..Hindi cinema may be just going through a lull..post-covid they need much more to move butts to seats or so it seems
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therag
August 13, 2022
@BR, yes I agree with most points in your review. In fact the Anna Hazare example is really good. Should have gone into the screenplay! Even if it was political reasons, aren’t there non-political events? Maybe Laal played a pivotal role in the inaugural IPL final, the making of Tata Nano, the Chandrayaan/Mangalyaan mission etc?
Another problem was Laal being a “runner”. Forrest Gump was a wide receiver in the college football team and football is more American than apple pie. Running across the Americas while being followed by a dedicated group is something believable in an American context. The great outdoors and the National Park System is ingrained in the American consciousness and the fact that Forrest Gump would just start running at that stage in life is quite consistent with this. What significance does running have in the Indian context, and even if you somehow sell the fact that Laal wants to run, why would other Indians follow him?
BR, can you get a deep-dive with Atul Kulkarni perhaps (as unlikely as it sounds)? I cannot believe what we got was what they really wanted to make.
LSC’s failure highlights how movie-going patterns have changed. 5 years back, I’m 100% sure LSC would have done well at the BO. People simply aren’t turning up for films that are middling. Not to say the likes of KGF2 and Vikram are great movies, but they had the X-factor in the form of hype from a well received first part or a greatly cut teaser. People need to be fired up today to make their way to cinema halls.
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Madan
August 13, 2022
” Forrest Gump was a wide receiver in the college football team and football is more American than apple pie. Running across the Americas while being followed by a dedicated group is something believable in an American context. “- This is why I was skeptical about the idea of LSC because Gump IS a very American film. It’s not like the n number of genre films that were made into bad copies (Disclosure, Primal Fear, Omen back in the day). Gump doesn’t make sense without the very American backdrop and context. So any remake of it would necessarily have to substantially reinvent the story to fit the Indian mileu; this is not a movie that needs a ‘faithful’ remake. Anyhow I will watch it at some point (probably NOT in theaters based on what I am getting from the reviews) and judge for myself but I for one don’t really need a faithful remake of Gump.
” I cannot believe what we got was what they really wanted to make.” – In the interview, Aamir said they felt they got pretty close to what they had envisioned. And the moment he used those words, I inferred that somewhere he was disappointed with the final product.
“Not to say the likes of KGF2 and Vikram are great movies, but they had the X-factor in the form of hype from a well received first part or a greatly cut teaser. People need to be fired up today to make their way to cinema halls.” – You could compare this phase to the Angry Young Man/Dharmendra/Raj Kumar films coming on the back of the song and dance/melodrama excess of the 60s and coming up to mid 70s. Though Charlie777 ran well on a small budget, as such people want action with a capital A in the theater and LSC feels too ‘soft’ for the current moment. BB2 ran probably because it’s outright comedy (which I assume it is, haven’t seen it).
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abishekspeare
August 13, 2022
Vijay: Oh, Raksha Bandhan too had a boycott campaign against it, lol. So did Darlings
And i feel somewhere and somehow they do impact a movie – for ex. LSC’s imdb page had 50k ratings(4.5/10) within half a day, showing that many people just logged in and rated the movie without watching
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Tommy
August 13, 2022
Aamir had a great run between 2006 and 2016 where he delivered 10 films starting from RDB to Dangal. This run was marked with 90-100% box office success (depending on whether one considers the average earner Dhobi Ghat as a success not). 5 of these 10 films were industry hits or all time blockbusters (whatever you want to call them) – Ghajini, 3 Idiots, Dhoom 3, PK and Dangal. And 5 of them were critically acclaimed box office superhits/blockbusters – RDB, TZP, 3 Idiots, PK and Dangal. Overall, this was a great arc.
However, everything great comes with an end stamp. And Dangal was perhaps the last straw. Since then he had 3 releases, all of which have underperformed. The Advait Chandan films are somewhat decent (SS, LSC), but falls well short of the expectations from Aamir after his great run. TOH was of course a bore fest.
I think Aamir needs to take a complete break from acting/producing/ghost-directing films. Take a sabbatical to ponder and introspect what he wants to achieve from here onwards. Replicating the great run from his prime may not be possible or feasible realistically. But he does need to figure out how to break away from what he has already done. For example, his act in LSC has a lot of resemblance with 3 Idiots, PK or Dhoom 3. Dangal was free from such repetition and it was interesting to see him play out a middle aged man with a pot belly and white hairs. The audience will definitely be interested in more of such innovative acts compared to what he has already done and succeeded.
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Voldemort
August 13, 2022
Madan : BB2 ran probably because it’s outright comedy (which I assume it is, haven’t seen it)
I think it was because of the goodwill BB1 has among the movie watchers. The nostalgia factor of the first part had a great deal to do with it.
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MANK
August 13, 2022
However, everything great comes with an end stamp
Yes, With LSC flopping, it definitely looks like an end of an era. the three decade long reign of the Khan Triumvirate over Bollywood is well and truly over. The three decades constitute my whole movie watching life, and all through this period, either one of the Khans was always on the top. I grew up with these guys. These were truly the last of the stars, who were fortunate to become stars before the proliferation of the internet and the social media revolution, so they managed to retain a certain bit of old-fashioned star charisma. New stars like Ranbir and Ranveer (or anyone) would find it very difficult to become stars of that caliber in this social media age . Now with the last Khan standing biting the dust, feel likes a part of my life has come to an end. Aamir and SRK may still deliver a good film or two in the future, but their hegemony is over.
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Andy
August 13, 2022
@therag–“”BR, can you get a deep-dive with Atul Kulkarni perhaps (as unlikely as it sounds)? I cannot believe what we got was what they really wanted to make.””” Very true and would be an interesting discussion –But not sure how much Atul would open up to such discussion –It does seem that Amir’s interference which he claims is his passion to make sure the film is a hit/success may be an issue here for sure -Amir as producer may have changed too many instance from script written by Atul …Not different from what we witnessed for Zero where modification of script multiple times and inclusion of those space-related plot changes may have been forced upon ALR by overzealous SRK to continue his “passion” with showing off sci-fi VFX and inclusion of NASA plot to win over the global audience at the cost of the earthy original script which is forte of ALR and he may have been written maybe…?? But I doubt Atul or ALR would even open up to such a discussion with BR even in private …Cannot malign the hand that feeds in industry that has been driven by producers (and superstars donning the hat of producers since last decade)..😷
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Aman Basha
August 13, 2022
Also, let me say this once and for all: Just because a few jobless lukkhas trend Boycott all day for Rs 2 will make ghanta farak for a movie’s fate. If it was the case, then Alia Bhatt who was relentlessly trolled by SSR bots and had a Sadak 2 where a Hindu godman was shown as the villain would have taken a big hit now. In fact her father released a book on how RSS was involved in 26/11 and no need to mention her brother’s involvement with David Headley. But Gangubai Kathiawadi opened at 10 crore on a non holiday and did a lifetime of 130 crore. What ever happened to the jagrut Hindu then? This boycott is wahiyat whataboutery to justify the miserable content Bollywood is throwing.
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Madan
August 13, 2022
“These were truly the last of the stars, who were fortunate to become stars before the proliferation of the internet and the social media revolution, so they managed to retain a certain bit of old-fashioned star charisma. ” –
Speaking of:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/aug/12/movie-stars-killed-brad-pitt-tom-cruise-meryl-streep
“Content killed the movie star” should be the updated version of the song.
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MANK
August 13, 2022
On a positive note, i really loved this song from Brahmastra. I don’t know which foreign song Pritam pinched it from 🙂 , looks pretty original to me, but since it’s Pritam one can never be sure. Anyway, Arijit Singh has once again sung his heart out. Forget the Star-plus-ekta-kapoor serial level VFX and enjoy the music
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shaviswa
August 13, 2022
@Aman
I do not think Alia Bhatt invited as much animosity as Amir Khan did. And I was not even aware that her fathwr released a book about RSS. Looks like the right wing trolls do not take the Bhatts seriously.
Amir Khan invited a lot of animosity thanks to that Turkey visit.
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shaviswa
August 13, 2022
@Aman
Also this boycott campaign was far more intense. I am aware of many people who stated clearly that they would not watch LSC and when the news that the film has flopped was out, the joy was clearly expressed. This time the campaign hit home for whatever reasons.
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Vikram s
August 13, 2022
multiple reasons-leading men in all industries go through a crisis if their brand is built on a romantic hero image. they keep regressing into that image of yore and hope that audience will keep coming in with increased ticket prices to watch the same shtick. that may still have had some success in a pre pandemic Era but now people have been changed irrevocably. the amount of adulation is gone and there is a schadenfreude in pulling down big stars….Forrest Gump simply doesn’t stand a chance now…I doubt if many would like it if they saw it now.
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Aman Basha
August 13, 2022
@shaviswa: As Boris said, “Twitter is not real life”. I didn’t take you to be a woke who’d think twitter trends affect real life (These boycott lukkhas watch movies on Telegram anyway).
Even if they did, let’s not forget that as Brand BR grows bigger (I actually heard a guy praise his interview with Sudeep), the blog commentariat seems to be becoming more niche or else why would a 1,000 crore grosser like KGF 2 have few comments, while there’s an outpouring of absurd Vijay hate in the Beast thread. Most of the commentators here don’t come in the theatre watching demographics and only that can explain why they are unaware of a very important factor in the success of Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2. I would not take the views here as that reflecting that of an important number of people.
Laal Singh Chaddha had such a bad opening because it had a very thanda trailer with Aamir’s very jarring acting, the songs are nice but not Fanaa or Dangal level to draw in people. Boycott wale didn’t ukhad anything.
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KS
August 14, 2022
@Aman Basha: I too thought this whole boycott brouhaha is just an excuse to explain the failure. But maybe it did have some effect, since its been made an emotive issue. The whole movie has been clouded in negativity, and the faults of the movie have been exaggerated and celebrated. If not for the negativity, maybe people might have been more forgiving of its flaws and enjoyed it for what it was. By all accounts, it doesn’t sound like a Thugs-level bad movie, even if it may not be a masterpiece. And far worse movies have done well. Whether they’re jobless/lukkhas whatever is immaterial, they seem to have had some success, and this will set a precedent.
Online campaigns may not have as much effect on social and political matters, especially on the scale of a country like India. But watching a movie in a theatre is at the same level as owning a smartphone and participating in social media, and there is a good degree of correlation between people who indulge in either. So its not so far fetched that online campaigns can sink movies. How much influence they can have? That needs more quantification, but they can and do have some effect.
And there’s a lot of difference between the campaign against Alia versus this one. Firstly Alia isn’t a muslim, so even if she says something offensive, it’ll, at worst, be attributed to her being misguided or a cuck (if she were a muslim, it’d be interpreted in a much more sinister fashion as an expression of her innate hatred or islamist agenda peeking out), and in this case, blaming her for her father’s book is a long shot. Secondly, as an actress in a male lead based movie like Sadak, she isn’t held as accountable for creative choices like a Hindu sadhu villain (as opposed to Aamir, the main actor and possibly the creative head of his ghost-directed projects). Thirdly, the nepotism issue is not such an emotive issue for most non-justiceforSSR people (its brushed aside as just a reality we have to face), certainly not in the same league as being a traitor to the country or a closet jihadi and friend of islamists.
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sanjana
August 14, 2022
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Akhilan
August 14, 2022
MANK, what a song Deva Deva is!! I just can’t stop playing it on loop. The sincerity in Ranbir’s expressions, the beautiful grace he shows whilst figuring out/playing with his Agni astra power is poetry in motion really. You are bang on about how the visual-effects look but I simply couldn’t take my eyes of Ranbir whilst watching the video, and of course the song in and of itself is just divine. It has a soulful yet techno quality to it and one could easily dance the night away to it at a club.
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MANK
August 14, 2022
Laal Singh Chaddha had such a bad opening because it had a very thanda trailer with Aamir’s very jarring acting, the songs are nice but not Fanaa or Dangal level to draw in people.
I think Aamir’s acting was the biggest culprit here. If an actor is there in the 95 percent of the movie and his performance sucks then whatever positives the film has goes down the drain. I feel the same way about something like Kattru Veliyadai, it’s not that the film doesn’t have problems, but Karthi’s acting, or the way he is directed, accentuates the problems and makes it impossible for me to sit through it, despite the fact that the film has a lot of virtues. In this case Aamir was returning to screen after 4 years and people expected something special from him, but the first trailer more than vindicated our worst fears when we heard that Aamir was remaking FG. After that it was impossible to get the audiences to the theaters. What i find incredible to believe is that Aamir has been planning this film for 14 years, the film has been in production for 4 years; prior to its release Aamir has conducted at least 100 preview shows, a lot of them for movie stars and directors. No one, i mean no one had the guts to tell Aamir that his performance sucks and the films is suffering on account of that. I can understand how his cronies won’t say the truth to him, but he conducted test shows all over the country, from North to south and nobody gave him truthful feedback about the film and his performance. It’s truly scary to believe that even the biggest of stars and directors of the country are so much in awe of Aamir’s successful track record that they rather doubt themselves than doubt him.
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vijay
August 14, 2022
Aamir may be tempted to hire one of these masala directors from the South again, maybe Nelson or Vinoth or even Lokesh, for his next film..
“It’s truly scary to believe that even the biggest of stars and directors of the country are so much in awe of Aamir’s successful track record that they rather doubt themselves than doubt him.’
these test shows should rather be done with a mix of anonymous guys who can give a no-holds-barred feedback form..no amount of test shows with just your industry friends is going to help much..a lot is at stake here, basically you are asking him to reshoot the film or even change the script after it has already been shot and edited so who is going to tell him that? These test shows also have to be done fairly early in the game I guess, maybe like a 30-min preview of sorts
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Madan
August 14, 2022
“What i find incredible to believe is that Aamir has been planning this film for 14 years, the film has been in production for 4 years; prior to its release Aamir has conducted at least 100 preview shows, a lot of them for movie stars and directors. No one, i mean no one had the guts to tell Aamir that his performance sucks and the films is suffering on account of that.” – Could be a case of his track record working against him. I was not a fan of his performance in PK either but it was immensely successful at the BO. Likewise, I don’t think people imagined TZP would be a hit with that kind of subject but Aamir and his team made it work. MAYBE when someone is that successful, his peers second-guess themselves and refrain from offering what may have been valid criticism in this case.
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Tommy
August 14, 2022
Aamir usually holds test screenings for his inner circle during the making of his films and then shows the completed film to his industry friends mainly. And that happened for LSC as well. However, there are quite a couple of factors why this strategy did not work for this film.
Firstly, as Madan said above, his track record has definitely worked against him. As I said above, Aamir had a great run till recently, where he had received stupendous success. His arc from Lagaan or RDB to Dangal has been marked with both immense critical and box office success across genres and various topics. So it is not just his cronies who are in awe of him and his work, but also his contemporaries and counterparts in both Bollywood and southern film industries. They obviously were willing to give benefit of doubt to both Aamir’s vision of acting the part and the screenplay that he has chosen (given his extreme choosiness).
Also, one of the biggest drawbacks of this film is the way Aamir has chosen to act in this character of a simpleton. This overacting that borders on retardation had previously worked in D3 and PK, both of which had turned out to be industry hits! And the other main drawback is the way the screenplay is written (political superficiality, lack of depth in character development and poorly sketched character arcs, excessive use of songs, etc etc). Pointing all this out would mean recommendation to rewrite the script and reshoot, which is hardly feasible for a completed tentpole with such a huge budget. Also, I feel that the team was so much in love with the songs composed by Pritam here, that they failed to understand that the songs in the film were making the narrative too slow, without adding much value.
One feedback that should have reached Aamir’s ears is the slowness and dullness of the second half, specially after Laal reaches Chandigarh to meet Rupa. That should have raised alarm bells and Aamir should have trimmed the second half by 30-40 minutes or so. This brings me to the second aspect why I feel the test screenings failed by large. From what I have read and heard, the respect for a film like FG is still immense among the Indian film personalities. Maybe its all the ‘Oscars’ that FG received or its huge box office success – whatever be the reason, everyone talks and refers FG as a masterpiece and there also has been previous talks of remaking Gump in India. The problem is that FG has lost his relevance long back even to Americans and the western critics dont usually about it with high respect anymore. And LSC remains quite faithful to FG in its core story points (specially the love story between Laal and Rupa). The last stretch of LSC may be labored, but is very true to the original. And that is probably by design, hence the reluctance of the makers to edit it out.
All this has lead to a self-indulgent remake, where the makers have come out as too much in love with their product, rather than focusing in pleasing the audience. All the promotional material showcased about making-of-song podcast, making-of-song videos and behind-the-scenes showed their overconfidence imo.
As like I said, Aamir needs serious introspection at this point.
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Tommy
August 14, 2022
My main problem with this Gump remake is not the slow second half or Aamir’s acting. It is the loss of political symbolism in Atul Kulkarni’s adaptation of Eric Roth’s script.
Quoting from Gump’s wiki page:
“CNN’s Crossfire debated in 1994 whether the film promoted conservative values or was an indictment of the counterculture movement of the 1960s. Thomas Byers called it “an aggressively conservative film” in a Modern Fiction Studies article.
It has been noted that while Gump follows a very conservative lifestyle, Jenny’s life is full of countercultural embrace, complete with drug use, promiscuity, and antiwar rallies, and that their eventual marriage might be a kind of reconciliation. Jennifer Hyland Wang argues in a Cinema Journal article that Jenny’s death to an unnamed virus “symbolizes the death of liberal America and the death of the protests that defined a decade” in the 1960s.”
Coming to LSC, what political symbolism does Laal or Rupa represent? Gump’s awkward simplicity was used to justify conservative views while Jenny’s life represented the liberal excesses and posed a critique to the counterculture. However, Laal is just too evasive to pose for a right or left wing viewpoint of Indian history and Rupa’s political symbolism is equally nonexistent. So what exactly did Atul Kulkarni attempt here? And the very reason that Aamir selected such a superficial script says a lot about him loving the overt sentimentality of the original without understanding what the film actually signified.
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Madan
August 14, 2022
I said in the interview thread that the very fact that this film had been so long in the making made me fear that this would be a vanity project or, even if not, miss the mark culturally as audience tastes change. Like Sergio Leone’s OUTIA. Or the Guns N Roses album Chinese Democracy (even Stevie Wonder’s Time 2 Love which for all the purportedly ultra careful song selection was only a smidgen better than Characters). Unless you are making an intensely personal film like Boyhood (which is in essence timeless), there is a danger of a long gestation project becoming irrelevant by the time you bring it out for the public to see. It’s questionable whether LSC would have been highly relevant even in say 2013 or so but it certainly doesn’t appear to be very relevant today.
Also @ Tommy, the political hedging comes through even in the LSC trailer vis a vis the FG one. You don’t see anything like Gump rushing down the Mall to hug Jenny. As such, unless you knew LSC was a remake of FG, the trailer wouldn’t tell you very much about what to expect at all from the film. A bizarre case then of showing great conviction in following through an expensive project over a very long period of time and simultaneously worrying about whether they could really express themselves in it. Why make the film at all in that case, as some critics have asked.
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MANK
August 14, 2022
Aamir needs serious introspection at this point
Absolutely. I think one flop in Thugs seems to have shattered his instincts and his convictions. FG remake was an attempt at scoring a surefire BO success, and, in a way return, to the PK , 3 idiots mode of storytelling, which was very successful a decade ago, but is dated today. This was a serious miscalculation on his part. Now with LSC flopping as well, he must be a very confused man. I feel there exist a perennial conflict between Aamir the man\filmmaker and Aamir the actor. Aamir is (or was) a more spontaneous actor to begin with- remember watching him in his early movies like QSQT, Deewana Mujhsa nahin, Dil, JJWS, Andaz Apna Apna etc. he came across as effortless and spontaneous; even in his delightful performance in Rangeela, where he tried some method stuff like trying a unique slang and body language, it didn’t feel that he was laboring much. But somewhere around Lagaan, the meticulousness of the man (and filmmaker) started catching up with Aamir the actor. That’s when his performances started becoming heavy-going. Lagaan was still a pretty good performance, but it was in DCH that i felt that he had started to struggle with his performances. And bit by bit the filmmaker’s meticulousness has overpowered the actor’s spontaneity. I wish he could get back that spontaneity he had in his performances in the early part of his career, though i am not optimistic. I only hope it doesn’t take another 4 or 5 years for him to come up with his next movie. he is already 57.
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Madan
August 14, 2022
Ho ho ho, here’s a Yes Minister-Brexit like moment. I was just browsing through a few reviews of Dhoom3 and found this gem from Sudhish Kamath’s review:
“Writer 2: …Every actor wants to be Rainman and Forrest Gump once in his life. Aamir is no exception”
https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/cinema-reviews/dhoom-3-magic-no-logic/article5486865.ece
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Tommy
August 14, 2022
Yes, Aamir’s script sense has gone for a toss for now. Or maybe with age catching up fast, he isnt getting a lot of scripts to choose from. His over selective nature definitely works as a deterrent for many film-makers. Plus his style of working means 2-3 years to make a film, which may not be appealing to a lot of film-makers. The fact that he had to settle with an inexperienced Advait Chandan to direct this ambitious FG remake tells a lot.
It will be interesting to see what he does next. According to some reports, he is having second thought about RS Prasanna’s Campeones remake. And with the dismal flopping of LSC, another remake will surely be put in the backburner. I personally believe he should play his age now. If needed, take inspiration from the fabulous success of Top Gun: Maverick. Cruise was hitting 60 when Maverick released and although he looked a lot younger, he was still playing a guy in his fifties. Maverick would have worked even if Cruise looked his age, it had a good entertaining script and a role tailored to his age. My point is, that age is just a number these days. Aamir need not run out of steam just because he is hitting 57. Also, he may seriously consider working again with reputed directors like Hirani. I am not a fan of his acting in 3 Idiots or PK, but both films worked at many levels.
Was just reading Hansal Mehta’s tweets on LSC. Although he has found the film to be politically hollow (and rightly so), he is still wishing the film to succeed just because of the sheer effort of 4 years put into it. When I walked out of the theater (with utter disappointment), i somehow had a similar feeling. All his well-wishers and fans will be feeling sorry for him. Last time i was personally rooting for a film to succeed was when Nolan’s Tenet released amidst the pandemic, even though the film had disappointed me in many levels.
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Madan
August 14, 2022
Actually, Cruise is a good example for Aamir to address that over calculated acting which MANK described so well. Cruise perfected the art of doing just enough in every scene and being adequate as he breezes through with his personality. Aamir has to find that cruise mode (pun intended) again. He has somewhere indeed tried to model himself on Tom Hanks but Hanks, again, is usually able to find some mode in his roles where he is apt for the film. You would have thought he would screw up playing Uncle Walt in Saving Mr Banks but he found a more boisterous and extroverted mode for the role and sailed through.
This is an advantage that Hollywood has. Because a movie like Mr Banks isn’t depending on pure star power but its story and cinematic value, the actors can deliver exactly what the movie requires and no more. I feel because everything rides on their presence, our heroes become like reality TV contestants being exhorted by judges like Devraj Sanyal to “show blood”. Good enough is not enough and they MUST contort themselves to deliver a superlative performance (and of course these contortions risk backfiring).
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KayKay
August 14, 2022
“Forrest Gump simply doesn’t stand a chance now…I doubt if many would like it if they saw it now.”
Well, slot me in the Minority Box then. I can watch Forrest Gump anytime. Just like I can watch Dances With Wolves anytime. Both are powered by a charming whimsy and an aching romanticism tinged with heavy nostalgia. I can understand this not being everyone’s cup of tea, but I can take a swig out of this tasty beverage anytime.
But you’re right that there’d be no way you could make a Gump or a Wolves these days. The current brand of Liberal Agenda and Identity Politics Hollywood traffics in does not permit a narrative with a straight white male in the center. No, this species now needs to be taken down a peg, excoriated for it’s Toxic Masculinity and Racism. Reduced to bitter old men or buffoonish young ones. See THOR LOVE AND THUNDER. They’ve essentially Gump-ed The God of Thunder
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Tommy
August 14, 2022
@Madan – Agree on the Reality TV contestant analogy and the facial contortions of Bollywood stars. It is indeed very true!
I dont think its possible for Aamir (or in fact any other bankable Bollywood star) to operate like Cruise or Hanks, i.e. to be adequate and not to go overboard, specially when they are doing tentpoles with huge budgets riding solely on them.
I would just want Aamir to scale down at this moment. Stop signing big budget tentpoles. Go small, pick up medium-budget genre films that cater to a niche audience. Its easier to do natural acting in such films, even though they may not turn out to be big grossers. But that is OK. I would like to see the Aamir from Sarfarosh, Talaash and Dangal back to the fore. This is a trick that SRK missed during his ongoing bad patch starting from Dilwale. He kept signing films with substantial budgets (even when branching out with small scale directors) – Fan (120 cr), Raees (90 cr), JHMS (90 cr) and Zero (200 cr). The only Hit he enjoyed in this phase was Dear Zindagi, which was a medium budget film (45 cr). Even now he is banking on big budget tentpoles like Pathaan and Jawaan for his comeback. That is not the way for Aamir to go from here.
It is OK to take some time off, but please select a few medium budget films and work through them quickly. These long breaks are perfect recipes for losing relevance.
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RK
August 14, 2022
I am curious about two things in this comment thread. One is about film’s budget. And another regarding Forrest Gump political leanings
Except for may be Gajini and Dhoom3, I don’t think any of the recent Aamir’s movies made with high budget. Films like 3 idiots, PK, Dangal, SS, RDB etc are made with low to medium budget. They are very good contenet wise but didn’t push the envelope production or techinical values wise. Only reason they are considered tentpole because of long gap between Aamir’s movies
Regarding FG’s political leanings, i watched the movie in 2009 as a M. Tech student and again few months back. Both times I was amazed by the movie though I don’t have much knowledge about USA politics or history. I felt it as a story of innocent low IQ man, who loved his mother, GF, friends unconditionally and has a uncomplicated way of life. This fascinated me as we all know how much a normal person complicate the life by jealousy, selfishness, vanity etc. For me, this is core story and polical history is just a tool to tell the story, which I don’t care. Hence I find it funny when someone says FG is not aged well and not relavant now
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MANK
August 14, 2022
KayKay bro, i have the 4 hr. version of Dances and i still enjoy watching it; mainly because i am a sucker for these big sky Westerns. I even wrote about it on my blog
https://bit.ly/3GQrzEs
Costner make these Westerns very well. Open Range is another big favorite.
https://bit.ly/3zpRFgZ
But Forrest Gump is another story altogether- even when i watched it for the first time i had difficulty getting through it; and these days i just can’t even bring myself to start watching it.
I have this problem with most of Tom Hanks films- Apollo 13, Castaway, The Green Mile- Hanks plays the same role in film after film, a variation the all-American good guy who triumphs with his heart rather than through violence, and i find them kind of bland . I thought he was much better when he played a darker character in “Road to Perdition.”
Agreed about the current activism over artistry trend in Hollywood. It has completely ruined American films.
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Rishikesh
August 14, 2022
Never quite worked for me. Easily one of the weakest Aamir film in recent times. The chief problem lies undoubtedly lies with the screenplay that never lets you spend time with the characters. The first half unfolded more like a highlights show moving from one event to the other as if there was a mission to complete. Or is this because I am not that familiar with Forrest Gump. I watch Hollywood Films only intermittently and have only very vague memories of Forrest Gump, but I intentionally decided not to watch this before LSC since I didn’t want my viewing to be affected, but seems as if it has turned otherwise. Does Athul rely heavily on the familiarity the audience have with Forrest Gump to make his own material work? Because some of the scenes seemed air dropped to me like the one where the friends tease him and he realizes that he could run without the support. Why not have at least a bit of dialogue about him being teased by friends somewhere before it. So that there is an organic path towards the scene. I think Athul didn’t bother about it as he was only trying hard to recreate the original script. That’s why faithful adaptations can also be a risk. You will end up repeating the flaws of the original.
The Laal-Rupa relation at the centre was just too weak, and I could hardly invest in the romance. If that was the heart of the movie, they definitely should have had stronger scenes in the beginning that establish the relation instead of song montages. Also, Bodipalam too like Rupa offers Laal a seat beside him when he first meets him in the bus. Was it meant to be an echo? Wasn’t it the writer finding an easy way out to establish relationship?. And why does he seem like a caricature. To be honest Bodipalam looks and behaves like a dimwit himself. Why not a few dialogue exchanges before he brings up underwear business, why cut directly to it? That’s bad writing, isn’t it?
Judged purely as a mainstream movie, I feel it was a brave choice to experiment a narrative of this sort. Dangal and Secret Superstar, for all their strengths were both moulded on a rather conventional three act structure. But here all rigid structures and conventionalities are eschewed, it is as random as the character as the feather that floats in the air that is shown at the beginning. So, he cuts from an intense moment to a funny one very randomly. But, I believe that sort of a structure works more in a novel than in a movie which is more dependant on coherence and focus. Oh, another reason to root for books over movies.
Imagine reading a short story from POV of a mentally unstable person with all instabilities intact. Wouldn’t that be quiet a thing. This thought was my take away from LSC.
h
Also, how unconvincing was the Kareena arc for you? Am not sure whether it was modelled on anybody. But I didn’t understand wat caused the transition in her making her come back to Laal. Why not have some scenes in the beginning where she considers Laal as a true misfit for her. Why not highlight the disparity between the ambitions of Rupa and dreams and sincerity of Laal.
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Tommy
August 15, 2022
@RK – Good to know FG works for you personally even now, but that unfortunately it not a prevalent attitude towards this film in US. It has much to do about its political leanings and a movie that blatantly endorses a conservative view does not fit well with the current Liberal Agenda of Hollywood politics as KayKay mentioned. You can just read the reviews of LSC from the Hollywood critics and their reminiscences of the original film betrays this attitude. Also, FG is intertwined with American history and allegories through and through and is hardly ever viewed otherwise as just another story. However, many critics found the historical references as gimmicky and the story too saccharine even during its release in the mid nineties, you can check the FG reviews from RT archives.
And as for tentpoles, Aamir’s last two films TOH and LSC were both high budget tentpoles where the cost of production itself were reportedly 220 cr and 180 cr respectively. With both flopping badly, he should stay away from tentpoles in my opinion. You are of course entitled to think otherwise.
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PRASAD
August 15, 2022
Seeing most of the comments , seems like the movie itself is average and that’s the reason for the movie’s low opening. Even though the right wing trolls are taking a victory lap.
But as someone mentioned the future is bleak for Khans especially Aamir. He is the one changed the game in Bollywood in 2000’s and he is the one who has the acumen to give something different.
But after the SSR incident and amidst all the khans bashing ,Bollywood is not the same and infact the movie industry is not the same. ANy movie or a story needs to fit into the current Establishment agenda and it can’t deviate a bit. If it is deviates, a narrative will be set and it may impact the movie.
Interestingly sometime back, was revisiting Hey Ram(Timeless classic)….just want to quote one great scene in which the Maharaja takes in the intoxicated Kamal for the mission and they show Savarkar and Hitler Photos side by side. This movie was screened by top ministers of same establishment as today. Will the movie be cleared today and can somebody even Take a movie like this ?
Definitely there is an impact from creative liberties and anything from movie makers need to fit in the agenda and narrative.
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Madan
August 15, 2022
” Does Athul rely heavily on the familiarity the audience have with Forrest Gump to make his own material work? Because some of the scenes seemed air dropped to me like the one where the friends tease him and he realizes that he could run without the support. ” – On a similar note, some of the scenes from Fault In Our Stars were just ‘airdropped’ into Dil Bechara without the nice context setting that happens in the former. They need to look at how they ‘made’ 3 Idiots from Five Point Someone. I have a lot of objections with 3 Idiots but just in terms of adapting, it didn’t try to be faithful to Five Point and ultimately charted its own course. Because you are remaking a film doesn’t mean you have to carry over the same scenes to capture the same beats. Take that as a base and write a new story organically for Indian settings.
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nan
August 15, 2022
Hopefully this is the low before the high. I think all the big bad movies failing at the box office is a good thing.This is going to pave way for the “new-Gen” filmmakers in Bollywood to come and change the way films are made here. A similar dip in the graph had happened in Malayalam movies almost a decade(? )back, with all the big budget movies of the Big M’s continuously flopping . And a similar discussion was wide spread in the social media and T.V channels as to how MFI was making mediocre, shoddy films. All the present day genius film makers working in MFI came into the industry ,right after this crisis period . The audience were relieved to take a break from crappy movies made by old- timers and wholeheartedly welcomed the new-gen directors and writers and their new ideas and perspectives.
I do not know Bollywood well enough to know if the Big production houses and the big actors have a monopoly on the theaters and releases and blocks newer talents and directors . If that’s not the case, then the time is ripe for new and original ideas and talents to come in.
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Madan
August 15, 2022
Looks like just as Pushpa stole the thunder from 1983, Kartikeya 2 is growing in collections even as LSC and RB falter.
Speaking of, thoughts of Manoj Desai who runs G7 and Maratha Mandir.
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Ashok
August 15, 2022
“I guess that further reflects the rather pitiful state the Hindi film industry currently seems to find itself in. On the one hand, I do see it as a positive. The audience is evolving rapidly, with only “good” content getting rewarded at the box-office.”
@Akhilan – But how does this explain the mega success of Bhool Bhuaiya 2? I love movies in the ‘so bad, they are good’ genre. But I couldn’t watch after 20 minutes.
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Akhilan
August 15, 2022
Hey Ashok, well there are always exceptions right. I guess I should’ve written that for the most part, only “good” content is getting rewarded at the box-office. I couldn’t stand BB2 either, but if we look at the bigger picture, there has nevertheless been an evolution in the audiences’ taste. As MANK and others have already pointed out earlier, the audience is no longer lapping up anything and everything the so-called superstars of the Hindi film industry churn out, particularly this year. With Jayeshbhai before, Shamshera, and now LSC and Raksha Bandhan all bombing, the proof is in the pudding.
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madhusudhan194
August 16, 2022
It’s a little disappointing to see many veterans of this blog commenting negatively on the film without even watching it, simply going by what’s being said outside.
Saw the film today and found it to be a perfectly pleasant watch. Watching it I realised this is not a 200 / 300 crore blockbuster at all despite Aamir playing the lead. Unlike a 3 idiots of PK or even Dangal, LSC doesn’t really play to the gallery. This is a rather meditative film that will definitely not appeal to all sections of audiences. This is more in the Taare Zameen Par territory. The Indianisation of Forrest Gump is done here to culturally root the story than to add masala elements or star worship. I enjoyed LSC more than i thought I would. I didn’t quite like Forrest Gump when I watched it but this is a film that was waiting to be Indianized. Aamir’s body language is overdone but he holds his close ups brilliantly. His performance didn’t bother me as much as it apparently has for others.
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sanjana
August 16, 2022
It has done ok in overseas according to Boxofficeindia.
Waiting for Chinese reaction.
The boycott gang has limited reach over other countries.
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sanjana
August 16, 2022
Thanks @madhusudhan19. The same views were shared by my friends in LA. Even their kids enjoyed it, it seems.
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sanjana
August 16, 2022
The problem is with society which likes revenge dramas. Obviously a film suggesting peace will have no takers. Finding his acting and rejecting the film is like throwing the baby with the bath water. It also shows how herocentric are we.
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vijay
August 16, 2022
AK in a ‘state of shock’ after being asked to compensate for losses
https://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/bollywood/aamir-khan-goes-state-shock-laal-singh-chaddhas-failure-distributors-ask-monetary-compensation-suffering-heavy-losses/
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sanjana
August 16, 2022
Recently, reports had even claimed that certain distributors had asked the producers for “monetary compensation” due to the losses they reportedly suffered. Now, Viacom 18, the production house behind the film, has responded to these reports, by calling them “baseless speculation”.
“There are no external distributors, it’s being distributed by V18Studios, and no money is lost in the first place. The film is still running in theaters both in India and internationally. This is baseless speculation,” Ajit Andhare, CEO of Viacom 18, told ETimes.
https://www.news18.com/news/movies/laal-singh-chaddha-makers-say-no-money-is-lost-clarify-baseless-rumours-about-aamir-khan-film-5756953.html
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Madan
August 16, 2022
Film had a disappointing first five days, especially considering two holidays and a weekend, but it wasn’t a washout like Prithviraj or Shamshera. Domestic and international taken together, it has notched nearly 80 cr or so. IF word of mouth improves opinion of the film, it might just finish somewhere close to its production cost.
Hopefully a lesson learnt as well for Aamir to practice what he talked about in the interview – if you’re making a niche film, recognize that its audience is going to be niche, aka small. Maybe practice more frugal filmmaking next time than go to each location to shoot the ‘run’.
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RK
August 16, 2022
@Tommy, thanks for your response.
” It has much to do about its political leanings and a movie that blatantly endorses a conservative view does not fit well with the current Liberal Agenda of Hollywood politics as KayKay mentioned. ”
But an average cinegoer in US really care or understand the movie’s political undertones and hence able to dismiss the movie now? Because same people can like different films with contradicting philosophies as long as content is engaging. Not sure about the percentage of people who think in terms of political correctness and stop liking a film.
Regarding the 180cr budget for LSC. Why does it cost so much? Because of digital de-aging or because of Aamir’s remuneration? Also its puzzling why this movie took so much amount of Aamir’s time. As per Wiki, Original FG took 4-5 months to complete the filming. Not sure why Aamir decided to spend so many years on this and hence leading to a bigger disappointment
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Tommy
August 16, 2022
Regarding the budget it seems there are quite a few factors that lead to such a huge amount. Firstly, there are reports that Aamir was paid 50 cr, Kareena 8 cr, Chay 5 cr, Mona Singh 2 cr and Manav Vij 1 cr as acting fees. That itself is one-third of the total cost of production (could have been avoided).
Add the cost of de-aging and other VFX used (the cost de-aging could have been avoided if LSC was made with a younger actor in the lead instead of Aamir). Also they have reportedly shot over 100 real locations, which adds to the logistics expense. And lastly, production was stuck during the pandemic and that accrued some interests too.
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Madan
August 16, 2022
The critique of Gump being conservative is questionable in itself because Forrest is an example of what were derisively called McNamara’s Morons. Second grade recruits into the army to make up the numbers in an expensive and prolonged war in Vietnam. So… when Zemeckis shows a McNamara Moron living the American Dream, is it in earnest or a send up? When I watched it again as an adult, I got the distinct feeling that it was the latter. One critic mentioned in the wiki page agrees with me, describing the conservative appropriation of FG as ‘the death of irony’.
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Tommy
August 16, 2022
And they also had to buy the remake rights of the original film from Paramount. That would have been expensive I guess.
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Tommy
August 16, 2022
@Madan – Depends on how you watch Gump. If you buy his naivety, then the conservative in you may have his ego thoroughly satisfied (not sure how others may perceive it though!). And if you watch it with a cynical POV, then the liberal in you will be scorning with some delight. Gump clicked v well with a large demographic of Americans during its release …
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hari
August 16, 2022
There are so many good movies that people don’t watch. Why is that some people get worked out if one AK movie is not getting watched?
And on why the movie is a debacle – here is 1 article – discussing the same
Experts said a combination of factors is responsible for these debacles, including Bollywood’s increasing disconnect with the masses, a lack of creativity, faulty storytelling, too much emphasis on stars and boycott calls against stars and films.
Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/bollywood-horror-show-big-stars-lose-sparkle-experts-blame-lack-of-creativity/articleshow/93577733.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst
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madhusudhan194
August 16, 2022
I think if this film fails to recover the cost, the only reason would be the overestimation of it’s market value. This film should not have cost 180 crores to make. It is not that film. There are not many high moments. It chugs along nicely with the graph being quite even.
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sanjay
August 16, 2022
Film going audience is these days is exposed to world class acting thanks to the internet and various platform and so much is written, dissected with reviews, videos and different takes. These big-ticket movies better be careful because one false note and movie will come crashing down and Bollywood has been facing this trend often now. People don’t have the time and patience for run of the mill and if not invested properly in the movie. Boycotts etc do not impact much and average joe is eager to watch good content and southern flavor finding audience now attests to this fact. Dangal came in 2016 and was a runaway hit even though Aamir’s so-called misgivings on Modi and the BJP were still fresh.
On LSC very surprised with Aamir’s miscalculations since he is known to show his movie to test audience well in advance for course corrections so either he was too cocky (unlikely knowing him) or becomes a case study for mental health henceforth like his brother Faisal. Sensitive in real world does not stand a chance and demands us to be thicker skinned for survival. Hope he is able to overcome this full sacle rejection. There is a video going around on Redditt where Atul (writer of the movie) did try to correct him, but he admittedly disregarded his suggestions, so I am bit perplexed why his repetitions of a wide eyed PK or Samar of Dhoom 3 and the early part of wide eyed 3 idiots ….what happened to pulse of the audience and so called perfectionist !!! and all this within a span of few years one after another. If his acting is getting universally panned there must be something bad as I have not dared to venture out after watching those hammy trailers and promos. This is the same guy who found Big B loud and hammy in Black and rightly so because Bachchan has been hamming a lot since early 90s as matter of fact.
Aamir had an easy escape via the OTT route and would have avoided this humiliation at the fag end of his career and expose himself to absolute ridicule worldwide and hope he does not take this movie to show to Tom Hanks. Something is not right at Aamir’s end though he is far from becoming a Faisal, in real life but one never knows. He has indicated retirement and what a shame to go out like this!!!
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Tommy
August 16, 2022
Looking at Aamir’s current predicament, I am reminded of a quote that Nolan used in his Dark Knight film:
“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain…”
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Madan
August 16, 2022
sanjay : I am not sure where you’re going with your dunking on mental health but I did watch the reddit clip. I want to hear the full portion of what Aamir said but gawd, Atul K tried to tell him. Looks like Aamir is in love with/stuck with the PK look. I cannot say if it would work for ME if I see it (likely NOT given Hanks had none of that going on) but it definitely doesn’t seem to have worked for the theater going public.
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Aman Basha
August 16, 2022
I will be watching this movie as there’s overwhelming odds that Aamir might retire after this. He’s given Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par, 3 Idiots, PK and Dangal. Not to mention pulling out a show like Satyamev Jayate on idiotic Indian TV (can you imagine the outcry it would have caused today?). In that sense, he could have become Hindi Cinema’s Kamal but he’s become an absolute idiot and is neither the talent nor risk taker that Kamal was, it isn’t even the PK redo, it’s even worse, Dhoom 3. I think everyone now wishes that film actually flopped, if not he wouldn’t have done Thugs or done Laal as Samar.
He became an idiot ever since he started the disgusting affair that broke his marriage. His creative instincts seem totally haywire after that. Even Kiran’s next movie seems like another flop.
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Madan
August 16, 2022
Aman Basha: I agree with the caveat that even at his best, he never got close to Kamal. I and my father were talking about this the other day (because it seems Aamir once said Kamal’s acting doesn’t feel spontaneous or something) and we were like, lol can he do Vettaiyadu Vilayadu level acting, let alone prime Kamal. He always worked very hard to do a good job in good movies. The one who could perhaps, perhaps have been Kamal, albeit with his set of limitations, was SRK. He had/has fantastic comic timing just like Kamal and could captivate in average movies. But he got content to define himself by those mannerisms and never had the ambition of Kamal. If you combined the ambition of Aamir with the talent of SRK, you could get somewhere close to Kamal. End of Kamal fan rant.
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Tommy
August 16, 2022
No superstar retires in today’s times. Aamir may be facing his darkest hours since he became a box office phenomenon (with Ghajini), but retirement will be last thing on his mind. He seems too attached to film-making and his work in general. He may take some time off now like SRK did. But if SRK can attempt a comeback, then there is no reason why Aamir wont give it a shot too. I am not sure if he can rise again like a phoenix, but I definitely dont see him giving up. Hopefully he will focus back on selecting some good scripts where he can naturally play his own age.
We will see how it goes.
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Madan
August 16, 2022
I never did see Dhoom 3 but I heard about the disappointed reactions of people who expected more from Aamir. That does seem to be the ‘origin story’ of Aamir’s ET look.
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veenabombay
August 16, 2022
Your review captures it well. It’s a good watch, but does get repetitive and is a tad long. Aamir’s younger version did not grate in the movie as it did in the trailer. The older version was fantastic. The line “mazhab se malaria phailta hai” will stay with me for a long time. Kind of explains the hate the movie is getting, and that too from people that haven’t watched it or don’t intend to.Go watch it first, people.It’s okay to not like a movie, it’s also okay for a big budget movie to flop. But to invest so much time into spreading negativity is a bit ridiculous.
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Ravi K
August 16, 2022
The stars aligned for Forrest Gump in a way that didnt happen for LSC. Tom Hanks was the right age and at the right place in his career. Zemeckis was one of the few directors who could pull off the film. America was also doing well at that point, and could handle a Boomer-centric trip down memory lane. The film was novel enough to grab people’s attention. As alluded to above, it balanced its tone well enough to appeal to a broad audience.
Remaking such an iconic film is a risky gambit. People inevitably end up comparing the remake to the original, and some might be turned off of seeing it in the first place because it’s a high-profile remake. At the same time, the remake has to have something that would draw people unfamiliar with the original, as I’d imagine is the case for the majority of the Indian audiences. Maybe they’d like LSC if they ended up seeing it, but getting them to see it in the first place was clearly a tough sell.
I believe this is Aamir’s first flop as a producer. He has a great track record in that department, so a flop was bound to happen at some point.
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sanjay
August 16, 2022
@madan ” I am not sure where you’re going with your dunking on mental health..”
I have been concerned with Aamir’s body language for a while now or for that matter any sensitive or righteous person (giving him benefit of doubt of being honest and righteous, strictly per public persona) is bound to get affected by the revisionist history India is currently engaged with turmoil in public discourse not only within the country but within his own industry and humans suddenly behaving very differently. I am still trying to dig into his current equation with a person who he was very close to at one time and who wrote the rebellious RDB turn into a fanboy interviewee and literally crawled in front of power beholders …a cbfc chief post and a padma shri probably did the trick!
Even if one leaves out the thrashing he gets by a deranged Kangana, he gets abused openly and he cannot say a word. The guy is involved in gutsy Paani foundation work with Maharashtra’s Fadnavis and has stood up for so many social and right causes but cannot muster guts to stand up and utter a word in self-defense and speak his heart out. I am presuming all this must be taking toll on self esteem because at the end of the day we are all human being with emotions. In that respect I was pleasantly surprised with his demeanor in that interview with B. Rangan where he at least seemed to have opened up a bit.
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Anu Warrier
August 16, 2022
@Aman, dislike the film, dislike Aamir as an actor, watch, don’t watch… but seriously, ‘disgusting affair that broke his marriage’? Do you know that for certain, or personally? If not, why buy into the malicious gossip? And predicting a flop for Kiran’s movie before it’s even into post-production?
As Veena says, I am seriously disturbed by the negativity around films and actors today.
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Anu Warrier
August 16, 2022
I was reading a report that said Hrithik was trolled for tweeting that he liked LSC and that there are now calls for boycotting the Vikram Vedha remake. head to desk
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Aman Basha
August 16, 2022
@Anu Warrier: I greatly admire Aamir, but as an admirer, someone has to bell the cat. I sincerely think his personal life has really affected his creative decisions, this could be even said of SRK’s midlife crisis in 2011/12 and the rumors around him. Those rumors have some confirmation too, but as for Aamir’s affair, I present this:
https://www.instagram.com/aamirchotelalkhan/
An account called Aamir “Chotelal” Khan followed only by Fatima Sana Shaikh and not by any of Aamir’s family. Is anyone supposed to not draw the obvious conclusion from this?
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karzzexped
August 16, 2022
@Anu Warrier: I was reading a report that said Hrithik was trolled for tweeting that he liked LSC and that there are now calls for boycotting the Vikram Vedha remake.
Not sure if you got a chance to watch the Anurag interview yet, but he puts it so eloquently about how the troll culture is affecting cinema today. Hrithik is one such example of an industry contemporary getting bullied for supporting the film.
All this hoopla made me watch the movie yesterday – since I normally don’t prefer remakes, I didn’t watch it at first – and I genuinely don’t get the hate surrounding it. It was middling at it’s worst and breezy at it’s best.
True, Aamir hasn’t been getting it right for the past two films, but hey this is a man who has survived the industry for decades together and knows a thing or two about bouncing back.
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Madan
August 16, 2022
The good thing with Aamir is he takes so long between films that by the time the next one comes, maybe people have grown tired of angry speechwala and he is back in touch with the zeitgeist again. One can certainly hope, if nothing else. He is back to where he was after Mela. He reinvented himself then. Can he all over again, is the question.
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Akhilan
August 16, 2022
Hrithik reminds me, Rohit in Koi Mil Gaya was far more palatable for me than Aamir Khan’s endeavors in Dhoom 3, PK, and LSC put together. And Koi Mil Gaya released some 10 years before Dhoom 3.
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sanjana
August 16, 2022
Now the trolls want to do the same for Srk films and Bhai’s films. They want to complete the task. Srk is a bigger name and best known of the triumvirate. He is much more influential.
The fans are not ready to accept that aamir and srk are very good friends. In Dangal, there was an srk reference. and for LSC, aamir requested srk to accept a small presence and got an yes.
Our audience who can make housefulls and golmals big hits, wont dissect PK or Dhoom 3 looks. PK got a thumbs up from most of the critics. It is not his pk looks but a sustained campaign carried over the last 2 or 3 months, that did the damage.
Everyone who has an issue with him are pouring their frustrations apart from the boycott gang. Actually I respect the boycott gang as they are open about their motives and they will not stop with aamir. Today it is aamir and tomorrow? Now the boycott gang knows its power, they will use the same tactics with much more vigour. Mark my words.
Naseer is more forthcoming but he is not a big boxoffice star and so no troll is interested in pulling down his films. And he knows that.
Aamir will never come back in theatres and he will directly opt for ott. He will boycott theatres.
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sanjana
August 16, 2022
As an aamir fan. I am happy that the film is released and done with. I can move on and so should other aamir fans.
I am watching The Sandman on netflix and it is somewhat interesting. Especially the fifth episode. If there are no dreams, if there are no hopes? If only truth prevails, what will happen?
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madhusudhan194
August 16, 2022
“He became an idiot ever since he started the disgusting affair that broke his marriage. His creative instincts seem totally haywire after that. Even Kiran’s next movie seems like another flop.”
A sickening comment from a reader who i had grown to respect for the clarity with which he puts forward his views and his knowledge of cinema. Such a huge letdown. A classic case of what blind hatred can do to even a reasonably sensible person.
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madhusudhan194
August 16, 2022
I really believe that all the hatred Aamir is getting both in this blog and outside is from a small section of people that isn’t even interested in going to movies anymore. So this hatred or negativity is not the reason for his films flopping. TOH was a lazy film and in LSC’s case, it’s the budget that has actually failed a fairly good film. And this can and has and will happen to anybody in the country and outside. So it’d be wise to stop jumping the gun and providing pretentious fucking advice on what Aamir should do next or psychoanalysing his creative instincts. His future films may or may not do well but this is a guy who has given industry hits one after the other. Kamal Hassan, for the longest time didn’t look anywhere close to giving a hit film and was practically written off after Viswaroopam 2. So please, take it easy.
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madhusudhan194
August 16, 2022
And unlike a Bhai or a Rajinikanth, people like Kamal and Aamir are pure cinema people and they will find ways to make good cinema.
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Satya
August 17, 2022
sanjana: “If there are no dreams, if there are no hopes? If only truth prevails, what will happen?”
Human lives would then resemble that of uncut trees: grow, sustain, decay and die. But because we are humans, and sustainance is costly, maybe we go to work and just do what is expected, collecting our paychecks.
Aman Basha: Hey, what if film stars remain celibate and just dedicate themselves only to filmmaking? I mean, they are humans who are not expected to live a human life with f*ng normal thoughts and are expected to deliver always. Always. So, the anthem should be…
Ishq-E-Phillum, Junoon-E-Phillum
Hai Dard-E-Phillum, Dawa Hai Phillum
Dua Hai Phillam
Jumma Jumma Jahaaz Phillum
Hansi Khushi Ka Hai Raaz Phillum
Hai Naaz-E-Phillum
Zindagi Ka Hai Baap Phillum
Hum Sabhi Aulaad Hai Fillam
Jaan Phillam Ae O, Rooh Phillum Ae O
Salaam-E-Phillum
Sorry for intruding, could not resist commenting.
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Satya
August 17, 2022
madhusudhan94: Yeah. Kamal has made exactly two watchable films in the last decade (barring Papanaasam, because it was a remake that worked everywhere with a different cast), and one of them despite being a huge hit was crucified here in this wordpress by our fellow commentators. If I have to watch Kamal deliver a version of himself masquerading as the character on screen, I would rather go for Rajinikanth, who clearly does that part very well. That man is actually worthy even when he pulls off the same deal in every film and is not pretentious about it.
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Madan
August 17, 2022
“I really believe that all the hatred Aamir is getting both in this blog and outside is from a small section of people that isn’t even interested in going to movies anymore. ” – Yes you got that right, I am not ‘interested’ in 300-400 rupee tickets plus an even bigger amount for popcorn for ‘one time watch’/’decent’. My message to the big daddies is stop pandering, stop hedging and make movies that you believe in. If you’re so afraid of the audience, then it’s a pointless endeavour. So if you call as ‘hatred’ analyzing why the film has failed (which despite your fervent wishes to the contrary, it already has), so be it, I shall proudly declare myself a hater.
I give that Aman speculating about Aamir’s personal life was unwarranted but he doesn’t sound like a hater to me and what he talked about was what Stardust and ‘woke’ journalist Masand did for a living (but I guess that’s ok for some reason?). If you really think we are haters, you need to get out of your echo chamber some. I was interested in watching this right until I learnt it’s a ‘faithful’ remake and that Aamir decided low IQ people look like ET. I got bored to death watching Disney’s scene by scene remake of Lion King, I am not going to do that again. Get original scripts or get f*****. Manoj Desai who runs G7 and Maratha Mandir is asking why does Aamir have to remake foreign films and can they not write scripts of their own at all? I suppose he’s a hater too? Now Hrithik is already worried about a boycott of Vikram Vedha remake. But the question is why a remake in the first place, koi scriptwriter hi nahi hai kya Bollywood mein?
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Tommy
August 17, 2022
Bollywood wont be making ‘official’ remakes with big budgets anymore (I doubt if they can survive without plagiarism though). Jersey flopped badly earlier this year. Now LSC is a disaster. Most likely Vikram Vedha will also face the music. And rightly so.
Anyways, I have made my comments on LSC only after watching the film. I found Aamir’s act quite caricaturist in nature, but hardly as obnoxious as the way Hrithik plays the retard in his Krrish films. Maybe Hrithik’s terrible voice modulation makes it worse.
Now that LSC has failed, the boycott gang can falsely take pride and encouragement at their efforts (although in reality it is the content that has failed). I expect a lot of noise around Brahmastra, Vikram Vedha and later Pathaan next year too. If these movies turn out to be really good, then the propaganda wont matter. But if they turn out to be middling films with mixed reactions, then God save them in the current scenario!
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Madan
August 17, 2022
Oh God, Krissh was painful. The pain compounded by Nasser overacting the hell out of his villain.
It’s not to do with boycott gang but a general ennui about Bollywood. Runout and Canada Kumar’s films tanked too. OTOH Gangubai did very well. And on the other, other hand, BB2 ran well which is mystifying. I would have ventured to say that audience wants straight up rather than message movies but then, Attack didn’t do well either. So it could be just fatigue with seeing the same faces. Alia despite being around for sometime is definitely less overexposed than the Khans, AK or John Abraham and likewise in the case of Karthik Aaryan. Now that is not a message that will gladden the hearts of the incumbents but they need to make of it what they will. Everybody has to retire from playing the hero someday – Dharam and Amitabh had to do as well.
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Anu Warrier
August 17, 2022
Madan, Stardust is known for its gossip and Masand allegedly wrote blind items. This is not the same, is it? This is a blog for cinema, not for unsubstantiated and prurient gossip. The insinuation is disgusting. And as proof, what does Aman offer? An instagram account allegedly in Aamir Khan’s name (an actor who is famously NOT on social media except an official account managed by his team for his films) and followed only by Fatima Sana Sheikh? Is there any proof that either of these accounts belong to the persons concerned? I would suppose a young person like Aman to know that it’s so easy to create a fake account on social media?
(p.s. And let’s say, just to play the devil’s advocate that this so-called affair is true. So what? Why is it ‘disgusting’? As far as I know, both are consenting adults. Though, in that case, how/why Kiran is still friends with Aamir despite this ‘disgusting affair’ that allegedly broke his marriage and stifled his creative instincts beats me!)
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
Well said Anu. I am also scratching my head about this moral policing and moral stances. SSR episode is still fresh and also about a superstar son’s social media trial which also did not spare even his family.
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
I stopped watching movies after Padmaavat. I watched Padmaavat just as a protest. Then came covid, ott oversose which made me stick to home and watch movies at my pace. Even big screen extravaganzaas like RRR did not lure me to go to theatres.
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Madan
August 17, 2022
I read Aman’s comment again and I don’t get where he is saying Aamir is not allowed to have an affair. He called it disgusting (his opinion) and suggested it interfered with his creative process (an inference but one which now has legs). Is that moral policing? Nope, I don’t think so. I would rather ask why are we suddenly not supposed to comment on an actor’s personal affairs? Now that sounds a lot more like verbal policing to me.
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Anu Warrier
August 17, 2022
Madan, – so, Aman (or anyone else) can comment on an actor’s personal affairs. Sure. Why not? (Even if he knows nothing about it, but hey, be my guest.) But I’m not allowed to comment on his comment? How does that become ‘verbal policing’?
Show me one place where I asked Aman NOT to say something, or asked for his comment to be deleted/moderated? In my first comment, I asked him why he bought into such gossip; in my second, I pointed out that his ‘proof’ was worth nothing.
Sauce for the gander is surely sauce for the goose as well?
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Madan
August 17, 2022
You are asking him “why buy into the personal gossip”? So that is not a rhetorical question then? Fair enough if that is the case. But otherwise it sounded a lot like you are telling him what he can say here. And later too, “this is a blog for cinema, not for unsubstantiated gossip”. Well, since when did the blog conversations stick purely to cinema? It’s fine, I get it, there is a lot of trolling on twitter so you get upset when negative comments carry over into the blog. But to channel a popular meme, “both are not same”. You are really making a mountain out of a molehill at this point. Again, if it really bothers the three of you – yourself, sanjana, madhusudhan – that much, I will step aside and move on. But you’re kidding yourself if you think this blog has ever had anything to do with the fortunes of ANY film, let alone LSC, so carrying on about haters and trolling as if we are somehow thwarting its success is tiresome.
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
Slowly bollywood is coming in support of aamir, not LSC particularly
Ekta Kapoor hits out at #BoycottLaalSinghChaddha trend:
First it was Hrithik, next Neha Dhupia and now Ekta Kapoor.
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hari
August 17, 2022
Bollywood thrives on paid news/tweets/insta posts etc. The news where we see that Taimur Khan (can you imagine any star naming their son Hitler, but apparently Taimur (a bigger mass murderer) is ok) is so cutee in his new baby outfit, Jahnvi sizzles in her Golce Dabbana dress, Amitabh did potty fine after a prolonged constipation is all paid news. Some are palatable to audience and some are not. Similarly some tweets hit the mark and some don’t. The one by Hrithik definitely backfired. I’m sure AK’s and HR’s PR agency would have “kootu kazhichified” and thought of the ramifications and then only put that out, but then it looks like they miscalculated there as well. Audience is king, if you treat them with disrespect, they will treat you the same. It is part and parcel of the game isn’t it.
Bollywood actors get adheedhamana love for no rhyme or reason, so why not other way around.
Also AFAIK, twitter has only 3% reach in India and even within it the reach of “boycott gang” will be lesser, #justsaying.
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
Boycott trend is real and not to be brushed aside by quoting aamir’s ashtakona face, his acting, his choices, Fatima etc. These people are risking being boycotted and yet are voicing their thoughts. They know what they are saying. First they come for so and so and I did not speak out.
My only regret about aamir is that he is not speaking his mind frankly fearing loss of livelihood, uncertain future etc. Maybe thinking that things will change. Same issue with srk too.
He should have been more forthcoming about SSR as he was his co star in PK and also an industry colleague. And many other issues affecting the industry if not others.
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madhusudhan194
August 17, 2022
“So if you call as ‘hatred’ analyzing why the film has failed (which despite your fervent wishes to the contrary, it already has), so be it, I shall proudly declare myself a hater.
I give that Aman speculating about Aamir’s personal life was unwarranted but he doesn’t sound like a hater to me and what he talked about was what Stardust and ‘woke’ journalist Masand did for a living (but I guess that’s ok for some reason?).”
@Madan – the word “hater” was used primarily in response of Aman Basha’s comment. I wasn’t responding to Rajeev Masand here. I did convey my opinions loud and clear about Masand’s activities in one of the threads about SSR. I obviously don’t expect you to remember it but jumping the gun again to think that I am okay with what Masand does is something I don’t know what to say about.
Coming to your point, Aman’s comment to me is clear hatred. We can agree to disagree. I also think it is a futile exercise commenting on a film’s strengths and weaknesses without even watching it. Again, we can agree to disagree on that. If everybody agreed with me, the number of comments would be less than half of what it is now. I don’t mind being alone on that one. You are absolutely welcome not to watch the film if the cost is too high. No problem with that.
Dislike Aamir all you want, criticize his choices to the extent possible. Be disappointed if you felt cheated, no worries. But linking them to his romantic life is no different from trolling Virat Kohli’s decision to have a child because he hasn’t scored a hundred in 3 years. To me, that’s clear hatred. I won’t be surprised by that comment from a random user on Twitter or Instagram because that is what that space breeds. But when that comes from a reader of this blog that I have grown to respect, my disappointment gets multiplied. But I am merely expressing my disappointment and not linking it to my wild guesses on Aman Basha’s choices in his personal or romantic life.
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Tommy
August 17, 2022
Boycott is nothing but another trend in SM. The general audience does not give a hoot about it. The audience interest in LSC was dismal due to that underwhelming trailer revealed with so much hype during the IPL final. The game was lost then and there. Once the movie released, the mixed WOM and middling reviews sealed the fate of LSC.
Many here seem to be supporting the film without even watching it. I read such opinions in other blogs too. What is stopping these well-wishers and fans from watching LSC? Definitely not the boycott propaganda. Then what? This is the question that needs to be asked. IMO people’s lifestyle has changed drastically over the pandemic. They are not just willing to enter the theaters that easily anymore. The rise of OTT culture has not helped either.
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
If boycott trend is not real, nothing is real. All is maya or illusion. Just my opinion.
It is comfortable to know that the world is an illusion and we are in it only until… Or like a dream or a bad dream. Till then let us engage in these arguments and opinions.
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Madan
August 17, 2022
madhusudhan: Well, you repeatedly evoke the Brutus is an honourable man trope in pointing out Aman’s respectable contributions while simultaneously branding him a hater for the one thing he said. So I don’t think you can protest too much about jumping the gun and other issues.
But as to whether connecting personal issues to creative success or failure makes one a hater, are you trying to say Shankar encouraging Sharda’s terrible singing did NOT have an effect on the Shankar Jaikishan partnership? What about Chetan Anand’s bizarre obsession with Oriya Rajvansh? This is the film industry we’re talking about and not some RBI mandarins? Of course people have flings all the time and the resulting emotions can affect their professional endeavours both favourably or unfavourably. Fine, if it makes you sleep at night, assume Aman is a hater, I’ve got no truck in this. But you sure do sound awfully touchy and, if I may, possessive about the nature of discourse on the blog.
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Madan
August 17, 2022
Priya Rajvansh, not Oriya
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vijay
August 17, 2022
“IMO people’s lifestyle has changed drastically over the pandemic. They are not just willing to enter the theaters that easily anymore. The rise of OTT culture has not helped either.”
it would be more pertinent to not just look at why LSC did’nt do well but why it did’nt do as well as say Gangubhai or Bhool Bulaiyya or whatever..All these pandemic/OTT factors were in place then when those films released as well..
Figuring out why a movie did’nt work is tricky business(unless there are obvious extraneous factors like heavy rains or a lockdown or something like that) and anybody(even if it is Kashyap) who thinks they have the exact diagnosis and have it all sorted out is probably setting themselves up for trouble.
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Tommy
August 17, 2022
With people unwilling to visit theaters in general, its the promotional material that matters most these days. It helps in creating some hype, without which audience wont even give it a chance in the opening weekend. Sequels like KGF 2 and Bhool Bhulaiya 2 additionally benefited from the goodwill generated by the previous movies. The rehashed Hare Ram song was a chartbuster again and helped in the initial.
In case of LSC, the promotional material was dull and not exciting at all, and the movie also turned out to be just watchable. It is not a surprise that LSC’s lifetime total will be same as Bhool Bhulaiya’s opening weekend collection. Blaming the boycott calls for this failure is just an excuse.
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brangan
August 17, 2022
I think way too much is being made of LSC’s failure — or indeed the failure of any film whose scripting was completed before the pandemic changed people’s tastes and willingness to go to theatres.
Had they cut a better trailer, maybe the film would have at least reached average status. (Quite a few people told me that the cartoon-Aamir portions apart, they didn’t mind the movie.) Had Aamir promoted the film more, maybe… No “one” reason can explain these things, and trying to predict success or analyse failure is always going to be an imprecise effort.
People like the Khans, Kamal, Rajini, Chiranjeevi are evergreen stars dor a reason. They have been there, done that. They have seen many hits. They have seen an equal number of flops. (No one is writing off Chiranjeevi because ACHARYA was a mega-flop.) I think the reason Aamir is particularly being put under a scanner (as opposed to an equally hit-less SRK) is because he had such monstrous hits and everyone — including (probably) himself — thought he had the audience’s pulse.
I am sure, like other older stars, he will find a way to read the new audience’s pulse. Look how one VIKRAM has made Kamal red-hot in the trade again. Something tells me THUGS and LSC are not the end of someone who so much a part of the cultural fabric of the country.
It just takes one film to bounce back. In fact, I am oddly happy that LSC did not do well, because it will make Aamir introspect and re-adjust some of his rigid pre-pandemic theories (like the impractical 6-month OTT window he spoke about in my interview).
He has to find his Lokesh. And he will be back.
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
BR, you are too optimistic. Even if he does a Dangal or Lagaan or even a TZP now, they will be flops.
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hari
August 17, 2022
Boycott/Ban gang have been at it since 1947, and will be at it (just like paid/fake news) in future as well, why so much hullabulla now? Or is it because if only the RW gangs calls for boycott it is boycott but not the other way around?
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
It is much more pronounced now.
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brangan
August 17, 2022
sanjana: Haha. But then, I am a “glass half full” kinda guy 🙂
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Aman Basha
August 17, 2022
It’s laughable to say I’m an Aamir Khan hater, I’m an SRK fan and have nothing but praise for Aamir even in my orgasmic columns about SRK.
Firstly, the insta account (chotelal ROFLMAO) I linked is followed by Fatima Sana Shaikh’s official Insta account(with the blue tick), does Anu ji really think I’m a nibba to fall for something like this? And about Aamir not being on social media, Ranbir has said the same thing and everyone now knows and he himself has said, he has a private account on Instagram. There are quite a few affair rumors I believe like SRK and Mrs. Jonas, but the evidence has been very circumstantial there. This is quite solid proof. And about this being disgusting, remember Aamir’s Ram Ram scene in Ishq? Guess who was the little girl in Kajol’s lap?
Secondly, the only film star who calls himself celibate is Salman Bhai. He’s great material for writing, like the Radhe review but I encourage film stars to have a fun personal life. My friend and I were joking about how boring bollywood gossip has been post Ranbir’s wedding. The current batch are not even fun enough for the gossip mills, everything looks so set up and fake.
Thirdly, it’s bizarre for people to insist that we separate the personal from the professional. Was Elvis the same after Priscilla left him? Didn’t Kamal’s strongest phase coincide with his marriage to Sarika? What about Raj Kapoor, who never reached the same peak as he did with Nargis beside him? Doesn’t Kaagaz Ke Phool gain greater depth when we know Guru Dutt’s obsession with Waheeda? Aamir nearly drank himself to death after his first divorce, and his second divorce couldn’t have affected his creativity?
The other problem is Aamir doesn’t have the dedicated fanbase like SRK, Salman or even Kamal do. Aamir after 4 years couldn’t open much better than Akshay who had 2 big disasters with a bigger film is very telling.
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vijay
August 17, 2022
“No “one” reason can explain these things, and trying to predict success or analyse failure is always going to be an imprecise effort.’
thats exactly what i said earlier..its tricky business to come up with a precise diagnosis and like politics/cricket everybody seems to think they know exactly why a movie did’nt do well..If only Kamal knew those reasons he would’nt have had to wait for a decade to give a blockbuster..or the industry would’nt be dealing with the numerous turkeys coming their way every month
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
TOH opened very big.
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
Dedicated fan base will give you a false sense of success. Look at Rajinikant and look at srk’s and salman’s recent flops.
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
When RRR was lapped up by bollywood, its stars hoped for a big bollywood breakthrough but it did not happen for them. And it will never happen. Because bollywood wants ranveers and ranbirs for their films and not Junior NTRs, Ramcharans, Yash or even Prabhas. That is bollywood for you.
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vijay
August 17, 2022
“But then, I am a “glass half full” kinda guy’
do you have a choice? 🙂
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shaviswa
August 17, 2022
BTW any idea how much Aamir paid to get the Forest Gump rights? Was that pretty high that it shot the budget for the film to 180 crores?
And in hindsight, was it worth investing that amount to get the rights for a film that probably did not have blockbuster commercial value?
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Madan
August 17, 2022
The trailer would appear to be one of the prime culprits wrt LSC (which also explains the dull opening). The trailer had 52mn views but when the behind the scenes videos were uploaded a week to ten days back, they barely edged past 1 mn. The buzz was gone, basically.
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shaviswa
August 17, 2022
Regarding Aman’s comments on Aamir’s personal life….we all do that don’t we? And a lot of relationship issues in the film world comes out as mere gossip. If you start asking for proof, then there is nothing you can talk about on their lives.
Kamal has always been criticized for all that he did in his life….his marriages, his weddings, his flings, his belief or lack of that in religion, etc. But I do not think anyone used that aspect to say that he had lost his creativity. While the moral policing crowd was probably happy to see his films flop during the 2010s, even they would not accuse Kamal of losing his creative edge due to his personal shenanigans. So I am curious where Aman comes from on this angle with Aamir’s affairs.
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shaviswa
August 17, 2022
@Madan
I agree that the trailer turned me off completely. I felt that Aamir was hamming away as a whacky nutcase.
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madhusudhan194
August 17, 2022
“are you trying to say Shankar encouraging Sharda’s terrible singing did NOT have an effect on the Shankar Jaikishan partnership? What about Chetan Anand’s bizarre obsession with Oriya Rajvansh? This is the film industry we’re talking about and not some RBI mandarins?” – I am not trying to say anything of that sort because I don’t know these people and what happened in their cases. I did give you an example I know and could relate to. You’re saying that’s not hatred. All right then. I disagree.
“But you sure do sound awfully touchy and, if I may, possessive about the nature of discourse on the blog.” – Then so be it 🙂 I do expect better discourse on this blog and 99% of the time, there is better discourse. Like any commenter here, I will express my disappointment if something bothers me. I have been visiting this blog from the time I was a school kid and may be I do feel a bit of possessiveness. As long as I don’t personally attack someone when his / her view doesn’t match with mine, I don’t mind carrying a bit of possessiveness or being touchy.
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madhusudhan194
August 17, 2022
@Madan – Plus what this also does is deviate from constructive arguments. In Kohli case, the real reasons could be that he burnt out, his technique got weaker, or he didn’t work hard enough on his game etc. When you blame Anushka or their child, what are you achieving apart from venting out? Similarly, in LSC’s case it could be something like overestimation of the film’s reach, not keeping the budget in check or promotional material not being intriguing enough or as BR pointed out, Aamir’s rigid pre-pandemic practices etc. Why blame his affairs (no one knows whether it’s real or not) or his ex-wife?
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Madan
August 17, 2022
I never agreed with you that even in sports we should always keep the two separate. Becker’s marriage with Barbara did affect his career. So did Agassi’s with Brooke Shields. And his brightest patch came when he at least married someone who could empathize with him completely, another great player like him. So I don’t even accept as given that Kohli’s personal life would never affect his form. What was wrong was blaming Anushka for his failures. Here Aman is only blaming Aamir and Aamir alone, so I don’t see the problem. And given that Kiran Rao used to collaborate on his films, it’s not such a far fetched angle as you make it sound.
As for deviation, again, cry me a river. Should I take you back to the Dhoom 3 thread and Anuj flame wars?
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sanjana
August 17, 2022
Actors and sportspersons are humans and they can have marriages, children, affairs like the rest. It may affect or may not their performance. I dont like robots performing to the hilt as they do in communist countries. Flops have many reasons to flop just like success has many reasons to succeed. At the end of it it maybe destiny, luck or bad luck.
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Ashok
August 17, 2022
“Figuring out why a movie did’nt work is tricky business and anybody who thinks they have the exact diagnosis and have it all sorted out is probably setting themselves up for trouble”
Bollywood movies are like a box of laddoos. You never know which type the audience is going to like.
Any filmmaker here who want to use this dialog, please contact my agent.
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Ashok
August 17, 2022
Several years ago, Anand Mahindra who is a huge film buff of Hindi cinema started a production company. He hired corporate type people with IITs and top MBAs. Their team gave us a presentation on how the Indian movie-making business is so old school and that they are going to change all that. The team looked at the entire database of Hindi movies and did some kickass multivariate statistical analysis on what combination of ingredients make a successful film…story, cast, economy, exchange rate (ok, I made up the last one). Out of that research, they released their first movie which sank without a trace. The company was shut down soon afterward.
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Aravindan R
August 17, 2022
@Ashok, That’s interesting! Curious to see the analysis. Is it accessible in some form? And, which movie is it?
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Anu Warrier
August 17, 2022
@Madan, my response to Aman had nothing to do with the success or failure of LSC. I do feel that Aamir has been at the receiving end of a heck of a lot of hatred but I also don’t think that that is the reason for the film’s BO performance. But I will resever my judgement of the film when I do watch it.
I was reacting purely to Aman’s comment. I was a bit taken aback because I haven’t really seen Aman make these sort of comments before.
@Aman, my teenage son has two social media accounts, both verified, for different interests. Neither one has his real name. It’s not that difficult to have a blue tick Twitter account in any name you choose to use. Speaking from the experience of using digital communication for clients as part of my job and seeing the proliferation of fake accounts.
But yeah, there’s no point in taking this any further, so I will bow out.
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vijay
August 17, 2022
Cant believe Anand Mahindra was that dumb..are his jeeps any better?
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sanjay
August 17, 2022
@Sanjana- “My only regret about aamir is that he is not speaking his mind frankly fearing loss of livelihood, uncertain future etc. Maybe thinking that things will change. Same issue with srk too.”
Now this will be a complete shame and sham at the same time if true. With so much love and backing for all these 30 years from your own countrymen if you fail to take a stand, speak your mind then one is doing a disservice to his nation and countrymen who put you on a pedestal. That is why in one of my earlier comments I had mentioned screen image is all important and how one behaves in real world is important and Bollywood will continue to struggle in this regard . Past has shown silence only emboldened the trolls with more and more joining the chorus -“”Kill the beast! Cut his throat! Spill his blood! Do him in!” ( Lord of the Flies ) and vitiate the atmosphere further. Being in position of power you owe it to your own soil to take the bull by the horns, make India debate on the issue and take it to a better place eventually. If these guys with all the wealth and power must worry about livelihood, uncertain future and are so self-seeking then I don’t know what to say.
On LSC – fact of the matter is most of the Indian stars are self seeking and self-indulgent by nature and to a point of being delusional. Aamir seems no exception looking at the movies and behavior in recent times. That is why they end up doing what they do and fail to look at things objectively. I think west does better in this regard as there is a clear demarcation for talent and skill and vanity is generally missing barring a few exceptions. Why would a srk continue to work for a Farah and Aamir for a Advait and what good it’s going to do in the long run? Audience clearly showed their preference to them with a shimit amin / chak de then why would one continue to do a Dilwale/ HNY. Advait who talked tirelessly how much he admired Aamir and after the failure of Secret Superstar should not have been allowed to touch a project like LSC. One cannot have fanboys like him on the sets where he fails to notice gimmickry on screen which is visible to an average joe and the least common denominator pointed this out just looking at the 2 min promo and said FU..
These delusion are not restricted to a few in Bollywood but look at the superstars of yesteryears with all the self-indulgent approach to cinema DK, Rajesh Khanna , Big B and in south Kamal H who for all the talent in the world made so many self indulgent movies that one lost complete interest. They could never attain status like their counterparts in Hollywood who look at each film with a clean slate and make wonderful international cinema continuously. Maturity seems to be missing and its a very much Indian thingy !!
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Ashok Sharma
August 18, 2022
Hi Aravindam, the movie is Sorry Bhai.
“Cant believe Anand Mahindra was that dumb..are his jeeps any better?”
Hi Vijay – Wow! you are so quick to hurl insults at people at the drop of a hat, that too people as accomplished as he is. Even with this (very small) failed venture, he is far more successful (and smart) than you or I will ever be. Peace out.
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An Jo
August 18, 2022
Thanks to Master; please listen to this interview…where AK was fore-warned by AK..
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Madan
August 18, 2022
AnJo: Yes, sanjay brought this up. And this is why, as sanjay said above, our stars will never rise to Hollywood level (or maybe will match the pricks there, like Bruce Willis). Khud koich sab kuch aata hai. Exactly tallies with the other AK’s (Kashyap) description of how Bollywood works.
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An Jo
August 18, 2022
@MANK I would disagree with you that AK started sounding laborious in DCH. In fact, it was one of his most delightful performances coming after playing a dhoti-clad Indian peasant in LAGAAN. FA was hell-bent on having Aamir play the role of Akshaye, that of a ‘serious’, ‘pensive’ guy. Aamir contrasted him and I just make up words – that he wanted to play a guy with a ‘penis’ who transforms in the film to a ‘pensive’ guy. AK wanted to break the mould of him being considered as as only capable of serious character-actor player. And he did a wonderful job at that!
And his gradual transformation toward loving and getting an acknowledgement from Preity is another gem altogether….
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Tommy
August 18, 2022
Aamir lost his spontaneity as an actor starting with Ghajini. The immense box office success of it and subsequent films meant he was getting stuck as an actor. Only Dangal was like a breath of fresh air. But he followed that with TOH and LSC. This is a good time for some introspection and to get his ‘act’ together.
Anyways, I have no doubt that he will make a comeback at some point.
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Rahul
August 20, 2022
Since everyone has a hot take on why Bollywood movies are flopping, here is mine. Bollywood should stop targeting every demographic, people in their mid-thirties and over are not going to go to the theater unless the movie is very good. Heck, I have been working from home for 3 years and I don’t even feel like going to the office anymore. Bollywood should target the teenagers and 20-something crowd as they are itching to be out and about. 50-year-old heroes are not going to cut it anymore. Give them some romances with young heroes and heroines that they can fall in love with. When was the last big romantic hit in Bollywood? I can’t remember.
But I do agree with BR as well that it could take just one hit movie to reverse the trend, however, generally, I think the point to target the younger demographic holds.
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An Jo
August 21, 2022
@Nykavi; thank you for coming back to the blog and commenting. I am afraid I might have to disagree with you on some points.
The BFI (Bombay Film Industry) has always, and always been left of center or in cases, maybe, at the center, the minimum extent possible. Aamir hasn’t taken anyone for ride. His association with VVC is bad; though it resulted in a fantastic performance from him in 3I but with a very weak film that, at most deserved 2.5 stars. A really poor film ripped off from engineering college jokes from my time and whats app forwards as to how a DC motor starts and is shut down!! And Chatur was made a clown, a real clown, whereas, infact, on the terrace when he combats verbally with Aamir, that was THE BEST scene of the movie and every sentence, every sentence he utters carries a meaning. I am an engineer, and I understand the sentiments we were working with.
‘Oh Saathi Rey’ in MKS has a line by Bachchan: “Ek Bhai apne doore bhai ka pet bharta hai toh farz nibhata hai, kisi ke koi, ehsaan nahi karta.” Now which box would you put this in? Communism, Socialism, where? We lapped it up didn’t we? So who picked up the first stone? As Jesus might have said?
What would Guru Dutt’s iconic ‘PYAASA’ be in today’s times? ‘Jine Naaz Hai Hind Par woh Kahan Hain? Which box would that lyric fit into?
This ‘boycott gang’ is real. And I experienced a personal slice of that when I went to watch LSC. A certain person would accuse me of lying since he thought I had allegedly lied something . about ‘Jhund.’ Hence, I don’t want to retell a real life experience that’s happened to me when I was out in Cinemark theaters for the urinal necessity and how an ‘Indian’ approached me and the dialogue I had. Suffice it to say, I cornered him asking ‘specific’ questions, asked him why, and how, LSC is endangering the ‘moral’ fibric of India, and he had no answer, and just ran away, to watch RB. Before running off like a coward, he told me, ‘Don’t watch LSC. It’s bad.’ And of course, I asked him, how the heck to do you know? Straight, simple answer from him: ‘I DON’T need to watch. ‘
Aamir hasn’t helped himself: He has been idiotic. The problem with him is, he takes up a book, or a social cause, and doesn’t realize or research the A to Z of it. His list of screw-ups are monumental:
a) You go to Gujrat, sit your stupid ass at the Narmada Bachao Andolan with the great Medha Patkar and the folks of Gujarat end up against you. Did you do any research, did you talk to BOTH sides of the parties? No! You just went there and sat your ass!!
b) You then comment on Modi, as be the first on the list to sign a third class with the ‘ilk’ of ‘soft-porn’, sadistic film-makers like Kashyap who makes a film where there’s a ‘Cannes’ feather scene in ‘Raman Raghav’ whether Nawaz’s sister is interested in having sex with her. DOES, AAMIR, UNDERSTAND, THE COMPLEXITIES, of INDIAN HISTORY? A flat, NO. n spite of the fact that he acted in 1947.
c) Coming on talk shows like the disgusting K Jo’s ‘State’ KWK, and boasting in front of 2 young girls; :I have a lot of sexual techniques under my sleeve; and if that wasn’t enough; ” Hey Karan, Kiran and I have always shower together naked.” Yep, as or Arnab’s punch-dialogue, ‘The Nation Wants to Know.’
As when it comes to SRK, he is one hell of a ‘shrewd’ business-man; and by that I man, an opportunty-seeker, which is not a vice at al, but of course, the SRK cabal has attacked me left, right, and center. Right from the title to his movies, rith5 at the instant she spoke out during important events regarding Pakistan, IPL, Newark International Airport, there’s much to discuss on. But I leave it.
Also, hanging up my boots for a few months. Life’s what happens when you re busy making plans!
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Madan
August 21, 2022
lol, if a film endangers our moral fabric so much, then our muscular 56 inch PM must be truly incapacitated.
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Aman Basha
August 21, 2022
Aamir’s Secret Superstar did a fantastic job delving into the sexism and misogyny rampant in the Muslim communities. The only reason why the boycott thing was so much stronger is that the Hindutva right wing has always been upset at three Khans being India’s premier superstars (the RSS in fact had an article propping Hrithik circa KNPH as the Hindu superstar go figure). The other complaints are fluff. Social media has polarized Indian society to a dangerous level.
I remember saying this before and say it again: the one Hollywood film Aamir should have remade, which would have also done wonders is Tootsie. Could have been a great send up of his own perfectionist image and Aamir looks good in drag:
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KS
August 21, 2022
@Aman Basha:
” the Hindutva right wing has always been upset at three Khans being India’s premier superstars (the RSS in fact had an article propping Hrithik circa KNPH as the Hindu superstar go figure). ”
That might be true and one of the many underlying causes, but doesn’t mean its trivial. So if feminists talk about how men disproportionately occupy positions of power, or anti-caste crusaders say the same about brahmins, can it be dismissed as nothing more than envy? Not saying its an exact parallel, but the underlying principle is that, beyond hoary claims of excellence and hard work, there might be systemic issues at play here (especially since Aamir and Salman are both nepokids), backing from shady underworld types patronizing their co-religionists, gulf funders trying to push narratives, etc. Might sound far out, but trust is at an all time low, so why give anyone the benefit of doubt, especially if they act smart and mock the same audience that accepted them and put them there? SRK is relatively acceptable since he has stayed in his lane so far.
“The other complaints are fluff.” Of course you’ll say that. Its as reductive as saying “all opposition to Hindutva is basically from Islam’s innate hate for kafirs, every other complaint is fluff”. Arrogantly dismissing every concern this way is how the situation has reached to where it is today.
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Nik
August 21, 2022
Boycott aside the main factor going against this movie or other Bollywood movies is star fees translating into very high ticket prices. A family ends up spending more than 2k in a metro going to a movie they want their money’s worth (RRR) so content worthy of a big screen would work otherwise OTT is the way to go.
The aforementioned star fees has created so much negativity that people are out to slam Bollywood and their arrogance.
Sample this: a Ranbir charges 50/75cr vs Rajkumar Rao 10cr Pankaj Tripathi even less (he has successfully carried two seasons of a series on his shoulders). This arrogance has cost Bollywood.
If Brahmastra has to succeed the first thing makers will have to learn is a little humility
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Madan
August 21, 2022
Nik : Indeed, if you take out the humongous actor fee for Aamir /Ranveer, then LSC becomes a less disastrous flop and 83 an average performer. Without omicron forcing 50% attendance in multiplexes in major cities including Mumbai, 83 would have even wound up a decent performer. The fundamental problem is overbudgeting. Even LSC has crossed 100cr worldwide. That would be a respectable gross but for the fact that it cost so much to make. But if all that money doesn’t amount to something that draws the audience to theaters, then it’s bound to be commercially disastrous. Even if TZP ran, it identified an issue that the audience in turn would relate to and then built a story around it. LSC is an Indian take on a very old fashioned movie of the sort even Hollywood doesn’t make anymore and which depends completely on the audience connecting with the protagonist. I will muster the courage to watch this on OTT but having one checked out Dhoom3 purely out or curiosity, I can clearly identify the stammer in the LSC trailer as originating from Samar. Somebody needs to tell Aamir that you can’t reduce Samar, PK, LSC all to a type for which you are going to roll out stock expressions or mannerisms. The internalization has to be much more. Otherwise simplify it and make it a star vehicle.
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Ashok Sharma
August 22, 2022
Madan: I read somewhere that of the 180cr budget, his fee is 80cr. If Amir Khan is one of the producers of the film then how is he charging a fee? He and the other producers should be bearing the risk as well as enjoying all the upside, no?
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Ashok Sharma: Exactly, I don’t get this at all. Why charge the fee, like all of it, if coproducing? Even Deepika and Ranveer charged their fee for 83. Bollywood has to get out of the days of star fees accounting for almost half the budget. That premium is paid on the assurance that the star presence will grant a mega opening for the film and that’s not happening anymore.
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brangan
August 22, 2022
But this is not a “Bollywood problem”, no? Every industry has it. Vijay, for instance, charges 100-120 crores. Even after his recent disasters, Rajini gets 80-something. At least Aamir and Akshay and the like take their money from the backend grosses, whereas in TN, an actor won’t come to act unless you pay upfront. So the producer has to bear the brunt of the 36% interest on 100 crores for the 60-100 odd days of shoot.
As long as producers continue to pay, stars WILL take advantage, no? 🙂 The producers council has to band together (something like what happened in Telugu cinema recently) and say “we need to out a cap on salaries and punish those who exceed that cap”. Because the stars are certainly not going to say “Dear producer, whatever you think my actual market value is.” 🙂
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Anu Warrier
August 22, 2022
One sec, as a producer or even as an actor, Aamir does not charge a fee. He signs on for a share of the profits. Which means that if a film tanks, he is down tens of crores. But basically, he’s one of the few actors in the industry who puts his money back into the industry. And when he takes a share of the profits, that means that everyone else is paid their dues before he makes any money. If a film becomes a bonafide hit, then of course, he makes a helluva lot of money. And this is something he has been doing since Lagaan.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
BR: I think it is much more likely to change in Bolly because the guarantee of star opening has never been as potent or as perennial as in Tamil or Telugu. If Rajesh Khanna and AB lost market, I see no reason why the Khans won’t have to downsize too. What we need is for someone to fill the void. The Khans filled the void as angry young man films featuring a not so young AB began to bomb. Somebody else has to do that now and we don’t know who that’s going to be yet.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Anu Warrier: According to reports, Aamir’s fee of 50cr is part of the LSC budget.
https://www.financialexpress.com/entertainment/laal-singh-chaddha-heres-how-much-aamir-khan-kareena-kapoor-khan-and-others-charged-for-the-film/2626972/
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Ashok
August 22, 2022
“At least Aamir and Akshay and the like take their money from the backend grosses, whereas in TN, an actor won’t come to act unless you pay upfront.”
But if this is the arrangement then the budget is really “only” 100cr, to which Amir would have contributed his share. Then if the film goes on to make say 100cr or less (that is after distributor and exhibitor cut), then Amir Khan gets squat. If the film makes 200cr, then Amir may get 80cr first due to some preferential rights and the remaining 20cr is divvied up among all the producers, Amir included (double dipping). I’d be curious to see the accounting
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Madan
August 22, 2022
In an interesting coincidence, even though FG grossed big, Hollywood accounting meant that the writer didn’t get as much of the spoils as he hoped to.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
BR: Question about the music, since you didn’t write about it in the review other than the mention of Kahaani. Did the songs do nothing in the context of the movie? Because Tur Kalleyan and Tere Hawale are quite good and Phir Na Aisi Raat Aayegi is a modern classic.
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brangan
August 22, 2022
Oh, the music is great. I like almost all Pritam/Arijit songs.
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Ashok
August 22, 2022
I like the music too. It’s not as epic as Barfi but it’s quite decent. The song Tur Kalleyan had been gnawing at me as something I have heard before. I just realized that there is a faint resemblance (I am not saying copy) between this and the song Chal Bulleya by Pakistani band Mekaal Hassan Band. Any MKB fans here?
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Tommy
August 22, 2022
If Aamir has indeed taken 50 cr upfront for LSC, then he will have to shell it out (and some more) to minimize the losses incurred by distributors, co-producers and of course his own production house’s balance sheet. Being the colossal flop that LSC is (struggling to do even 60 cr nett in India), Aamir personally wont be making a penny out of this venture. The boycott gang has indeed hurt him where it hurts most – his wallet.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
This is unfortunately going to be Bolly’s Heaven’s Gate. The unfairly derided multiplex era which gave us beauties like Kahaani or Andhadhun will recede and Bolly will abandon its fledgling attempts at embracing risk and go back to ‘visual spectacle’ and ‘mass entertainer’ formula. If anybody thought RRR was simplistic, this is just the start, you ain’t seen nothing yet. They are going to double down on black and white cartoonish characterisation. And violence with a capital V. I hope to be wrong but trade analysts have already declared that the audience for dramas has moved to OTT.
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madhusudhan194
August 22, 2022
“I hope to be wrong but trade analysts have already declared that the audience for dramas has moved to OTT”
Thiruchitrambalam, a lightweight rom-com, is doing quite well in TN. Is the audience psychology different in the south vs other states? Is there a big difference in ticket prices? It costs me and my wife about 700 for tickets and the food. We were quite happy with LSC and Sita Ramam.
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Tommy
August 22, 2022
Life goes in circles. As Rohit Shetty said recently in an interview, we will perhaps see larger than life massy masala films making money at the box office for next 2 years or so, while content films (or attempts at it) will keep failing. Then people may get bored of all the nonsense and start watching content films again.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
madhusudhan194: Yes, Thiruchitrambalam and even 777Charlie which seems made for OTT did excellent business at the BO. In Mumbai, the price of popcorn is more than the ticket prices. There were TV news debates about this pre pandemic but multiplexes are unwilling to lower the price of the refreshments. We are not asking for subsidisation. But if a samosa costs 12 bucks on the street and tastes better than the 200 rupee samosa in theatre, then that’s too much. I think greater prevalence of covid outbreaks in Mumbai and Delhi has been a problem too. Maybe, maybe, when the last of the waves have come and gone, people will become less selective about watching films in theater. I think with the upcoming recession and belt tightening, OTTs are going to slow down their purchases anyway and we may see more films going the traditional route and hoping for a good gross at the theaters. And if audience knows the film may NOT come on OTT anytime soon, they may be more interested in turning up to watch.
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MANK
August 22, 2022
I think there are two problems Hindi film industry is facing- one: post-pandemic, only the middle, lower middle class, working class audiences has returned to theatres, and they have returned in huge numbers, but the elite\gentry\multiplex audiences has completed stopped going to the theatres, as they have become hooked to superior OTT content.
Second, the widening gap between the filmmakers and the audience, with the major filmmakers moving more towards the left and the audiences, at least the paying audiences, moving towards the right; and now post-pandemic, with this drastic change in demographics, this gap has become big enough to sink every big film production.
People would rather watch a Karthikeya2 today than a LSC or Rakshabandhan. Even if the current lot of Hindi filmmakers try hard enough to pander to the audiences they will fail, because they are just not capable or talented or wired or knowledgeable to make the kind of films audiences wants to see. Things are so bad that SRK is now working with that idiot Atlee, who can’t even make a decent masala flick with the likes of Vijay in Tamil. SRK maybe looking for a chennai xpress kind of deal – to make a film that appeals to both north and south, chances are that he may end up with a film that nobody wants to watch. The trailer of “Jawan” – one of the worst i have seen in recent times – almost guarantees that.
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MANK
August 22, 2022
reg. south Indian stars- For the recent disaster “Beast,” i heard Vijay charged 100 Crs, of which 40 is guaranteed while the 60 depends upon the film’s profits. Now that the film has posted losses in all territories, I don’t know how much Vijay took home. In telugu, Mahesh Babu has also started coproducing films so as not to charge his full fees. So, i don’t think it’s fair to say that only Hindi film stars share the burden.
And as far as i know Aamir has never charged fees upfront, he has always taken 50 to 60percent of profits. This is the first time i am hearing him charging upfront. Tthe fact that he had to to pay approx. 70 crs for remake rights of Forrest gump may have something to do with this decision.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Also just fatigue with the same faces. After AB in the 70s, you had Anil, Jackie, Sanjay in the 80s, then the three Khans, Govinda and Akshay in the 90s ,then Hrithik, Shahid, Vivek in the 00s. But after Ranveer and Ranbir, there have been no new breakout stars possibly because Bolly is so busy trying to make a success out of Arjun Kapoor, lol. South faces are unfamiliar to North audience plus these simple action oriented narratives are more appealing to them. So naturally South films have filled the void.
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Srinivas R
August 22, 2022
Recently, saw a video of a guy standing with a mike outside multiplex, literally threatening people not to watch LSC. This definitely crosses any democratic right to boycott a movie imo. But thats the reality on the ground. So unless the tide changes, Khans are done for in Bollywood.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Srinivas R: Wow, that’s horrible. I am pushed to buy a ticket even if I don’t watch just to protest against that. This is pure dadagiri if true.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Please share the video if it’s on YouTube or FB. Would like to see this because I am in disbelief still that we have come to this.
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An Jo
August 22, 2022
‘The one Hollywood film Aamir should have remade, which would have also done wonders is Tootsie. Could have been a great send up of his own perfectionist image and Aamir looks good in drag’:
BAAZI: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCQR2s8y-R0
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Srinivas R
August 22, 2022
@Madan – saw the video on twitter. Will share if i get the link again.
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Srinivas R
August 22, 2022
@Madan – this one.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Seen it, done my bit. Encourage everyone who believes one should at least have the liberty to watch a cinema show without the threat of coercion or intimidation to do so.. Get a ticket whether you watch or not (and I am not going to).
PS: This was still relatively lame compared to SS gathering a gang and threatening to shut down a 3PM show but the theater stood firm and that was that.
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madhusudhan194
August 22, 2022
“Recently, saw a video of a guy standing with a mike outside multiplex, literally threatening people not to watch LSC.” I read about this but didn’t watch the video. As bad as it sounds, I strongly believe this sort of thing has nothing to do with the BO performance of LSC. As I said earlier, while watching it I told my wife that this is not a 300 crore blockbuster at all. Films like PK and Padmavat made money despite the boycott trends. LSC has the sentimentality of a 3 Idiots or PK but does not have the same entertainment value. Flawed as they were, those films were deliciously high on humor. Audience is looking for that kind of instant high – be it laughs or tears or thrills or scares. LSC’s brand of meditative sentimentality simply doesn’t have the same reach. Had it starred someone like a Ranbir or even a newer actor with an Aamir throwing his weight in supporting the film, the 100 crores that it has made now would look to be a much bigger number.
It’s not like Bhool Bhulaiya 2 was a modern day masterpiece, but it made people laugh. Gangubhai was an ultra-generic biopic. But Alia’s terrific performance made people cheer for her. If you take out that performance, the film would crumble. Kashmir files succeeded in provoking extremist hindu mindset with its manipulative storytelling. All these films satisfied an emotional need of the audience. It took them out of their world and entertained them for 3 hours. That’s exactly what RRR, KGF and Pushpa did too.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
It indeed does not have very much to do with the film’s failure but I am also not OK with this kind of nautanki. Tomorrow it will become an avenue of rent seeking for the right wing. Pretty sure big films already pay hafta to SS to keep the peace in Mumbai. Do your boycotts peacefully and in a civilized way. No using loudspeakers to tell people not to buy tickets please.
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Srinivas R
August 22, 2022
@Madan – What stops the same guy from gathering a mob and bullying people who want to watch a particular movie. Has to stop. I am least concerned about the failure of LSC, but using “Hindus” as a shield for your gundagiri should not be acceptable.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Srinivas R: The theater management must have obviously been afraid he would do just that, hence why he was being allowed to roam freely hurting their biz. Would any theater tolerate you or me telling people on loudspeaker boycott to watch a film? They would send security to drive us away.
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Tommy
August 22, 2022
@Madan – Since you have already bought a ticket now, I think you should watch the film and tell us what you think about it.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Tommy: I can’t, lol. It’s a morning show for tomorrow which is a working day. I wanted to wait until the weekend to do this but the movie will likely be out of theaters by then. So I offered my gesture of support and protest against intimidatory tactics while I am able to.
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Tommy
August 22, 2022
Too bad then! But you are right that the movie will be out of theaters by the end of its second week. Its second weekend collections were considerably low from that of Samrat Prithviraj or Ek Villain Returns. And those two movies did not collect much in week 3.
Btw, would have been great to hear your take on the film.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
I do intend to watch on OTT, whenever it becomes available and will share my take at that point for sure.
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Doba
August 22, 2022
Wow Madan, nice! We rounded up a big group of friends and went and watched My Name is Khan and later Padmavat, I think, when they faced similar threats. But somehow, this time, I don’t feel like doing anything. Bollywood responded with so much elitism and entitlement to earlier criticism that the goodwill seems to have petered away. And that’s how right-wing wins every time. The left-wing leaders are supposed to have better values but the hypocrisy is so bad that even the liberals don’t like them after some time.
BTW, my jaw dropped from all those crores mentioned earlier as actor’s fees. Even in corporate, I don’t think, the numbers are this top-heavy. Just out of curiosity, do the regular folks who work in the movies get any type of medical benefits or pension or children’s education allowance? If not, then these big guys need to look after their folks better instead of asking the public to keep the engine running.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Doba : I get you completely. I share the disgust for the elite of the ecosystem that I consider myself a part of terms of values. However, liberty must sadly be defended even on behalf of fools and thieves. Of Though, as the late Neil Peart warned us, “Fools and thieves are dangerous in the temple and marketplace.” Because what remains if we cannot even take the simple act of going to a movie theater unencumbered for granted?
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Tommy
August 22, 2022
Aamir is apparently still adamant about 6 months window for OTT. Seems like he is expecting LSC to click big time in China. I doubt that is going to happen.
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Voldemort
August 22, 2022
Doba : Just out of curiosity, do the regular folks who work in the movies get any type of medical benefits or pension or children’s education allowance
I doubt that. Maybe the bare minimum is provided because of the unions but since it’s mostly gig work, there wouldn’t be formal terms.
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Madan
August 22, 2022
Nothing about the current state of the Chinese economy suggests enough of appetite there to save LSC. And even if everything was fine there, the thing is this is not Dangal. This is a remake of a Hollywood film the class audience has likely already seen and by all accounts, the remake too targets the class and not the mass audience. Surprisingly, it’s done decent business in NorthAm as well as in the UK. The post colonial moment effect seems to have helped the film, though not to the extent they needed to tide over domestic losses.
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Tommy
August 23, 2022
It is extremely disgusting the way these Bollywood nepo-kids react when facing criticism. Kareena bluntly says not to watch her films or that the film will run anyways and stuff like that. I was personally in two minds about buying a ticket for LSC because of her obnoxious presence. But then went for it for Aamir. Aamir maybe a nepo-kid too (and a stupid one in some ways), but has been a champion of good cinema by Bollywood standards (a feat that is currently being re-calibrated by right wing partisans by large). And I did not mind waatching LSC to be honest.
Now Alia has come out saying the same things like Kareena, which is equally offensive. This bound to affect Brahmastra box office. Sad to see how makers spend years on the product and the lead star’s irresponsible remarks then ruins its chances.
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Madan
August 23, 2022
Why just nepo kids, even VD opened his big mouth about it. It MAY affect the fortunes of Liger, we’ll see.
And the Tapsee-AK please boycott gag boomeranged. Had they only said it in the BR interview, they might have gotten away with it but Tapsee repeated it on Lallantop. Ab LGL.
I worked in the car industry and this would be the equivalent of an OEM arrogantly saying you don’t have to buy our cars. That would be considered insanity and the CEO’s head would be on the chopping block. Bhaisaab, you may rightfully disagree with and have disgust for bigotry but don’t make the Hillary Clinton Basket of Deplorables mistake. Always remember audience is king. You are only ‘there’ because they put you on a pedestal and they can bring you crashing down in no time. And so they have. Say they have the right to boycott but you would very much like them to come see the film. And say sorry, sir nahi phootega.
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Tommy
August 23, 2022
“You are only ‘there’ because they put you on a pedestal and they can bring you crashing down in no time.”
Only if they were grounded and respected this basic fact!
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Tommy
August 23, 2022
Btw, I would have thought another remake will be off the cards with the response that LSC got. But seems like Aamir is going ahead with the Campeones remake soon. Not sure if this is the best strategy to go forward.
https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/bollywood-news/article/even-the-best-needs-rest-23242279
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Madan
August 23, 2022
It’s like what Kashyap said. They have become so used to borrowing templates from abroad that they don’t know any other way now. They have lost touch with homegrown templates long back as well. Albeit, despite the obvious nods to Pirates, ToH would have been a decent effort at capturing the camp of Sholay IF not directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya. I think that’s where they began to lose confidence, because they were so sure it would succeed.
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Voldemort
August 23, 2022
These people really need to learn to keep their mouths shut. Nothing surprising coming from Ms. Bhatt Kapoor though. Kareena Kapoor is her life long icon and she would do anything to emulate her. The more and more these people bullshit in interviews, the more you are tempted to think that there is probably some merit to the argument that they want to blame the audience for an expected flop.
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MANK
August 23, 2022
Looks like Aamir is not going to earn anything from LSC. The distributor has posted a staggering loss of 156 crs. and Aamir has agreed to return 45 Crs to Viacom to reduce the blow. And now that the film has flopped, it’s going to be sold to OTT for bargain basement price. This has been a big fiasco for Aamir. 5 years without any income- i am not saying he is starving or anything, and he must have other sources of income, but looks like he will require huge financial support along with creative support to mount his next production. Hence, more important than ever that he should switch to the Akshay Kumar model of doing 2 or 3 low to medium budget movies a year. Akshay has had 4 flops in a row and that has not affecte dhim much because he has more films lined up for release. Aamir has to literally start from scratch now. The only question is can Aamir change his ways?. he has become so comfortable in his laidback way of working that at this age that it may be impossible to change his working methods, especially after such a big setback.
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Voldemort
August 23, 2022
For all the hate we show to Chetan Bhagat, even he hits the nail on the head here –
“Whether it is star remuneration or the entitled, privileged and clueless attitude of some of the actors, it all still reflects an era when films were the top tier when it came to entertainment. Today they are only one item in a crowded supermarket. Time to wake up maybe?
There are massive consequences of this denial. First there are massive losses in the industry when movies are not priced right. Two, the smug we-are-better-than-you attitude irritates the audience – hence the rather harsh and unfair #boycott trends. Three, there is no evolution. Exceptions are cited as reasons for keeping things the way they are. ‘Oh but that movie did well’. Well ten others didn’t. ‘Oh but South movies are doing so well.’ Yes, a few do, most don’t. The internet allows certain regional films to get noticed but it doesn’t mean things are like the past.”
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/bollywood-is-no-longer-king-of-the-entertainment-hill/articleshow/93681516.cms
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Madan
August 23, 2022
Voldemort : Yup, I read that and he belled the cat there. Besides, it’s global. Tom Cruise is the last star in Hollywood. And the future is more of big spectacles on the big screen and dramas increasingly spun as series rather than 2 hour films on OTT. The trend is gathering more and more momentum. I had written a piece for FC during the pandemic itself that the lockdown would accelerate adoption of OTT by the audience and the world of cinema would change dramatically. So it has. Tamil is like a whole echo chamber by itself and may keep the star system going for some more time but Bolly doesn’t really have ANYONE who can guarantee even an opening now, let alone a hit.
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Srinivas R
August 23, 2022
The funniest thing was Arjun Kapoor giving gyan abt Boycott trend. Dei, un padatha summave paaka maataanga da. Dude should count his blessings & keep quiet.
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MANK
August 23, 2022
Sad to see how makers spend years on the product and the lead star’s irresponsible remarks then ruins its chances.
Yes, these SoBo kids need to be taught some sense of responsibility. I suspect that kareena cost the film more than any of the boycott gangs. Brahmastra has 450 crs riding on it, the last thing it needs is an obnoxious star shooting her mouth off. Karan Johar has been doing his best to keep away from the limelight, so as not to spoil the film’s BO prospects; and knowing what a control freak Karan is it must be hell for him, but he is intelligent enough to understand the current situation hand over the limelight to Ayan and the lead stars. Looks like his favorite protegee is hellbent on bankrupting him.
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Madan
August 23, 2022
I was watching an interview by Faisal Khan (Aamir’s brother) and he said their father made them walk to and fro school and later as adults, when they worked on sets, they had to do the gruntwork. They were taught the value of money, in essence. I guess that changed completely in this last generation of starkids and they have had it handed to them on a platter. It’s not like every outsider is going to be grounded (again, bigmouth VD). But it’s hell of a lot easier to get entitled if you are born with a silver spoon.
PS: There are eerie similarities between Faisal’s description of Aamir declaring him mental and his battle to get himself declared legally sane and adult (Aamir wanted custody of Faisal) and the Samar -Sahir dynamic in Dhoom3.
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Marcus
August 23, 2022
@MANK – I heard in some interview from Aamir during pre-release that for the first time he has 6 scripts ready and he wants to make one film per year for the next few years. I hope he sticks to that despite the monumental failure of LSC. Aamir will never be able to do what Akshay does, but one film a year will be some progress from where he comes from.
Regarding his next, I think it wont be as bad as LSC. One of the major problem that I have with LSC is the way Aamir approached the role of a simpleton. But in the Campeones remake he is supposedly playing his age in the role of a drunkard coach looking for redemption in his life. This is a good premise for delivering a mature act, rather than coming out as a goofy caricature. I remember watching a small film called Eddie the Eagle where Hugh Jackman played such a role to immense likability.
Also, Aamir and his production house made a lot of money from Dangal and Secret Superstar (specially from China). As someone referred to above, LSC is the first time that Aamir has missed the mark completely as a producer. I doubt if they will face financial crisis in launching their next, specially when its expected to be a medium budget venture.
I only hope he makes it quickly and releases it by next year end or so.
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MANK
August 23, 2022
Marcus, yes I have heard he has 6 scripts pending. hope he gets more prolific in coming years. And i understand why he cannot fully follow Akshay’s model, because he gets involved in each and every aspect of the film and looks for perfection everywhere. This takes up a lot of his time. I guess, He cannot work any other way. Aamir is good at making medium budget movies, every time he has tried a really big movie like Mela, Mangal Pandey or Thugs he has lost control over it. Even LSC was supposed to be a mid budget film, but buying the FG remake rights, shooting abroad due to Covid and the interest piled up for the last 4 years on the investment blew up the budget. I wish he selects a more experienced and individualistic director next time, who will push him and question him, and not yes men like Advait.
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Srinivas R
August 23, 2022
” I wish he selects a more experienced and individualistic director next time, who will push him and question him, and not yes men like Advait”- This sounds very much like the complaint of KamalHasan fans, guess both Aamir and Kamal are similar in that aspect.
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KS
August 23, 2022
@Srinivas R:
That video is not remotely a threat. If this escalates to a mob physically harassing people at the theatre, only then is it a problem, but “what stops him” or “thats what this will lead to” don’t count. It is inevitable that groups you oppose also play the rights game and use the fig-leaf of free speech this way in cynical dicey ways. Sure, he may be connected to some party (thus explaining how the theatre management allowed this to happen), and sure, you may feel its more than just a “vinnati”, but his words or tone are not at all threatening. Calling it a threat sounds hysterical, thats the beauty of it, and exactly the strategy to be used to escape culpability while still getting the message across.
@Madan: “I was watching an interview by Faisal Khan (Aamir’s brother) and he said their father made them walk to and from school and later as adults, when they worked on sets, they had to do the gruntwork.” Yeah, like all our parents walked 10 miles to school everyday through forests and mountains, and studied under the lampshade at night. Personally I find it hard to believe anything cinema guys (mainly actors and their coterie) say in interviews.
And what it this new brouhaha about China and Aamir’s movies becoming blockbusters in China? Is this even true? Do Chinese people actually care for Hindi movies enough to make them superhits? Or is this just a cover for money laundering? Knowing Bollywood’s shadiness when it comes to funding, the latter can’t be dismissed. Reminds me of Rajini’s supposed mass popularity in Japan (which turns out to be ridiculously exaggerated), and even that sounds more believable.
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Rahul
August 23, 2022
That is a terrible video. The police will be a spectator and people will likely stay away instead of risk getting harassed by these unemployed victimhood complex holders. It’s only when a few videos of harassment will surface then everyone will start condemning. Don’t expect Hindutva apologists like KS to acknowledge this. But we should call out these people on every occasion we get.
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KS
August 23, 2022
@Rahul:
Call out on what basis? Is he harassing or bullying or being violent? No. Everything else is your interpretation and imagination colored by your ideological stand, and is irrelevant when it comes to the principle here, that of a man’s right to free speech. Saying it’ll go on to harassment and violence and riots and apocalypse is just slippery slope prior restraint, and its the kind of bs excuse that is selectively applied to scuttle the expression of anyone you disagree with. So call out all you want, disagree with his stand, but the only (relatively mundane) crime here is the theatre owner allowing this to go unchecked, and thats a different matter altogether.
If they do go beyond vinnatis and start harassing or getting violent, I’ll unambiguously join you in condemning them. But in this case, the movie tanked anyway, so there is not even any impetus or opportunity to go in that direction.
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Rahul
August 23, 2022
KS, That’s alright. Thank you for your input.
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KS
August 23, 2022
@Srinivas R:
“The funniest thing was Arjun Kapoor giving gyan abt Boycott trend. Dei, un padatha summave paaka maataanga da. Dude should count his blessings & keep quiet.”
Maybe he knows that epdiyum nobody will see his cinema, so he has nothing to lose. He might as well talk big so that at least a few, out of veembu to oppose boycotters, will see him as a brave hero worth supporting. And if his movies still flop, he can blame intolerance and the boycotters, and be in the same league as big shots like aamir. Reminds me of Vadivelu going “naanum rowdy thaan ya”.
Personally I have to admit to some schadenfreude watching Bollywood crumble like this, from the weight of their own egos. I don’t know exactly what is causing it, or if it will get worse or stabilize and rise up, but I do hope its the former. Very hard to sympathize with people who earn crores just for showing their face and dancing, but acting like big pulavars and thyagis and victims.
@Rahul: You’re welcome 😛
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Voldemort
August 23, 2022
On a related note, this trailer looks really interesting.
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Aman Basha
August 23, 2022
Boycott affecting films is bullshit and now there’s some strange statements here like Bollywood being too left wing. LOL, no film industry has been so thoroughly subjugated to the establishment as Bollywood (seems like they are meeting the fate of all our establishment allies).
The really laughable statements are accusing Sooraj Barjatya of being Dawood’s man and claiming China is helping in money laundering money through Hindi films (I wonder why the same films are doing as well in Taiwan and Hong Kong).
Also it’s the domestic market where the South films are setting fire, the overseas is still Hindi cinema’s strong point. I can see them turn to NRI dramas with a vengeance.
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Srinivas R
August 23, 2022
@Aman – NRI dramas still have to fit the sanskari norms. If anything NRIs are more RW than Indian audience.
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Aman Basha
August 23, 2022
@Srinivas R: And when have Bollywood films not been sanskari? Salman Khan and SRK’s films have always been about “loving the family” and loving our sanskaar. Plenty of films with right wing politics are being made in Hindi from Bhuj to Samrat Prithviraj to Tanhaji to Panipat and what not. The boycott is nothing but right wing anxiety over the three Khans and what they think is greater presence of Muslims in the Hindi film industry, they give their game away when they use Urduwood as a pejorative. I can bet my money that they will come after Malayalam films next.
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Madan
August 23, 2022
If at all there’s anything to the China angle, it would more likely be that Aamir is getting maal from the CCP. But in that case, there is no evidence of pro-Chinese or communist propaganda in his films unless you stretch logic like an elastic to somehow fit in everything you dislike into ‘communist’. Not something that American conservatives don’t do, by the way.
But I mean why on earth would you launder money through China? They have even tighter capital controls than India. There are a few favourite spots in the world where money flows like water and those are the preferred routes for money laundering- Singapore, Dubai, London (hence derisively called Londongrad because Russian oligarchs love the city), maybe Zurich and definitely all the sundry tax havens. Not to forget good old Mauritius. D-company money in Bollywood is plausible (though less so in case of Barjatya) but China? Not convinced.
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KS
August 23, 2022
@Aman Basha:
You keep grandly pronouncing that boycotts are bullshit and can have no effect, like some self-evident mantra that needs to be repeated and drilled into everyones’ heads lest they believe otherwise. No one here strongly claims that the boycott was wholly responsible for the films failure. The truth is that none of us have the data to support our stand on its effectiveness either way. Correlation does not imply causation and all that.
But if word of mouth, positive publicity and good marketing can help movies become successful, why is it so hard to even entertain the possibility that boycotts and exaggerated negative publicity can have some effect in the opposite direction? Its like you really want to believe that the boycott guys couldn’t have succeeded, no matter what, simply because you may not agree with their motivations.
In any case, irrespective of the effect the boycott truly may have had, the impression seems to have been set that the boycott worked. This itself is a win, as now even if the actors continue to stay cocky, the producers, financiers etc. are a superstitious cautious lot, and they might have gotten the message clear. As for Dawood links and China money laundering, you may find the claims laughable, but knowing Bollywood and all its shady underworld history, can never put it past them. And their public arrogance only makes them harder to sympathize with or give the benefit of doubt.
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Madan
August 23, 2022
Aman Basha: As I called out in the other thread where the age old allegation of suppression of conservative voices was trotted out, this is more of a power grab game. They want to displace the incumbents and get their stooges in charge of Bolly. Put in place more idiots with loudspeakers and you can start a nice rent seeking ecosystem. Did somebody say Indu Sarkar?
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KS
August 23, 2022
@Madan:
But then how did this China market even come about? The same China that doesn’t even allow free access to the internet, censors what their citizens can consume, bullies Hollywood guys over their content. But somehow an Aamir khan movie smoothly releases there widely in theatres, gets mass support among the Chinese who don’t even care for India or understand the language, and rakes up hundreds of crores of business? That too dull movies that may not have done that much business even in India. I can picture a few foreigners watching some stereotypical Indian movies as some exotic fancy item once in a while, like RRR say. I don’t know enough about money laundering to back that claim up, so its not a hill I’ll die on. But something doesn’t add up here.
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Madan
August 23, 2022
KS: Well you may find Dangal dull but it was a massive hit even domestically. Even Secret Superstar did decent business in domestic. The one that flopped was Thugs of Hindustan and it didn’t do well in China either. IF, with the Yangtze all dried up, China posts some unbelievable number like 200 cr for LSC, I will agree with you that there’s something fishy about Aamir’s China success. But at the moment there’s nothing to see there imo.
And China is indeed not a good market to exhibit your films. Somebody posted upthread that the makers only get 20% of the gross back from China. So even if LSC does stupendously well there, it will only save face for the producers. It won’t bail them out of their losses.
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Aman Basha
August 23, 2022
Am I the only one who noticed people discussing how Kareena’s comments and elite disconnect is fueling the twitter frenzy around Boycott and how someone is using a loudspeaker in front of theatres. Because, that’s why I repeated ad nauseum that Boycott is bullshit. None of the films released in 2022 would have been hits except Jhund and maybe, Runway 34. Boycott did nothing to hurt these films, they were gonna be flops anyway.
Why do people comment on the internet without using the internet to verify things they read on twitter and WhatsApp? Forbes, Variety and the Hollywood press has done many pieces on Aamir’s popularity in China. Also it’s amazing how Dangal, PK and 3 Idiots are dull films which have done no business in India. Thugs did nothing in China, so there goes the stupidest postulation made on this thread. Even Andhadhun and Modiji endorsed, Akshay Kumar starrer Toilet did surprising business in China.
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MANK
August 23, 2022
This sounds very much like the complaint of KamalHasan fans, guess both Aamir and Kamal are similar in that aspect.
Oh yes, and i am a fan of both Kamal and Aamir :). I like how they sincerely try to elevate the quality of mainstream commercial films in their respective languages. Both of them are obsessed with box office success (there are huge stars as well so they have to be), but like the great movie moguls of yore, they love movies first foremost, and they want to create a quality product first and then make money out of it. Only that Kamal operates on an intellectually and artistically higher plane. Aamir is a man of modest talents and modest ambitions, and hence his failures are rather unremarkable, like this one or Thugs; Kamal’s biggest failures are also his most ambitious and interesting- like Mahanadhi, Hey Ram and Anbe Sivam. But both are control freaks and have quite a bit of knowledge about all aspects of filmmaking. This sometimes proves to be their undoing- they become overconfident and loose objectivity. Hence the constant demand from fans like us for stronger directors\collaborators who can confidently hold a mirror to them and show them when they are going wrong. Here, Advait should have sided with Atul and corrected Aamir when his performance was going wrong, instead he sided with Aamir. Just like Kamal found a pliable KSR to make Dasavatharam the way he wanted it made when GVM balked.
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MANK
August 23, 2022
I believe the BO tracking in China is one of the most scientifically accurate. And it is a specific kind of Indian film that has done very well in China, not all Indian films have done well. Bahubali films did not do well. Aamir was very lucky to have two back to back films in Dangal and Secret Superstar that had subjects that appealed to the Chinese audiences. Very Humane and emotional\melodramatic stuff kind the Chinese audiences does not get from hi-tech Hollywood films or perhaps films from their local industry.
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KS
August 23, 2022
@Aman Basha:
Believe whatever you will about the effectiveness of the boycott, if it makes you sleep better. Lack of real data and any strong evidence for/against be damned. We get it, the boycottwalas are jobless idiots, and a whole set of conveniently vague circumstances (like Kareena’s one comment etc.), everything except the very tangible boycott of course, led to the failure, the Hindutva gang can never succeed, rss bad…Happy?
As for the China thing, it was just a question, and I made no strong claims. Of course I can google to read possibly-commisioned PR puff pieces about how wildly successful Bollywood is all over the world, how the whole world is mesmerized by the artistic quality and universal emotional appeal of run-of-the-mill commercial Bollywood movies, enough to make them compete with Hollywood franchises in their revenue. And take it all on face value. After all, its about a shady business like bollywood dealing in a shady country like China, and both these entities are famously honest and open when it comes to the media and financial dealings, so how can a puff piece be anything but objective and reliable, no? Thanks for the suggestion.
And next time you can just address me directly if you’re referencing something I commented, instead of being a smug dick about it. I know its not your style, you prefer drive-by potshots to evade getting called out.
@Madan:
When I said dull, I didn’t necessarily mean bad. I meant these aren’t typical Indian RRR-type wacky fights-dancing movies that foreigners seek out for some kitschy fun once in a while. Nor are they serious or artsy Satyajit ray movies to have any context-free appeal to global audiences. They’re middling movies that succeed here because our standards are low, and due to fandoms built and sustained over decades. I fail to understand how they work consistently, that too with such numbers, far away in China? If its genuine, good for them for cracking a new market on such a scale.
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Voldemort
August 23, 2022
I think there was a discussion about why Dangal and SS succeeded in a readers’ write in back when the film released. The themes of filial piety and the ‘let your children follow their dreams’ trope resonated with the Chinese who have a similar high pressure academic system like we do and family values appeal to them.
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Ravi K
August 23, 2022
MANK: “Even if the current lot of Hindi filmmakers try hard enough to pander to the audiences they will fail, because they are just not capable or talented or wired or knowledgeable to make the kind of films audiences wants to see.”
What is the root of this? Are they not allowing outsiders, who may understand what aam aadmi audiences like, into writing and directing? What is different about the Hindi film industry, compared to the South industries, where even stars from film families seem to be understand what their audiences want? WRT the Hindi film industry I get the sense that the stars are cloistered in Bandra/Juhu sensibilities and are not able to relate to regular audiences.
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Nappinai (@Nappinai2)
August 24, 2022
Extent of public’s adulation of Bollywood stars while it lasted was undeserving and generously helped by PR. The fall is also predictably similar. IMO, people are just telling the stars that we no longer like you and just deal with it. That connect between the star and audience has snapped and the trust seems to have disappeared. I think Anurag Kashyap was correct when he said the star system has ended. OTOH, you have Alia saying she has had the last laugh as she delivered a hit in GK and is a five foot Amitabh and what not, so you never know, do you?
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Nappinai (@Nappinai2)
August 24, 2022
On a related note, could someone throw light on how the box office works for Hindi films or point me to a relevant read? For a film budgeted at 100 Crores how much does it need to make domestic gross from theatrical sales? How do digital rights and international revenue impact a film’s fate? What are the costs that drive net domestic theatrical sales figures? Also, how are these numbers reported? I am asking because there’s so much talk around BO these days and it’s not always clear.
For example, Outlook suggested that Gangubai’s numbers were inflated by as much as 100 percent. The industry consensus seems to be that the film is a hit. It’s interesting because GK is somewhat of an outlier in the current scenario and it’s fate is not uniformly reported. All twitter “film-journos” include BB2 in their list of 2022 hits while this is not seen for GK. That makes me wonder whom to believe.
Similarly, KJo in an interview said that mostly the opening weekend seals the fate for a film. This doesn’t align with some talk on how films are a hit even before they release due to digital rights or how a film’s life time run including international BO makes it a hit despite a poor domestic run.
Lastly, is the production team the only source of a film’s budget or is it also independently verified?
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Madan
August 24, 2022
“Are they not allowing outsiders, who may understand what aam aadmi audiences like, into writing and directing? What is different about the Hindi film industry, compared to the South industries, where even stars from film families seem to be understand what their audiences want? WRT the Hindi film industry I get the sense that the stars are cloistered in Bandra/Juhu sensibilities and are not able to relate to regular audiences.”
All of this to different degrees.
Anurag made the point about Adi Chopra exerting dictatorial control and not accepting inputs from others. Faisal Khan, himself from film family, was also saying that actors are always chosen based on whether they have delivered hits and their hit/loss ratio (except, of course, when it comes to Arjun Kapoor) and not on whether they would be suitable in the role. If you put all this together, you get a picture that only people with the right connections get in. So it becomes a bubble of like minded people speaking the same language.
Speaking of, even back in the day, English was the medium of communication…in the Hindi film industry. Suketu Mehta wrote about it in his book Maximum City IIRC (so that dates it back to 90s). It just so happened that the actors then did have a good command over Hindi. I question to what extent that is still the case and to what extent actors today have to be coached to sound apt for their roles. Remember Deepika struggling with the Urdu, elevated sensibilities of Deewani Mastani while Priyanka Chopra took to it much more easily? Tamil stars can still conduct entire interviews in Tamil and not just any Tamil but even sen-Tamil (ok, not so sure how applicable that is for the new lot). I think current Bollywood crop definitely needs at least the crutch of Hinglish.
3.Related, one complaint of mine with the multiplex era is they either catered to upper-middle metropolitan sensibilities OR North dialects. Up to the 90s, the movies catered to the Mumbai working class which was taken as a good barometer for what would work pan India. I have not seen a film that speaks to that segment in a long, long time. Just compare the new Agneepath (which is supposedly set in that mileu and even has an ode to Ganesha for good measure) to the old one and see how ‘designer’ and bloated the new one is (and that’s considering that the old one itself was relatively flabby and long in the tooth on the back of too many angry young man films). So, yes, cloistered in Bandra-Juhu and no connection with the rest of the city itself. They don’t NEED to know what MP or Bihar thinks though that’s welcome. At least start by visiting Worli BDD, it’s not even that far from Bandra via the Bandra-Worli sealink. If you feel too uppity to talk to them, at least observe and listen to how they talk. Manmohan Desai actually lived in Girgaum. So when he made films set in SoBo chawls, it was authentic, whether everyone liked them or not (and enough liked them that he was laughing all the way to the bank).
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vijay
August 24, 2022
250th comment..:-)
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MANK
August 24, 2022
Ravi K, all that Madan said. Also, in the previous generation actors\directors\writers used to come from all corners of the country and from all classes. Amitabh was a middle class guy from UP , Dharmendra was a working class guy from Punjab. Hrishikesh Mukherjee was from Bengal, Javed Akthar was from Gwalior, Salim Khan was from Indore. and it goes on. they brought their unique flavor to their work. But most of the filmmakers and actors making films today are born and brought up in the upper classes of Bandra. Even the outsiders who make it in Bollywood, like Ranveer Singh, Kiara Advani, Radhika Madan also comes from the same background and ultra-rich families. They have zero connect with the mass audiences who are going to the theaters. Look no further than to the children of Javed Akthar to see how tragic the situation in Bollywood is. Akthar with Salim Khan revolutionized screenwriting and dialogue writing in Hindi cinema, maybe in Indian cinema itself. As a lyricist, Akthar, a Muslim guy from the Hindi heartland could effortlessly write bajans about Lord Krishna and Lord Ram- “Man se raavan jo nikale ram uske man mein hain” is right up there with “Mere paas maa hai” – or a massy song like “Ek do teen…”. His command over Hindi and its various dialects is unbeatable. Now look at his children, they don’t even know Hindi, they write their screenplays in English and have it translated into Hindi- leading to Brangan coining the term LHHE to describe their writing. That’s the problem, Hindi film industry is now mainly Bandra film industry.
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MANK
August 24, 2022
Vijay, yeah, i think it’s after a long time that a thread has hit 250 plus comments. But it’s also once in a blue moon that an Aamir Khan film gets released and it flops so miserably. Anyway, i think i have said whatever i have about the subject, so i would quietly peace out 🙂
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Rahul
August 24, 2022
One point that I would like to add is studios having too much power, since they are now handling distribution themselves. I think it would be a fascinating story if someone decides to tell it, about how a Bollywood movie has been financed over the years and on account of that who has had varying degrees of influence on how the movie is made, and with what stars\actors. The studios seem to have won this war and now they have full creative control. From their POV probably its better now because creative and control lie very close to each other, instead of being yanked around in different directions by distributors and other random financiers with shady connections. But at the same time to quote a dialog form Maqbool, balance is very important in life. The studios are currently abusing that power. I hope what is happening currently will see them lose that power a bit or relinquish it voluntarily. Bollywood is never not going to be popular in India in the long term. I don’t think an average viewer is evolved to a point that they consider the entire Indian cinema as their own , though of course at this time you are seeing hits from the southern industries, but eventually in the Hindi heartland the Hindi cinema will always be more popular.
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Madan
August 24, 2022
Rahul : Right and in fact it was distributors who held power in the single screen era. Because they decided what price would be set for each territory for a film. With the advent of multiplex chains, the studios could directly make deals with them. It’s not entirely clear if this has been good for multiplexes either considering that even PVR and Inox are going to merge. You are essentially going to have ONE mega multiplex chain, standalone multiplexes that were once single screens and single screens. Where once you had Adlabs, Fame, Inox, PVR and Cinemax, we are already down to two which is going to become one. That’s dramatic consolidation for an industry that got a 10 year tax holiday to help them kill single screens.
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Nik
August 24, 2022
I think the following factors have to be considered
Positioning – for the longest time Bollywood has been looking down upon masala content: less is more, except Akshay. South films have always been masala oriented and they wear that badge proudly. Akshay has now moved to social comedies (ayushman territory). Now this type of content is largely consumed on OTT and people expect a spectacle on large screen which is why RRR worked
Negative publicity wrt arrogance, lack of opportunities for lesser stars, high handedness has all hurt Bollywood. Case in example – few of the reasons why bhul bhulaiya worked is masala film, kartik was fresh out of the Karan Johar controversy, no start vehicle overhype.
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Rahul
August 24, 2022
Madan, in this case consolidation of multiplexes might be good for the industry because they may get strong enough to take on the studios. As of now, the cinema owners are scared to oppose the studios and they take their mediocre films too because they know that they need to have a long term good relationship with them. This is why they agree to let them cannibalize the screens for their releases.
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Madan
August 24, 2022
Rahul : Bit of a double edged sword because consolidation will give them more pricing power over consumers. But I agree that it will give them more leverage vs the studios which is a good thing.
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therag
August 24, 2022
People are deriving more entertainment out of the disaster that is Laal Singh Chaddha’s business than the film itself. Paavam AamirGaan.
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Madan
September 9, 2022
Gave Phir Na Aisi Raat a shot. This was pretty hard, not from a technical point of view, but to sing in that particular zone of soft-intense that Arijit beautifully captured in this song (and I am not sure I got there, more like this is about as good as it gets for me). Definitely my favourite of everything he’s sung:
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Santa
September 16, 2022
Rahul: Just read your comment from a few weeks back. Here is an interesting video on how bollywood makes money. Very well explained, IMO.
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Madan
September 22, 2022
Did Tere Hawale too. Third cover in a row exceeding 200 views from barely double digits earlier. I don’t know what’s changed with the algo all of a sudden but I’ll take it!
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Madan
October 7, 2022
Caught this today on Netflix (surprise, surprise, so him and Bambani managed to hive it off to them after all!). I wish I could report that the critics and the audience all missed the bus on this one and that it deserved better at the BO.
Sadly, it is all too easy to see why it didn’t work. And when I say work, I mean as an artistic endeavour and not just commercially; not like this film is too far ahead of its time or anything. The film gets all tangled up in trying to both capture the beats of the original in an almost rote-like manner and at the same time trying to adapt it to Indian settings. So…I wish I could say the only problem with the film is the middle act of young Aamir (who does, needless to say, get it totally wrong). I had forgotten enough about the trailer that at first brush, I didn’t even cringe involuntarily at Mr Aamir Atkinson but within a few frames, the terribly exaggerated and affected mannerisms started to take me out of the film. At which point, I was simply watching to find out how the hell they finally took it home but lost any remaining connect with the characters.
But back to the adaptation. Take the whole Rupa banian angle. It was laughed out in reviews because how would people not recognize someone so famous. Well, but that’s exactly why they could have simply chosen a different track to make the film. Say we meet LSC, the head of Rupa banian poring over his dusty old album and somebody say his Executive Assistant is intrepid enough to ask about it. And he decides to humour him with the story. This would be a much more plausible hook and it would also permit them to capture the essence of Gump WITHOUT resorting to equating autism with nth degree stupidity. Such a film would then have truly been inspiring, as Aamir clearly wanted it to be, rather than being what it is as it stands – an affected and episodic sequence of incidents.
Pity because the film is clearly well produced and both Mona Singh and Kareena do full justice to their roles (but esp the former). Somehow, even watching them and the kids ‘be’ the character didn’t convince Mr Perfectionist to quit making this most internalized of roles a physical ordeal. Maybe it’s just that hard to achieve what Hanks did in his role – even he was no rookie by the time he played that role (though much, much younger than Aamir) and yet, he managed to ‘be’ innocence and naivete personified rather than pretending to be a dumb person which is what Aamir as LSC comes off as.
Aamir does produce more arresting moments as the older, bearded LSC. Perhaps then, acting out the younger Laal portions in the same, more natural vein would have at least helped make the film engaging albeit with extreme suspension of disbelief.
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Karthik
October 31, 2022
I actually enjoyed watching this movie. It did have its issues. To echo Madan, watching this gave me a deeper appreciation for the original, especially Tom Hanks’s acting and the filmmaking too. I could see how critical Hanks’s voice-over was to the original. His comforting southern drawl had such a “musical” quality that it literally set the tone for the film. Aamir’s voice doesn’t stand out as much but it isn’t bad, and he has tried to capture that musical quality with his “mmm”s. But the Punjabi dialect has a lot of hard syllables that gives the lines more rhythm than music. It made me wonder if they could have reimagined the tone of this film to have a sprightly comical quality as opposed to the soft whimsical one of the original.
But it looked like that they wanted to retain as much from the original as possible (including so many, so many of the lines). One effect of that is its hard to watch this film without the differences kind of sticking out. Some of the differences worked for me. I too liked the terrorist subplot, and the whole malaria angle brought together what could’ve been disconnected events. And despite Naga Chaitanya’s “jaw” imitation of the original, I quite enjoyed the whole undergarment bit.
But the more melodramatic pitch especially in the latter half of the film didn’t work for me. In the original, Hanks’s emotions were much more muted through most of the film (especially because of the dominant voice over) that the pivotal moment when he meets his son was powerful (as was the final monologue). With Aamir’s slightly elevated pitch through the second half, those moments were far less impactful. It wasn’t just the acting (or the voice-over), but even the the filmmaking seemed to portray more elevated emotions. Like the stretch when Aamir runs, the music was so mellow (and even a bit sad). Whereas in the original, it was sprightly and even rousing. It made much more of a difference when the running stops abruptly.
One thing I found surprising was that Kareena’s character did not register nearly as strongly as Robin Wright’s did, although her arc was actually more “connected” than in the original. The scenes between Wright and Hanks had real spark, and they came across as equals (and at times Wright even had a stronger presence). The ones between Aamir and Kareena however felt a lot more one sided.
But as with so many Aamir movies, the portions with kids work like a charm, and I particularly liked the opening and ending segments of the movie. Overall, this could have been better than it was, but its still an enjoyable watch.
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Madan
October 31, 2022
Karthik: I wonder if the ‘original’ script AK wrote was different and Paramount expected the remake to hit the same beats as a condition of giving them the rights. Aamir said it took years and years so maybe it involved a lot of haggling over what the remake would be like. Because that gave a procession like feeling to the film which wore me out by the second half – where in the original, the moments do come off as serendipity at work (and hence why Hanks’ monologue at the end makes sense, where here the dose of spirituality seemed abrupt). It also felt like the original could convey how much Mama and Jenny meant to Gump without having to reinforce it while here, even with Laal repeating it a bunch of times, it didn’t really come through.
It was on the whole like Aamir trying to push through a TZP like warm and uplifting tone but running into a script that was more ambivalent. Previously there was no doubt about what an Aamir film (specifically, the message films) wanted to say and even if this linearity made them predictable, they gave a ready hook to the audience which wasn’t there here and at the same time, it felt episodic rather than like a true journey.
Also,
“Like the stretch when Aamir runs, the music was so mellow (and even a bit sad). Whereas in the original, it was sprightly and even rousing. It made much more of a difference when the running stops abruptly” – Brilliantly put.
I wrote more about this on the blog but basically, I felt tired by the time the movie got to the running sequence and for that reason too, it just didn’t have the impact it was meant to, even though the song is beautiful as are the montages accompanying it. But yeah, it felt like it belonged in a different film. The melancholy in the last stretch was engaging but the film doesn’t give a through line as to how we got there.
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Karthik
October 31, 2022
It also felt like the original could convey how much Mama and Jenny meant to Gump without having to reinforce it while here, even with Laal repeating it a bunch of times, it didn’t really come through.
I know. In the original, both Sally Field and Robin Wright had much stronger presence on screen, but here even though the scenes were nice, as for characters, it felt like Laal was always center stage. That becomes a bit monotonous.
It was on the whole like Aamir trying to push through a TZP like warm and uplifting tone but running into a script that was more ambivalent.
Thats exactly right. If anything, the original was almost like a tragedy as seen through the eyes of a special character. The shift in tone here although well intentioned didnt wholly work.
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Madan
December 14, 2022
Watched Forrest Gump after years and years and wrote this about where it works vis a vis where LSC falters.
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Mankfan
January 5, 2023
WOAH just read the comments and @MANK chetta, I was really surprised by your comment on Aamir Khan, do you just forget your old reviews & comments or just go by what’s in vogue.
In your review of TOH you called Aamir’s act – the best mainstream performance in years, here’s the link to your old review, maybe it will help jog your memory,
& AAA is not a great Aamir performance, he is not very good at physical/slapstick comedy.
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Aman Basha
April 28, 2023
I’m surprised no one mentioned the biggest flaw of this movie: the complete lack of humor. Forrest Gump was a very funny movie, especially as it integrates celebrities not to memorialize them but lampoon them like Lyndon Johnson checking out Gump’s butt. Since it’s India, you can’t possibly make fun of any celebrity or god forbid, any politician, this is a very tame film but if they were attempting humor it could have been as bad as those chaddi baniyan jokes so maybe it’s for the better.
I loved the childhood portions which were just fantastic with a very wistful tone throughout and also the Rupa arc where Kareena gave a very good performance, it makes Jenny more logical IMO. It never made sense why she leaves Forrest before his run.
Even the run in FG is very funny, that Forrest invents shit happens or emoji and so on but here the run is so bland in comparison.
I wonder if Aamir went for such a spoofy act because he thought it’d be funny, but he also clearly thinks boycott hurt his movie and that’s why he’s topping the hypocrisy charts these days.
From snubbing OSO to the point where SRK cameo is the high point of your movie, life comes full circle at times.
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Madan
April 28, 2023
Aman: I did mention the complete lack of irony in LSC compared to FG in my ‘review’ posted upthread. Like, right at the start, Forrest innocently mentions he was named for a hero called Nathan Bedford Forrest who, uh, founded the KKK. FG is an unique (in ways not entirely good) film that manages to be intensely political without making the filmmaker’s own political views clear at any point. The commentary hits both ways in a way that’s frustratingly sly but enjoyable to watch.
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Aman Basha
April 28, 2023
@Madan: Not even irony, whatever comedy bits existed were themselves badly written. I thought all this handwringing over Aamir’s lost mojo was overdone, but this and the long break he is taking (if a movie releases, good chance he’ll be over 60) are very concerning.
Even the continuity goes to hell, how does the same character behave one way when he’s 12 and another when he’s 21? I think the talk that a lot of celebrities just walked out of the test screenings due to boredom are true now.
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brangan
April 29, 2023
Aman Basha: Care to explain that comment? I am a fan of the film — though I did not HATE it as much as some others.
But I curious about this: “how does the same character behave one way when he’s 12 and another when he’s 21? ”
People change all the time, no?
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Aman Basha
April 29, 2023
“People change all the time, no?”-But Forrest Gump is not ‘normal’, is he? Most would refer to him as slightly autistic and his character is one that never changes no matter age or wealth or status. The appeal is he’s still the same child in a grown man’s body in some ways. Here, the innocence is the same but the body language changes wildly.
Another off choice is that the intimate scene in Forrest Gump is again very funny, here it’s pretty straightforward.
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