Suddenly why are so many of our heroes cashing in their chips on the silver
screen almost every other Friday?
Filmmakers say tragedy is the reality of
life and, presented in the right manner, it
connects with the audience -- but they
hasten to clarify that it is neither a new trend nor a success formula.
In Aashiqui 2, Aditya Roy Kapoor's character drives himself to a drunken
death at the end. The film was a
blockbuster. In the haunting tragic hard
hitting BA Pass, the young hero played by debutant Shadab Kamal dies a wretched
horrific death at the end.
And yes, in Lootera it is Sonakshi Sinha who is fatally ill, but it's
Ranveer Singh
who finally dies!
Writer Prasoon Joshi feels the grim side of
life is inevitable to every individual's
existence. "Tragedy is the reality for the
majority. Sadness and dread are feelings
we live with every day. Whenever
tragedy is presented well it will connect with the audience," he said.
In June, two releases on the same Friday
-- Aanand L. Rai's Raanjhanaa and Susi Ganesan's Shortcut Romeo --
both end with their heroes breathing their last
before the finale.
They die for different reasons. If in
Vikramaditya Motwane's Lootera, Ranveer, like Shah Rukh Khan in Devdas
and Aditya in Aashiqui 2, dies for love, in BA Pass, the young hero
dies for money.
Sob!
Coming up are a slew of films where the
protagonists die at the end, and the
distributors are poised to laugh all the
way to the bank.
In Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Ram Leela, protagonists Ranveer Singh and Deepika
Padukone are apparently killed at the end.
And if reliable sources are to be believed,
Akshay Kumar in Milan Luthria's Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobara,
Amitabh Bachchan in Prakash Jha's Satyagraha and Saif Ali Khan in
Tigmanshu Dhulia's Bullett Raja also perish at the end of the film.
So are unhappy endings back in vogue?
Protests trade expert Taran Adarsh: "But
tragic endings never went out of vogue!
The biggest love story of all times Mughal- E-Azam had a sad ending.
Later there were Ek Duuje Ke Liye and Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak. If one
looks at Sholay, the Amitabh-Jaya track also had a tragic
conclusion."
However, he agrees that tragic endings
seem to be the flavour of the year.
"Recently Aashiqui 2 has triggered off a trend for tragic endings. Now
there is Raanjhanaa as well."
Issaq, Manish Tiwari's Varanasi-based take on Romeo and Juliet, would also see
the protagonists come to a tragic end.
Tiwari feels the protagonists of every film
come with their own destiny. "Each film
undertakes a journey for different
reasons," he argues.
However, according to Tiwari, the tragic
outcome in the protagonists' lives is also a
sign of the times.
"In today's times, when cynicism rules, it
is very attractive to showcase stories of
true love for the audience. And yet the
authors of these love stories can't escape
the harsh truth that true idealised love is
an impossibility and have to settle for unhappy resolutions to the romance."
Rai recalls how during a screening of Raanjhanaa at Chandan cinema in
Mumbai, the gatekeeper accosted him pleading:
"Dhanush is not dead, right? He's only gone
into a coma. He will be back in the sequel,
right?"
"I had to unfortunately break his heart and
tell him there is no sequel and Kundan, the
character Dhanush played, is gone. My hero
had to die. That's the life I saw for him,"
said Rai.
Filmmaker Ananth Mahadevan feels tragic
endings are frowned upon for fear of
hurting audiences' penchant for a good
time.
"Tragic endings got a big boost from the
success of K Balachander's Ek Duuje Ke Liye. But filmmakers shied away
from tragic endings fearing public rejection.
Although Aashiqui 2, Raanjhanaa and Shortcut Romeo happened to be
released together, I don't think tragic endings
would catch on."
Producer Ramesh Taurani refuses to see
tragedy as a formula. "There is never a formula for a hit film.
Films with tragic endings do well because
they're good films. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani has no tragic ending and
it's the biggest hit of the year. Content is king."
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