Will Bollywood ever make original movies again?

I had been searching a lot for a very highly recommended movie of Rahul Bose by the name “Shaurya”. I had heard very rave reviews of the movie and was overjoyed when I caught it on TV yesterday. Needless to say I watched it completely but in about ten minutes or less, it struck me that it was almost a total copy of the Hollywood flick “A few good men” starring Tom Cruise and Demi Moore. Yes the story has been Indianised to help people relate to it but the overall plot, scenes, characters were all picked up directly from the Hollywood movie and the picking up was so complete that I could almost predict the next scenes with surprising accuracy!!

Being somewhat a movie buff, I watch English movies a lot and in between, whenever I find myself watching a Hindi movie, some or the other English movie strikes in mind as its original. So Hitch becomes Partner. Reservoir Dogs becomes Kaante. Murder by numbers becomes Samay. The whole nine yards combined with The Matrix series and the Mission Impossible series becomes Awaara Paagal Deewana. Three men and a baby becomes Heyy Baby. Bruce Almighty becomes God Tussi Great Ho (note that the beard of Amitabh Bachchan is exactly same as that of Morgan Freeman) the list is almost endless.

Is it the case that some kind of virus has infected Bollywood? Why is it that there is such a great dearth of ideas so suddenly and so completely among the entire fraternity that you have to make a choice if you want to watch the movie in English or Hindi (the difference boils down to whether you want to hear songs during the movie or not)? To a certain extent, it was understandable that some very old Bollywood films are reconstructed in the present scenario (Nadiya Ke Paar becomes Hum Aapke Hai Kaun) but taking complete Hollywood films and making your own film and marveling on your own creation is out of my scope of understanding as a rational and fair man. Is it the case that anyone and everyone who has watched a Hollywood movie and found it interesting will come up and make a Hindi movie out of the same concept and marvel at his own creation? If such is the case, then why don’t these people directly employ the Hollywood people to make these remakes for them? At least it will be done with more efficiency than what we see endure these days! 

Ganeshotsav is finally here!!!

So it’s That time of the year again!!! The much awaited  Ganeshotsav  is here finally!! For me, it is a multi faceted enthusiasm, joy and celebration because of a number of reasons. First, we couldn’t celebrate Ganeshotsav last year because of a death in the family. It was probably the last year when I would be able to enjoy the ten days at home because this year, I had the joining date scheduled in June and it seemed I would have to miss Ganapati Bappa this year. But The Lord rescheduled just about everything for me and I am here in Nagpur, at home, having nothing to do but to enjoy the elevendays of Ganeshotsav (this year, Ganeshotsav is of 11 days!!! Yippeeeeee!!!)  Shree Ganesh being our  'Kuladaivat', Ganeshotsav is the primary celebration time. On the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi, I and my mother took centrestage for the decoration. Tejas the electrician and Tejas the co-decorator-in-chief coordinated with mummy the decorator-in-chief to form the three-tiered Puja Sthal in the drawing room that becomes the exclusive domain of Lord Ganesha every year. After that, Dad takes over as supreme-commander and I assume the role of Tejas the percussionist with the 'Taal' (these titles have been accorded over a long period of time and their history is a very complicated one so I’ll skip it for the time being!) Nothing is passed without his approval and fortunately this year, he passed everything without a single change much to our delight!! Ganeshotsav at my home is an experience not to be forgotten for the whole year and everything done during the whole span is done taking into account the morning and evening puja timings which are not subject to change under any circumstances. So there’s no partying, evening movie shows or the regular timepass with friends after 7 PM. The morning puja is done by dad and the evening  puja by me. For the ten or eleven day span of the festival, there is something happening almost every day. My uncle being a Sangeet Visharad, a bhajan program is a certainty at least once in the ten days and for the rest of the days, all the family friends give a yearly visit to our place. It is one of the things that I’m gonna miss badly when I leave Nagpur for the job and I intend to make it a point to ensure at least a 4-5 day visit to Nagpur during Ganeshotsav wherever I might be.