Who is an IDIOT?

CAUTION: The Following blog has nothing to do with the film 3 Idiots, as much has been saidand written about it. Nor it is about the infamous Chopra-Hirani/Bhagat Controversy as thisjob is greatly (and overly) done by our News Media. This blog is devoted to all the writers (c’mon all type of writers…screen writers, playwrights, novelists, and of course bloggers…Don’t drag me into controversy) around the globe.

“When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.” - James Earl Jones

Jean-Luc Godard used to like saying that his films had a beginning, middle, and end, but not necessarily in that order. Although popular cinema in France and Italy, for example, had recognized screen-writers critically, such a playful and eclectic approach to screenwriting and filmmaking as suggested by Godard's comment has traditionally characterized the more personal cinemas of many nations of Europe and elsewhere.

While writers calling themselves screenwriters emerged in Hollywood as early as the late 1920s, there were few European filmmakers or writers who would call themselves "screenwriters." In contrast to Hollywood, where few have ever been both writers and directors on the same film, in Europe and other countries around the world, the "double-duty" position of writer-director has been the norm. The advantage of the auteur approach is that films get made with a consistent vision and with a minimum of interference from teams of writers, producers, and others. Thus an Ingmar Bergman film such as Det Sjunde inseglet ( The Seventh Seal , 1957) or Trollflöjten ( The Magic Flute , 1975) is easily recognizable as a "Bergman film" because of his control from page to screen in all aspects of filmmaking.

“A screenplay is not a finished product; a novel is. A screenplay is a blueprint for something - for a building that will most likely never be built. “ - Nicholas Meyer

And thus the quality of cinema in India suffers owing to the fate of screenwriters. Screenwriters in India have never been considered to be the spinal cord of the film and writers have always left to live in shadows casted by limelight taken by Stars and Directors. Literature is such an important part and parcel of each and every aspects of society that to present it in the words of Goethe is “The decline of literature indicates the decline of a nation.”…

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

Forgetting the source from where the germ of the entire film comes is the age old attitude that Indian film industry has adopted right from exploiting R.K Narayan (author Guide) by not paying him the pre-decided payment for the purchased rights of the novel to Chetan Bhagat for fetching away from him well-deserved credit. And the ratio of the films made out of the books is very low too. India once upon a time considered to be the world of Story tellers, where the greatest screenplay (the Mahabharata) to be written ever is considered by many intellectuals, is lagging behind the world cinema today just for turning its face away from literature.

Koi Mil Gaya, a sci-fi (more romantic and masala) film released in 2004 plots around an alien left out by mistake by its family members on the earth. The film has taken its main elements from 1982 Blockbuster E.T. On thinking level itself our industry is behind by 20 years from others..Keep aside the idea of executing it. Screenplays and other literature all around the world except here involve a lot of thinking and study and hence the writers get the credit they deserve.

Hopefully the success of 3 idiots may lighten up the brains of the makers here to find the solace in literature and the writers get their deprived credits and handsome paycheques.

"Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money." - Jules Renard

Signing off I am going to leave you with a list of ten of the best considered screenplays by Writer’s Guild of America. This is the result of the polling as voted upon by the organization's professional film and television writers - a list of the 101 Greatest (Film) Screenplays of All-Time, to celebrate the greatest achievements in film writing in cinematic history.

"Like a composer of a classic symphony or an author of a beloved novel, the most memorable and moving pictures would not exist without their principal architect: the screenwriter."

10 The Godfather Part II
(1974; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Screenplay by Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo, based on Mario Puzo’s novel "The Godfather"

9 Some Like It Hot
(1959; dir. Billy Wilder)
Screenplay by Billy Wilder & I.A.L. Diamond, based on "Fanfare of Love", a German film written by Robert Thoeren and M. Logan

8 Network
(1976; dir. Sidney Lumet)
Written by Paddy Chayefsky

7 Sunset Boulevard
(1950; dir. Billy Wilder)
Written by Charles Brackett & Billy Wilder and D.M. Marshman Jr.

6 Annie Hall
(1977; dir. Woody Allen)
Written by Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman

5 All About Eve
(1950; dir. Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Screenplay by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, based on "The Wisdom of Eve", a short story and radio play by Mary Orr

4 Citizen Kane
(1941; dir. Orson Welles)
Written by Herman Mankiewicz and Orson Welles

3 Chinatown
(1974; dir. Roman Polanski)
Written by Robert Towne

2 The Godfather
(1972; dir. Francis Ford Coppola)
Screenplay by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel by Mario Puzo

1 Casablanca
(1942; dir. Michael Curtiz)
Screenplay by Julius J. & Philip G. Epstein and Howard Koch, based on the play "Everybody Comes to Rick’s" by Murray Burnett and Joan Aliso

Rahul Bhole,
swades_wethepeople@yahoo.co.in,
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