About one and a half years back I lost faith in a lot of my close people. Their judgement, their sense of what is good or bad, even their basic intelligence took a beating as far as I was concerned. What had happened, exactly?
Without exception, all of them had recommended a film called Jab We Met, showering epithets like 'good fun', 'great entertainment', 'heart warming', ( India Today had also called it heart-warming, I remember) 'touching', etc. etc and etc....
Since I was a big follower of the songs, especially Mohit Chauhan's soulful 'Tum se hi', Shreya Ghosal's sexily sung 'Ye ishq hai' and the peppy, 'Mauja mauja, I thought what the heck, let's give it a go! We rented a DVD and settled down one afternoon to be 'entertained'. 15 minutes into the film and I couldn't believe the muck that was unfolding on the screen. It was so bad, so plain dumb ....it was unbelievable!
I slipped into a prolonged depression. No, it was not about the film. ( It was highly forgettable and I had quickly forgotten it). It was about the people who inhabit my inner circle. How could they endure and what is worse, endorse such garbage to others? I cannot think of any film in the history of Indian cinema that was so bad and yet managed to make good at the box office! On that count it is truly one of a kind!
Why do we do this? Why are we giving money to people who give us shit? How will they ever know that they deliver shit if we continue to que up to buy their stuff? To quote Confucious ,"If we give good to bad what will we give to good?"
Today, in Aug 2009 I feel vindicated and happy because Imtiaz Ali has come clean in an interview( listing the goof-ups in a box) published in the T2, the Telegraph supplement, of 29th. July. He says, "Yes, I find a lot of defects when I watch the film now.." Oh yeah! And when pray, will you see the defects in your current flick, 'Love Aaj Kal' ? KUCH YEARS BAAD?
uday
1 comment:
After having read this Udayda, I have to see "jab we met". For a period in my life, for no particular reason, I had moved away from films in general, unless its somthing outstanding. I think 'jab we met' released during that period. however, according to word of mouth, 'jab we met' had a cutting edge with the then very very popular hero, forgotten his name ( kareena's ex boyfriend - i dont know what people found fascinating in him, because bollywood goes by looks, and (I know I am gossiping, which I Like to do once in a while )how people found him gorgeous and handsome, conventionally or unconventionally, is a mystery to me. I totally understand your concern about people loosing their sense of judgement, I know we have liberty to make rules about what is right and wrong, without violating eternal morals and ethics. We are all born with the self knowledge of what is right and wrong, and we choose to deviate out of our wish and form our characters either in this life or carry it in our soul geneology from our previous lives. But at that time and much later, sombody who has not seen that movie was sombody who has missed a very precious thing available to us in this short life span. However, now I must see, what I have missed. Also want to see Guzarish, this comment has no connection with this issue. Heard Hrithik has delivered an outstanding performance.
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