Now before I start, I would just like to make clear that this conversation, this soliquy commited to paper, are just my thoughts, and my thoughts only, not intended to be inflammatory or desultory in any way. I apologize in advance, however, because of some topics covered in this blog will quite select, and perhaps not part of general consensus. The topics will probably range from Film to Sport to my world view, as well as this, it will have a Indian slant to it, which as I realize may not be everyone’s cup of tea..
Anyway, disclaimer out of the way. We can get on to something proper, you know I was musing the other day, and a thought or a realization came to me about the Indian Film Industry, or Bollywood for short. Being quite an avid film fan, and an Indian who isn’t too anglicized to have forgotten our national language, I quite like Bollywood movies, and have grown up watching them. Now Bollywood has never actually been in my opinion, a bastion of talent by any means of the word. Formulaic love stories, dancing-around-trees song dance routines, and the inevitable corny moments that make people cringe the world over are just part and parcel of a hindi movie. However, one soon learns to disregard these moments, chalking them up to either inexperience or the culture gap between the Eastern and Western styles of filmmaking and consider the positive points about them. And, if one does do this then one starts appreciating Indian cinema, all the more. And with this appreciation comes the realization that Indian cinema has had many fine actors and actresses ranging from Smita Patil, to Jaya Bahaduri-Bachchan to Tabu, Kajol and Rani Mukherji on the actress side, as well as Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, and Hrithik Roshan on the actor side.
However, as I say a realization struck me the other day. None of the current bollywood actresses can act with any conviction. People may disagree with me, but I would have to stand firm on this point. None of the current bollywood actresses can act, and when I say, I don’t mean the Aishwariya Rais, Preity Zintas and such that release a movie each year, and who have for one of reason or another have relativistically speaking, fallen out of public favour. I’m talking the new-gen actresses i.e Katrina Kaif, Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu, Neha Dhupia. Those who know Bollywood will have got the picture by now. And those you don’t, the best comparison I could possibly give is Megan Fox. Most of these actresses are in movies for the exact same reason she is, they look good. However, in the case of first two atleast Megan Fox can speak the language in which the film is, without any problems or guttural accents masking her pronunciation. I mean, seriously the bollywood industry has got to be falling down on its head, when Kareena Kapoor is the no. 1 actress. Her two claims to fame, her illustrious film family, and lest we forget, her willingness to strip down the barest of essentials in so called ‘glamourous’ roles. Glamorous roles of course meaning, movies where ‘fill-in-the-space’s legs are supposed to detract from the fact, that this movie has a paper thin plot. Katrina Kaif can’t even speak hindi properly, and she is acting, same with Deepika Padukone, and I could go on.
Conversely though, on the men’s side, the pool of talent seems to be in rude health. With youngsters such as Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan mixing with older and seasoned actors acting professionally for once such as Saif Ali Khan, Akshay Kumar, as well as the big man of Indian Cinema, Shri Amitabh Bachchan, still looming large on the film front. Credit must also be given here, even if I believe he is overrated, to Shah Rukh Khan, still coming out with new stuff.
This imbalance set me to wondering, why this was happening? Why were there so many talented bollywood actors, whereas on the other side, the dregs remained. Interesting question to think about, I think?
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