News India Times

www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know News India Times January 07, 2022 Entertainment 19 Bollywood 2021: A Sweeping Change In Cinema T he biggest highs in 2021 were easily Sooryavan- shi in the theatres (it neared Rs. 200 crore with 50 percent occupancy in four Indian states!) and Shershaah on OTT (Amazon Prime Video grabbed this winner). Films that did modest business in the theaters included BellBottom and to a small extent Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui. The hyped “hits” that actually underperformed included Antim: The Final Truth and Tadap. And, shockingly, for a Christmas outing (the season that has given us Welcome, Ghajini, 3 Idiots, PK, Tiger Zinda Hai and Simmba among other humongous hits!), 83, revolving around India’s other massive obsession besides movies—cricket, has also not got the expected numbers. The biggest disaster of the year was Bhuj: The Pride of India, the Ajay Devgn-Sonakshi Sinha-Sanjay Dutt behemoth that attempted to tell the incredible story of Squadron Leader Vijay Karnik in the 1971 Indo-Pak war. It released on Disney+Hotstar Other major calamities were Sardar Udham (the Udham Singh biopic) that was sincere but too long and boring, and released on Amazon), Satyameva Jayate 2 (which was a disaster in every sense and was a big- screen release), Bunty Aur Babli 2 and Radhe—Your Most Wanted Bhai, which showed that Salman Khan needed to reinvent if he had to maintain his stardom. It was released during Eid in two theatres in the country (!!), and with paid views on Zeeplex, Zee’s channel. Of course, Jersey will release on the last day of the year and we keep our mind open for this remake of a proven Southern hit. On the OTT platform, Mimi did reasonably well. This adaptation of the Marathi National award-winner Mala Aai Vyaychaya (I want to become a mother) eschewed the melodrama in the original, made it lighter and modified the story. It was a winner on Netflix. The OTT (Over-the-top) streaming platforms, which normally acquire the streaming rights of theatrical re- leases later, has now become a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it ensures a certain minimum profits for the producers and no one can accurately disprove claims of a “success” or a “hit”. It thus saves filmmakers from losing their invested money while expanding their market to 100 or more countries. But on the flipside, it serves as a “recycle bin” for projects that should not have been made at all in the first place, like (in 2021), cinematic excesses like the horror films Roohi and Chhorii, the atrociously implausible Haseen Dillruba, the insipid State of Siege and the poor Dhamaka—each worse than the other! A plus point, however, was that it served to release deserving fare that would have been too niche and thus commercially not acceptable in terms of investing in movie tickets—especially during the pandemic. The fare that thus deserved a watch included Pag- glait (on a newly widowed asserting herself), Hum Do Hamaare Do (where a young man without a family adopts parents!), Rashmi Rocket (which seemed a normal sports saga but was a hard-hitting social post-interval), Bob Biswas (a fairly gripping spin-off from the 2012 ace Kahaani), Tribhanga (a high-voltage cauldron of a dys- functional family’s emotions) and Shaadisthan (a fresh take on gender equality). These films are strongly recom- mended for those who have missed any of them out, even By RajivVijayakar 2021 was like no other year for Hindi cinema. Not even like 2020, which ended on a desperate note as films that could not af- ford to wait, had perforce to be released on OTT. Ranveer Singh as Simmba and Ajay Devgn as Singham made cameos in Akshay Kumar’s Sooryavanshi Akshay Kumar & Vaani Kapoor in BellBottom Kriti Sanon played a surrogate mother in Mimi Sidharth Malhotra in Shershaah Vicky Kaushal essayed freedom fighter Udham Singh in Sardar Udham Photo Courtesy: Photo Courtesy:Universal Communications PRvia RajivVijayakar Photo:Universal Communications PRvia RajivVijayakar Photo :RajivVijayakar Photo:Hype PRvia RajivVijayakar - C ontinued O n P age 22