My first proper blog is about something that has not only been a part of my life but has also been a part of the lives of my friends in greater or lesser degree over the past few years. These words that follow is about "Bhagmati", the live action/animation movie that was released last Friday all over India. Projected as a unique phenomenon in the Indian Film Industry, Bhagmati has turned out to be an apt example of a great idea being ruthlessly slaughtered by a mediocre thinker.
The ideal elements to start of making any movie are three - a good idea, a good budget and a good crew. In the case of Bhagmati all three elements were present. So what went wrong? In spite of everything going right for it, how could it have possibly become such a disaster.
Let me talk about why the film was a failure, even before it was released. The greatest strength of any film is always its story/script. In Bhagmati the story was it greatest weakness. Almost every cliche of historical movies was present. The dialogue was stilted and old fashioned. Today's audiences are not only smart, they are also spoilt for choice. There are so many things competing for their attention that any bad product is immediately doomed.
A romantic film must have compelling characters as protagonists. Dialogues can and sometimers do help, but flesh and blood characters are always needed. 2D animation is good, but to have your live action characters also seem two dimensional is a crime. You may have the best animators, best actors, best music directors, but a bad script IS a bad script. The fundamental rule of film making is - Bad script = Bad movie
Even though I haven't seen the movie yet - I will. For the simple reason that many of my friends were involved in the making of Bhagmati. I respect their talent and hard work. But I'm also very curious to see how an inflated ego can destroy a beautiful idea.
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