Opening Doorz

By Martin D’Souza | Opening Doorz Editorial | November 28, 2016

Big fish eat small fish, sab moh maya hai
I don’t know how this works. I don’t even know if the film industry is trying to work this out. But what I do want to know is this: why do smaller films get elbowed out of the multiplexes, with just one show in a day?

On an average, a multiplex has a minimum of four screens. Even if there are two releases a week, it should not be a problem for both films to get an equal footing WRT number of shows. But gross injustice seems to be the order of the day and no one within the industry is making a hue and cry. To each his own seems to be Bollywood’s mantra.

How else do you explain one film getting 5 shows a day while the other just one, that too late in the night at 10 pm. At IMAX, Wadala, Mumbai, Moh Maya Money had just one show. The situation was similar in other multiplexes, too. Dear Zindagi had over five shows a day!

Why this disparity? Agreed film-making is a business and every production house wants to push his product and every multiplex wants movies that will pull in the audience—100 crores is the target. But to sideline a film that has had the same amount of hard work put in, to my mind, is just not right.

MMM turned out to be a stunner! A few years ago, Jigariyaa, another small movie, faced the same fate. No one even knew it was released. Ajay Devgn, too, has been having problems with his releases.

Every film has its own audience and no filmmaker should be wary of the other. After all it is the same family. Unless distributors don’t start giving films the space they deserve and producers don’t press hard enough, good films will keep playing third fiddle to big budget flops!

Requesting the Kashyaps and the Johars and the Khans to look into this: after all, these are all your people and you are one big family!

Celebrating Munish and Vidushi
Today, let us celebrate two personalities who both entertained us with their craft. First-time director Munish Bhardwaj and Vidushi Mehra both stood out with their class act.

For a first-timer, Munish handled a rather complex plot with the ease of a veteran. Moreover, he did not let go of his vice-like grip on the film throughout its run time. The icing on the cake for Moh Maya Money was his introduction of the character Bhavna, played by Vidushi Mehra. The girl simply tears into you with her power-packed performance. Even three days after the movie, Bhavna keeps coming back to my mind.

Such compelling performance is rare to see. “Munish took pains to ensure that this character had depth,” reveals Vidushi. Quite thrilled at being acknowledged for her role and surprised by the accolades coming her way, Vidushi is hopeful that this role might ‘just be it’. “A side character is hardly developed. It’s only the main leads that get their due. For me, it is not the length of the film but the depth of the character that counts and I am thankful to Munish for taking pains to ensure every character stood out,” adds Vidushi.

The last time I was haunted by a performance was of Shriswara in D-Day.

Vidya Balan returns!
Another actress who has mesmerized us with her performances will be seen on screen this Friday. Vidya Balan returns in Kahaani 2 and I sincerely hope this film does what Kahaani did for her and what Dirty Picture did and what Paa did and what Ishquiya and what No One Killed Jessica did.

The last few releases have not really been happy for Vidya. If anything, it has pulled her career-graph down a bit. Ghanchakkar, Shaadi Ke Side Effects, Hamari Adhuri Kahaani have not really set the Box Office jingling. Neither was there any meat in the script in any of these films for her. She has carved a niche for herself as the ‘Hero’ and the lady needs to capitalize on her God-given talent to do challenging, women-centric roles.

Kahaani 2 might just get her back on track to be the complete entertainer that she is.

Also read: The Force and the Kick