It requires Glamor ..err
Item Girl to bring the viewers’ to the theaters. Else they would have preferred
watching pirated copies at home and posted updates on social media about the
ridiculousness of the movie. Item number is generally misunderstood to be only
the song with skimpily clad women dancing on a sensuous number. It’s a host of
thing if you and includes anything done to show-off/sell rather than delivering
the value to the customer.
Item numbers cannot be
understood without understanding piracy. Piracy steals away a huge chunk of
what any movie can make. The reason behind placing item numbers in a movie is
to make it a financial success. A simple analysis of movie watching habits in
India would lead to the conclusion that all movies will become box-office hits
if piracy was eliminated. This is based on the fact that most of us watch
pirated movies.
Piracy is of multiple
types ‘Based Upon’ & ‘Inspired’ are among them. While the former is way
which expresses gratitude to the original creator, the latter is a legal way to
pirate. Its’ a crime only when done at the highest echelons, a regular practice
by the masses, justified in the name of being socialist by courts and a skill
that can get you employment. Shocked! But its’ a truth the industry would never
agree to and job seekers resort to. Original content and thought are
increasingly becoming a fad and the pace of duplication with a little editing
has become a sure shot method to achieve success.
Creators have learnt to
live with little doses of piracy in the name of journalism/media but contest
full scale piracy. This has led to the creation of a parasitic species of
commentary (read news shows) who make their living by showing bits and pieces
(read highlights) of everything available. These shows have their own space in
the heart of audience and non-primetime or else what can explain shows like
‘Comedy This Week’. News is increasingly becoming a legitimate way of lifting up
content.
Our liking of item
numbers is a subconscious event which owes a lot to the mad run of the world
which has made everything including entertainment a mode of enhancing
knowledge. So when the viewer goes to watch a movie, a part of his brain wants
him to collect information and the other part seeks entertainment. It is this
part that loves item numbers in between serious storyline. An item number or
songs in the movie has nothing to do with the story but provide pure
entertainment man has known for centuries. Singing and dancing are the most
democratic form of entertainment while cinema is sought after as it is
difficult to make and includes almost all forms of entertainment. Another
primary reason of cinema being such a great success is that it serves us the
life of others in a palatable form.
The liking for cinema is
to a great extent due to the fact that survival and success in the human world
has always been highly dependent on information about others’ lives. And its’
not humanly possible to do a man-behind the life of others, be with him every
moment to see the story for himself. With 7 billion stories unfolding in some
part of the world, man cannot decide which story to follow before it starts
taking shape. And that is said in a figurative sense, it is not humanely
possible. Thus, we prefer an already happened version when the teller knows the
story is interesting and the listener wants to hear an interesting story.
The show business as
cinema is called, is a very sophisticated business and involves a host of
people with skills, equipment and a lot of money. And this is the reason behind
cinema ranking so high in the entertainment quotient. These are principles
which have been put to practice since but the reason today I am digging/writing
this research paper is that Chetan Bhagat has questioned this accepted status
quo and reopened the dialogue (even this blog!) or shall I say figurative
reading by one of the AAP followers.
If we evaluate the
comment without considering the intension and context behind, there is nothing
wrong in an item or two to sell the actual movie. As it stands, the film
industry is run by a coterie that produces super-human action packed sequences
or romances which do not happen in real life. The cast in movies or politicians
in Congress come from a few families and there is nothing wrong in it as it
worked. As any businessmen, Congress and Film Producers are reducing their
exposure to risk as the Indian masses readily accept a change from within the
system. This fact makes it even truer that AAP is like an item song of Indian
politics. And there is nothing disgraceful about it. Even Priyanka Chopra has
endorsed the Darwin’s theory of survival by adapting to item numbers.
In the current political
setup, the common man feels devoid of a promising future. Contemporary politics
is like clutters of high banners of tall claims of performance at prime spots.
Indian politics has touched its’ lowest ebb so much that the entertainment
value of some blockbusters is nothing more than the trailer/teaser.
Item numbers put up a
show and sell the otherwise inferior product called movie. Many of do what item
numbers do for making a living. It is what Marketing is as a profession. This
is what Chetan Bhagat himself did to catch the imagination of the youth of
India by writing/proposing simple solutions which were not academically
brilliant. The same are being brought to action by AAP. If this is what means
to be an item number, then there are a lot of item numbers playing in the nations
psyche. I am an Item Song. You can be an item number and set the stage on fire
and arouse interest or be caught up in the stigma and await to be a movie no
matter successful or not.
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