By Salman Akhter
Box office results are out and there might be a bright Diwali in the camp of ‘Om Shanti Om’and grey in ‘Saawariya’, looking at the facts of the performances of both movies, the first may have turned or in the process of turning in to all time block buster but the latter ‘Saawariya’ is soon going to enter in the categories of the Classics which were not money spinner on its release.
The major disasters in the history of Indian cinema were Raj Kapoor starrer ‘Mera Naam Joker,’Guru Dutt starrer ‘Kaghaz Ke Phool’, Dharmendra Starrer ’satyakam’,Anil Kapoor Starrer ‘Lamhe’. These movies may have catapulted a classic status but they were the utter disasters when released.‘Saawariya’ had many factors which helped to turn in to dismal at the box office, some of them are:
- Its publicity posters, promos and cast interviews gave the feeling of a bollywood kind of romantic movie, not a path breaking as it has come out as a movie in a imaginary world alongwith dreamy picturesque.
- Unwanted competitive release with Om Shanti Om, this may have helped OSO, not to Saawariya, when audience had a choice they were bound to divert to a wholesome entertainer.
- Script too had several flaws like Salman Khan’s ill itched character without any intesity of his love with Sonam Kapoor, where he come from, why he is disappeared. Even narration could have controlled these jumps.
- Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s outburst over the Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘destroy the competition’ comment, that signified his frustration over the not so encouraging performance of his film, Shah Rukh Khan remained calm over the numereous personal attacks from SLB, the fans of SRK who were willing to watch ‘Saawariya’ simultaneously, dropped the idea of watching it.
Despite some of above facts, the most positive aspects are also there, that are making this movie transforming into a classic:
- A movie of English Broadway stage show kind, has never been made on this scale in the history of Indian cinema.
- The ambience of the movie is maintained throughout, from first to the last frame of the movie.
- Its imaginary world, where all characters moves and behaves as of they are dreaming or living in their own world with no reality attached to it, even the romantic angles are presented as fake, while more emphasize has been given on its presentation, Shot composition, Colour Theme, Costumes, Location, Background music and bursting in a song every little while.
- The director has made it as he visualized without even compromising with the box office factors like happy endings.
- Kapoor clan Ranbir Kapoor’s presence and unmatched performance has further made this film a memorable one.
- A film came before its time, 10-20 years down ahead, there would be more movies of this kind as in Hollywood’s The Philadelphia Story (1940 ) Oklahoma! (1955) Guys and Dolls (1955) The King and I (1956) West Side Story (1961) The Music Man (1962 ) My Fair Lady (1964 ) The Sound of Music (1965 ) Oliver (1968 ) Funny Girl (1968 ) Fiddler on the Roof (1971) 1776 (1972) Cabaret (1972) Grease (1978) Brighton Beach Memoirs (1986) Evita (1997) Chicago (2002) and the intellectual audience of that time would understand it better, appreciating its visuals as moving paintings without hunting for entertainment in it.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali can eventually console himself of entering in the list of renowned makers whose work was appreciated and treasured as classic after their movies were declared a failure at the box office on their release.
2 Comments
December 5, 2007 at 12:07 pm
seems like Sunjay leela made film for his own creative satisfaction,why didnt he think commercial point of view during its making.
its already gone and buried.
im lookin forward to see his ‘bajirao mastani’.
June 20, 2009 at 6:39 am
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