Rab Ne Bana De Jodi Crashes in Second Week
Ghajini Movie Showtimes
Updated Box Office Numbers for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
For a Shahrukh Khan movie, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi does not seem to be having a great time at the box office.
Yes, we know that on Sunday we said that Shahrukh Khan’s latest crap-show Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was storming the U.S. box office. But keep in mind that the initial $1.25 million figure was based on studio estimates.
Today, we’ve the actual full three-day weekend numbers from Boxofficemojo and the numbers are significantly lower.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi grossed only $911,771 at the U.S. box office for the opening weekend (December 12-14, 2008) as against the studio estimate of $1.25 million.
And the actual gross numbers show that Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is not doing that well at the box office compared to SRK’s earlier movies like Om Shanti Om, Hrithik Roshan’s Jodhaa Akbar or Akshay Kumar’s Singh is Kinng.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi grossed just 51.68% of what Om Shanti Om did in the opening weekend. Also keep in mind that Om Shanti Om had competition in Saawariya.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi had no competition and yet could gross only $911,771.
Please look at below UPDATED table (reflecting actual gross) to see how Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has fared compared to other prominent Bollywood movies at the U.S. box office for the opening weekend:
An outrageous insult to the loyal Bollywood fans (as if a wife can’t recognize her husband without his moustache), Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi takes Bollywood to a new low.Â
Since Shahrukh Khan is the superstar of Bollywood (a fact this clown never ceases to preen about), if his movies don’t gross even a million dollars in the opening weekend, the signs are ominous for the ultimate fate of this movie. Very ominous.
Worse, Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has grossed much less than even Hrithik Roshan’s Jodhaa Akbar and Akshay Kumar’s Singh is Kinng.
Since Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is unadulterated garbage, we find it hard to believe this piece of trash will generate any positive word of mouth.
Plus with Aamir Khan’s Ghajini expected to release on December 24, Shahrukh Khan and Yash Raj have only a short window of opportunity to capitalize on the buzz, if at all there is any, for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.
Rab Ne Falters at Box Office; Just 52% of Om Shanti Om added by SearchIndia.com on
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good.
you might want to see this..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
See what? Your link is missing.
are u looking forward to ghajini? have u seen the tamil one ? or do you prefer memento ?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ve seen both Tamil Ghajini & Memento.
But we’re planning on watching both again.
We have both Tamil Ghajini & Memento (English) DVDs with us currently & hope to have the reviews up before the Hindi Ghajini is released.
Have you seen “the day The earth stood still” of keanu reeves.I liked Matrix trilogy but his other movies have not been that good.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Not yet.
Will probably see it in a couple of days.
Has it released in India too?
you’ll love this…..according to bombay times (a supplement of TOI), some south film-maker is going to do a remake of DRONA!! happy reviewing!!!!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We doubt it’ll actually happen.
Drona was such a disaster that it’s hard to believe it’ll be any better in the South. If Bollywood is bad, Kollywood is infernal.
memento is miles ahead of the tamil flick in terms of narration….but then I believe if it is copied as it is, nobody in India would understand the film- i had to watch memento twice to understand it…..according to wikipedia, rab ne.. has broken the 1st week grossing records of dhoom-2, earning 60 crore worldwide….
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: believe if it is copied as it is, nobody in India would understand the film- i had to watch memento twice to understand it.
We agree 100%. That’s why we got Memento DVD the second time from Netflix.
2. You write: rab ne.. has broken the 1st week grossing records of dhoom-2, earning 60 crore worldwide.
Wiki data is dicey because anyone can write anything there.
As you can see from the above post, in the U.S., Rab Ne did just 52% of Om Shanti Om in the opening weekend, which is not a good omen.
Making sense out of Memento was fun. I think Murugadoss(?), the director of Tamil Ghajini, is telling the truth, when he says that he made up the Ghajini story before watching Memento. There is not much in common with Memento except for the fact that Surya has short-term memory loss – which he admits that he stole from Memento.
http://passionforcinema.com/in-conversation-ar-murugadoss/
I liked the Surya-Asin romance track.. but as a thriller, it was not much better than the other kollywood garbage.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: I think Murugadoss(?), the director of Tamil Ghajini, is telling the truth, when he says that he made up the Ghajini story before watching Memento
We remain skeptical.
We’ll be watching Ghajini today.
“i had to watch memento twice to understand it”
As did I, but that’s the best thing about it- A movie that makes you ponder long after you leave the halls. For people who did not understand the film- the movie is shot in a hair-pin style narration. The B&W scenes move forward in time whereas the scenes in color go backwards. Both scenes converge towards the “end” of the movie, which is technically the mid-point of the storyline. The transition of the screen from B&W to color at the end of the movie is a hallmark of brilliant screenplay and direction.
As for “Ghajini”…does any movie title get this fooking stupid sounding? I read somewhere that the name GHAJINI was a “tribute” to Mahmud of Ghazni (Ghajini-Ghazni, get it?) who tried to invade India several times before successfully invading in his last attempt, as per their argument.
Wrong on all counts. I guess the producers didn’t read up on history to know that,
a. The man was a vicious merciless tyrant, truly UNDESERVING of any tribute. One of his charming attributes included killing every Dhimmi (man, woman and child) he could find during his invasions.
b. After his initial conquest of India, he made a promise to invade India every year, and did so successfully each time, in stark contrast to what GHAJINI’s producers claim. Each time he invaded, he focused on temple towns and stripping the temples of all their wealth.
It was not a story of courage or perseverance, my friends, but of avarice and bloodlust. This kind of “failing at every attempt and persevering at the final one” is more attributable to Robert the Bruce of Scotland.
A moronic sounding title like GHAJINI had to have an equally moronic reasoning behind its selection, as has been proved.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: It was not a story of courage or perseverance, my friends, but of avarice and bloodlust
The story of civilization has always been a saga of bloodletting followed by intervals of peace to recoup one’s strength before girding up the loins for the next battle. We witnessed the acme of this violent march in the 20th century (in the two WW & the innumerous smaller wars). Will the 21st century outrival the 20th in scale when it comes to bloodlust/bloodshed…the signs are not good because very few countries/leaders/people have the Live & Let Live mentality.
Was the story of Alexander the great a story of perseverance and courage or a sordid tale of avarice and bloodlust. The answer depends on the prism through which you gaze into history.
2. What irritates us a lot is to take a movie that’s been made in Tamil…& then remake it in Hindi by just changing the hero (heroine, director…are all the same).
Suggests the complete bankruptcy of ideas in Bollywood.
“I think Murugadoss(?), the director of Tamil Ghajini, is telling the truth, when he says that he made up the Ghajini story before watching Memento.”
What a crock of shite! Even Kamalahassan claimed he had scripted AVVAI SHANMUGI before Robin Williams’ MRS. DOUBTFIRE. Pfffffffffft!!!
Thanks for the laughs, though. 😀
Avvai was a blatant copy.. wasn’t aware that Kamal made such a ridiculous statement.
You are probably right about Murugadoss.. He probably strayed away from Memento because he must have thought that an average tamil viewer wouldn’t want to strain his/her brain, which has only been conditioned to endure the regular Kollywood garbage. After wrecking the plot he probably thought it is safe to lie..
I am sure you guys are away of this site already.. but for the benefit of the others.. http://www.otnemem.com/
fun site to visit after watching the movie.
“The story of civilization has always been a saga of bloodletting followed by intervals of peace to recoup one’s strength before girding up the loins for the next battle. We witnessed the acme of this violent march in the 20th century (in the two WW & the innumerous smaller wars). Will the 21st century outrival the 20th in scale when it comes to bloodlust/bloodshed…the signs are not good because very few countries/leaders/people have the Live & Let Live mentality.
Was the story of Alexander the great a story of perseverance and courage or a sordid tale of avarice and bloodlust. The answer depends on the prism through which you gaze into history.”
You do make a strong point, esp. with Alexander. While he is hailed as a great conqueror by many, even in India (the ignorant ones), a significant population who know their history think otherwise. The truth is that his army (after his death) was b*tch-slapped out of the country thanks to Chandragupta Maurya and Chanakya. However, my argument is not about perception, but on ignorance of history and facts. Seriously, how hard is it to read a book, for goodness sakes?!!
Let’s forget the Ghajini idiots and pick on Frank Miller’s graphic novel, 300, based on Leonidas’ led Spartan stand against the Persian army in Thermopylae which was also made into the movie. IMO, Frank Miller is the biggest idiot considering he did absolutely NO research when he wrote the novel. Even Alan Moore, another celebrated graphic novelist, mocked his inadequacy of research. These were the blatant errors Miller made in his book:
a. It was not just 300 Spartans fighting against the Persian million. The Spartans were aided by Arcadians, Corinthians, Mycenaeans, etc. and the Greek army strength was actually around 7500, as per modern estimates.
b. The Persian army also had Africans and Europeans in it. So much for Miller’s “West is better than East” bullshite!
c. The Greeks were known to be openly homosexual and ardent pederasts. Alexander and his father were confirmed ones. Yet, Miller attributes this trait to the Persians in the novel and displays the Greeks as MORAL HETEROSEXUAL WARRIORS.
Never mind the above mentioned historical inaccuracies, his depiction of the Persian king, Xerxes as a 7ft, bald-headed, metro-sexual with piercings, the Legion of Immortals in the Persian army as Samurai warriors, and the presence of trolls and monstrous beasts in the same, was laughable to say the least.
In Miller’s defense though, he is a typical neo-con jackass who thinks America should invade every nation. Quite the poster-boy for WHITES ARE RIGHT.Good thing he’s only a two-bit graphic novelist and not the Secretary of Defense. What is Murgi-doss’s excuse?
I hadn’t read the 300.. but watched the movie .. and didn’t like it.. not for the aforementioned reasons.. I saw rave reviews like the “Citizen Kane” of cinematic graphic novels.. but it turned out to be a silly movie.
In Miller’s defense, I don’t think he claimed it to be historically accurate. http://townhall.com/columnists/VictorDavisHanson/2007/03/22/300_fact_or_fiction
Indeed, at the real battle, there weren’t rhinoceroses or elephants in the Persian army. Their king, Xerxes, was bearded and sat on a throne high above the battle; he wasn’t, as in the movie, bald and sexually ambiguous, and he didn’t prance around the killing field. And neither the traitor Ephialtes nor the Spartan overseers, the Ephors, were grotesquely deformed.
While we are talking about historical inaccuracies in movies, what is your take on “Braveheart”.. director Mel Gibson acknowledges many of the historical inaccuracies but defends his choices as director, noting that the way events were portrayed in the film were much more “cinematically compelling” than the historical and/or mythical fact.
In defense of Murghi-dosa, he didn’t claim it to be a “tribute”.. Ramana was another over-rated movie of his. I liked Dheena because I love Laila.
If SRK sees this blog, he will be pissed.. we are discussing about Ghajini instead of “Rab”
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ll let StrYngLad74 respond to this.
yes keanu reeves new movie has released in india.matrix was quite successful here but his last few movies haven’t been great.this movie is a remake of a 1951 movie of the same name.i don’t know whether i should see it
you don’t seem to see too much action movies like die hard.Or science fiction movies
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ve seen all the Die Hard movies & several other Bruce Willis’ movies as well.
Science fiction – not much.
its confirmed…..its all over the papers and television here that rab ne.. has broken the opening records of yashraj films (that of dhoom-2) and made 60 crore in the 1st weekend days….as Neha Dhupia once remarked- onle sex and SRK sell in the film industry!!!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
If it’s true, wonders never cease.
I agree that some graphic novelists take liberties and add their own vision to the historical events. One such instance is Alan Moore’s FROM HELL, which is based on Jack the Ripper, which takes some liberties with history and offers some startling conspiracy theories (involving the royal family and Freemasons) as to who did the killings. Then again, Alan Moore is not an bigot like Miller, whose 300, Moore describes as “racist, homophobic, and above all…sublimely stupid.” It’s probably Miller’s existing pre-disposition towards Eastern cultures and homosexuals, combined with his ignorance (deliberate, maybe?) of the subject matter that resulted in the book. When you are blinded like that, your fantastical depictions lack creativity and reek of stupidity.
Same goes for Mel Gibson’s BRAVEHEART, who wasn’t spared of some sharp criticisms of his depictions of historical inaccuracies and homophobic attitudes. Even his recent movie APOCALYPTO was attacked for being deliberately ignorant (?) about Mayan history and his lack of basic knowledge of basic astronomy in his single-minded pursuit of depicting the superiority of his religious beliefs.
On that note, I MUST retract my initial rant against Murugadoss and offer him more leniency than Gibson or Miller on grounds that the man was inherently ignorant of history, unlike the two bigoted clowns. It just chaps my ass that someone would attribute the characteristic of a protagonist to someone (Mahmud Ghaznavi) whom I think is worthy of despise and come up with a stupid sounding movie title like GHAJINI (I still cringe at that moronic sounding title), that’s all.
Only in Canada..
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/hockey/hockeynightincanada/punjabi/
i thought Lad would find it amusing as he an avid hockey fan.
You’re comparing Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi with films that opened in past Diwali seasons. It’s a given that US attendance is lower for Indian films released in non-festival seasons. In India, Rab De has continued strong. See the article in the Media/Entertainment section at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com.
To look at Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’s US fate more fairly — meaning outside the context of NRI audience attendance patterns — consider this: in its second week, the film was 20th by revenue in the 19-21 Dec Weekend US and Canada Box Office listings. As is typical for Indian films in the US, the film was not promoted at all to the general US market. Its only publicity came from local film listings, NRI-targeted sites such as this, and word of mouth. It achieved its relatively high listing despite being out for only two weeks in only 102 theaters across the US and Canada. And it achieved that in a time of economic downturn, which has negatively affected attendance at all entertainment venues across the US.
Compare that with Slumdog Millionaire, which, because of its well-known UK directors and its production connections, had a slow-build distribution deal that got it into 589 theaters by its sixth week out. Slumdog had significant slow-build publicity, including which included focused communication with US television’s biggest film critics, who gave it rave reviews. Those same critics likely didn’t evens screen Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Slumdog’s distribution strategy has been driving its weekend grosses increasing each week, rather than diminishing.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi doesn’t even have a distribution strategy. It says a lot for the film’s acceptance by its limited audience, that it has done so well at all.
The apparently dismal performance of many Indian films in the US is due to there being virtually no attempt on the part of their US distributors to publicize the films, or even get them listed regionally or reviewed.
NYTimes.com, which has reviews on almost every film that hits even one theater in New York City, very often has not even a synopsis — much less a review — of most Indian films. The NYC theaters which show Indian films (there are three theaters that usually offer only three or four screens in NYC’s five very populous boroughs) usually don’t even bother to get their Indian films listed on the NYTimes.com Movies schedule, which is NYC’s most popular movie guide. For the two multi-screen theaters out of the three venues showing Indian films in NYC, those two usually list all their other films in the NYTimes.com schedule, but they give only the time slots with no film titles for the Indian films. It is a disgrace, honestly. How can tickets be sold to US audiences then? They don’t even know what Indian films are playing!
If non-NRI audiences in the US are to attend Indian films, they need to be able to find them and know what they’re about, at the very least. It’s a shame that distributors of Indian films in the US are so tentative about their relationships to the potential of US markets.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: You’re comparing Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi with films that opened in past Diwali seasons.
Not always. The movies we list in our box office report were released at different times.
In any case, Shahrukh Khan is a bigger star than anyone else in India. He’s like Brad Pitt+ George Clooney+ Leonardo DiCaprio. So your logic does not hold.
2. You write: NYTimes.com, which has reviews on almost every film that hits even one theater in New York City, very often has not even a synopsis — much less a review — of most Indian films.
Wrong.
While the New York Times (mercifully) does not review every Bollywood movie, it has reviewed quite a few Indian movies lately.
Hindi films (particularly those produced by Yash Raj Films) are reviewed in the New York Times.
Here are some of the NYT reviews of some prominent Bollywood movies:
See Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, Dostana, Tashan, Jodhaa Akbar, Aaja Nachle, Chak De India, Singh is Kinng, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic…
3. You write: Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi doesn’t even have a distribution strategy. It says a lot for the film’s acceptance by its limited audience, that it has done so well at all.
It hasn’t done that well. Look at the box office numbers.
4. You write: The apparently dismal performance of many Indian films in the US is due to there being virtually no attempt on the part of their US distributors to publicize the films, or even get them listed regionally or reviewed.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
It has nothing to do with the attempt of the distributors to publicize or get them reviewed (Bollywood movies are reviewed by every Ram, Shyam & Gopal on the Net).
Reviews in American papers don’t count for much because who would want to see these shitty junk movies except the diaspora. And even the Indian immigrants occasionally show their middle finger to movies from their former homeland.
5. You write: If non-NRI audiences in the US are to attend Indian films, they need to be able to find them and know what they’re about, at the very least
What. You want to expose us to more shame & ridicule.
As if the turbans, kirpans, the weird attire, milk flowing out of Ganesh idol at Flushing Ganesh Temple and stinking cabbies are not enough.
In NYC, where time is tight and travel is expensive (cab) or takes a long time (mass transit), and friends live spread out over the five boroughs, we plan our weekends on Wednesdays and Thursdays. In the days before Rab opened, there wasn’t even a synopsis of the film in the NY Times. Take a look at the publish date of the review — it’s Saturday 13 Dec, by which time most New Yorkers had already made their time commitments for the weekend — Rab opened on 12 Dec. The review date is actually an implicit insult.
About Desi films, the popular culture of India isn’t to be derided just because it isn’t Western enough. It’s to be lauded for that very fact. India’s current popular culture is the top surface of a stream of creative entertainment that goes back 5,000 years. It tells us more about what’s healthy for people, from emotional and spiritual points of view, than Western pop culture does. It’s more directly connected to what makes people feel good, think deeply, and laugh wholeheartedly, than Western pop culture is. And thus it has a lot to teach the Western world.
There are plenty of people in New York who love Desi films. We’re not so stupid or shallow that we can’t see through the caricature aspects of the form to the heart and laughter. But if we can’t find out what’s playing soon enough to schedule a meet-up with friends to see a film, we won’t see it.
The slow-build publicity strategy used for Slumdog was critical to its building box office gross, and thereby wider distribution in the weeks after its opening. This is a strategy that’s been used for a number of small films over the past five years in NYC and elsewhere. Why are whomever is doing distribution for YashRaj and other top-budget Indian films so clueless, that they can’t get on that train?
Remember when SRK was promoting Paheli for the Oscars? He hadn’t researched how unexposed the West is to the traditions of India. US audiences, including critics and those voting for the Oscars, simply didn’t get the socio-cultural message that gave a little depth to the film. When he didn’t get the response he wanted, SRK got discouraged. What he should have done was get studying. This is just one example of the profound nature of misunderstanding between India and US on the subject of films. But people learn and change all the time. The solution is more audience exposure to Indian films, not less. It takes time to pick up on cultural clues when they are extra-cultural to the audience. The pure entertainment value of Indian films can’t be denied by anyone, though. So even before the cross-cultural education starts, Indian films will do better in the US if they are simply promoted effectively. Look at a semi-trashy film like Race, for example. Despite its sometimes dicey production values, it was super fun to watch. It had the highest number of plot twists, some of which were impossible to see until they happened, of any film I’ve ever seen. All the actors appeared to be having fun with it. It was actually a deliberately over-the-top spoof of a family crime film, and if it had been made by a US studio, I can guarantee it would have been a big hit in the US. But it wasn’t promoted or widely distributed. Very few people had the chance to see it and give it positive word-of-mouth or publicity of any kind.
Indian films made specifically for US audiences, like Bride and Prejudice, make me cringe. They dilute India, they totally caricature NRI life, and somehow their casting directors pick US or Brit actors and actresses whom Western audiences wouldn’t take a second look at in a regular film. The experience of watching many of these films is somewhat distasteful. They present a totally warped picture of global life to every segment of their audiences. Compare a film like that with Mira Nair’s films, especially Monsoon Wedding, which was one of the first slow-build strategy films, and which did very well across the US, staying in some theaters for months, and is now considered one of the world’s best films. Monsoon Wedding was totally honest about all the aspects of life in India that it chose to present. Westerners got it. While I’m sure some cultural clues were missed by the many in the US audiences, they certainly got the heart and soul of the film. So Western audiences don’t need Indian entertainment diluted or skewed towards their own tastes. They are capable of valuing films that are totally outside their previous experiences.
The only issue is: can Indian international distributors figure out how to promote their films properly here?
For a US viewer, the experience of watching Indian films can be far beyond anything they can get from domestic films, in the emotions and depth-of-feeling departments. This is the real value of present-day Indian entertainment — it’s healthy for the human spirit in a way most jaded US films aren’t.
Your schedules and reviews are a great resource for this New Yorker. Please keep up the good work. I hope you find more of the value in Indian films in your future reviews. There’s nothing wrong with turbans or pouring milk over shivalingams, any more than there is with leather jackets or pouring water over a child’s forehead during baptism. These are ways of dressings and worshiping that are regional, and they are all part of the human experience and culture. And the more we’re all aware of all of them, the better this world will do as a whole.
Know what’s a true shame? The condition of the Imaginasian theater. Anyone who wants a good night out at a Desi film in true midtown has to put up with a theater managed by people who just want to make a buck and don’t care about the audience. What an insult. When the Imagination opened, there was a genuine desire on the part of the young but inexperienced staff to reach a wider audience with Indian and other Asian films. As several years passed and the people running it proved they didn’t know what they were doing, audiences became smaller, which brought in fewer dollars, which discouraged the dolts running it even more and so on. Now it’s become a joke. Yet it sits on East 57th Street just a few doors down from a couple of nice bar-restaurants, it’s a block from Bloomies, and the street itself is tree-lined with a great view of the Queensborough Bridge, making it a romantic street to walk with a date or a group of friends in the evenings… a great location, in fact. They could have made decent money there if they’d ever bothered to fix the place up and get a decent projectionist on staff. It used to feel like family there on nights when they showed Indian films. Now people attending kind of skulk up to the theater, and when anything goes wrong during the film (which usually happens), everyone starts to laugh in a deriding way. I used to love to go there. I even wrote about it in a poem once. Now… Thank goodness for the theaters further south on Second Ave.
Sikh and Bengali cabbies are now NYC’s best, btw. They know the streets, they know the routes, they drive fast but safely, they’re always fair, their cabs are always in good shape inside and out, they’re usually cheerful (a great accomplishment in NYC!), and they always make the passengers, especially women, feel safe.
Every immigrant group gets teased and challenged, sometimes hard, for about twenty or thirty years in the US. Now that time is pretty much done with, for US NRI’s.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: Take a look at the publish date of the review — it’s Saturday 13 Dec, by which time most New Yorkers had already made their time commitments for the weekend — Rab opened on 12 Dec. The review date is actually an implicit insult.
True but the Caucasian, Black & Hispanic dimwits (yes, the only non-desis who see any value in Bollywood must have been dropped on their heads one too many a time) can always plan for the next weekend.
2. You write: About Desi films, the popular culture of India isn’t to be derided just because it isn’t Western enough. It’s to be lauded for that very fact. India’s current popular culture is the top surface of a stream of creative entertainment that goes back 5,000 years. It tells us more about what’s healthy for people, from emotional and spiritual points of view, than Western pop culture does. It’s more directly connected to what makes people feel good, think deeply, and laugh wholeheartedly, than Western pop culture is. And thus it has a lot to teach the Western world.
Mama, what’s in the Horlicks you are drinking?
We are not deriding the popular culture of India (we mean Bollywood here given the context) because it isn’t Occidental enough but because it’s crappy enough.
Who cares if the bozos are Occidental or Oriental as long as they can provide some entertainment for the $$ we fork out.
3. You write: Look at a semi-trashy film like Race, for example. Despite its sometimes dicey production values, it was super fun to watch. It had the highest number of plot twists, some of which were impossible to see until they happened, of any film I’ve ever seen. All the actors appeared to be having fun with it. It was actually a deliberately over-the-top spoof of a family crime film, and if it had been made by a US studio, I can guarantee it would have been a big hit in the US. But it wasn’t promoted or widely distributed. Vert few people had the chance to see it and give it positive word-of-mouth or publicity of any kind.
Race was not semi-trashy. Au contraire, it is the very definition of super-trashy. As we wrote in March 2008:
4. We haven’t been to Imaginiasian but we have visited its country cousins Movie City in Edison & Columbia Park Cinemas in North Bergen (just outside Lincoln Tunnel), both in NJ. Both are horrid. The loos in the women’s restroom of Movie City don’t even have latches to close the doors. If we were Anil Ambani, we’d have fired the bozos running Movie City long back.
5. You write: The only issue is: can Indian international distributors figure out how to promote their films properly here?
For a US viewer, the experience of watching Indian films can be far beyond anything they can get from domestic films, in the emotions and depth-of-feeling departments. This is the real value of present-day Indian entertainment — it’s healthy for the human spirit in a way most jaded US films aren’t.
Not convinced effective distribution/marketing will do the trick unless Indian movie-makers improve quality & stop stealing from Hollywood & elsewhere.
Bollywood & Kollywood are recidivist thieves.
6. You write: There’s nothing wrong with … pouring milk over shivalingams
Yes. We agree. The problem is when the Ganesh idols start drinking milk.
dear searchindia… I m writing this approximately one year after you have given reviews of rab ne and box office numbers.
After your reviews and an year of various other “good” intelligent films like chandni chowk, kambakth ishq, wanted, I hve this to say, rabne by most sites quoting boxoffice results still has netted between 80 to 120 crores which makes it one of the highest grossing bwood films of all time.
As far s the quality of the films go, imdb which is a standard for films all over the world quotes rab ne at 6.7 which is atleast not ” crap” as quoted by search india. incidentally KI(3.7), krrish(6.2), partner(5.0) all rated lesser than rnbdj. I know world standards are different from indian but still a movie to be termed crap and which hs rating of .7 on imdb is far fetched. also the idea of a crap movie netting so much money doesnt sound convincing…
In case of a response I cn quote the numerous site links(foreign links as well like box office mojo, rotten) which hopefully shahrukh khan hasnt bribed as per some anti shahrukh camps
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. So your basic point is SRK movies like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi have made money at the box office. Ergo, they can’t be crappy.
Right?
We disagree with that fundamental premise.
Rab Ne Bana di Jodi was an abomination – an ensemble of stupid story, mediocre acting and hopeless music.
That mooncalf Aditya Chopra and SRK are clueless buffoons where Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is concerned.
Don’t you ever watch good Hollywood, French, Italian, Chinese, Mongolian et al movies? Our best Bollywood movies don’t come anywhere within 100 miles of the best of those movies.
2. So, the next question is if RNBDJ is so bad, how did it make money?
* Because Indians like crap. Why do they love crap? Again, there are various reasons here – Most of them have no frame of reference save SRK, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Hrithik Roshan; Most of those semi-literate, starving baboons like stupid story-lines where the poor always end up winners or the boy gets the pretty girls or where the hero overcomes seemingly insurmountable odds, even if all of these never ever happen in real-life, particularly in India.
If you’d let’s us go off on a tangent for just a moment. In our not-so-humble-view, Bollywood is one of the biggest facilitators for transfer of wealth from the extremely poor, poor and middle-class to the mediocre and corrupt wealthy and super-wealthy in India. This is a tragedy of epic proportions. We liken this Bollywood/Kollywood transfer of wealth to the Bush tax cuts and Bush/Obama bailouts in our country where greedy animals like the desi butcher Vikram Pandit and his amoral cronies benefited.
* Because Indians engage in so much hero worship that they will usually (with the stray exception) take anything SRK or Aamir Khan shovels out to them. This mindless, thoughtless sycophancy is characteristic of societies where levels of education and awareness are low. It’s also partly cultural since many members of the Indian diaspora (who are presumably better educated) exhibit similar tendencies.
* Because the media is in bed with Bollywood and their smaller siblings. Why? Because they need ad dollars, because they need to fill up their pages/TV screens and because the vacuous people love to spend countless hours reading/seeing/discussing about Kareena Kapoor’s bikini scene, Twinkle Khanna unzipping Akshay Kumar’s fly in public (btw, doesn’t Twinkle get enough of Akshay Kumar’s d*ck at home?), Aamir Khan shaving his head for that stolen shit Ghajini and other equally bizarre nonsense.
Let’s continue this discussion some other time. It’s 10:02 AM on the East Coast and we haven’t had our Saturday brunch yet. Ciao.
SI writes:
1. So your basic point is SRK movies like Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi have made money at the box office. Ergo, they can’t be crappy
NO.. My basic point is a movie which has made money at the box office, been rated decently on a standard database which is considered a reference by many all over the world(imdb) and which has got decent reviews from your own american critics cannot be termed crappy. I am not against your views . Liking or disliking a movie is a matter of opinion and is relative. But what I find offensive in your statements is to categorically state ” what indians like is crap”.
SI writes:
Don’t you ever watch good Hollywood, French, Italian, Chinese, Mongolian et al movies? Our best Bollywood movies don’t come anywhere within 100 miles of the best of those movies.
I dont know if you mean movies , series or manga adaptations like these:
tale of two sisters, time crimes, rec, let the right one in, liar game, death note, monster(the anime) etc etc..I have seen all these and many more from most genres and countries. And to even compare them to bollywood movies to them is like comparing chalk and cheese.
If from a critical point of view, I have to analyse, I can pick out a atleast 20 flaws in each of the mentioned movies.
I do agree with your last two points that Indians are into hero worship and the media influence on bollywood…
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. We just don’t think what Bollywood or Kollywood, the two-Woods we’re familiar with, are in the movie business. They are in the trash recycling business.
The problem is the soil of India is fertile ground for such a business.
Most of our Indian stars would be laughed off the stage on the global platform.
Fortunately, India has a billion mosquitoes, and growing. So the Indian film industry is able to survive and even thrive.
2. As for your point about American critics liking our Indian movies, that point doesn’t pass muster.
Bollywood movies are reviewed (when they are) usually by unknowns (even in NYT), who are clueless about what they are scribbling (writing wouldn’t be appropriate to describe what they do).
Ditto with reviews of Indian restaurants by Americans. Pitiful, most of the time.
We stand by what we wrote in our review of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.
Forget theatres, the Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi crap is unworthy of even YouTube.
SI writes:
We stand by what we wrote in our review of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.
Good healthy discussion with the exception of some offensive remarks, however seems heading towards ” this is what I think and stand by that no matter what you say” kind of conclusion. Well, then I have nothing to say just that we are both entitled to our opinions.I have put in some points to say why I feel this particular movie cannot be termed crap.
SI writes:
2. As for your point about American critics liking our Indian movies, that point doesn’t pass muster.
Bollywood movies are reviewed (when they are) usually by unknowns (even in NYT), who are clueless about what they are scribbling (writing wouldn’t be appropriate to describe what they do).
I dont know the details but maybe you are right. But still at the end of the day, the person writing is an american with an american attitude.They still have access to seeing all the “good” hollywood movies. So there is no convincing reason why they had to only praise bollywood movies. they could have as well ripped the movie apart. Even if they were one of the majority in the lower strata of society in your country who live on payday loans or were to be the hicks from texas, the movie still deserves credit because it has earned recognition from a group of people of a diametrically opposite culture.Obviously these reviewers are not that. you and I both know that.
SI writes:
Most of our Indian stars would be laughed off the stage on the global platform.
Fortunately, India has a billion mosquitoes, and growing. So the Indian film industry is able to survive and even thrive.
I have no affinity or excessive love towards India, honestly. I live in UK and the work cultures I have experienced in both countries, the less said the better. That apart, I despise the these self proclaimed “I am desi at heart” kind of guys who are not prepared to accept the 1 billion weaknesses and evils we have in our culture. But still, I dont want to be judgemental about the one billion people in India.
My father is a scientist with an engineering degree from IIT Madras. He has numerous papers on international publications, a consultant to some known multinational companies, some of which are in the US and UK. On a freeday he still loves to spend to some time indulging in some old Amitabh movies or even movies of Kamal Hasan or Rajnikanth. That for me doesnt make hima person of lower intellect or “cheap taste”. I have seen many other under achievers still living by the tranformer or terminator kind of movies.
My only request is, do not get judgemental, when it is about 1 billion people
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. By your previously expressed logic of IMDB ratings and money earned to justify Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, we guess Linda Lovelace’s Deep Throat deserves a higher standing in your pantheon of it can’t be crap movies because of the IMDB rating (up 10% this week) and money earned. After, Deep Throat has an IMDB rating of 5.2 (not far from 6.7 of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) and rumored earnings of as much as $600 million (much, much higher than Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi).
2. You write: On a freeday he [my father] still loves to spend to some time indulging in some old Amitabh movies or even movies of Kamal Hasan or Rajnikanth. That for me doesnt make hima person of lower intellect or “cheap taste”.
Of course. And your father is hardly an exception. Hundreds of thousands from the Indian diaspora (including yours truly) make nostalgic forays into whatever best suits their tastes.
We constantly watch old Rajesh Khanna’s romantic songs like Zindagi Ek Safar (Andaaz), Mere Sapnon Ki Rani (Aradhana), Achcha tu Hum Chalte (Aan Milo Sajna) et al.
That doesn’t mean we are blind to the cornucopia of nonsense in our former country India.
3. When we write that Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was a piece of shit, it comes at the end of a journey of several decades (of watching countless Hindi, Tamil, English and some French, Italian, Chinese, German and Russian movies).
4. As for the reviews of Bollywood movies by American reviewers (of non-Indian background), surely you know how to type NYT.com and do a search for a bunch of Yash Raj Films (oddly these are the ones reviewed often). Many of the reviews are plain nonsense.
5. You write: My only request is, do not get judgemental, when it is about 1 billion people
Why not?
You seem to labor under the delusion that cultural traits or unique practices are applicable to only small sets of people so one can’t generalize about a larger population. We think a larger mass of people like a nation with a billion people also possesses a unique culture that lends itself to appreciation or deprecation. We’ll give you a source for an interesting essay on this topic one of these days.
SI writes:
As for your point about American critics liking our Indian movies, that point doesn’t pass muster.
Bollywood movies are reviewed (when they are) usually by unknowns (even in NYT), who are clueless about what they are scribbling (writing wouldn’t be appropriate to describe what they do).
Finally adding to what I wrote in my previous message, I will just give some information on one such “unknown critic Frank Lovece and his affiliations who has “scribbled” a good review on rnbdj. Also the same critic has ripped apart delhi . So obviously he has a point of view.. Now on the critic:
He is:
1.the author of five major-publisher books about television and film, and one on missing and exploited children;
2. an entertainment writer and film critic for Newsday and other magazines, newspapers and Web sites, and whose work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide, the Los Angeles Times, Penthouse, Premiere, American Film, Women’s Day and the photography site TakeGreatPictures.com;
3. a comic-book writer who has scripted superhero, horror and licensed-character comic books for Marvel Comics and Dark Horse Comics; and
4. a humorist whose work has appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Newsday,Yahoo!/MSN and elsewhere
Surely I wouldnt rate a person like this “unknown”. I could dig into the other critics if you want.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
One of the first rules of the SI blog (one that most follow) is that you must provide links to your points.
We just read his review and we don’t agree with it.
SI writes:
By your previously expressed logic of IMDB ratings and money earned to justify Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, we guess Linda Lovelace’s Deep Throat deserves a higher standing in your pantheon of it can’t be crap movies because of the IMDB rating (up 10% this week) and money earned. After, Deep Throat has an IMDB rating of 5.2 (not far from 6.7 of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi) and rumored earnings of as much as $600 million (much, much higher than Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi).
For one a movie with a rating of 5.2 and 6.7 do have a clear difference in quality as per these standards. To say they are more or less the same just isnt convincing to anyone who go by these ratings. Ask any one who are familiar with these standards(other than both of us here) and tell them what they think of amovie with a 5.2 rating on imdb.They would outright not want to go through it.whereas a movie with 6.7 rating will be seen to be a decent fare going just by these standards.
Sorry, but it is a little immature to compare the collections of a hollywood fare to a bollywood fare. Why? the reasons are obvious and even most people who have commented here will know. I hope you do as well.
SI writes:
Why not?
You seem to labor under the delusion that cultural traits or unique practices are applicable to only small sets of people so one can’t generalize about a larger population. We think a larger mass of people like a nation with a billion people also possesses a unique culture that lends itself to appreciation or deprecation. We’ll give you a source for an interesting essay on this topic one of these days.
Now again we are heading towards ” this is what I think no matter what you say” . I wouldnt buy that argument that you could ever generalise the cultural traits of a smaller group to one billion. Nor we could ever understand the cultural uniqueness of 1 billion people to brand them. After all, we are all individuals, with limited knowledge, experiences just pertaining to our own lives and we often judge by our own experiences. So, yes we cannot generalise.
SI writes:
As for the reviews of Bollywood movies by American reviewers (of non-Indian background), surely you know how to type NYT.com and do a search for a bunch of Yash Raj Films (oddly these are the ones reviewed often). Many of the reviews are plain nonsense.
I just see this point always saying… this is nonsense, that is trash, but quite honestly i dont see concrete justifying points to support you theory, just your view. I have given the credentials of one such “unknown” critic in my last post.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: whereas a movie with 6.7 rating will be seen to be a decent fare going just by these standards
We took a look at the IMDB rating methodology on Wiki.
The IMDB rating is user determined and given the pronounced recidivist tendencies in Bollywood, we think it’s highly susceptible to manipulation.
So we have no faith in the 6.7 rating for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.
2. It’s not escaped our notice that you fail to mention our point about the earnings (Deep Throat reportedly had $600m), which was one of the points you made to justify RNBDJ.
It’s not the high numbers for Deep Throat that per se matters here.
You used the rationale of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi’s earnings to argue if it made a lot of money, It can’t be crap. Our point was Deep Throat made a lot of money too.
As we’ve repeatedly demonstrated, your effete arguments don’t wash with us.
3. We disagree on your points about the generalizing bit too.
Indians are sui generis to an outsider but even within the diversity of India there are several common traits unique to Indians – lack of respect for the law, endemic corruption, hero-worship, degrading treatment of women, ill-treatment of girl children, female foeticide et al. Bottomline, one can generalize about a culture/group/large mass of people.
4. What is so hard to understand about typing NYT.com and reading reviews for the Yash Raj films there. There’s no ‘theory’ here as you suggest. It might help if you read before responding.
adding, your very mention of a pornographic movie actually provides more support to my theory. rab ne and the one you have quoted have no similarities and hence cannot be compared (of course the ratings still bear a distinct difference even if you had quoted anyother movie in the same genre of rabne with a rating of 5.2). But the point here is, as different are the two movies in question, so is any decent bollywood movie from its french, hollywood, italian, korean japanese counterparts. So going by the bollywood culture, rab ne according to the reviews and ratings is a decent movie. The one you have quoted with a rating of 5.2 might not be a decent fare but there is nothing wrong if there is an other porn movie with a rating of 6.7. It is just that there can be good porn movies as well as good bollywood movies as well as good horror movies as well as good romcoms as well good action movies ….. It just that we cannot have a fixed mindset while reviewing these movies and view them keeping the same standards for reference.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: your very mention of a pornographic movie actually provides more support to my theory
Rubbish.
One of your defenses for Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was that it made money at the box office, ergo it can’t be crap. Having watched countless Indian films, we find that argument to be total nonsense. Further, our response to you was Deep Throat made money, a lot of money.
Readers can draw their conclusion on whether an Indian movie becomes good just because it makes money at the box office. We don’t think so and we’d like to believe many of our readers don’t believe that argument either.
2. Deep Throat was more than just another porn movie. For those curious about the movie, go here.
3. We will not entertain any more discussion on Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.
You’ve made four or five comments and we’ve responded to every single one.
We have not found any of your arguments compelling.
Now we’re moving on to other topics, steadfast in our conclusion that Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is a piece of trash.
We have other fish to fry.
I am writing this not for RNBDJ but for using Imdb as parameter to defend movie.
IMDB is illogical fan site where fans give 10/10 to their hero’s movie without seeing it.
And as for ratings.
Mithun 1998 B-grade flick has rating of 7.8 (so according to mr rgh3176 that film is cult classic).
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Public sites like IMDB, Yelp, Wiki et al are highly susceptible to manipulation by vested interests.