Colour and/or its choice are subjective. Some people have an eye for colour harmonies. Some sadly don't. But there has been a disturbing trend that's been assaulting me over the past 10 years. If you are a synesthesiac and you could taste colours, you'd be left nauseous by the trend. Somehow our (Indian) movies go overboard in their use of colours. Any 'blockbuster' hindi 'movie' would have a song sequence that would make poke your eyes out. Am I colour phobic? colour conservative? Nope, I'm colour judicious.
Now this unsettling colour splashing is gaining momentum. Switch to any Malayalam TV channel, the hottest things are American Idol clones with the exception of focus on singing. The stage design and its colour scheme (if any) hang there like a bad trip frozen in time. Now to add some dynamism to the stage they use coloured lights that swirl around the stage. One does wonder if the light controls are manned by chimpanzees in perpetual states of epileptic fits. How does this setting help the show? The contestants come on stage wearing their best and the whole fucking effect is wrecked by bad lighting and a crystal garden of a stage.
What is more sinister is that people watching these shows are exposed to atrociously jarring colour schemes. Some of the gullible types will think that this is awesome because its on a popular TV show. Soon you have other channels cloning this crap. In a few years time you'll be forced to buy black & white TV sets.
The point of the stage is to provide a platform for the performer. A point of focus. A large stage doesn't do anything for a show that requires a 8x8 squarefeet. Coloured lighting is used to enhance the subject on stage, tempo etc. Thats all there is to it.
Chuck out the chimps in the art department(?), hire somebody with some kala-vaasana (sensibility) to do your stages. There are millions of them in Kerala, for art is embedded in the Keralite Haemoglobin.
7 comments:
Your first paragraph made me visualize SRK's pastel & peached coloured jackets in major melodramatic sob-stories-cum-blockbusters thanks to Karan Johar's effeminate taste in colours.
Nicely written!
This sort of thing has been going on forever on Hindi channels :) I agree that the earlier versions were simpler.
And hey, some of them are quite nice and give proper importance to singing :D They do have their minus points, like accented anchors, monkey dance performances while singing, guest judges who are loud and clueless. I hate the reality TV part the most. Though I have never been shocked by the stage colours till now, :) I will keep a lookout.
PS: Can you make your Rss feeds deliver full content?
You are correct. Too much colour overwhelms the art (that can be a good thing if the art needs to be overwhelmed) and the likes of American Idol are just very overlit. As is most of America.
But is that not part of the character of Hindi movies - to go over-the-top in every way possible? Like a huge celebration of life... or is there an independent movement creating Hindi-Noir or something like that?
Does hindi movies go over-the-top in every way possible? I guess some of them tend to - and if they want to call it a celebration, cant argue with that :)
Although I must say, there are also quite a lot of people who actually avoid these loud, garrish singing/in sync-dancing flicks, me being one of them.
My personal favourites are the likes of Bheja Fry, Rang de Basanti, Omkara, Life in a metro. You just cant miss the simplicity in these movies... I guess to each his own!
a ver different thot.. color schemes :)
Hahahahaha! Though I wonder if it is due to lack of funds or something (I mean the mallu shows)... they usually come across as garish/tacky or altogether dull..... but never the middle ground.
@ Hari: In terms of content I think the indigenous versions outshine the American variety. My gripe is with sets. I don't think they are cash stapped, just look at the prizes - a limo! a house worth 40 lakhs!!
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