class lO mass, mass lO weight! by Darina poye daanayya

When did it fork off? Right until that point, a movie was either good or bad. It ran solely based on its merit. Some appealed to the public and some didn't. Even in those days, a movie like "Kanyasulkam" bombed while mindless fare like "Gandikota Rahasyam" sat well with the public. The makers were still toying with the right formula to make a hit movie. Chances were taken, trial and errors were performed, more sheep were slaughtered and more rabbits were sacrificed - in the end only a certain minimum number stuck to the wall and the rest of them bounced off. The end wasn't in sight and neither their efforts were bearing fruit. Tired and jaded, they took an easy way out. Instead of trying to appeal to everyone, they applied the divide and rule concept and started to cater plots, subjects and movie lines according to the cranial content of the movie going public. Little did they realize, what they unleashed was hundred times more potent than plutonium, more powerful than Frankenstein and stronger than that uncontrollable genie that was left out the bottle. What they stumbled upon, accidentally and unfortunately, was the great class divide!

The inability to make a good movie, without con'descending' to the audience or dumbing down the content, was passed down to the public as a bonus feature. Makers started to compete on whose movie is the most idiotic or whose movie is the most mindless. The justification given was equally laughable - We, the makers, are in the entertainment business and as our name indicates we make business by providing entertainment, we are providing what the public loves and the public loves us for it. Though this would seem as a "chicken and egg" syndrome from the outside, a closer introspection of the problem would reveal the serious lapses in the movie making process from the business end and ludicrous sloppiness while putting together a movie from the creative end. As with every business, controlling costs is what makes or breaks a movie and following the money would trace how the standards of movie making have declined over the period of years. Even a questionable movie with tight control on the purse strings would yield the right returns and vice versa, which brings into sharp relief the efforts that our makers go to bloat up the costs to make their product glossier. High priced heroines, who are as valueless as Mexican currency in Taiwanese markets, exotic foreign locales, which the audience would not even bother to look at during song sequences, tending to star's egos and heeding to bad advices - the net result, a movie becomes an exercise that simply isn't about the movie anymore.

Recouping the costs becomes paramount than the production at this stage. The pressure to get droves into the theater obviously drives the quality down. Man, if anything, is an instinctive being. Excite the instincts, titillate them, cater to them and he would be back again for second helpings. In the end, what started off as a mismanagement of funds during the production ended up as movie that appeals just to the base instincts, all in the name of entertainment. Well, enough trying to blame the makers. Let's observe this reverse trend from the audience end. A good movie always demands some sort of an emotional investment. A symbolism, a metaphor, an under-current, a subtext - all these need the audience to put in an extra effort. We have become a generation that seeks instant gratification. We rather watch the news on the television that read it the same in the newspaper. We rather engage our eyes while watching something, than involve our brains trying to understand it better. We blame the failure of a good movie, not on our laziness in trying to understand it, but on the maker's sensibilities in making too classy.

The word "class" is as dreaded as the word "AIDS" in this era or the word "plague" in the bygone. Makers make every effort to hide their movie's "classiness" - "Yeah, it is a mass movie with a class touch to it" is the oft repeated mantra. The term "good" is the first causality in the war of class and mass. We are caught in that twilight zone of perpetual mediocrity. The makers fear making a good movie, lest they become bankrupt, the audience do want to encourage a good movie, lest they get over their laziness. At the end of it, movies are not merely a primary source of entertainment, they are a collective social responsibility. Since the movie form has completely usurped all the other art forms, it becomes an major onus on the movie form to pass on the legacy of good taste and good sensibilities. As we evolve from generation to generation, as our IQs increase with each passing generation, as we become more mature and intelligent than any of our previous generations, let our movies evolve with us. Let not our present remain a blot between the past and the future!

maasu bommalu paluku aaDambaramugaanu
claasu chitraalu paluku mellagaanu
maasu bommala kaasulu claasulaku laevayaa
viSwaddadhi raama vinave sinee seema!

- Daarinapoye Dannayya

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