*This makes for some interesting comments. The hour of the need is to throw away the corrupt and the trash. Anyone listening and willing to do this for Goa? Please read Dr. Oscar Rebello's article in the Herald. * ** * ******************************************************************************** * ** *Reworking the Script * **
The people of Goa are desperately looking for a brand new script, not recycled superstars, says *Dr OSCAR REBELLO* ** Some of the most successful Hollywood/ Bollywood producers and directors will tell you that there is only one salient magic mantra that makes a movie a blockbuster: “It’s the script, honey.” Actors, stars, music, special effects, publicity, all play their role. But if you have a bad script, the movie just won’t click. Stephen Spielberg, Raj Kapoor, Satyajit Ray and Shyam Benegal are the best protagonists of this theory. They are firm in the conviction that the script was the bedrock of their careers. So watch a ‘Jurassic Park’ or an ‘ET’, a ‘Pather Panchali’, a ‘Bobby’ or even ‘Prem Rog’. The music and the FX was there, but the stars at the time of release were no big names. What made these movies legendary was their script and substance. Then check our very own ‘Satya’ or ‘Ardh Satya’, ‘Manthan’ or ‘Mirch Masala’, ‘A Wednesday’ or ‘Love, Sex aur Dhoka’. Small budget films, unknown actors, no special effects… but the script was king. There could be one valid argument against this theory. How was it that trash scripts churned out by, say, Manmohan Desai or Prakash Mehra, or often Karan Johar, became such resounding hits? A filmsy ‘Laawaris’ or a falsetto ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ or the sickly ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham’ or the legendary lost-and-found rubbish from Manmohan Desai flicks like ‘Suhaag’ or ‘Parvarish’, ‘Aa Gale Lag Ja’ or ‘Mard’. These were bonafide hits despite shoddy scripts, and the reason for their success was the presence of larger-than-life superstars like Amitabh or Shah Rukh Khan, who could sell this gibberish to the gullible masses only on the power of their performances and undeniable charisma. Therefore, the movie-going public in Goa will forever watch movies and convert them into hits for two reasons: (1) Because the script / screenplay is awesome. (2) Because the superstars have strutted their stuff. And thereby lies another important strategy lesson for our political parties in Goa. Let me elucidate further. In Goa we have the ruling Cong-NCP-MGP combine, which is playing out its script at a feverish pace This script includes rampant mining, crazy-as-a-shark real estate development, a drug / casino / sex-based economy, a pliable police force and, of course, the all-pervasive stench of corruption. Despite this shoddy script that most Goans abhor, their movie features huge superstars in the eyes of the starry-eyed voting public. So with their humungous budgets, their flashy cars, designer bandanas and glitzy ad spends, the Babushes, Vishwajeets, Churchills and Mickkys can sway the public easily, and have them eating out of their hands by liberally signing their autographs on cheques and handing them out. The stars rule, even if the script is a sham. This then brings me to our combined opposition in Goa, principally the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) and the Goa Su-Raj Party (GSRP). They don’t have the superstars from the other army and that is why they keep wooing them [the Group of Seven (G7) or whatever], thinking that otherwise they can never get their magnum opus to be a hit. The catch, however, is that the G7 types will join hands with, say, the BJP, if and only if the script were to remain the same. Imagine Shah Rukh Khan playing the lead role in ‘Ardh Satya’…! So the combined opposition’s major dichotomy all these years is that they have been wooing the same maverick, untrustworthy, self-serving superstars, when what they really needed to do was to go back to the drawing board and come up with a BRAND NEW SCRIPT. That is what the people of Goa – whether they lean towards the Congress or the BJP – are desperately looking for: A sparkling, crackling, brand new script, not the palpably nauseating shenanigans of the faux superstars newly bottled up in the same old script! This brand new script must talk and pursue aggressively the issues of sustainable development and environment protection, address the issues of land grabbing and incarcerate illegal slumdog millionaires, tackle head-on the Godzilla of corruption, and defend human rights. If you have a script like this, even without big-budget superstars there are good chances that you could be sitting on a jackpot – a really big one. There are two caveats to this however: (1) There can be no compromises on the script. If tomorrow we have a BJP government in power with some Congress superstar, we can’t be fed garbage that the BJP has now discovered that all the tonnes of drugs they were fighting against was actually talcum powder, or that privatisation of government hospitals is actually the greatest idea since the Internet. (2) For your movie to be a blockbuster hit, even if your script is brilliant, you have to get more and more people to see your movie. If you stand outside the theatres with black caps on your heads, in shorts, twirl your moustaches and wave a ‘danda’, throwing all the Muslims, Christians, Communists, modern Hindu girls in skirts and boys in T-shirts – as well as other folk who are ‘repulsive’ in your imagination – out of the theatre, the movie is a sure fire flop; trust me. To yank the crown from the heads of these deadly superstars we will have to dream the alternate script. But will anyone bite the bullet? As they say in that biggest Hindi hit of them all: “Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge!” *Hitting the Target *After a couple of days in the lock-up, Nadia’s mother, Sonia Torrado, finally got bail. One wonders whether this whole long-drawn-out exercise is to get to the truth, or it is to get to Nadia’s family? A rumour floating around is that the cops now plan to exhume the body of Nadia’s long deceased father and arrest him as well. They need all the ‘clues’ they can gather to bolster their fast-faltering case. Also, there is a new offence mooted in the IPC. If you wink at a girl, you could be booked for ‘Culpable Rape’, defined as ‘visual intercourse not amounting to penetration’. All of us with blinking problems had better get in line and file for anticipatory bail. Wouldn’t all this be morbidly funny if it wasn’t so tragic? * * * Don't miss Selma Carvalho's INTO THE DIASPORA WILDERNESS. Launch July 25 UK Goan Festival http://goafest.itpsworld.net Details from http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/ Buy in Goa from Broadways [9822488564] Rs 295. P&p extra. * * *
