The thrill pill

This year’s biggest debacle,however,has not deterred filmmakers from producing thrillers. The next few months have a slew of renowned names experimenting with the genre,starting with Kurbaan that releases today. Sudhir Mishra’s Tera Kya Hoga Johnny,Kumar Taurani’s Prince – It’s Showtime,Apoorva Lakhia’s Hide & Seek and Rakesh Roshan’s Kites will soon follow.

All the upcoming films are touted as high on thrill-quotient,but it’s their execution and ability to introduce nail-biting moments in the story that will deliver a perfect thriller. The audience expectation has gone up following the exposure to Hollywood thrillers,with great scripts,cutting-edge action sequences and inimitable style. Even though increasingly,movies like Dhoom,the remake of Don and recently,New York and Kaminey have managed to thrill,such films are extremely few in number.

Renowned filmmaker and scriptwriter Sriram Raghavan,whose Johnny Gaddar was critically acclaimed,maintains that while technology has changed the way our films look,the scripts continue to lack fizz. “Hindi films are like a thali. There’s got to be a bit of everything. So even when we make thrillers,we try to include a comedy track,songs and so on,so that the appeal is more broad-based,” he says. Echoes Farhan Akhtar,who directed Don and is now producing and also acting in the suspense thriller Kartik Calling Kartik,“This could be the factor that makes the film lose focus or slacken the pace.”

Often the fate of thrillers is blamed on the audiences’ partiality towards romance or comedy. But Akhtar says that presuming that the audiences prefer those genres is to undermine their intelligence. “The reason we have more love stories or romance dramas is because they are easier to write since the stories don’t have as many twists and turns and there is no pressure to maintain the nail-biting anticipation among audiences throughout the film’s duration. Thrillers hence require a lot more attention to detail in order to maintain the taut script.”

Leena Yadav,whose Teen Patti starring stalwarts Amitabh Bachchan and Ben Kingsley,will release in January,adds that one of the reasons thrillers have not been as big in Bollywood as in the West is that most of them won’t have a repeat value,unlike love stories. “Now that every film’s destiny is decided by Monday,I guess that is not a valid reason anymore.”

Given that the theatres run a full house every time James Bond fights a new villain in his lapelled suits or Harrison Ford uncovers a new treasure in Indiana Jones,it proves that India does have a huge market for thrillers.

“Why else would Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie have a local cult following too?” Raghavan quips.

But Akhtar adds that the sole reason behind the success of such films has been neither style nor the action. “Action need not be an integral part of your thriller. Kartik Calling Kartik has action in only adequate dosage since it is chiefly a suspense film.” Yadav too considers elements like action and style mere add-ons. “The two things important to a thriller are the story and the characterisation. In Teen Patti,there is adequate drama to keep the viewers hooked. If the story is good,then the viewers will overlook loopholes.”

Saif Ali Khan,who plays the lead in suspense thriller Agent Vinod,says that though the story will be key,the quirks of his character will also hold a strong appeal. “The audiences tend to get hooked to such characters,” says the actor referring to his home production. Created by Raghavan,Agent Vinod is likely to be a Sherlock Holmes-meets-James Bond kind of character.

Raghavan confirms that India offers scope for thrillers.

“We mostly rehash or ‘Indianise’ successful foreign films. We need to look for stories and characters that are from our lives and situations. A good Hindi thriller,if marketed well,will surely work.”