Coming straight to the point, the irony isn’t that Hindi Cinema is constantly making poor to average mainstream movies. The irony is that here mediocre cinema is being celebrated and praised, taking the critics along and then the fans keep appreciating the film just because it features their beloved icon and they have to defend it to be in the competition.
With the same mindset, the opening of the film and the collections are discussed, whereas the content is not even considered (forget a discussion) in the case of films featuring the stars backed by the big production houses.
Talking about these two recent releases, where BELL BOTTOM is just a grand presentation of strictly average stuff as a real-life inspired thriller, BHUJ is a graphical exaggeration on the screen, of another lesser-talked about but a worth knowing chapter of our proud history.
Besides, while BHUJ straight away begins with all questionable sequences of attack on our forces, BELL BOTTOM comes to the operation post-intermission using its entire first half for the build-up. Plus, both the films, as usual, devotedly keep focusing on their leading man alone, forgetting all about how an operation gets attempted and successfully completed with a big, laudable, and worth-mentioning team effort. In the supporting cast, while BHUJ has all over the top acts, BELL BOTTOM at least has Lara Dutta trying her best in a forced make up of the former Prime Minister..
Putting it differently, where one might find it extremely tough to reach the second half of BHUJ, BELL BOTTOM can easily be seen skipping the entire first half without missing much of the operational proceedings. In short, both the films are not able to do any kind of justice to the actual line of events in their cinematic adaptations.
However, such poor to below-average attempts still have one merit associated with their making, as their only saving grace. They thankfully bring forward the forgotten chapters of our history, though presented with loads of gimmicks and creative liberties converting the inspiring stories into well-marketed (so-called) entertaining products.
Going back to where we started, it’s really sad that fake and forced appreciation itself is not letting Hindi Cinema grow and complete with the outstanding Indian Cinema being made in other regional languages. It seems Hindi filmmakers are fast getting habitual of creating mediocre content (in the awe of their stars) ruining such brilliant realistic plots that truly deserved to be revealed through some exceptional films.
Ratings:
BHUJ - 1 / 5
BELL BOTTOM - 2 / 5
