That the Indian cinema – Bollywood – is a corruption of the very basis of cinematic story telling is an overstatement. I have made this overstatement many times, but nobody seems to care.
However the following from the newspaper Mirror got my gall:
“Bhansali and his team are very confident about Ram Leela. His lead pair Ranveer and Deepika has put in extra effort to ensure their performance is top notch. In fact, Ranveer has worked hard on his body while Deepika has undergone vigorous training in dancing.”
What’s wrong with you film people? Or, is it something with the shoddy reporting that is to blame. After reading “Ranveer and Deepika put in extra effort to ensure their performance is top notch,” I waited with bated breath to find out what they had done, have they been trained by some acting guru, have they been given some lesson in screen histrionics by the great Anupam Kher, have they done some voice training?” What?
No, sadly, they built their muscles and worked on their dancing skills. So films’ success these days depend on the six-pack abs on the actor and the actress’s dancing skills. I guess Oscars also should be given to the hunks who sport their pectorals on screen. And the thin anorexics who dance “Item Numbers.” Shouldn’t it be?
Ever since Sylvester Stallone flexed his muscles for Rocky and Schwarzennegger came on the scene (don’t know how to spell that chap’s name) actors have latched on to this mistaken notion that it is muscles that make them good actors, not acting skills. I think this needs to change.