Template movies…..

It’s been some time now since my last post and I decided to take this topic up for the greater good of the average Bollywood cinema-goer. Not that many people are going to read this post. Also, it is not like I am too much concerned about what Bollywood offers us. This post is a result of innumerable conversations I have had with Hitesh and Kiran every time one of these TEMPLATE movies releases and we keep on cribbing and make a collective decision not to watch the movie.

Though I must say that most actors/actresses are guilty of acting in such movies I have few repeat offenders in mind – Imran Khan being one of them. Imtiaz Ali and Karan Johar are repeat offenders in the director and producer categories respectively.

Moving on to the template, it is as follows:-

• The hero and heroine are child hood friends
• Either of the two gets into a relationship/ gets engaged to someone else (sometimes Step 2 Is iterated with multiple people)
• The said person in 2 above starts getting confused whether he/she is taking the right step
• The other person goes out of the way to convince his/her friend that they are right
• In the end, the external forces (read parents/ career/ friends etc) make them realize that they are best suited to each other and they oblige. THE END

Another variation of the above could be that Step 1 and step 2 are swapped. i.e. the hero and heroine are already in a relationship with someone else but they  meet each other later and it’s the same step 3 onwards.

The first movie that comes to mind is Imran Khan’s Jaane Tu ya Jaane na…..which starred none other than the great Imran Khan. After a couple of non- template movies like LUCK and KIDNAP, the great Aamir Khan’s great nephew came back to the template. What followed was a barrage of movies all of which are same.

• I hate luv stories where Sonam Kapoor is a colleague
• Break ke baad where Deepika Padukone is a childhood buddy
• Mere Brother ki Dulhan where Katrina Kaif is his would be sis in law. (This one follows the variant of the template)
• Gori tere pyaar mein
• Katti Batti

To be frank I haven’t watched the last two. But I don’t think these would have been any different. Once upon a time ..dobaara and Matru ki Bijli ….were also template movies but the focus was not on the hero-heroine alone. All this while, the only non template movie he acted was – Delhi Belly. Ek main aur ek tu was a bit different

Let’s move on to Imtiaz Ali – I have already written a post on this great director, Each of his movies are one and the same. After the above post, he has come out with Highway and Tamasha. Highway was no different while Tamasha – I can not comment as I have not watched it yet.

Now lets come to Karan Johar. Most of the Imran khan movies above were Dharma productions.

• I hate Luv Stories
• Hasee Toh Phasee
• Humty Sharma ki Dulhania
• Kabhi ALvida na Kehna
• Kuch Kuch Hota hai

In some of these movies, the fiancée or boyfriend/girlfriend of the main actor involved is a complete giveaway. So much so that this actor might not even show up in the trailers. Even before the movie begins, the audience knows that the two main actors are going to end up together. For e.g. no one expected Kareena Kapoor to go with Tarun Arora in Jab we Met at any point in the movie, how much ever twists and turns the director tried to place in the movie.

Now, we must not confuse the template with love triangles. I would call Student of the Year a typical love triangle as the story being told is not focussing on a hero and heroine. I mean, both Varun Dhawan and Siddharth Malhotra had equal weightage. Main Tera Hero would be another Love Triangle.

Almost all actors post 90s have of acted in a Template movie. SRK in Kuch Kuch hota hai and Kabhi Alvida na Kehna. Akshay Kumar in Humko Deewana Kar gaye. Saif Ali Khan in Hum Tum, Salaam Namaste,  Salman Khan in Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya and of course all the younger ones would have at least one such movie.Ranbir Kapoor in Tamasha, Ranveer Singh in Band Baja Baaraat…

At a personal level, even if I have an iota of doubt in mind that the movie could be a template movie, I wont go to watch the movie. But these days, people go watch a movie because there is nothing better to do on a weekend and the people who make such boring, repetitive, mindless movies will keep laughing their way to the bank.