Reading a film by it's genre

I have never liked a certain kind of Hollywood movies- I never liked inter galactic warfare, anthropomorphic animals, flying men, elaborate sets and awesome CGI. I rather preferred watching films I could connect with. I liked watching Amelie (2001), because like Amelie I too love the sound of the pebbles hitting the water, and I like sticking my hand inside a rice sack. I like Persian movies- their subtle ways of story telling neither compares to the visual treats of Hollywood movies nor the total entertainment package that comes with the popular Bollywood movies. Hence I had always treated Bollywood and Hollywood as the less artistically refined cousins of Persian cinema.

Only recently I have come to view Bollywood as a "genre" in itself, and which can only be judged by it's own merits and not by comparing it with films from other film industries. As cliche as it might sound- it's like comparing oranges with apples. Bollywood's film making with it's music and dramatic story lines, shouldn't be compared to it's Persian cousin. Recently I watched the movie Secret Superstar- a movie having great promise only to be led down by it's own dramatic story line. However I liked the movie and it's dramatism is only befitting Bollywood.

If I'm to talk about dramatic story lines, every story is dramatic. Say for example in the Marvel/DC cinematic  universe, for every super hero there is one or more super villains. Then why should only Bollywood bear the brunt of being called formulaic? However Bollywood is changing it's ways. It's substituting elaborate song and dance sequences with slightly subtle ones. Some even go as far as eliminating song and dance sequences altogether. Bollywood also sometimes strays from it's conventional pattern of story telling in films like Finding Fanny.

While few critics have said that Secret Superstar as a film has nothing new to say, I disagree. Well of course Bollywood could have made the film more non-linear, more realistic, more believable. But of course it doesn't. It falls into it's formulaic ways. Far from considering the story as something with a tired story line, I would say it's informative. With the gradual evolution of new media, media is being consumed in newer ways. The "how" and "what" the people are consuming in the realm of media is fast changing. Such films educate a generation that it's possible to bypass conventional ways and yet be heard by the crowd. If it were upto me I would begin the story from the point where Insia starts getting views and positive comments on her first Youtube video. Insia's family background, the story of her guitar, her laptop could have been told eventually. Her rise in the virtual world could have been shown more realistically. The story could also have begun from the point when Insia is recording her first song. And of course my version wouldn't have had any dramatic speech by an award recipient handing over her own award to a newbie.

We all like to watch things which are believable and relatable, which is why films portraying the struggles of the middle class household is often so relatable and as a consequence immensely liked- be it the character of an under educated housewife (in the case of Sulu in Tumhari Sulu) or a struggling, dissatisfied journalist (Noor). However people don't always like to stomach drama, which is why often films of promise get lukewarm reviews. The sudden dramatic occurrences resulting from formulaic story telling tendencies is often disappointing and warrants a criticism that the story is poorly written. People tend to consume those media contents which tell their own stories which is why today people are avidly consuming web series- which often portray the urban youth- their attitudes and their challenges- the kind of content people often fail to get from the mainstream media.

When I say that films are to be judged according to it's own merit, I mean to say that films are to be reviewed inside the frame of their own genre, in their totality. When I watched Matrix (1999), at first it felt like a film with a lot of action sequences, and too little content on Artificial Intelligence. Later I came to appreciate the film in it's own merits- choreographing the action sequences is in itself no mean feat. Same way I think coming up with the design of BB 8 (Star Wars) or the pink or green skinned people (Guardians of the Galaxy) is quite an exhibition of creativity. I wouldn't review Matrix harshly, although I do think it has too little plot and too many fighting scenes which after a while gets boring. However as much as I think CGI sometimes diverts our attention from a poorly written story or a weak plot, without the CGI there wouldn't be much to see, would there (in movies such as Super Man)? And CGIs do work their magic, enchanting us into a trance. So even films involving a lot of CGI, without much of a story, well I would view them as just another genre of story telling.

(Opinions expressed above are solely mine)