Movie Maniacs
4am on a Friday morning. While most of India is asleep, there are a few people who are thronging in the long queues outside theatres to get a ticket and see their stars on the big screen.
In India, movie stars enjoy demigod status. They don’t have fans. They have fanatics. They have maniacs. The whole perception on the movies has changed now though. It has come down to 100 crore clubs(1000 crore may not be a distant dream)and record collections. While the stars fight it out at the box office, fans’ fight it out on Facebook and Twitter. These days we know the review of a movie before the movie actually ends. People decide to watch them on the basis of the ratings given in the websites, news channels, papers and magazines.
Times have changed. People no longer are just content with the content of the movie. As fans who worship their stars, they want the best out of their heroes(Hard fact but film industry after all is male dominated). It’s being extremely difficult for the movie makers to satisfy the fans. With so much money being involved the director feel that it is better to stick to a regular formula of few dashing dialogues, a few fights and six songs with an item number in between. They presume that people only accept a movie if it follows this regular formula. Having said that we have to appreciate the fact that they are a few directors whose minds implode with different ideas but are constrained by various factors.
People on the other hand think that movie makers don’t know how to make different kind of movies. They always make movies with similar story lines. It is a catch 22 scenario. We might have heard of student exchange program but these days we even get to see story exchange programs between the various “woods” of Indian film industry. At the risk of being biased, Bollywood and Tollywood. Movies are analogous with the competitive exams. The makers are students who strive hard for about an year. The result is decided within 2–3 hours. The difference is result is in the hand of student whereas in the case of a movie it is in the hands of audience.
In India, there are only two things which people are crazy about- Cricket and movies. Cricket is still going strong even though the team ain’t doing well. I believe same is the case with movies. Even though there are issues of piracy, single screen multiplex problems etc plaguing the film industry, movies remain the favourite pastime of people.
The word movies has it all- move us with ease. They make us laugh,make us cry. They have an impact on us. You may love them, you may hate them. But you can’t ignore them. Each one of us in a way are movie maniacs.
