Bollywood's Sequel Problem

Disclaimer: I have used the word sequel rather casually here, since Bollywood doesn’t really have a clear approach towards the terms sequel, remake, reboot and spin-off.

A few minutes into Angrezi Medium, Irrfan Khan’s character Champak “The First & Original Ghasiteram” Bansal says, “Inside I am very emotional and outside I am very happy for my bitiya. Bas attri angrezi aave hame.” The movie though, unfortunately, fails miserably to evoke any emotion or even a semblance of happiness in the viewer!

And that is sad. Because the film has some of India’s most supremely talented actors in it – Irrfan Khan, Deepak Dobriyal and Pankaj Tripathi (in a cameo) in addition to the star power of Kareena Kapoor Khan and the eminently likeable Radhika Madan.

Because Hindi Medium – the first movie in this franchise was so watchable despite its overtly sentimental ending.

And because viewers who have watched The Namesake, Tanu Weds Manu, Omkara, Stree or Mirzapur cannot be faulted for expecting Khan, Dobriyal or Tripathi to conjure up magic every time they are on screen!

The problem in this film is not the actors though. In fact, they are the only saving grace of this preposterous and poorly written film! The writing is absolutely atrocious. It is Khan and Dobriyal’s crackling chemistry that makes the occasional scene stand out and stay with you even after the film.

Hindi Medium too had its fair share of absurdities, such as rich parents living in a slum to get their ward an EWS seat in a reputed school. But this time the scale is bigger (foreign locales), the challenge is loftier (admission to a foreign university) and so the absurdities have gone right through the roof.

In fact, they have grown so large that they would challenge even the works of Orwell and Kafka (Big Data enthusiasts, sorry to break your hearts! I am talking about Franz Kafka here!!)! I mean, Indians traveling to the UK on fake Pakistani passports? Really? And those “Inshallah boys played well!” jokes – haven’t we already had way too many of them since the days of Inzi and Saqlain?

This film, however, raises a larger question. Why do so many Bollywood sequels (or franchises) end up being damp squibs? Why do the follow-ups to some really fantastic movies, more often than not, disappoint?

And this is by no means a sweeping statement that I am making here. The list of films that corroborate what I am saying is fairly long – Phir Hera Pheri, Kahaani 2, Double Dhamaal, Dhoom 3, Rock On 2, Don 2 and I can go on and on.

Note that not all the prequels or earlier movies in these franchises were what you would call a classic. But they were enjoyable and entertaining, exactly what their epilogues were not.

For example, Dhamaal wasn’t a classic by any stretch of imagination. Yet, I can’t count on my ten fingers the number of times I have watched this film. And every time I watch the “Mera naam ek baar Boman hai” or the “Naam bataate bataate Goa aa jaayega” scenes you will find me guffawing with laughter! Sometimes a good script and brilliant comic timing from the actors is all it takes to make an enjoyable film!

Cut to 2012 when Double Dhamaal hit the theatres. Buffoonery of the worst kind, ludicrous storylines and the forced inclusion of Mallika Sherawat and Kangana Ranaut meant that this was one of the crassest films I have ever watched!

I think the fundamental problem is that very few, if any, stories in India are conceived with a part 2 in mind. The director, the producer and the crew are still pretty much testing the waters with the story idea at this stage, sounding it off each other and trying to second guess what the audience’s reactions would be. Because, not even the richest or the most experienced producer can claim to accurately anticipate the whims and fancies of the Indian audience!

It is only once the part 1 exceeds or at least meets the expectations of the producer that the notion of a follow-up begins to take shape. The producer and the crew then leave no stone unturned to cash in on the brand that the success of the first film had created!

In that sense, most Bollywood sequels are more exercises in milking a cash cow than they are in filmmaking. They are business ideas fueled by marketing needs and driven by overzealous producers and their publicity machinery.

Angrezi Medium is a case in point. After the first movie exceeded expectations and became a sleeper hit, producer Dinesh Vijan felt the itch to cash in on its success. Since the first story was never meant to be continued, they made what is nowadays called a spiritual sequel (a successor to a story that does not build upon the earlier storyline but tells a new story using some of the same features, characters, themes and styles) instead!

The next set of problems begin when the makers start developing the storyline for the sequel. The writer, under pressure to live up to the hype created by his first story, now begins to feel that just repeating the same characters, the same idiosyncrasies and similar plotlines will not fetch the desired results.

So, he now starts introducing additional characters and looking for additional story ideas, often without staying true to the original premise. Also, now that he has created a brand, he feels obliged to squeeze in a relevant social message too! Take Rock On 2 as an example.

Rock On was such a wonderful film! A refreshing and endearing story of friendship that had some amazing foot-tapping songs to boot. Released eight years later, Rock On 2 had not one song worth remembering! I still sing “Meri laundry ka ek bill” or “Sindbad the sailor” but can’t recall one song from the sequel!

Because, in trying to look for additional plotlines, writer Abhishek Kapoor (who directed the first movie) completely lost sight of the fact that the premise of the franchise was rooted in rock music! Also, the obligation to bring in a social message meant that the track around the NGO in Meghalaya was added to the story. Make no mistake, NGOs and social work are great, even better if done in the North-East. But to include it in a story that has its base in music? It just didn’t feel organic enough!

In some other cases, the writing just can’t live up to the expectations set by its older cousin. For example, Kahaani 2 wasn’t a bad movie. But aiming at a Kahaani-like gut-wrenching sock-the-viewer-in-the-neck kind of a climax, it delivered a rather underwhelming, unimaginative and largely predictable whimper of an ending!

In fact, I strongly feel that unless there’s a pressing need or an existing well-rounded storyline that can truly fulfill the prequel’s promise, Bollywood would do better to stay away from pointless sequels. Our stories are such that most popular Hindi films undergo the throe of every conceivable human emotion before reaching a climax. And more often than not, that rarely leaves anything further to be explored! Of course, there are exceptions. Some franchises like Dhoom and Munna Bhai have done rather well. Dhoom 2 was a slicker and a better-made movie than the first film, which itself was a fairly enjoyable mix of high-octane action, gorgeousness (of the bikes) and froth. Dhoom 3, however, with a ridiculous backstory and a plot twist ripped off from Nolan’s The Prestige, proved to be the black sheep of the franchise.

Raju Hirani’s Munna Bhai has also seen two massively successful films. But if you ask me, I liked the sweet, good-natured tapori better than the Gandhism-inspired agony aunt!

And then there are the Rohit Shetty franchises – the Golmaal series and now the super cop franchise (Singham, Singham Returns, Simmba, Sooryavanshi). What works for Shetty, I guess, is the lack of pretension in his movies. He calls his films for exactly what they are – well calibrated mixtures of outrageous action, slapstick humour and a cheerful lack of logic. No attempt to dispense social messages. No masquerading as a serious movie!

Finally, a word about Sajid Khan’s Housefull series. Khan, who would want you to believe he is the best thing to have happened to Indian cinema since Ray, has built a franchise in which every movie is more dimwitted, mindless, offensive and moronic than the previous one! That means Housefull 1 still remains the best of the lot. So, even Khan has failed to live up to the expectations, as low as they were!

The last few years have seen a dozen or so sequels unleashed on Indian audiences, with one releasing almost every other month. But with most of them opening to not-so-positive reviews, hopefully the producers will soon realize how difficult it is to emulate and better the novelty and brilliance of an original film.

If your film ended on a high, please just let it be there. As they say, too much of a good thing is never good!