Those of you who know me well
will also know that Bollywood and I are not the best of buddies. Well, we have
had our differences. I have always complained that Bollywood does not provide
enough movies that compel one to think; that compel one to use the grey matter.
Bollywood, on the other hand, has tried to prove me wrong once a while. But the
attempts have been lacking in number. Though, I should not entirely blame it on
Bollywood. In the end, we usually get served with what we demand. Any art is
partly a reflection of the society that the artist lives in. Anyways, that is a
discussion for some other day. This post is not about the ideological differences
that I have with Bollywood. Instead, this is about a movie that might usher
many new precedents in an Industry that badly needs a change. This post is
about ‘Ship of Theseus’, a movie that challenges you and honors you for being
there.
So many distinguished industry
veterans, movie critics, international reporters have given their thumps up to
the movie that words such as astounding, brilliant, breathtaking seem over
used. I dare not go the same path. For a change, I will keep it absolutely
short and simple. SOT won’t give you a sensuous dancing scene or an action
filled car chase or a hot item number or the usual stuff. It isn’t designed to
do so. Simply put, SOT isn’t an everyday project. It will not insult your
intelligence. On the contrary, it will reward you if you are open to thinking
about the ideas that it presents. Though one will have to be patient. SOT takes
its own sweet time but the experience is surely rewarding. The richness of
ideas presented is the highlight of the movie. I am sure that if I watch it
again I will pick something new. And to me, that is a sign of a classic. There
is a lot that deserves a mention here but I am choosing not to do so for two
different reasons. One, I would prefer the viewer to form its own opinion on
this piece of art. And second, there are certain interesting developments that
compel me to write about them.
SOT has triggered a new
phenomenon that might interest a lot of tech-savvy people out there. The use of
Social media and Internet for movie promotion is not a new concept. But with
SOT, UTV seems to have experimented something new. Realizing early that SOT is
not a movie for the masses, UTV has tossed the ball to the viewers. Initially, they
released it only in six cities and started an online petition on their Facebook
page to bring it to other cities. Viewers can choose to vote if they want SOT
to be screened in their city. This is helping UTV target the cities for
subsequent screenings. UTV hopes to rope in more cities in next two weeks as
more and more movie viewers get to know it by word of mouth publicity.
Intelligently enough, UTV has minimized the use of mass media such as TV
trailers and hoardings for promotions. Not only this, twitter is being aggressively
used to reach out to more and more people. For the first time, I have seen an
official movie account retweeting most of the common tweets about the movie to
connect with movie viewing community. According to SOT maker Anand Gandhi,
Internet holds the key for future of movie promotion. The way movie makers are
using internet to reach out to their target audience without investing heavy
bucks is exemplary. In a way, this augurs well for low budget movies that are
not made for the masses and are denied production because of concerns on their
commercial viability. It still needs to be seen that how much SOT will be able
to impact the future of artistic cinema in India. But surely enough, it is a
welcome development.
