The Mind of Karan Johar

The Mind of Karan Johar

Among the many mails I've been getting was one from Jahan Bakshi who, I learnt, writes on movies on the Passion for Cinema blog.

After reading his reviews of Laaga Chunari Mein Daag and Bhool Bulaiyaa, I spent some time browsing the rest of the site, and stumbled on this interesting post by scriptwriter-director Suparn Varma.

Suparn's argument is simple: the younger filmmakers who are busy making what they hope is cutting edge cinema might view the offerings of the Karan Johars of this world with contempt, but surely both types of filmmakers have the right, and the space, to co-exist without acrimony? Surely both types of filmmakers -- the Anurag Kashyaps, say, on the one hand and the Karan Johars on the other -- are part of the same ecosystem, dependent on each other for their mutual survival?

This is the crux of Suparn's argument:

"All through the last several months, be it on comments or inside the PFC club, a recurrent bitching session goes on about Yash Raj, Karan Johar [Images], SRK [Images], Aamir, Salman, Bhansali, or relatively new directors like Farah Khan [Images], Sajid Khan or the funny man David Dhawan or any 'popular commercial' filmmaker or actor of their ilk.

Well my friends, I have news for you and I say this in capital letters: THE FILM INDUSTRY SURVIVES AND EXISTS ON THE NAMES ABOVE AND OTHERS LIKE THEM!

And the reason films like Black Friday, Johnny Gaddaar, MSFU, Makdee, Maqbool, Quick Gun Murugun, Aisa Bhi Hota Hai Part 2, Chhal, Mithiya, Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi, or any niche cinema for that matter can be made is because the very names that are maligned everyday, by us -- the so-called keepers of the conscience of intelligent cinema -- keep making the films that they make. Their profits create a buffer in the market to absorb niche films which don't work at the box office.

It is commercial cinema which creates enough profit for a theater/multiplex/distributor/exhibitor/ and finally the producer to survive."

Point well taken, I thought -- will check mail in a day or two to see if you agree, or disagree, and why.

On a related note, Karan Johar seems to be the favourite whipping boy of the new brigade of filmmakers. Personally, I don't much care for the movies he has made thus far. My reasons are many: the length, for instance. Someone once said a movie should not be longer than the ability of your bowels to hold out, and by that test, Johar's movies fail miserably.

And then there is the emphasis on prettifying everything, even if it militates against the spirit of the story and the character -- a fetish that is often carried to ridiculous extremes. When a Karan Johar heroine (mind, I don't mean to suggest he is the only guilty party in this respect) is woken out of a deep sleep, for instance, she is apt to emerge from the bedclothes clad in the sort of sari that would not be out of place on Oscar night; her coiffure will be perfect, the mascara and eye-shadow just so...

I rebel at this. No woman wants to be seen immediately after waking -- the ravages of sleep turn us into something out of a horror film, and it takes a good half hour to repair the damage and make ourselves relatively presentable.

A small matter perhaps, but it is precisely this sort of thing that gives me the yips about a Johar film -- to me, they smack of adolescent imaginings, of fantasy carried to the realm of the absurd.