With the advent of OTT i.e. Over The Top, wherein you watch content through subscription, there is a sudden gush of Indian Web Series all over the virtual world. The fight is tough as the benchmarks are escalating day-by-day, thanks to the GoTs and Narcos of this world. If standup comedians, TVF and AIB are creating sketches, the film directors are busy exploring this newfound terrain free from the shackles of censors and certificates.
In such scenario, there are writer-directors like Mayank Sharma, who boost the online content quotient with a web series like ‘Breathe’ on Amazon Prime starring R. Madhavan and Amit Sadh. ‘Breathe’ is indeed a breather after a long gap since the equally brilliant and relevant-for-our-times Indian web series like ‘Permanent Roommates’ and ‘Bang Baja Baaraat’, ‘Tripling’, and the recent ‘Inside Edge’, ‘Bose’ and ‘The Test Case’.
While faintly reminiscent of ‘Breaking Bad’, the web series ‘Breathe’ is a fresh tale of loss and inner turmoil, narrated with the fervor of a thriller and spirit of a drama. Right from the writing, cinematography, editing to direction, this is something you just can’t afford to miss, apart from the upcoming ‘Sacred Games’ starring Saif Ali Khan and ‘The Ministry’ starring Irrfan Khan.
Furthermore, if Vikram Bhatt and Ekta Kapoor have perceived this platform as an extension to their brand of content with ‘Tantra’ and ‘Dev DD’, Ram Gopal Varma seems to have gone full monty, in metaphorical sense for him and literal sense for his muses, thanks to the lack of intervention from the censors or the fresh crop of senas.
Speaking of ‘senas’, one strongly recommends this word to be included in the Oxford Dictionary and its time MS Word doesn’t underline it red, as it’s already a blood-strewn word. It’s quite an irony that on one hand Padmavati gets its ‘i’ butchered by the censors and sena, and on the same day, Ram Gopal Varma releases his short film, ‘God, Sex and Truth’ starring a naked porn star with an effortless ease.
The writing is loud and clear on the wall – Internet is the only place where democracy exists in its true sense. Wait, there, too, you run the risk of being lynched by some Senas who might be ‘offended’ by your social media post. Well, at least the filmmakers do have the freedom to make the kind of films they want, at least till now.
One wouldn’t be surprised if Sanjay Leela Bhansali announces his next historical saga to be released online, minus any cuts and full title, mind you. Perhaps he may go ahead and re-release ‘Padmavat’ with the extra ‘i’ and those 70 cuts, and who knows he just might include a bonus feature of that rumoured ‘dream sequence song’ featuring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone.
What’s more, the digital platform won’t make a certain wannabe-feminist actress feel like a female genital and compel her to write open letters anymore. After all, it’s a democratic platform and one could make regressive, progressive, depressive, aggressive, inclusive, abusive, or any darn ‘sive’ kind of film as one may please.
Come to think of it, the ‘Big Bollywood Struggle’ would become a thing of the past. Filmmakers like Rajat Kapoor, who is currently crowd-funding to realize his most ambitious film, ‘RK/R Kay’, can utilize the garnered monies to spruce up the production values and content of his film rather than promotion, which constitutes huge chunk of a film’s overall budget.
Amitabh Bachchan once quoted in an interview that these days, he finds film promotion more tiring than shooting for films. Agreed, the Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hot Star, Eros, Alt Balaji and other digital platforms do charge for showcasing a film or web series, but the stakes surely aren’t as high as a big budget film.
Let’s not forget the fact that there have been multiple films which got made but were never released, owing to censors, Senas or lack of funds. Digital films would empower every filmmaker worth his/her salt to be able to make films they believe in, without worrying the uncertainty of its theatre release. This would ease the box office performance pressure off their shoulders and enable them to focus on content and production values.
After all, content is the king, at least in the digital space, unlike those films from the 100-crore ilk which are more about packaging than packing a punch. These films are a ‘chaar din ki chaandni’, from Friday to Monday, where they hammer the songs and trailers on your head and pique your curiosity so much that you end up spending a bomb on the exorbitant tickets and doubly exorbitant popcorns and colas. We would see more fresh talent cropping from varies cities, not just those hunks with six-abs or anorexic babes.
Local talent will get the much-needed boost and each state of our diverse nation will surely have a fresh story to tell about their land and culture. Look at the kind of cinema made in Marathi, Bengali, Assamese and Malayalam, which despite being brilliant films barely find takers in the multiplexes.
Digital platforms can offer umpteen opportunities of online film premieres, where the film’s crew would interact one-on-one with their audience and seek their feedback right there after its first day, rendering those ‘intellectual’ ‘Fellini worshipping’, ‘screenplay revealing’ or ‘KRKish’ movie critics redundant.
At the risk of sounding too optimistic, I would assert that digital platform would transcend our smart-phones, i-Pads, laptops and smart televisions and go on to become ‘Digiplex’, a multiplex that would stream films and web series, the censors and senas notwithstanding.
Even theatre is embracing the digital revolution through CinePlays, albeit with little success, as such content neither remains a play nor cinema, robbing the medium of its ‘live’ feeling as a medium. There’s a difference between listening to Indian Ocean band live at a concert and watching them perform on television or phone. Hope you get the drift.
Nonetheless, if you are willing to sacrifice the ‘live’ experience and are curious to watch those award-winning plays without travelling all the way to Mumbai’s Prithvi and NCP or Delhi’s Shri Ram Centre, CinePlays should work just fine for you.
While talking about experience, watching plays or cinema in a theatre is a unique experience, which is slowly but surely dwindling, blame it on easy accessibility to entertainment. The maxim of ‘Go Solo’ promoted by Hot Star has become a reality today. We are becoming all the more ‘anti-socializing’ offline and hyperactive on social media.
Even our idea of a perfect date is to order something on Zomato or Swiggy at home and enjoy amid cozy company of close friends or loved ones. Just like smart-phones and LCD TVs becoming cheaper, wireless home theatre systems, too, would become easily affordable. Who knows the next Digiplex would be located right inside your home, spelling a doom to those insanely priced movie tickets, popcorns, colas, censors and Senas? Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake. Fingers crossed.
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