Rishi Kapoor bashing writer-director Anurag Basu for being solely responsible for the debacle of JAGGA JASOOS, once again points towards the changing relationships in the industry post every Friday release as per the box office performance of the film.
However the truth remains that here the films are not getting flopped, but actually their budgets are. In this particular case too, the mistake was not in the director and his team’s choice of content but in the years spent in its making and spending too lavishly on an experiment that was supposed to be completed well in time and within a limited budget considering the risks involved.
Delaying a film or taking too much time in its completion resulting in an over-budget venture is not an appreciable feature affecting quite a few good directors in the past too. Besides, not having the final copy ready even two days before the release, is without any doubt unprofessional and questionable as expressed by the concerned father. To name a few, just try to recall when you last saw the movies of the exceptionally talented and successful directors like Shekhar Kapoor and Raj Kumar Santoshi, having more than one delayed or shelved project in their careers, which could have been a real treat for the viewers in all respects.
Having said that, I am not in complete agreement in Rishi Kapoor being severely vocal against the director in a bad taste as Anurag Basu is only the man behind the most appreciated as well as successful film of Ranbir Kapoor’s career titled BARFI. No doubt here one always conveniently tends to forget the earlier success of the same director-actor combo due to their latest failure.
Moreover I never found blaming each other after a debacle any kind of wise or understanding characteristic of a person (in any field for that matter) when the final product is a collective result of a TEAM.
In other words, a film’s success or failure is the success or failure of its entire creative and technical team and not because of any particular person. Yes, the director is the captain of the ship duly guiding and leading his talented team, but he is not entirely to be blamed for an unsuccessful film by a veteran completely ridiculing his creative vision and execution to the level of disrespect. Anurag couldn’t deliver this time, which is a part of the gamble, but I wonder what would have been Rishi’s expert comments if the film was a big success earning loads of money. As a matter of fact, JAGGA JASOOS is not any BOMBAY VELVET completely falling flat and rejected by almost everyone amongst the viewers. The film has still earned decent appreciation from a smaller section of audience for its innovative and partially entertaining content as well as the unusual music.
On a concluding note, we do need directors thinking out of the box taking the Hindi Cinema forward breaking the set pattern. But they too need to take care of the time period and expenditure involved in such experiments as more responsible creators.
Cheers!
(The article also got featured in UC-News mobile app in July 2017)