Great movie ...but whats the ROI ??

The comments mentioned in the review below are purely mine & any similarity with any other comments made by anyone else, anywhere is purely co-incidental.

I have gone through a transformation..…no….. I am neither on a spiritual trip nor have I read any self motivation books that have taught me how to deal better with life’s problems or how to make 327 friends within the next 12 months. I have gone through a transformation in the way I have decided to select the movies before I actually spend my money & time on them.

For the first time I have decided to measure Returns on Investment – ROI – ( MBA’s love to use such jargons which to the common man is nothing more than a 3 lettered mis- spelt word) on the money that I spend on my movies. I believe that as a consumer , ROI can be both tangible ( cash returns) as well as intangible ( Experience of using the product/service).

Since I am staying away from home, the easiest source of time pass & entertainment in an otherwise boring weekend is to watch movies that get released during the week. Till about 2-3 months back, I would have virtually watched every single Hindi movie that would have released in the theaters in Chennai. I have watched movies where the total number of people in the theatre watching the movie would be lesser than the number of actors in the movie itself.

But now I am in for a change & this transformation has come due to the fact that Indian Cinema ( by Indian cinema I mean Hindi Cinema or Bollywood ) has come off age & the best way to feel the positive change is by being a part of it. A new term called ‘Multiplex Cinema’ has come in the Film Critic’s dictionary. Frankly speaking, it took me some time to understand the real meaning of this new term which in simple language would probably mean ‘a movie that is made on an ‘optimum’ ( read shoe string) budget with actors who are not seen very often in Mainstream Commercial Hindi cinema & are mainly Tele serial actors or theatre actors’. The scope of this article is not to compare ‘Multiplex Cinema’ & Mainstream Commercial Cinema because as an avid movie buff, I believe that there can be only either good cinema or bad cinema, that makes life simple…right ??

Coming back to measuring ROI on the money spent on movie tickets , ‘ this movie was money’s worth’ are the golden words every human being on earth would love to say to himself after coming out of the movie hall because there is no greater delight in life than to see your hard earned money getting spent on something that has given you joy ( & not damage). The moments when I have said those words to myself were after watching movies like My Brother Nikhil, Black, Rang De Basanti in recent times.

Last Sunday I watched another such movie that I have really enjoyed. The movie was ‘ Mixed Doubles’ starring Ranvir Shorey , Konkona Sen Sharma , Rajat Kapoor , Koel Puri & others.... not very familiar names right ?? perhaps except Konkona Sen Sharma. This movie is an adult sex comedy that deals with somewhat of a mid life crisis faced by the character played by Ranvir Shorey & how he convinces his wife played by the simply brilliant Konkona to try out partner / spouse swapping with another couple as he feels that this would enhance their sex life which was going thru a lean patch then…it’s a simple story ( not a very simple idea though in the context of Indian tradition) with a brilliant screenplay & an awesome sense of humor in the dialogues. Its difficult to single out any one good performance as all the actors are veterans in their own niche acting styles…again the USP of this movie was that I could relate to the mindset & thinking patterns of the characters in the movie as they were like anyone you meet in daily life.

I am sure that if movie buffs like me get to see such movies more than often, then the ROI will certainly be a shot in the arm that will justify the money spent without disturbing the ‘bottomline’…by ‘bottomline’ here, I mean-‘damage to the wallet’…I told you MBA’s love using jargons….