I belong to
the tribe of those who had heavy expectations from Thugs of Hindostan. Like
many I did not exactly celebrate the failure of this hugely anticipated movie.
Yes I did laugh at the army of humour filled memes that came out once the below
average content of this movie started hitting all of us. So many of us who are
either Aamir or Amitabh or both fans would be feeling a bit low and some of us
might be getting involved in the war of fans on social media.
However in every
big positive news there is a element of caution and in every story of gloom
there is hope hidden somewhere , same is the case with this debacle of Thugs Of
Hindostan. The message to an arrogant bollywood is loud and clear. You can hog
the screens. You can monopolise the choice offered to a viewer. You can ensure
that your movie gets extended holiday weekend. The audience will now put its
foot down and show you the door. Beyond the weekend and blind fans there is no
hope for such low on content high on commotion cinema. Race3 was the first
warning and Thugs of Hindustan is almost a final decision from the courts of
the audience. The decision is give us cinema of content or we prefer to watch
TV or cricket home, or we will still walk in to the cinema but go for the
better content three or five week old movies. How many of you would have bet on
the fact three weeks back that Badhaai Ho will end up earning more than Thugs
Of Hindostan. You can hold on to your chairs while you read this but so far as
Indian Box Office is concerned that is looking a clear possibility now.
This is good
news any which way you look at it. For sure it will hurt the egos of big makers
and hopefully in a positive way. Imagine a determined Aamir Khan willing to
make up to the audiences with his next and what if he chooses to have Amitabh a
part of that one too. Indian audiences are always willing to forgive and
forget. Imagine a studio like Yashraj going back to the Yash Chopra days when
content had some respect. This is also good news for the audiences who for once
seems to have send in a united voice. This debacle will also force the ready to
hype it up Mumbai club of reviewers that audiences will not buy into their
hyped up content either. To be fair to the reviewer community they seem to have
been reasonably honest with TOH.
This debacle
coinciding with content based movies still running strong purely on word of
mouth is also restoring faith that slowly after almost a decade of shoot and
scoot cinema its usability as an effective tool seems to be coming to an end.
It can be termed as poetic justice that a trend of huge screen holiday releases
which started with the Aamir superhit Ghajini which also made audiences look at
how many crores and not how much content is ending with an Aamir starrer. Given
Race3 and now TOH makers will be brushing up screenplays, those who don’t are
signing the death warrants of their films.
It is good
news that so far as commercial viability is concerned suddenly a Tabbu is
coming across as a better bet than hear my accent shake my rear Katrina. People
are now preferring to fall in love with a great actress and not a hyped up item
girl.
Therefore as
an audience and as a fan of Amitabh and Aamir, in that order, I am happy Thugs
of Hindostan bombed. In fact its working at the box office would have been the
bad news. Directors will now give these two war horses better stories. Producers
will look at the thrill count and not the screen count. You have to look at
this movie failing and movies like Andhadhun and Badhaai Ho as the great churn
that is happening in Bollywood today. Those who do not respect it will perish.
In that sense failure of Thugs Of
Hindostan is the best gift the audiences could give themselves this Diwali.
Good take on Masala bollywood moviemaking & taking audience for granted.
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