Chetan Bhagat Vs 3 idiots team: The controversy

The controversy involving the makers of 3 idiots and the author of the book five point someone Chetan Bhagat has been going round for quite a while. Before I take a stand on the issue, it is better to have a look at what has transpired. So, here goes the story.

3 idiots is one of the biggest hits of the year and is touted to become one of the biggest hits of all time. It is apparently loosely based Chetan Bhagat’s five point someone. According to the director and makers of the movie, only 5% of the movie is based on the novel and the rest has been penned by the writers of the movie. HoIver, those who have seen the movie including me feel a lot has been taken from the novel and it is definitely higher than 5%.

If one looks at the business side of the whole episode, the makers of the movie claim to have bought the copyrights of the novel before making the movie. But what Chetan Bhagat’s complaint is not about the percentage of inspiring from the book. He is claiming that he hasn’t been given proper credits for the story of the movie. The makers hoIver claim that as per the agreement he was given the payment and also the bonus promised if the movie turns out to be hit.

As per the copyright laws, one can use the product he or she has brought the copyrights for, but there is no clause about giving credit to the author. It is purely based on one’s ethics about giving credit for the original work. Hence, I feel the makers of the movie should have given more credit to CB for the story department. Having said this, CB took more than 3 or 4 days after the premiere show to vent out his anger and that too he claims was started only when he started getting fan mails to his inbox.

I feel it is irresponsible on the part of CB to not have raised this before , during the filming of the movie and discussing about sharing credits during the agreement phase itself. Also, if I look at the fact that CB is a MBA from the country’s top engineering college, it is disheartening that he himself has not taken the copyright laws seriously and not ensure proper justice for himself. This tends to show the way Indian look at the copyright laws. Overall, I feel 3 idiots team have done injustice to CB, but CB himself could have avoided that. It is high time , the media and the film industry become more professional and take copyright laws and its agreements seriously like Hollywood does.

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3 idiots: Masala puri , but where is the taste?

3 idiots is a movie about 3 friends, each having different family backgrounds and hence different nature and different view of life meeting at the country's top engineering college, starring the marketing machine of the country, Aamir Khan and with an ensemble of cast who can make any other movie maker jealous,. The story follows their life for these 4 years of their lives with loads of comedy and sentiments in the movie. Sounds perfect, right?

But in my humble opinion the movie is hardly perfect. A movie preaching about doing things unconventionally and questioning the conventional ways of our education system , takes the conventional bollywood masala way of becoming a hit. Otherwise how do you explain the typecasting a south Indian as being one who does not know hindi and all he knows is to rot the books and vomit it out on the papers. How do you explain the over dramatic and loud climax where a vacuum cleaner is used for doing delivery of a baby or the scene where a paralytic patient is carried to a hospital in a scooty that too with two other passengers. These were nothing but an insult to the medical profession in my humble opinion.And did you know that you can steal another person's degree and get a job with it and that too a degree from the country's number one engineering college. Well this was a news to me and I feel how come I did not know this all this while.

3 idoits teaches us to be unconventional in a conventional way.

Two 40+ men and a 30+ man playing engineering college students, well this sounds so much filmy. Yes, the movie has certain funny scenes and dialogs, but most of them have been lifted from forward messages one gets on his/her mobile phones or from you tube videos. And as for the sentimental scenes, they have been lifted from the maker's previous movies,how convenient. Then why not read the same engineering book again and pass out with flying grades. After all it is the same thing right. As for the performances, Aamir is as usual very good, apart from that Sharman Joshi gets good scope. Kareena has a very miniscule role. Bomman Irani is over the top and bad. Music of the film is strictly ok and goes well only with the scenes. Cinematography is first rate. With more than dozen sponsors for the movie , the kind of publicity done for the movie and the kind of compromises the movie has done for becoming a hit, the movie is sure to become a massive hit and the makers can safely say " All Izz Well" but I doubt if they will be able to do it with their hands on their hearts.

Rocket Singh: Sheer honesty

You have rooted for Bhuvan's team in Lagaan, Coach Kabir Khan's team in Chak de India and many such under dogs in the films. Prepare to root for Harpreet Singh's small team of salesmen, who prefer to do business honestly rather than following the usual path of salesmanship. On the upfront neither the premise of the movie, nor the pace of the movie looks appealing to you but what underlies is one of the most honest and realistic portrayal of the characters and situations seen in recent times. The opening credits of the movie, watch out for what comes while showing names of each person, sheer brilliance.

The movie preaches a very simple and fair formula for business, which all of us seem to have forgotten that of being honest with the partners and being loyal to all of them. The office politics, the usage of the word "attitude problem" , the bullying of the weaker one in the office are all portrayed in a never seen way. They look straight out of our own experiences.

The way inexperience shows up and the plans screw up on the part of the Rocket Singh team are a treat to watch. The scene where Ranbir talks on phone with the head of the same firm he is working in as head of Rocket Singh team are a fun to watch. You wait for such scenes when they actually meet again in the climax, when eventually hero wins but alas they are not there. What you get is a silent and underrated symbol of triumph in a simple dialog. Wonder why, we all are more confident to speak to our superiors over phone than face to face, that too about such topics. The best thing about the movie is the honesty it preaches and also practices. None of the scenes, the scenes of victory or the scenes of defeat are handled over the top. There is no steorotyping of the characters. Each character seems so genuine take for instance the computer assembler Ranbir loans from. They are not shown to behave in a fashion just because they are from a certain part. The writer in the movie is a winner all the way. Even after the hero has won all he is fighting for he finishes the job he currently is doing . That is the kind of simplicity and honesty the movie is preaching. As for the performances goes, you will not find any great performances. The reason being that they are not actually performing, they are just acting natural. Such natural performances are difficult to find. Couple of songs are good and hummable. Cinematography has no great role as most of the movie is shot indoors. The movie does not make any compromise like the characters in the movie for it to be a hit and that is what makes this movie the most honest movie I have ever seen. Hats off! Respect the honesty of the makers, watch it for once, am sure you won't repent. It is a once in a lifetime opportunity at least for now.

Life rolls on...

Well, it has been more than 2 months since I have posted. Not that there was nothing worth posting. Lot many things happening in fact. So much that I did not find time to post it here. This ,this and many other events both on professional and personal front keeping my clock ticking. Meanwhile, the things that I found worth quoting here:

• India Australia ODI series was an amazing tour. A second grade Australian side, beating India quite convincingly was indeed a proof of the strength Australia have and it rebuffed claims of anyone toppling Australia from the top spot in near future.
• The India-SL series has been a who cares series for me at least. With pitches like concrete pitches being used for the series it is a nightmare for the bowlers and test matches lacked the intensity.
• The NZL-Pak series was a well fought one. After a long time we witnessed some quality fast bowling in that series.
• Watched umpteen number of movies in this time frame. The best among the lot being Paa. Balki had impressed me tremendously in Cheeni Kum itself and I was waiting eagerly for this one. And it proved to be a worthwhile wait. If you are not of the kind who is impressed by the wit and the casual dialogs in the movie, there is the genius Amitabh in a never seen avatar. Overall a tremendous movie experiece for me.
• Another movie which impressed me during this tenure was Peranmai in tamil. Though you get a feeling that it could have been so much a better movie, still it was a nice attempt. The lessons on the global economy and guerrilla warfare are indeed a nice thing to be shown in a tamil movie. All this comes with a cool and restraint performance from 'Jayam' Ravi.
• Watched a highly violent and offensive movie called Renigunta. I feel it is time tamil movies stop churning out the violent and sad ending village based movies. What started as a fresh trend has so fast become mundane.
• Lot of movies to be watched in pipeline. Rocket Singh, 3 idiots,Kurbaan,Avatar all looks promising.

Symbiotic money minting ways of Indian television channels and movies

The showbiz business is the one of the biggest money minters in the country. Over the time, the movie industry in India has metamorphosed itself into a fully grown professional business unit. Now and then there have been changes which have helped those involved to mint more and more money.

One of the recent advancement is the entry of the movie makers into the TV world. While UTV took the approach of venturing into movie making first and then launching a movie channel of its own to showcase the movies and to leverage maximum benefits from the television rights of the movies. Down south, Sun network and Kalaignar network have well established television channels with a strong viewer ship and now they have ventured into the realm of film producing. This helps them to market their films to the wide audience they already have through their strong television base. Now with Sun TV cruising fast in the DTH space through its Sun Direct DTH, it has more control over distributing contents and can play strategy games with competitor show times and signals.

In either of the cases, the aim is to leverage as much from a single product possible and more importantly not allowing other competitors to gain out of it. Apart from the earnings gained off the movie’s theatrical runs, the producers have the television rights of their movies specially guarded for their channels to showcase the film on a festive season , thus gaining maximum revenue possible.

The television channel also acts as a publicity media for the movie telecasting exclusive premier of the movie songs for the first time . The relationship between the movie and television channel can best be described as a symbiotic one where both parties stand to gain from each other. The best thing about the whole part is that audience get to see these movies very early these days but 50% running time for advertisements as well.