3 Idiots managed its spell of magic in such a short span and left most of us gasping. Well, seems magical. 2009, the year that it was, bleeding, bruised and disrobed of its rightful honour till few weeks before end, had a fabulous run in the slog overs like the Indian cricket team. Saving the best for the last. But it came with a pinch of the worst too. How?
It’s almost become such a sort of an anthem that it now even sounds clichéd to say “All is Well with Bollywood”. There couldn’t have been a better end for a year, definitely not for a bad year that it was. And the dream run has seemingly just flown into 2010. The New Year is yet to unfold with and for its big flicks. But the two small-budget films have given early signs. Two slick flicks on day one, wow! Have heard Raat Gayi Baat Gayi is intelligent. So have I also heard aboutNatrang. I’m planning to watch both, this weekend. Sadly though, most of our Indian folks would never get to hear about either of these movies. Small budget. Hard luck!!!
Yes, that is what makes us the Idiot audiences of India. Please go on. There’s more to it, in here.
In one of my older textbooks on advertising and marketing I had read – “doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. Only you know what you are doing. Nobody else does.” It cannot get truer than this for filmmakers with a shoestring budget but clear vision. Yet, they often succeed to make good films. Thankfully, we Idiotsare so humongously populated that even 0.5 percent of us makes 6 million (of us), good enough to help small but good films survive.
But, if you have good money and plenty of it, any crap with even very little substance can not just survive but actually thrive. Now, please don’t give me wrong examples like a Blue or so asking why they didn’t. You know the answer better. They only had money and nothing else to show in the movie in order to take the Idiots for granted and for a ride.
What hurts is the way poor spenders are taken for granted, if calling it “taken for ride” sounds harsh. Without any malice toward anyone, my reference here is to 3 Idiots.
Saying that Raju has made yet another fantabulous film, taking us into a different comfort zone with 3 Idiots, I won’t be doing anything new. For the third time in a row he has given us a flick which makes us believe and wonder that simple can still be so good and vice versa. Reminds me of Hrishikesh da, minus his modest props in the backdrop. There is this goodness to Raju’s craft that nobody else masters better at this moment. Vinod Chopra has been the common factor along with him in all three. For the beginners, I am referring to the earlier two Munnabhai success stories.
However, the downside of Raju’s craft has also been prominently noted this time in the shape of his tendency to easy swap and flight between the reasonable and unreasonable, as per his convenience. This time, while he has again done a genuine comedy and satire, the references to clichés are also more than ever in any of his films. 3 Idiots is different from the earlier two because it tries to accommodate almost everything under the sun in less than 3 hours and easily oscillates between simple and a little slapstick kinda stuff. Yet, nothing less than 4 stars to 3 Idiots.
The reason I have started believing of ourselves as idiots started with the first promotions of 3 Idiots. It is not that we were not or, not treated as or, did not recognize of ourselves being idiots earlier. But, this time, they called us so in the open, staring in our eyes and we gladly took pride in it. The entire marketing gimmick of 3 Idiots has been too slapstick, insensitive and insulting. Nobody took it otherwise though. My question is had we taken it with the same ease if it weren’t for the Perfectionist (read Aamir) at it again.
Mid-November I was back to Mumbai after a brief tour and what I saw at the back of hundreds of autorickshaws was humiliating. I also prefer autorickshaws or a cab better for short distances given the Mumbai traffic. However, on one such instance, having reached the destination and paid the auto driver as it went past me, the realization was humiliating. I had just been termed an Idiot. Most of the autorickshaws had stickers behind them reading “Capacity: 3 Idiots”.
Next in line was the weird and bizarre PR campaign on TV with Aamir himself acting buffoon and roaming places. Our cash-starved poor news channels indulging into all sorts of crap and slapstick PR content took it to another level with 3 Idiots. Jai Ho!
Everyday, news channels would announce that Aamir is out to some city, some land, some place in search of long lost friends and kin and, not surprisingly, in a guise. He left a clue or two and threw names of cricketing legends Sachin and Sourav, among others. The latter received and read out letters too, supposedly sent by Aamir. Only later to find out, on TV itself, that Aamir had met some unsuspecting fellows (read Idiots), talked with them, ate together, searched for his long lost family members and so on. All in disguise. On camera. And people not suspecting it was Aamir himself. I was amused to think if the media design and strategy was making Idiots out of those so-called unsuspecting fellow or, treating the entire Indian audience on TV as Idiots? If Aamir was in disguise and reaching out like a commoner for promotion, how was he never away from camera? And, if he travelled all along with camera, either the media designers were trying to prove that people on ground were fools or, those who followed his entire itinerary on TV were bigger fools. Undoubtedly, they were trying to fool all the different people at different times. With ease. With the celebrity-hungry masses, sabkuchh chalta hai (take it easy, it’s fine)!
But, how does media go on to lick its own spit every time? The same actor who thrashed, abused, neglected and even went on to rip the media apart on several occasions to the extent of getting physical is hailed by the media right before the release of each of his films. We saw him sitting on protests with Rang De Basanti and leading to controversies. He was visiting places of children’s interests with Taare Zameen Par. Ghazini got a barber out of him. 3 Idiots got the idiot out of him and of us. Media is not to blame for this all. Any news related to big stars sells. And, there are no permanent enemies or friends in the marketplace. Many more Raat Gayi Baat Gayi’s can come and go. How does that matter?
Move on. The latest chapter in the book of 3 Idiots is the spat between the storyteller Chetan Bhagat and the producers. The entire 3 Idiots team and Chetan are now on confrontational terms and on the first day of 2010 we saw footages of the film crew lambasting at a Press Meet. It was bit ugly. But tolerable!
The issue is the charge by Chetan that he was not given due credit in the film, appearing only at the end credit, that too in an unceremonious manner. That was bad. He deserved and must have got a place in the main credits. But, perhaps he didn’t know the business of deciding such details when entering into the contract. As for his charge of the story being abused as per filmmaker’s convenience, I would side with the Director and Producer. Chetan wrote the novel. But, the film was theirs and the writer should not expect the entire book to go into the film as it is. Film is a Director’s medium and s/he is free to cook a story for its cinematographic adaptation. If Chetan was so concerned about his story and the credit, he should have decided all the terms in advance. Given his experience in the market, I am tempted to think he must be well-conversant with all such clauses related to IPR, editing and presentation after so many of them with his publishers by now.
We can see the contrast in how Danny Boyle treated Vikas Swarup the Author even even though Slumdog Millionnairewas quite different from the book. Simon Beaufoy won the Best Adapted Screenplay and said without Swarup there would have been no movie and no awards. Swarup was credited for the novel and went up on stage at the Oscars. Vishal Bhardwaj dedicated a clear credit to Othello which actually became Omkara‘s USP. I am sure, 3 Idiots would not have been such a rage and success without a Five Point Someone.
My only apprehension is that it should not be a part of the deliberate media strategy and plan of 3 Idiots’ media designers. To create some unwarranted controversies and generate attention. If not so, why was 1st January with long weekends selected as a date for again erupting this controversy? Probably to exploit the full potential of the second week for the film which is already receiving overwhelming appreciation.
Yes, my only plea is to request the media designers to not to go overboard. The audience doesn’t remain as Idiotanymore. Had the audience been so idiot to take every crap easily, 2009 wouldn’t have seen so many flops.
A good film will succeed on its own merit. Right promotion, positioning, right-sizing and marketing will help it exploit to the fullest.
Dear filmmakers, we should be aware of these media designers who tempt us to create such unnecessary sensationalism lest we start losing credibility. Let’s stop taking the audience as pure commodities without their senses intact, high time.
When we have such a good film like 3 Idiots, let’s try to ask the audience to watch it for their intelligence and not because they are intimidated. Intelligence lasts. Good memories last. Raju’s films will everlast. Such idiotic controversies do not.
Did I sound too Idiotic? 
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