A few genuine questions

The more films I watch, the more I seem to be looking at them from the audience's perspective instead of a director's. Yes, all I want to be, in my life, as of now(and probably for the rest of my life) is a director who makes interesting films out of interesting stories. But somehow, I still seem to be trapped as part of an audience, still thinking out of their shoes.

And every time I watch an Indian film(and here I'm using it in terms of Tamil and Hindi that I predominantly watch), it saddens my heart that 8 times out of 10, I end up being disappointed.

As an audience, I feel cheated out of my three hour worth time and as an Indian, I feel that most of our films pay meagre interest in the rich possibilities that our country's culture offers.

A few questions, invariably keep popping in my head time and again, after watching these so-called 'formula films'.

I totally understand that the Indian film industry is the busiest and churns out a phenomenal amount of work for around 750 crores per year- this money being equivalent to what one man swindled off through the Satyam scam!

But I don't understand why directors have to resort to doing the same kind of films over and over again, with just a change of star cast and location and probably other things like costumes, crew etc, repeating the same story again and again!

Our folk tales offer a rich source of inspiration, everyday occurences kindle a lot of situations and more than anything else, we have such a talented bunch of actors, technicians and other facilities that remain to be tapped.

The same story gets repeated in half-a-million different ways year in and year out. It ANNOYS me that the audience is treated like an idiot that asks for such things on screen. The blame game between audience and the industry can only be resolved by the industry. How can we decide that the audience likes formula films only, when we have barely exposed them to any other kind of films!?

If Subramaniapuram won the audience hearts, if an Eeram provided a sensible supernatural thriller, why can't such audience reactions ever be considered the next time anyone ever makes a film?

Why do we keep getting just one kind of film? Agreed that there has never been a better phase for young filmmakers to bring out their ideas on silverscreen than now. But such films are so few and far between.

One really wishes, as a part of the audience, that we don't get repetitive cliched characters. It irks me to see women portrayed time and again as mere dolls on screen. It is high time the actors take a stand and demand a scope for acting rather than just paste make-up on their faces, stand in the sideline, make a guest appearance and get reduced to glorified extras!

Even the heroes are time and again, larger than life, can-kill-anyone-with-a-mere-blow demigods, celebrated by their community. Villains are dummy caricatures who mouth uncouth dialogues and have thugs following them to probably even the toilets.

Why does a country that produces such brilliant cameramen, editors etc fail to make solid scripts? Yes, languages are plenty and probably a course in scriptwriting does become a tad difficult. But it is definitely not impossible!

I'm sick of hearing the Tamil parallel of "We have a situation here"- "Naan oru kudumbastan" time and again in every goddamn film!

When people can figure out fancy locales and stunning stunts, where does the creativity get stoppered when it comes to sensible plots and interesting dialogues?

I hate to accept that we watch more 'foreign' films than Indian films in our class when it comes to learning about any wing of filmmaking. There are a few Indian films that we end up watching as exemplary ones.

In a country that is so rich in every aspect, it really pains me to see no variety being offered to the Indian film audience.

I'm tired of watching the same old thing. I want something different from normal, films for kids, supernatural thrillers, film noir, drama, MUSICALS!

The star power probably does have a role to play, forcing directors to resort to time-tested plots. But it saddens me that if we watch a random muted song sequence of many actors, it is so difficult to figure out which film it is from, since they are all so alike!

Yes, we have such a song-dance subculture in India that we SO don't utilize. Songs and dances could be beautifully woven into the plot than having them as a breather in between the drama.

This is an immediate reaction after watching a recent formula Tamil film.

I hope we get to see something different soon. And yes, I also hope I'd someday soon be given a chance to attempt something different on the big screen!