Can we expect new Narrative structures in indian cinema..

Whenever I watch an Indian film, I try to observe the narrative structure, of course I may not expect anything new.. but look for some change… but I failed to find anything new, though I find something new, still it might be copied from some European film, never original… hence, I feel like writing this article in which I expressed my views about the Indian audience and the filmmakers and their narrative structures in the films.. it's true that screen writers should try for original and innovative screen plays, and at the same time, the filmmakers must be ready to handle it in the same manner. forget about Hollywood or European movies, when you take India, it's very difficult to convince the producer as well as the audience together. they out rightly reject the film irrespective of its originality and novelty. the root cause is the belief system that cinema is meant to entertain and it should keep its promise every second of the movie, otherwise, the audience will move away from the theatre... that is how Indian audience are educated to watch the film. there is no space for realism or sensitivity in the emotions of the characters or in the story... they have developed what next attitude.... and they don't want "change", they need entertainment... whatever kind of experiment you do, keep entertainment in the mind, even at the cost of story, characters, doesn't matter if you can't explain the reason, nobody bothers if you can entertain, you can become a great filmmaker.. a successful filmmaker.. Wealthy filmmaker... and these successful filmmakers say " we don't want to make any award films, we want to entertain the audience, that's our duty" he never expresses his individuality but sacrifices for the money, for the audience, feels pseudo-happiness.. the actors take most of filmmaker's fame...

as far as the screen writers in india are concerned. they are subjected to certain rules and formulas, unless you follow the formula, you will never get another chance, even if you try one different from others and fail in the box office, that may be the last experiment for you... and one will never dare to experiment again, gradually switch on to safe mode... neither we can blame the audience, nor we can blame the filmmakers or the psyche of the Indian audience....we had better stop comparing our films to european or Hollywood films, our films are meant to entertain at all cost... it can be cheap or great, whatever it is .. one has to entertain..it's like a game, sometimes you win, sometimes you fail...hence, experimental or esoteric films can be done only with a small budget with non-professional actors, and they may not be released in theatres, but will be sent to foreign festivals, and may be awarded one or two, still the indian filmmaker won't get an opportunity to make mainstream film in India



it's really unfortunate to say... filmmakers like girish kasaravalli, adoorgopal Krishnan, and other ace filmmakers are not known to the public....but when you ask any of the successful mainstream filmmaker, they are as famous as stars... whatever it may be, even if one tries to use parallel narrative, he is subjected to the box-office rules... we know we can never change the audience, only thing filmmakers can do in India is to choose the realistic subjects that are identified by the common people, with all idiosyncrasies of the common man's tastes, but present with parallel narratives.. Hopefully, the common audience might identify themselves irrespective of the narrative structure...
my formula for a successful commercial film yet realistic is
Trying to maintain realism in the subject,
Trying to present the narration as fast as we can ,
Choosing the subject that is identified by the common man,
Trying new story telling methods, or narrative structures, only if we can still entertain them...
Never go for a message, just tell a story...
try to maintain realism in the filmmaking too...
Instead of what next attitude, try to sustain the interest with characters’ attitude, circumstances, external events, etc.

Anyway, let's try to create new wave in the Indian film by practicing the above.... vardhan..

wong kar wai... you can't resist but get tempted by his visual seduction....

wong kar wai, ultra modern, bizzare, stylistic, highly cinematic filmmaker from hongkong... 2046, happy together, in the mood for love, and many other films reveal his visual expression of the story more powerfully than many contemporary filmmakers....

i feel it's right word to say about his films is ... visual feast for the eyes at and then for the senses.....i am going to review his most romantic, sensual and highly stylistic film " In the Mood for love" in my blog soon....

cinema, a commercial art form..

i real feel like writing something about art and commerciality in cinema, as many people mentioned that art films are very slow in their presentation, and there is no entertainment in them, and i have aslo observed that some telugu cinema directors used to say that they don't like to make award cinemas, they want to reach common audience, whenever they don't get the awards. i fully agree cinema has lot of commercial scope, at the same time cinema has the quality of being an art form, for that matter it is better to say " it's a commerical art form".




the first thing we need to consider is its entertaining quality, and then expressing the emotions by creating suspension of disbelief in the minds audience, as i know majority of the filmmakers in india regard cinema as entertainment, there is nothing wrong in it, similarly, few distingusihed filmakers in india or in the world proved that cinema has the potentiality of art form. before we go further, let's discuss, what is an art form, as far as my knowledge is concerned, a work of art is one that is timeless, eternal in its appeal, has greatest way of expression which is completely original, like mahabharatha or ramayana, and ever new at every time you watch the film, it's purely an artist's highest form of expression that sprang from his deepest heart, whether you appreciate or not, it has its own significance,





i would like to give an example, many of us may not be able to appreciate hindustani or karnatic music, but we can appreciate film music easily, as it catches our attention, that doesn't mean hindustani or karnataic music is not great, just because they are slow and can't enjoy the music, ususally in ancient days, in india, music is aimed to reach divinty, for that matter, take every art form in india such as dance, painting, aimed to have a higher goal to reach divinity... cinema is a newly born medium which has a high potentially for the entertainment, at the same time it has also the potentiality to express the aesthetics, artistry and could create creative expressions like any other art form,





here we need to understand this point clearly, and the other point is why art cinema is slow, as far as i know, they wanted to represent truthfullness of the characters, events or circumstances with time and space to express them through the pure cinematic form, which we feel boring, becuase of our pre occupied mind compares with the overdramatized movies made solely for the sake of entertaining the audience with all the liberties taken at the cost of telling or representing the truthfulness or objectivity of the story. of course some of the filmmakers in the world are successful in entertaining the common and class audience alike. as the artist grows in mind and spirit, he tries to explore different forms in the medium he is using, this where comes the gap between the audience and the filmmaker, and i aslo say entertainment is not a dirty word, but entertaining the audience at the cost of objectivity of the story or the characters is wrong, if they could maintain both objectivity with convincing reality and entertainment, it will no doubt be a great achievement, this is what every art filmmakers are trying to achieve, they never discriminate common audience or class audience, they just make films to express their urge to create highest form in the cinema by maintaining objectivity in the story, but cinema is commercial in everyway, has to take into consideration unless one patronises the filmmakers to create great as our ancients did in india.





i feel never discriminate any film by art or commercial, but judge the film by its objectvity, truthfullness of the characters and their emotions, original representaion, instead of its exitement, entertainment, what next attitude at the cost of above values. of course, when we watch some entertaining films, we feel so happy at that moment, we don't want to see it again, we feel bored, but when you watch some great films, they are timeless, eternal in its appeal. here i am not saying entertainment films are bad, they will be great if the filmmaker can incorporate or maintain the above values in his films. bye...