Tacky antics Bollywood can do without

When it comes to melodrama, nothing beats B-town. Even the A-typical ‘saas-bahu’ serials take a beating when it comes to making audiences teary eyed.

Tanu Talwar

When it comes to melodrama, nothing beats Bollywood. Even the A-typical ‘saas-bahu’ serials take a beating when it comes to making audiences teary eyed. And on any given day, Karan Johar can beat Ekta Kapoor if it comes down to choking us with emotions. But quiet frankly, viewers have had enough and several small budget films doing astoundingly well at the BO is a clear indication of a shift in audience preferences. So, for the betterment of those who still wish to stick with the dance and song routine, here are a few antics filmmakers need to get away from: Melodarma: Sob sob sob… there is just so much travesty and emotional overdose audiences can take. Family fights, miscommunications and tacky lover tiffs, melodramatic sequences just make us yawn and are nothing but verbal vomit. What’s interesting is that where at one point these scenes were considered quintessential for Hindi films’ successful innings at the Box Office, today they guarantee a ruthless review.Songs unlimited: Make a musical if you want to, but don’t dupe the viewers in the name experimental cinema and bore them with 14-15 songs. Better to make a crisp, snapper of a flick than have actors dance like puppets around tress and what not. Quiet clearly, it’s about time that filmmakers get offended by the ‘song and dance routine’ jibe than to just gulp it down with a pinch of salt. Remake to remake: From English to Hindi films, our directors practice no restraint when it comes to making a copy. And more often than not, the case is that they do a sloppy job when it comes to making a remake of a superhit. Wonder why anyone would attempt to perfect a masterpiece like ‘Sholay’ or ‘Stepmom’? And even then, they refuse to learn and declare to make copies of films like ‘Amar Akbar Anthony’ and ‘Inception’. One advice: Don’t even try!! Slapdash action stunts: Nothing spoils a good film than bad action sequences. And sadly, our Hindi films are loaded with such follies. Exaggerated and unbelievable, action lovers are left reeling for better quality action stunts that go beyond car accidents and punching brawls. Sluggish dialogues: Clichés and cheesy dialogues are overused in Bollywood. And it’s about time that we stand up in arms against it. From overdone bedroom talk to shoddy threats for evil doers, bad dialogues make a mockery of not only the actors but also audiences’ intelligence. Cheap publicity stunts: Mindless controversies rule and link-ups are the order of the day when it comes to publicity. Every film makes news for all good, bad and ugly reasons post its release. Then be it playing on religion, love-affair or any other sentimental card, a film’s success depends more on actors’ off-screen antics than how they act onscreen. Sleazy skin show: Be it an item song or swimsuit sequence, skin show has become a necessary norm for any film. Then, whether the script requires it or not, skimpy clothes and erotic dance moves are the highest USP for movies these days. So long has the flesh flashing strategy been in play that it has stopped working. As of now, it’s thought of nothing but a cheap gimmick to draw eyeballs. Sequel after sequel: Good, bad and even horrible films are followed by sequels these days. Banal scripts and plot dead potboilers boast of sequels. And it remains a mystery to us all that how a film so bizarre and low at Box Office collections can not only recover its cost but also have a sequel following it closely.