Yes, it’s 14th November. And while I was in the Fame multiplex to see Tum Mile, I decided to take a look at the CBFC certificates of all running movies lying in a corner. It had some 4 movies in different languages, Hindi, English and Malayalam that is. And out of these four, there was only one movie, Ajab Prem ki Ghazab Kahani, with an Unrestricted (U) certificate. Rest three, that is 2012, Tum Mile, and Pazhassi Raja had (U/A) certificates.
When I came back home, I opened the site of Fame again and saw that out of the nine movies they were showing, APKGK was the only movie with U, while Ek Niranjan (Telugu) had an Adults only (A) certificate. Rest all movies had (U/A) certificates.
No, it’s not that we’re not at all making movies for children. We got Aladin and Bal Ganesh 2 released this month only. But what is the result? Bal Ganesh hardly had any viewers and the movie earned a mere twenty thousand rupees per print. Still, Aladin was where people had hopes. But the reviews were bad and most of the people preferred to stay home or watch London Dreams.
So where did we go wrong? Was it the directors of Bal Ganesh 2 and Aladin or is it the audiences? No, public is not wrong. This very public did go to the cinema halls and watched Taare Zameen Par. And this public is also going to see Paa. So is it the directors and producers who are to blame? Well, to some extent, yes. But they’re not the only ones who are responsible for this scenario. It’s the producers – who do not want to risk their money on Children’s movies, it’s the directors – who fail to see what they’re making, it’s our reviewers – who only write how ‘they’ liked the movie and not that children would like it even if it’s technically not perfect, it’s guardians – who think about their own entertainment more than their children and who think a CD (many times pirated too, esp in towns) and Cartoon Network (and Disney and Nick and Hungama) are enough for children, and it’s we, as a society who want a good movie every week but don’t demand five of those fifty-two movies for children.
Yes, Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan make Taare Zameen Par and Paa but these movies come not even once in a year. We need more good movies for our children. And in case you have children with you and haven’t seen Aladin and if it’s still around, go watch it with the kids. For once, you may enjoy less but I it’s their day, and a weekend too. Gift them something.
By the way, I forgot to write this thing while reviewing APKGK, the best part about the comedy of Rajkumar Santoshi in the movie is that it’s nowhere cheap. In fact after long I saw a good comedy that I could sit and watch with the whole family, without being embarrassed. Thanks for that Mr Santoshi.
Tags: mind etc
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hmm.. that could be said.. but if you look at tare zameen par or the upcoming paa.. it is not really a childrens movie.. how many kids are gonna understand and really enjoy such a movie… the real appreciation from the movie come from parents or adults who have to look after kids.. bringing a kid to watch the movie adds an additional psychological attachment to simple brilliance of selling box office tickets and DVDs.. people are tired of watching the unreal and other people cribbing.. we want to watch something real where one finds hardship and continues on a line of action that brings a smile in the end.
Hey, thanks for visiting. Well, talking of Children’s movies, I was here counting even the movies that children can see, like to see, even if they’re not specifically made for them. If we talk of movies made specially for children the number goes even down.
It is the movie makers that do not want to risk money on children themes. If you look at Hollywood, there is whole genre of cartoon movies like ‘up’, ‘nemo’ to name a few where the story is brought to life. We had one like that in ‘hanuman’ but we need a lot more. It is really sad that children don’t have a movie to go to that we can say is clean except for a few here and there.
@Hari
True, I hope filmmakers make some more movies for children. Or else they’ll have to do with Cartoon Network only. Not really great.