Recently, Jaya Bachchan saw the movie ‘Happy New Year’ and said that the film was nonsense. She further said that she had watched the movie only for Abhishek. While I can’t disagree with her, the problem is most of the movies made today are just faltoo; they barely have sense and mint money in the name of a Khan starring in the movie. Take for example all the Salman Khan movies. Be it Dabangg, Ek Tha Tiger, Kick etc these movies did not deserve to do well at the box office as the films lacked substance. Be it the art of filmmaking or the art of acting, the films lacked it all. But yet it did well at the box office just because it was starring a Khan. This is indeed true as ridiculous as it may seem.
Take the case of a Shah Rukh film like Chennai Express. Except for just a few instances of humour and some good acting skills by Deepika, the film had nothing. Yet it was one of the highest earning films of that year. When the movie was released, I was discussing the ridiculousness of all the Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan movies with my then roommate, who is into script writing. Even our landlady, who was less educated, said she loathed Salman Khan movies. So why were those movies a big hit? Whereas many intellectual, critically acclaimed movies like Lunch Box could not do the magic at the box office nor was it so popular and talked about.
Compared to today’s movies, the earlier films had good story lines with good acting skills. Take for example movies like Chupke Chupke, Anand, Khoobsoorat etc. such movies were no doubt excellent. Movies like the previous Golmaal was truly hilarious. So why can’t we make such movies today? Sure, film making has improved today with the improvement in technology. Now films are better made with sophisticated action sequence and good technical effects. However, what it lacks in is a good storyline. Moreover, in these big budget Khan starrers, the actress had no role except in a few songs. Speaking about songs, how can one forget item numbers? Such songs are just foot tapping but they don’t touch the soul. For an example, listen to the songs of Yo Yo Honey Singh. The popularity of these songs is short lived and is soon forgotten. On the contrary, older songs had meaningful lyrics which are still appreciated by the masses.
Such songs are like classics in literature which last through the ages whereas songs nowadays are like best sellers which are eroded with time.
