Hindi Science Fiction Film

Bollywood is famous for its romantic musical films. India houses some top notch graphic studios. It’s not like our writers are brainless twerps. Then why can’t we spin out a good sci-fi/ fantasy film? Recently, many an attempt has been made in making sci-fi and super hero films. Namely, as already mentioned, Koi Mil Gayaand its abysmal super hero sequel Krrish, Love Story 2050 (God help those who watched it!), Robot(mind it!) and Shah Rukh Khan’s latest flop venture Ra. One. Talking of Indian super heroes, I can’t help think of Shaktimaan, even though it was a television series, he was the first Indian super hero projected on screen, and pretty obviously was a shameless rip off of Superman and his reporter girl friend, (whose name I just can’t remember) a copy of Lois Lane. Shaktimaan’s cheap golden suit didn’t help his image either, but kids took to him in those days, at least the Indian kids who were not aware of American super heroes. But let’s give Shaktimaan a benefit of doubt for he was a super hero on television and on DD1 (Doordarshan, our only national channel then, pre-satellite TV era). That was still in the 90s.

Today, a decade after the advent of new millennium, we are still producing cheap sci-fi movies with a bad concept. Even in the 1980s, when graphics was an unknown word and films could not be digitally altered, Hollywood produced films which have gone down in history as epic legendary films- Terminator, Star Trek, ET, Ghostbusters, Superman, Batman, each and every one of these are a known name across the globe. The stories were original (super heroes were obviously adapted from comic books), the plot- exciting and thrilling, the characters- completely convincing, costume- authentic (as opposed to funny).

Terminator had a story unheard of before. A robot from future comes back in time to kill and later save a person who will change the course of history. The scene where the Terminator’s (Arnold Swazeneger) face is half torn off and reveals the machine he is, still looks real to us, in an age which has become advanced. Our bollywood ‘inspired’ versions are Robot and Ra. One. Ra. One being a big budget film, no expense was spared in terms of graphics. But the scenes still looked digitally improved and the story was half baked. Same goes with Robot. In fact it was the worst kind of sci-fi/superhero (?) film made. The film hardly had a story, if it’s told in brief; it will sound like a 7 year old spinning a tale. The film was made because ‘‘Rajnikant’ is God and can do anything!’

At the time E.T. was made, it was the best of its kind, in fact even today when asked to name an Alien related film; the first name that pops up in our head is E.T. In comparison, Koi Mil Gaya’s alien Jaadu was perfectly created (because he was made by Australian experts), the story could have been authentic rather than a copy of a Hollywood film. Star Trek was a film unparalleled. Even its sequel Star Trek into Darkness, (released last month) could not live up to the original one. Take superheroes for example,Superman, Batman, Spiderman, the list is a long one, and each and every one of them was portrayed as perfectly and super-humanly as in the comic books. India lacks in popular superhero comic books, (if you ignore Nagraj, Doga, and some other attempts at making Indian comic book superhero) but even when created for a film, super hero rather looks like a grown man in Halloweens costume. Take Krrish, the film shifted its centre from Krrish’s love secret life to love life to his father. Even if we pull out the superhero factor, the film would stand, so who needs a super hero in the film then. Love Story 2050 is better off UN-discussed. The graphics were bad, the story was worse and the costumes were worst!

The reason behind Bollywood’s failure in making sci-fi/ super hero films is that, firstly most of the time it copies Hollywood films. Even if it does write its own story, it’s half baked and the character of the hero does not have the super hero qualities. Producers try to save time and money on D.I. and graphics. It either takes time or resources to put together such films. For example, the first scene in Harry Potter and the DeathlyHallows Part 1, where a bridge collapses in London, it took a whole year to render and complete those 10 seconds where the bridge collapses. Producers and film makers in Bollywood are skeptical of the audience reaction because they themselves are not convinced with the film. They sell the actors to the audience, rather than selling the film.

This might sound like an insult, but it’s the ‘Indian mentality’ that’s stopping our film makers from making a decent sci-fi film. If they can manage to break free from the stereotypes and the trends of Bollywood, no one can stop them then.