It’s been quite many years since I consumed movies like a glutton – once in college when it was a night of six back-to-back porn movies with the seventeen rogues in my hostel and once as an over-achieving sales manager watching a movie a day for twenty one days in the small town of Hubli , after having achieved my revenue targets with 30 days to spare.
This time , over the last two weekends , I binged on six new movies in town with a vengeance , four of them in succession . I have now realized that there’s a lot of formula-format in most movies that adhere to the rules of great screenplay , resulting in a sense of satisfaction as one leaves the theatre .
The typical great-movie-screenplay formula is :
Setting - Introduction of characters - Dramatic Event (Conflict 1 )- Reactions & Interplay of characters - Dramatic event (Conflict 2) - Resolution - Climax .
Here are the reviews , with the realization that great movies stick to the format , no matter what the plot –
Dor : The most riveting movie of them all . A movie that began slowly but gathered tension and momentum as it went along , making us cringe in our seats and shed a tear or two is about this woman who’s husband has been accused of the murder in an Arab state and is sentenced to death . His death penalty can only be waivered if she can get a pardon letter signed from the widow of the murdered man .
A Great plot , it adheres to the typical format of a movie screenplay which goes something like this :
Setting : 2 settings actually – a hilly Shimla & a dusty Jodhpur
Introduction of characters: 2 women- the will-be-widow & the gritty-pardon-seeker
Dramatic Event –Conflict 1 : The accidental death of husband 1
Reactions & Interplay of characters : The search for the widow ;meetings ;interplay
Dramatic event - Conflict 2 : The refusal to pardon
Resolution : Push factors – Father-in-Law wanting to trade her off for the house ;
Climax : Signing of the pardon letter ; emotive station scene & widow’s freedom
Exactly the same format was adopted by another great movie Khosla Ka Ghosla that dealt with the travails of a middle-class household wanting to move to a new bungalow which is to be bought and constructed with hard earned life-time savings .And how land-grabbers and brokers play kill-joy , tugging at the heart strings of guys in the audience who can relate and don’t want this to happen to them . The movie is quite brisk and covers its large canvas of the plot and characterization pretty quickly. Towards the very end there is some moments of gripping tension as one fears for the schemed plot going awry , but there’s a huge sigh of relief as the story moves on as planned leaving behind a good vibe . The format is , however , just as Syd Field said , except for the accommodation of more conflicts to highlight the many characters . Someone actually outlined the maximum number of characters for a good screenplay to be 3 , with 2 being preferred since each new criteria adds another aspect of communication and complicates the plot further . This movie manages to rise above the complexity of 7 important characters , and gives way to laughter at various turns in the plot .
Setting : A middle class family wanting a new house
Introduction of characters: one son going to US ,one son useless ; one girlfriend with separated parents ; a greedy land-grabber ( thrilling Bomen Irani ) , a harassed grandfather , a poor theatre company owner , the visa agent
Dramatic Event –Conflict 1 : The purchase of a plot of land
Reactions & Interplay of characters : Excitement , planning the structure
Dramatic event - Conflict 2 : The land grabber takes over the land
Reations & Interplay of characters : Panic , the prodigal son wanting to stay back
Dramatic Event –Conflict 3 : The plot hatched to get cheat the land-grabber
Resolution : The execution of the hatched plot – suspense – the hired labours
Climax : The sweet taste of Revenge .
Surprise , Surprise . A nice feel-good movie You , Me & Dupree which had Matt Dhillon , Michael Douglas , Kate Hudson & Owen Wilson doing some great roles , also followed the great-screenplay format to a tee ! The thematic was based on someone who is not cut out for a regular job , but who is a do-gooder with a great heart who believes that one should live a great life – job or no job . It creates a new concept of ‘ness ‘ – a verb which added to ones name defines the person as unique in this world . As if follows the challenges of a good guy getting married into a rich family and his stresses , one can’t but recount similar occurrences as one struggles up the corporate ladder .
The Formula is back in action .
Setting : A marriage of a man into a millionaire household
Introduction of characters: the millionaire father , the beautiful bride , the groom and his best friend of twenty five years
Dramatic Event –Conflict 1 : The friend has no place to go so comes to stay
Reactions & Interplay of characters : Husband being suppressed by FIL , surname , project , work hours , promotion & demotion
Dramatic event - Conflict 2 : The realization that the jobless-but-with-a-big-heart-friend has won over the wife & FIL
Reations & Interplay of characters : The harassed husband vs wife vs great childhood friend vs Pop-in-law ; friend highlights the loss of ‘ness’ in his buddy .
Dramatic Event –Conflict 3 : Friend leaves home
Resolution : The clarification of mis-understandings – pardon by FIL
Climax : Friend starts an academy on ‘Not losing ones ‘ness’ ‘.
The biggest disappointment was United 93. United 93 is the story of the 4th plane in the 9/11 bombings planned by Osama Bin Laden that couldn’t reach its target – White House , as its passengers revolted against the highjack and crashlanded the plane in the plains of Pennsylvannia , twenty minutes from its target . While the movie did manage to whip up appropriate tension at the right time , it could’nt resolve the tension appropriately and left a feeling of having seen a documentary at the end of the day . There was no emotional interplay , no names of characters , no action except in the dying minutes and killed a could have been tragic movie . Imagine Titanic without Jack& Rose and their chemistry not as a backdrop but as an in-your-face romance larger than life portrayals of values , relationships , love and freedom and then the tragedy with its magnitude . A documentary not worth watching . That’s what United 93 lives up to be .
Krishna was a good animated attempt at looking at young Krishna’s childhood , his antics and his achievements in mathura .Animation in India is still to reach the heights achieved by Disney though one hears that part of Toy Story and Narnia was done in a lab in Bangalore .The animation is pretty crude , the story is jerky , but the attempt is sincere .
Woh Lamhe , the unauthorized biography of Parveen babi was disturbing and pretty depressing though the characterization and portrayal was done very intensely by both Shiney Ahuja and Kangana Ranaut . It was a story , had all the elements of great screenplay , but since it was showing the story of a great yesteryears actress driven to schizophrenia by the fragile insecure relationships of the movie business , it couldn’t have been a happy movie .
Setting : The house of a movie actress
Introduction of characters: The aspiring director , the famous movie star with her boyfriend
Reactions & Interplay of characters : The treatment of the actress by the two men ,her search for meaning , the date-rape, resorting to alcoholic relief
Dramatic Event –Conflict 1 : The schizophrenic effect on the actress
Reactions & Interplay of characters : The director’s love – kidnapping –caring
Dramatic event - Conflict 2 : The suicide attempt
Resolution : The Director at the hospital
Climax : Death , Remorse
And it was good that I saw You,Me and Dupree just after I saw Woh Lamhe as the great humor and comic timing of Owen Wilson and Michael Douglas managed to wipe out the strong negativeness of Woh Lamhe .
A quick reflection on all historical great movies further confirms the One formula-different plots theory of movie-making . Most stories are different from plots , but there's a formula lurking somewhere for them , I guess .
