Bollywood: Pride or Shame?

Why Bollywood doesn’t appeal to people with a wide spectrum of movies watched? There is a very ‘logical’ reason behind it. Requirements: Read it till the end open-mindedly.

My first point of reference to portray it would be the list of highest grossing Indian movies in India as of now:

In this list, the utter mediocrity level movies are abundant such as Dhoom 3 on 6^th, Dilwale on 11^th followed by Kick and Happy New Year on 13^th and 15^th places respectively. Seriously? A highly mediocre and plagiarized version of Fast and the Furious is the 6^th best movie Bollywood has to offer?

If this is the kind of movies that make moolah, why should a Vishal Bhardwaj or an Anurag Kashyap invest into one with substance? Why slog hard to make good, original music when no one cares if you rip-off an Asian artist, or an African one? Why focus on honing one’s acting skills when all you need to land a movie role is a pretty, manicured face and a good, toned body?

Why?

Unless there is a reaffirming answer to the above questions, this industry will continue to churn out dull, uninspiring romantic flicks, prep them up with the same, formulaic songs, and the coming generations of the Kapoors, and the Khans, and the Roshans will keep laughing at the naivety of us Indian movie-goers, while stroking each others’ egos on Koffee with Karan.

Another point here would be,

One big thing Bollywood misses is the Method acting style of performance. I have to step down and say it, Bollywood actors have become too accustomed to a luxury life to even put in a little effort for the role they are in. Shia LaBeouf took acid for Charlie Countryman, Heath Ledger locked himself in a hotel room for about a month to prepare for his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight, even Jared Leto did. That's dedication. Tearing off your branded clothes on the set isn't. I've seen tons of Bollywood movies to say that in 90% of the roles, the actors seem as if they didn't even understand the character they were playing. Seriously, think of it.

Also,  the lack of good actresses

Kahaani, The Dirty Picture, and Queen were the last movies with female lead characters, were box office hits and were pretty darn watchable. Guess who has the most Academy awards in Hollywood? Katharine Hepburn - an actress. There are tons of other brilliant actresses who can dynamically lead and totally conquer a leading role in a movie in Hollywood. Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Hilary Swank, are just to mention a few. The purpose of an actress is to act, not to dance an item number or to play the damsel in distress being saved by the hero. Female actor industry has made their topmost requirement as good looks over good acting moving actresses such as Bipasha Basu and Parineeti Chopra going higher and higher in the charts with wonderful method actresses such as Richa Chadha trailing behind.

And finally,

What is the basic necessity of any movie? Yes, a plot. Bollywood seems to forget that totally. It seems like a 10-year old got an amazing idea to write a book, got bored and ran out of thoughts in the middle and somehow managed to end it with plot holes so big that the Hulk could fall through them. A movie is a process.

A man comes up with an idea. Pens it down. A director finds the idea and realizes that he can put it on the giant screen. People fit for the character in the story are found. They try their best to adhere to the needs of the story. The cinematographer films. The editor edits.In Bollywood, a man with some money wants to make some more money. He finds the best selling actor in the market at that time. Even though, his persona doesn't fit the character at all. He finds the hottest girl who will be willing to shed a few threads off her body. Add in an item song. Cinematographer only rotates the camera around her boobs and butts, and viola, we have a weekend blockbuster.

Bollywood needs a serious jolt to the head to wake up. For that, we need to educate the masses. Education is the answer to 99% of India's problems, and, fortunately, Bollywood is one of them.

NOTE: Maximum portion of the article is taken from various answers about the questions related to the topic on Quora, the rights belong to the respective writers and not me. I only stitched these answers because I thought I should promote this topic and widen the audience reading this phase of the subject.

Do you Travel?

For me, travel is a lot of things. To me it’s a religion which enlightens me, it's an adventure which is unpredictably thrilling and it's my romantic love story into which I fall deeper each moment. Travel is your day to day life. A person isn’t defined as a nomad or a traveler by how much he travels but by how he travels through his life. A true nomad, to me, is a person who is entirely or partially detached from the do’s and don’ts of the society and human relationships and finds peace and freedom pretty much away from them, resting on the lap of the wilderness and nature. So why does someone travel? 

Travelling brings out happiness in life as we don’t spend most of our time untangling the complex web called society.We, as travelers seek for only one thing, happiness, and intend to gain it by spreading it; mostly detached from human-made illusions such as jealousy, power, fame and money because in the end ‘Happiness is only real, when shared’. The true spirit of a traveler lies in radiating happiness and spreading joy with everybody because as you travel you meet different kinds of people and you tend to adopt more of an accepting nature rather than being critical and judgmental because wisdom lies in realizing that a different opinion doesn’t mean a wrong opinion. We choose this life because we realize the complexities and sentimental pain in the world created by people and hence we choose to find our happiness in the paradise regulated and ruled by ourselves which is free from sorrow. And as we move along, we slowly start to find simple joys of life. We start cherishing the life as it is and tend to find joy in rather simple things such as a bird chirping or a cool breeze. We intend to find our ultimate paradise lying under the shade of a big green tree with a pleasant cool breeze swiftly running through our faces, watching the birds dance and sing around from one branch to the other. 

Nomads seek for a getaway. A getaway from all the pain, the misery, the problems, the complexities of life to a simple and carefree environment, away from these… all alone. It is important and crucial to travel alone sometimes. Traveling alone provides you with the knowledge of your true strengths and weaknesses away from complex illusions people create. 

Travel is all about self-discovery. Being away from everything and looking at everything to untangle the web of your life pondering what truly matters in life. By traveling, we attain wisdom to pursue high ideals and realize how illusive life we were leading because when we leave everything behind, we come to know their true worth. Mostly, we realize that we valued the unimportant things in life way too much.  

While experiencing these things, our first reaction might be to compare it to home, where our lives seem very mundane and safe. But really, traveling is a lesson in appreciating where we come from. Differences between our culture and the ones we are immersed in during our travels make us realize just how much we take for granted in our lives back home. 

We enter into the nomadic lifestyle as painful and tired humans and we come out as strong and clear-minded individuals who pursue wisdom and high ideals as the bond between nature and a man promotes creativity for the construction of a good life. Traveling around the world alone develops a very crucial trait in oneself i.e. being independent: When you travel alone you encounter a lot of different circumstances, which in routine life would require another person to deal with. But when you travel alone, you embrace independence, you learn how to overcome your sorrows, how to cherish your happiness, how to motivate yourself, needless of any other person to share it with, which in turn makes you strong-willed and independently free. 

The romance between a vagabond and the road is ecstatic and blissful. Traveling alone enriches a man with wisdom and the ability to appreciate what truly matters. It also matures a man to be happy with the simple joys of life and detach from everything to appreciate and find his own true self. Travelling fills every heart with eternal happiness and exciting pleasant experiences. In the end, traveling means exploring yourself because travel is not about the journey you take outside, but about the one, you take inside.