The psycho genesis of the Indian Audiences towards Bollywood

The psycho genesis of the Indian Audiences towards Bollywood:

It’s the cocoon of comfort and denial which ‘Happily ever after(s)’ maintain.

‘The key to surviving surgical internship is denial. We deny that we are tired, we deny that we are scared, we deny how badly we want to succeed and most importantly we deny that we are in denial.’ This is a citation transcribed from Season 2 Episode 4 of a popular Prime time American TV Show.

What is most important for the overworked, tired, Indian audiences in the climate of professional competition then is precisely the blatant acceptance of this denial. This is assented to the fact that Om Shanti Om with its worldview of ‘Happily Ever After(s)’ succeeded to run parallel to the mentality of its audiences. Om Shanti Om was not so much of a movie about the movies or about one song with enormous number of Guest Stars, than it was about the usage of movies. The jokes weren’t funny and would be categorized by many, (not necessarily what is denoted as smart audiences, but the masses as well) in the rank of PJs. The ones which were really funny, offended the sentiments of many, for instance Manoj Kumar, India’s Pride. The plagiarism jokes, like ‘Dosti mein Thank you nahi hota’ came instinctively to those who were well versed with the popular movies, not everybody. The assumption is that most people have seen Suraj Barjatiya’s Maine Pyar Kiya, but those who haven’t seen it, could not follow it or get the joke. The editing genius shown in Om Shanti Om was similar to that of Jaaneman . The comic over dramatization in the first half turns serious in the second half, but fails to bring out the same effect that Dil Chahata hai did which brought different emotions to the same dialogues in ‘the Proposal to Shalini(Preety Zinta). Repetition of ‘similar lines’ to dawn the effect of familiarity was over done as well, be it the essence of the film itself, that if the ending isn’t happy then it is not the end yet. Even though the song Jag Suna Suna Lage, renders to touch hearts perhaps in ‘Ekta Kapoor’s K serials’, there was in fact no chemistry between Shanti and Om, their romantic relationship depicting only a mere crush of a crazed fan. Over all, the movie could be completely trashed by the critics on more grounds than one. Sharukh Khan or King Khan made his presence felt, literally in every scene. He is the King of the Glamour world, he is here to stay and he appreciates to rule. All this is too evident in both the onscreen character and the off screen character as opposed to Amir Khan, who makes his presence felt even in his significant absences. In so far he lives up to the name ‘Tare Zameen Pe’. Considering these factors, even the Trump SRK card, according to me fails to account for the success of the film.

Perhaps the mystery of the box office success lies in the anticipation as well as the need of the audiences to see happy ever afters’, masala flicks, Govinda movies. The clear evidence of the same is that Sawaariya despite the graphic presentation, powerful story line, a venture of Star families, candy boy Ranbeer Kapoor, good and popular musical score, failed to appeal to the masses. What failed was not the story, but the anti-anticipated climax, Sartre’s existential hero, the effeminate male, weak enough not to fight back or win the girl over, strong enough to be contended with ‘punching away’ the misery. ‘What if Truth is a woman’ said Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil). ‘ She is a woman, she is always loves a man of work.’ He answers. I don’t that this is true at all, but that sure is the cliché even in the fantasy world, which is where I would also like to place Nietzsche’s understanding of women, in clichés, in the fantastic.

We want the world of movies to keep us in the denial of fantasies, of happily ever afters. Even though the aesthetic theory of sadharanikaran or generalization may make one relate to the existential character in Sawaariya, the truth is that one does not wish to make that relation. Bollywood is a playground for the Shah-Rukh Khans. They help create the fairy tale for its audiences, fractured fairy tales have to still make a place in this world of illusion, Shrek has to make its entry in this the psychological sphere of the demands of the audiences. We are not there yet.

Conclusion:

We live in the world of denial which provides the comfort of ‘happily ever after(s)’.

Many would jump to present proofs about how this conclusion is wrong, but everyone does know that they would also know in their hearts that they will be bullshitting for the truth lies in denial (and there is a reason for that as well which I do not wish to detail here). After all, why else would Brahman lie in Maya?