The First Words From The First Day First Show: Thought Provoking. Beautifully Simple Humour. Amazing Dialogues. Lovely Music. Emotional Roller Coaster. Humanity. Patriotism.
The Rajkumar Hirani’s Midas Touch Ensures A Hat-Trick For Swades Shah Rukh Khan.
The Perils, Costs & Empathetic Angles To Illegal Immigration Practice Is The Focus Of Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki. The Movie Is A Triumph Over His Last Outing Sanju But Still Below Par Of 3 Idiots & PK.
Shahrukh Is An Actor In His Chak De India Avatar, Not An Employee Of SRK Brand. Vicky Kaushal Continues His Purple Patch & Once Again Outshines The Main Lead In Parts – Like In Sanju Movie. Tapsee Has A Meaty Role & Shows A Strong Arc. Boman Irani & Supporting Cast Is Impressive.
Smart & Sharp Dialogues. Soulful Music That Carries The Story Ahead. The Screenplay Could Have Been Better & Direction Is Superb. SRK Kurtas Make A Statement.
Jawan Review: Citizen Khan’s Massy Bollywood Masala Entertainer For The Political Bharat!
Whistles, song, dance, crazy fans, popcorn stockout, SRK fans going crazy – The SRK masala blockbuster rides the Great Indian Theatre takeover! I saw the movie in a big non-multiplex screen on the first day and public is hysterical at every SRK act – entry, dance, dialogues, action! The southern spice and Bollywood superstar create magic!
‘Bete ko hath lagane se pehle, baap se baat kar’ gets the maximum applause. Aryan – ticked!
The fight against the corrupt system – spearheaded by an army officer and his jailer son. Farmer suicides, dilapidated medical system, faulty arms deals, environment harming factories politician-businessmen nexus, international collaboration – all the ingredients for our hero to fight the system and stand up for common man.
After a spectacular opening act, SRK sets the pace with fiery Robinhood acts with the Chak De type womaniya squad. Nayanthara and Deepika are effective and glamourous. Vijay Sethupathi is underutilised – a stronger villain was definitely needed! The little girl is too cute and Sanjay Dutt is forced.
The Hollywood matching action and thrills are highly engaging. The pace dips in the second half and music is forgettable – unusual for a SRK movie. A stronger edit and sharper dialogue writing would have lifted the movie even further. Though the final climax with its big sermon and action ensures a strong ending.
Watch the total paisa vasool Bollywood masala potboiler! SRK is having fun as an action hero after his romantic hero days. Pathaan scores over Jawan but let the audience decide!
Bollywood Celebrates Mahatma Gandhi!
The leading Bollywood director Rajkumar Hirani showcases the best Gandhian ideals in a new video. The special video is released for the birth centenary celebrations of Shri Mahatma Gandhi
The Rajkumar Hirani tribute features the following leading actors:
Aamir Khan
Shahrukh Khan
Salman Khan
Ranbir Kapoor
Sonam Kapoor
Vicky Kaushal
Alia Bhatt
Kangana Ranaut
The video was released by Honorable PM Shri Narendra Modi in New Delhi
Bollywood’s paradigm shift towards content-driven cinema and death of template movies cemented itself strongly after the strong winds of last few years. If you have reading my annual Bollywood reviews and other blogs, I have abhorred the template movie making where you leverage star access, big production house camps, promote mediocre cinema with heavy marketing and sell artistic cinema to commercial interests.
Public sab jaanti hai….
The Khurranas, Kaushals, Raos, Pannus have dismantled Khans…Content driven cinema of real India has charmed the audience over foreign locales and over-the-top cinema.
Let us start with a quick round-up of my favourite movies of 2018. Treat this as a watch-list for the Holiday Season!
Top 5 movies of 2018:
1. AndhaDhun
What a movie! Sriram Raghavan’s never-wracking and awesome thriller which keeps you on the edge of the seat. Brilliantly written, perfectly directed and wonderfully enacted, this is one of the best Indian thrillers.
Ayushmann Khurrana owns the film and enriches it with his complete subversive act. Tabu is a master-class and shows the eternal talent she is. Each and every character shine and keeps us hooked till the last second – including talented and under-felicitated Ashwini Kalsekar, cannot not see her in 2018 Radhika Apte and welcome back charming Anil Dhawan.
The scene where Ayushmann is playing a melody on piano and suddenly a dead body is seen in the room – it hits you out of nowhere. Or the cat scene. The movie is full of interesting shock and awe treatments with soft gloves.
Filled with Hitchcock motifs, effective music and open to multiple interpretations like Bhagvad Gita and Matrix, AndhaDhun is the best Bollywood movie of 2018.
2. October
Everything is not spoken in love and relationships. The feeling and spiritual connect is more important than the words and symbols. October is about love in its purest form. And it about us, our battles and our connect with the internal and external world.
Juhi Chaturvedi’s beautiful writing is amplified with empathy and care by Shoojit Sircar, after their earlier collaboration on Vicky Donor and Piku. One of the finest performances of Varun Dhawan and ably supported by Banita Sandhu. Watch out for the scene where Dan and Shiuli acknowledge the relationship – moving! Shiuli – what a name and aptly given!
Poetry on screen. Visually arresting. Touching story of love, loss and longing. Slow down India – this is the movie for the soul. Movie of the unconditional love and beauty of silence in a loud loud India.
3. Badhaai Ho
Badhaai Ho is the complete wholesome entertainer of the year! Ayushmann Khurrana shines in yet another celebration of small-town India’s coping with progressive views.
Amit Sharma challenges the age-old prejudices, shame and taboo of sex, desire, choice and individuality of senior citizens. The screenplay, editing and award-winning performances of the entire cast of Ayushmann Khurrana, Neena Gupta, Gajraj Rao and Surekha Sikri will give you a movie to relish and think. Humour is the best way to drive a message and Badhaai Ho does it in a perfect way!
4. Tumbbad
An Indian movie to be proud of! A visually gorgeous treat. Deep and intriguing metaphors.
Set in a small village of Maharashtra, Tumbbad is a psychological horror at its best. Fear is scary but greed of humans is scarier, and it turns men into monsters.
Solid writing, world-class CGI, Hollywood style production values, background music and awesome cinematography make Tumbbad a very distinctive movie. The Ship of Theseus man Sohum Shah delivers a performance that is par excellence. The transformation of his character from childhood to young man to father to his death is depicted beautifully. A original, courageous and haunting Indian movie! A different experience!
5. Stree
Rajkumar Rao charms us in an earthy horror comedy set in a small village Chanderi. The movie drives the message successfully through the travails of charming tailor Rajkumar. Terror strikes the village during four days of annual puja. Men are locked into homes in the evening. The eerie and comic situation arising out of a female ghost is nicely narrated by director Amar Kaushik. Pankaj Tripathi excels, and Shraddha Kapoor lends a strong support.
Apart from the above movies, the following movies deserve a strong mention:
1. Raazi
Meghna Gulzar directs super talented Alia Bhatt for a spy thriller. The Alia super show presents transformation of a Kashmiri girl into a trained spy with her vulnerabilities intact. Vicky Kaushal shines in the movie and cements his position as the emerging star of Bollywood.
The movie has been a safe play for Meghna Gulzar. The music is beautiful. The best part of the movie was equal and respectful treatment of both countries – unlike Pak-bashing Gadar type movies.
2. Manto
The moving story of the enduring and timeless Saadat Hasan Manto – honest, controversial and thought-provoking writer of the Indian subcontinent. Nawaz shines once again in a brilliantly directed Nandita Das movie.
Trust Anurag Kashyap to give a compelling, layered love story. The Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam inspired movie has fabulous performances by Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal and Junior Bachchan.
4. 102 Not Out
The successful Gujarati play was brought to the big screen with Amitabha and Rishi Kapoor leading the cast. The strong script was brought to life by the stalwarts and drove the message of living life to the fullest.
5. Veere Di Wedding
This is an important movie that strengthened the feminine power and broke more established views than any other movie. Full credit to the Shashanka, Rhea and the beautiful cast of Sonam, Kareena, Swara Bhaskar and Shikha.
6. Kedarnath
The Babri Masjid demolition anniversary saw the release of Hindu-Muslim love story set against the backdrop of Uttarakhand floods. Sara Ali is a product of Hindu-Muslim love story and Sushant is a heart-melter – the magic shines in bit and pieces in the beautiful backdrop of Kedarnath and today’s India. Could have been much better like Abhishek’s earlier Kai Po Che!
Sonu Ki Titu Ki Sweety was the sleeper hit of the year. The most average movie with a hit song and nice narrative hit the chord with the audience and went to make 150 crores. Pari and Mulk were nice ventures with Mulk shining with strong performance of Taapsee Pannu and Rishi Kapoor.
Karwaan and Qarib Qarib Single were the easy feel-good pictures featuring Irrfan. Karwaan was philosophical road trip with nice performances by Mithila Parkar and Dulquer Salmaan.
Hichcki, Helicopter Eela, Baaghi 2 were ventures with defined objectives. Canadian citizen Akshaya Kumar continued to charm Indians with Bharat ‘Manoj’ Kumar positioning in Padman and Gold. Padman has its heart in the right place and should help more conversations on the important topic for the emerging India.
Padmaavat and 2.0 (Hindi) were huge movies with the former courting controversies and controversies. Ranveer Singh emerged taller from the movie and Sanjay Leela Bhansali laughed all the way to the bank.
The Rise of Online Streaming in India
One must not forget the emergence of video streaming in India with HBO Go, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hotstar, Eros Now and Zee leading the pack. Netflix and Amazon Prime are in the hot race with significant spends. Netflix relies on its global model and both are investing in local content. It will help both the new talent and tired talent. Mirzapur and Sacred Games were gripping tales matched by powerful acting, strong direction and marketing-distribution of Amazon and Netflix respectively. Pankaj Tripathi ruled Mirzapur and gave one of the most memorable performances. Nawaz’s Sacred Games was yet another gangsta outing for him, where he ruled the show effortless – but no new breaking ground for him. Manto was more powerful and let’s wait for Thackeray movie.
The Fall of Mighty Names
The one you love the most can be the source of your biggest anger. Rajkumar Hirani’s Sanju deserves the top award for the most misdirected wasteful channelling of energies and resources of 2018. Raju Sir – How much we love you and own you for Munnabhai, PK and 3 Idiots. Why this Kolaveri Di?
Aamir Khan sacrificed his Midas touch for a few pieces of gold and created the biggest robbery against himself and his values in Thugs of Hindustan. I will not criticise Race 3 because I did not expect anything from it. SRK’s Zero proved that Khans need to move to new pastures and reinvent the game once again.
The Numbers
You read a lot about the new age movies and the fall of big names. What do numbers say? Sanju made 350 crores, Padmaavat made 300 crores, Thugs made 150 crores, Race 3 made 170 crores. Wow!
AndhaDhun made 110 crores, Badhaai Ho made 150+ crores, Raazi made 200 crores, 102 Not Out 112 crores, Stree made 130 crores. Manto and Tumbbad did not make much money.
The future is bright for Bollywood as the rise of content-driven new cinema continues with fresh talent. The hegemony of the camps and star-power has been shaken. The audience have clearly voted with their feet and the commercial Bollywood is smart enough to smell the coffee.
And as a Cinephile with interest crossing Silicon Valley and Cinema, I welcome the newest Bollywood fan – Elon Musk. Apple is due for the investment in Indian Entertainment space. Will Elon and Apple surprise us? Elon has lots on his place while Apple will take its time. Can Indian marketplace create a global impact?
Happy New Year 2019! May your life and year be a blockbuster hit!
Big Data is here – The latest buzzword of the Information Technology Industry !
The world is generating humungous amount of data every second. Rapid advances in technology is making analysis of such data a cake-walk. Big Data is influencing every aspect of our lives and will continue to grow bigger and better. Retailers will push us to buy extra chips and soft drinks from the nearest outlet as we will watch the T20 match with our friends and our favorite teams are playing. They will even recommend our favorite party songs CD and encourage us to donate a dollar to our often visited charity. Preventing diseases, share trading, marketing efforts and lot of other use cases are emerging.
Big Data is changing the sports and the entertainment industry as well. Sports and entertainment industry are driven by fans and their word of mouth. Engagement with audience is the key and Big Data is creating opportunities for driving this engagement and influencing audience sentiments.
IBM worked with a media company and ran its predictive models on the social buzz for the movie Ram Leela. According to the reports, IBM predicted a 73% success for the movie based on right selection of cities. Such rich analysis of social data was conducted for Barfi and Ek Tha Tiger. All these movies had a runaway success at the box office.
Hollywood uses Big Data big time ! The social media buzz can predict the box office success – more importantly based on the trending of the movie, strategies can be formulated to ensure favorable positioning of the movie. All science !
Netflix is the best case study of analyzing user behavior and hitting the jackpot ! Netflix original show The House Of Cards’ was commissioned solely on the basis of the big data results of the preferences of its customers.
Shah Rukh Khan’s Chennai Express, one of the biggest box office grossers on 2013, used Big Data & Analytics solutions to drive social media and digital marketing campaigns. IT Services company Persistent Systems helped Chennai Express team with the right strategic inputs. Chennai Express related tweets generated over 1 billion cumulative impressions and the total number of tweets across all hashtags was over 750 thousand over the 90-day campaign period. Persistent Systems CEO Siddhesh Bhobe said “Shah Rukh Khan and the success of Chennai Express have proved that social media is the channel of the future and that it presents unique opportunities to marketers and brands, at an unbeatable ROI (return on investment)”
Lady Gaga and her team browse through our listening preferences and sequences and optimize the playlist for the maximum impact at live events. Singapore based Big Data Analytics firm Crayon has worked with leading Hindi Film industry producers to understand the kind of music to release to create the right buzz for the movie.
Sports is another area where big data is making big impact. FIFA 2014 champion Germany have been using SAP’s Match Insights software. It has made a big difference to the team. Data was crunched relating to player position ‘touch maps’, passing ability, ball retention and even metrics such as ‘aggressive play’. Even Kolkota Knight Riders, an IPL team, to determine the consistency of the players based on 25 data point per ball. It helped in auction as well as ongoing training.
Big Data can definitely be a boon to the entertainment and sports industry. It can improve the profitability of the movies – always a high risk business. The green-lighting of the story to the cast selection to the timing of release can be determined. It can help to pick the right players for the sporting leagues – allowing talent to win !
Entertainment Industry leaders need to collaborate with the leading big data startups and visionaries to create new uses and deliver new success stories !
Get Ready For The Happy New Year Marketing Juggernaut !
The Marketing for SRK’s ‘Happy New Year’ has already started. If ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘RaOne’ and ‘Chennai Express’ experience is considered, expect a mega publicity drive.
It started with the full page advertisements at the start of the year. The latest one is the ‘Happy New Year’ auditions for acting with SRK on Groupon. It is designed to create lot of ‘user engagement’. By being part of the movie, the user will be more connected to the movie. The people who applied for the auditions will have an emotional stake in the movie. People are being gifted certificates etc.
Expect more innovations and more visibility campaigns from SRK. Expect to read more and hear more about SRK and its cast. There will be overt and covert approaches.
