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Tag: Disney

  • Avatar – The Way Of Water: Breathtakingly Immersive Experience Of A Disappointing Movie

    Avatar – The Way Of Water: Breathtakingly Immersive Experience Of A Disappointing Movie

    Avatar is one of the greatest cinematic experience. A game-changing visionary movie. Apart from pathbreaking technology, it introduced us to the blue bodied Na’vi of Pandora moon, raised our environmental consciousness way before Greta Thunberg and made us feel ‘I see you’. It reigned as the highest grossing movie for a decade since its release in 2009.  

    Avatar 2 is called Avatar – The Way Of Water. It is second of the five instalments that will continue to be released every 2 years till 2028. 

    Jake Sully and his family flee the forest to take refuge with amphibian tribe Metkayina. The green canvas turns to turquoise Maldives like pristine waters. After the initial tense proceedings, things settle down and they together fight the common enemy – sky people – the humans. 

    The aquatic flora and fauna is the best part of the movie. Dazzling and enchanting! The whale like tulkun is the showstopper – gentle giant that is bigger than Mumbai flats. The climax is a return to Titanic world for James Cameron – even Kate Winslet joins the reunion! 

    Avatar 2 is a beautiful spectacle but too long and has no gripping plot to speak of. New owner Disney add family dynamics to the environment and imperialism themes. One can give James Cameron the credit to be singularly focused on the simple narrative. 

    Avatar – The Way Of Water is a one time big screen watch. It is debuting in more 50,000 screens at the same time across all major countries. If you do not watch it, our hearts will still go on….

  • ‘Rorschach’ Movie Review: Deeply Intriguing Psychological Neo Noir Thriller

    ‘Rorschach’ Movie Review: Deeply Intriguing Psychological Neo Noir Thriller

    ‘Rorschach’ Movie Review: Deeply Intriguing Psychological Neo Noir Thriller

    A bewildering movie that justifies its title – Rorschach means a projective psychological test that uses a subject’s interpretation of 10 standard black or colored inkblot designs to assess personality traits and emotional tendencies.

    The movie tests your perception of the film? Your feelings, your characteristics and you! The movie also tests the key characters in the outstanding drama – all of who showcase numerous shades of grey.

    A rich businessman for Dubai arrives in a tranquil village and sets a chain of interesting events. Gradually, the pieces of puzzle unearth and we get a sense of protagonist’s true intentions arising from a mental state. I am resisting the temptation to leak the big story!

    The revenge drama keep you on the edge of the seat. One is attracted to the maze and gets deeper and deeper! Though the pace gets little slow after half time when the real plot is revealed!

    Mammootty shines and does full justice to the movie! What a layered and smooth performance where he surrenders to the script – you become part of his insidiousness! Acting masterclass! Hats off! But it is Bindu Panicker who outshines seething Mammootty for me – her menacing matriarch act of self-preservation is outstanding!

    The movie is technically superb with music, car, house and village as impeccable components. Loved the English tracks of the movie – enhanced the mood of the film. Full marks to the director!

    Watch it – A very unique slow burn!

  • The Forces Behind The Star Wars: The Force Awakens

    The Forces Behind The Star Wars: The Force Awakens

    Star Wars – The Force Awakens is breaking records like a pack of cards. It is the fastest movie to reach USD 1 Billion mark and will be the top movie of all time. The movie is a box-office blockbuster that dwarfs every other movie franchise.

    How did it happen?

    1. Disney’s Smart Acquisition: Disney is an entertainment giant with a sharp strategy of picking a cool movie franchise and rejuvenating it. Disney paid $4 Billion for the acquisition of LucasFilm and started its redevelopment. Disney’s method is to acquire companies with franchise potential, set its strategic talent to make the acquisition work and power it with its marketing and distribution weight. Disney knows how to exploit the IP from the acquisitions – the magic has worked with its acquisitions of Pixar and Marvel. Disney will milk this further with “Star Wars” area at Disneyland.

    2. Go Beyond The Creator/Founder: George Lucas is a visionary in every sense of the word. Creating Star Wars when limited technology and meagre resources existed is nothing but a stroke of genius. But Star Wars was stagnating in recent times. It required a passionate J J Abrahams to reinterpret and bring new glory to Star Wars. He understood the masterpiece of George Lucas and what made it work in the first place – maybe even bettering Lucas in some instances. Creator/Founder can sometimes be too close to her work and may not help the cause. Also, the creator needs to switch gears as required – every stage of organisation and movie franchise needs different skills. Hence J J Abraham nurtured the franchise in a professional manner and delivered a mass entertainment product.

    3. Product Development: Star Wars – The Force Awakens has succeeded primarily due to the good content. No marketing can help a bad movie – especially in these days of social media and word of mouth power. Even Nostalgia can take you so far – else all other Star Wars movie would have been equally big hits. The chief victory of J  J Abrahams and team was to stick to the core USP of Star Wars. They knew what the fans wanted, they knew what made sense, they avoided distraction and stayed loyal to the identified market segment. They stuck to the formula of the original in all aspects. Though some fans expressed disappointment with the movie lack of imagination and innovation and dull length, the overall product play worked.

    4. Innovative Marketing: Trust Disney to ensure marketing genius. They leveraged Nostalgia to maximum effect – ensuring that all adults re-live their childhood stories. Disney is expanding its base beyond the children and this was a master-stroke. They also released Star Wars merchandise ahead of time – to create more ambassadors. They carefully planted stories of return from misguided prequels thereby raising expectations of the new movie. The usual marketing template of promotional tie-ups, clothing, games etc. was effectively leveraged as well.

    5. Distribution: The distribution strength of Disney ensured a global release on a large scale. Christmas timing ensured that no one could not escape Star Wars. It brought lot of new audience to cinema. So when you have a great product, go all aggressive.

    The Force Is On….

  • Dream Like Ronnie !

    Dream Like Ronnie !

    The Trio of Ronnie Screwala, Zarine Mehta and Deven Khote got my attention early in life. I was in school and Doordarshan was a staple diet. United Television came across as a different company – production, content and overall packaging. The logo of UTV was stuck in mind.

    Since then UTV and Ronnie Screwvala and his team have continued to impress us. India’s first soap – Shanti was a big step at that time. It continued to grow in leaps and bound. In-flight entertainment business, post-production, IPO, broadcasting, VAS business etc. It ventured into the movie business via movie distribution and soon turned into production as well. I am sure each milestone had its share of challenges.

    Everyone sees the success and the limelight. Especially in the glamour business. Ronnie’s UTV was sold to Disney – a watershed moment for Indian entertainment industry. It was a great and a heartening story – a company that its Indian entertainment brethren and camps did not take seriously initially was bought by one of the biggest and iconic entertainment companies in the world.

    Ronnie has played an important role in India movie business. During the course of my doctoral thesis on the role of modern management in Indian Film Industry, I came across many exemplary practices of UTV. I have documented them and they are a part of my thesis.

    UTV gave special importance to movie marketing and production values and content.

    Ronnie has recently penned his journey in his book – Dream With Your Eyes Open. Trust him to do the same with his book. Indian non-fiction does not get great attention. But Ronnie is trying a lot of things here as well. Check his list to redefine this space:

    1. Great Marketing Campaign Around The Book – Unless You Are Lost In Hawaiian Vacation, Very People Will Miss The Book Launch
    2. Ranbir Kapoor Launches The Book – A Perfect Launch
    3. Testimonials From Captain Of Indian Industry & Disney
    4. Testimonial From Narendra Modi
    5. India’s First Television Ad For The Book
    6. An Active Social Media Campaign, Website

    The success of the book is important as it helps to promote the message of Entrepreneurship. He says the books is about “It can be done” and not “I did it” Great. The message of entrepreneurship need more ambassadors. Importance of failing. Importance of taking risks. Dreaming Big! May thousands of Ronnie bloom !

    Related Links:
    Book Website – Dreams With Your Eyes Open