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..
