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Indian Movies - Very Much Without Verisimilitude
Cine Cynic
Last week, I pondered about the director's need to research about a subject that is an important aspect of his or her movie. Extending that thought process, I feel that verisimilitude is a quality that lacks in most of our movies.
Everyone is doing a good job with railway stations. But take a police station, for example. I have only had the opportunity to see them from outside so far, but the friends who have been inside assure me that they are nothing like what they show in our movies. Walls are not painted in red on the lower half, and white/off-white above. Cells are not always visible from the first room where most of the cops sit.
This was perhaps true about stations in the olden days (pre-Independence?). The sets in our studios erected decades back may have been renovated and repainted but not rethought about. Today's stations are usually dilapidated independent houses which have been furnished to suit a work environment for cops. I must say that Bollywood is doing a good job here, considering the sets in the multitude of cop tales being produced. Telugu film industry remains far behind and blissfully ignorant.
And what about the jobs? Novelists and short-story writers take pains to glean tidbits and jargon about various jobs, especially the jobs of their protagonists. Arthur Hailey was hailed for taking years for each novel, and oft-quoted as an epitome for researching.
Film makers, however, are exploiting the 20% rule to satisfy themselves and the audience. The 20% rule, say in animation, suggests developers to ignore 80% of a fast-paced action and to concentrate on the take off and landing of the animation. Like in a sequence where Tom chases Jerry. The chase itself is shown as a blur but the initial and final microseconds are crystal clear.
I recently watched a nondescript movie where the hero repairs a car that broke down. We have all seen it a number of times. The camera shows a closeup of the hands, then a closeup of the heroine waiting, then a longer shot of the sweaty hero collapsing the bonnet, and finally a closeup of getting some water to wash his greasy hands. The entire activity is not glossed over because it is a trivial issue; it is glossed over because our film makers aren't patient enough to clearly define that car problem and find out (theoretically) its solution.
When I learned driving, my driving school skipped the theory class where I was to have learned changing tires, pouring water in the carburetor, and making minor repairs. I always wish one of our movies imparted a little such knowledge.
Showing details about the above activity would make a greater impact when the character has a job of a car mechanic or, umph, engineer. People among the audience who really have that job feel proud and thankful for showing a snippet of their everyday lives, and the remaining who are in obscurity have an 'aha' moment.
Today we take for granted the omniscience of our protagonists whether in driving and fixing vehicles, or wielding and defusing weapons. The conflict, if any, faced by the protagonist no longer carries that high tension among us had we known that the protagonist is like one of us, without all the knowledge about the universe.
Verisimilitude is not an end in itself, rather a means to increase our belief and tension in the story.
Indian Movies - Very Much Without Verisimilitude
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temporal
URL
August 3, 2008
03:14 PM
welcome to desi:)
look forward to when you tackle the imposition of the western construct of "love" in indian movies
Anamika
August 3, 2008
04:23 PM
Temp bhai, be nice! you cant welcome someone to dc with that! ;-)
CC: can i ask you why is "verisimilitude" so necessary for films? and can you tell me about that same "verisimilitude" in films like Syriana, Blood Diamonds, Bond series, Leaving Las Vegas, and hollywood's "blockbusters" ad nauseum?
Enquiring minds want to know....
smallsquirrel
August 3, 2008
06:19 PM
I don't mean to be a shit, but I think the use of a ten dollar word in the title where a number of 50 cent words would have worked will put a number of people off this article.
temporal
URL
August 3, 2008
06:54 PM
tch! tch! ana and cs
why can't you mince words?
***
achcha, thoughts on love in indian movies....no make it Love....as a western construct shoved down our cyber turbans
(ss remember you are an honourary desi..."rise me-lady!")
khair
last night by the lake my friend A said we desis have lived for centuries, married, consorted, cared, procreated without Love and now suddenly in the space of 5/6 decades we are singing in the rain (while circling the tree or paddling in the river)...he insisted it is SO un-desi ..this overt display of Love...all this tactility in public
a chastised t immediately removed his hands from around m before protesting...citing sassi-pannu, heer ranjha...actually he cited lalila majunun and shireen farhad first but a shot it down as persian-arabic...
m, attentive, uttered one word - "un-consumed"
a picked up on it and agreed vociferously: those were not everyday examples...yore...and lore...and yes...unattained and unconsumed....dastaans and folk tales
...khair....phone rings...continue with your thoughts...shall return if needed
commonsense
August 3, 2008
09:37 PM
Oops, Temp, perhaps you meant SS not CS? I haven't yet infected this thread with pointless drivel :)
commonsense
August 3, 2008
09:39 PM
SS,
I think a simple spell-check would have pointed out the correct spelling for "vermilion"" (sp?) or sendhur
smallsquirrel
August 3, 2008
09:48 PM
common, I think I am lost... vermilion????
temporal
URL
August 3, 2008
10:03 PM
stand corrected
meant ss:)
Anamika
August 4, 2008
05:31 AM
#6 and 7: Think that reference is from that wholly verisimilitude driven film Om Shanti Om, as in "ek chutki sindoor...." The issues with versimilitude of vermilion are of course obvious. Lol....
Funnily enough thats the only Hindi a Scottish friend of mine knows...makes her hugely popular with the back office in Hyderabad who all kill themselves laughing....
anand
August 4, 2008
07:34 AM
i disagree indian movies are already ridiculously long
smallsquirrel
August 4, 2008
07:48 AM
anamika... oooooooooo, I finally get it! LOL. and I just watched that movie like a week ago.
(one year olds fry the brain cells)
commonsense
August 4, 2008
09:57 AM
yep, the author was trying to type vermilion (a staple of indian movies) but ended up with vermisilitude...which is very strange, because a lot of indian movies are very much about vermilion
Cine Cynic
August 9, 2008
04:08 PM
Thanks a bunch for stopping by.
Temporal, special thanks for an article idea. I've noted that down in my diary. One day...
Syriana, Blood Diamond, Bond series, Leaving Las Vegas are all movies rich in verisimilitude, Anamika. Even the Bond series in its own way. Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas is however far from a blockbuster, and a wonderful movie. When you see these, you think, "This is the way such and such character would speak or act, owing to their own background or the setting they are in."
You've a point there, smallsquirrel. But I still haven't the faintest idea of what could've been a better word choice.
I haven't watched OSO, but thanks to your comment, CS, I get the joke now.
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