If there is anything Bollywood loves more than nepotism, it has to be making sequels of movies that are not worth a watch themselves. A sequel is still understandable but every time these movies with unoriginal script, unconstructed plot and horrible stories in general are turned into franchises, one living cell on a good film maker’s body kills itself.
Image Credit: Movie – Housefull
Take for example the god awful Housefull movies created by Sajid Khan. For a franchise that claims to be of the comedy genre, these movies surprisingly lack any humour or even a proper punch line. Calling it even a slapstick comedy would be dignifying it way too much as it has only slapstick but no comedy. And yet these movies just don’t seem to stop coming. As if the first three movies were not bad enough, apparently the fourth one is on its way.
Image Credit: Movie – Raaz
Another example would be the Hate Story series. Again, nonsensical plot, half-hearted script and glorified soft porn in the name of revenge drama is what sums up this series’ description. Unlike these franchises that were bad from the very first movie, there are a few series that started off great but gradually degraded with the fanatic frenzy of creating a franchise. It pains me to see how unfunny the Golmaal series has become compared to the first movie that it started off with. Or even the Raaz series that was a genuinely decent horror movie compared to the standards of Indian horror films but has now been reduced to visual nonsense.
Image Credit: Movie – Masaan
It is true that the foremost role of movies is to entertain us but that does not mean that the script should be devoid of any value. Yes, not all films can be art film, commercial movies that appeal to the general mass are also equally important. But, I really feel, using the free pass of the “commercial” tag, these nonsensical movies keep being made one after another, with little to no dedication involved. These movies have no lasting effect on my mind, and I am no film critic. I too am a part of the mass that these so called commercial movies are aimed at. While these loose scripts keep getting made into movies that go ahead earning at least in crores at the box office, movies like Trapped or Drishyam or Masaan or Omerta, that are genuinely good movies fail to achieve that level of commercial success because Indian audience loves glamor more than content.
Nevertheless, as layman who has no technical knowledge of movies, I can still tell the quality of these two sets of movies apart. And on any given day, you can bet, I would choose a movie like Highway or Raid over any of the big franchise movies that offer me no satisfaction as a viewer!
