Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
The writer director Trivikram is blamed by all for his lazy writing. In fact
nobody expected the movie to be such huge let down, though we
smelled a danger signal after the teaser release.
One analysis is that the movie failed because the director tried to
“Trivikramaize” action movie “Largo winch” by forcibly inserting comedy
and other elements of his forte into that racy action thriller. But it is not
100% correct.
Then why did this fail? Or even a basic question – why do the movies
fail. Simple – when they fail to engage or entertain the audience. What
do you need to engage or entertain audience? Great story? Or great
screenplay? Or comedy? Or music? There could be many reasons.
But one main reason for failure is – not telling story effectively, in other
words, not having a proper screenplay.
ACT-1: Initial set-up of story, introducing main character and his goal.
Occupies first 25% screen time(on average). ACT-2: Conflicts, hurdles,
faced by main character in achieving his goal, sub-stories, Villains.
Occupies next 50% time, i.e. 25% run time onwards to 75% run time.
ACT-3: Towards the solution. Last 25% screen time.
ACT1:It basically establishes set up for the story. It states the theme of
the movie, gives us a taste of what movie is going to be. It introduces
who is protagonist and what he wants. Usually it occupies, at
maximum, the first 25% of the screen time. If set up can be established
even in lesser time without losing the detail, it is even better. ACT-1
could be further sub-divided into (as per “save the cat”) 5 more sub-acts
–Opening Image, Theme Stated, Set-Up, Catalyst and debate. Attarintiki
Daredi: In AD movie, the ACT-1 VERY clearly establishes who is Gautam
Nanda and what he wants. We can mark completion of first song in the
movie as completion of ACT-1. Agnyaathavaasi : In AV also, there
seems to be no issue with ACT-1 actually. The film starts of on a good
note, introduces audience with 2 murders, Khushbu and then the hero
AB. After completion of the first song, hero clearly explains his goal and
this marks completion of ACT-1. In comparison, both AV and AD score
almost similar w.r.t. ACT-1
All Is Lost: In 2nd part of the ACT-2(50% to 75%), usually, the plot
thickens, hero suffers, and suddenly he feels like he has lost everything.
In AD, Rao Ramesh asks hero to leave the house and Nadia keeps mum.
That step of Rao Ramesh makes hero’s chances of reaching the goal
bleak. In Agnathavasi, THIS IS THE MOMENT MOVIE GRAPH STARTS
GOING SOUTH. After the flashback episode, people expect the plot to
thicken, and “subconsciously” they are expecting villains to take over
hero and push hero to the corner. But in AV, hero doesn’t lose anything
and writer attempted a long comical scene here, which is definitely
wrong place and timing. Had the writer attempted to proceed with the
story honestly, AND SAVED THOSE FUNNY EPISODES FOR ACT-3, and
focused on creating stronger conflicts, or something that makes hero
feels he is cornered by the villains, fate of the movie would have been
different. If only Trivikram has continued next 25 to 30 minutes after
the flashback of Vinda with an intense drama and couple of twists that
can engage audience for that 25-30 min, surely audience would have
forgiven the “flat” first half. Moreover, any comedy scene in which hero
beating or blasting another actor will be successful only if that other
actor has done sufficient “wrong-doing” by then. In Raviteja’s Venky
movie, Brahmanandam insults Raviteja several times and even tries to
manhandle him before the scene in which he is beaten up by Raviteja.
In Attarintiki Daredi also, Brahmanandam’s arrogance and his ill-
intentions are clearly established before the scene in which he is
beaten up (more over this part comes in ACT-3). But what blatant
mistake or grave injustice or serious sin Murali Sarma did before this
so-called comedy scene. By this time it was already clarified to hero that
he is not even “villain who did the conspiracy.” So why would audience
enjoy if hero is beating Sarma. This is the block from where movie went
downhill. Trivikram has not followed the structure “correctly” at this
point of time of the movie.
Dark Night of the Soul:This sub-act marks the end of the Act-2. This is
the point of time hero lost everything and, it looks like, he has no
chance of accomplishing his goal. He has no hope. While in AD, it is
handled well as Mukhesh Rishi calls and asks PK to abort his mission
and come back. PK’s emotional answer is in sync with the theme of this
sub-act. In AV, there will be a scene (board meeting) in which hero is not
accepted as CEO. This marks the end of act-2 and hero’s final hunt for
solution (will) starts. STOP. STOP. STOP. Let’s go to ACT-1 for a while.
What is the goal of the hero? To become CEO or to find and avenge
Vinda’s death? ACT-2 usually ends on a note of hero losing hope of
achieving his goal and “bad guy” looking all more powerful. What
happened in AV is the wrong “Plot point” being used to mark end of act-
2. After the Vinda’s flash back, plot must have thickened with intense
drama and hero-villain’s cat and mouse game and by this point of time
Villain’s must have got clear upper hand on hero and that (which is
related to hero’s goal) should have marked the end of act-2.
ACT-3:While ACT-2 ends with hero losing all hopes and the entire
situation looks grim and gloomy for him, at the start of ACT-3 he
suddenly finds a thin ray of hope again. The tensions that piled up in
the previous scenes (during ACT-2) start to get relieved slowly. As per
the “save the cat” book, this ACT-3 will also have sub-parts like Break
into Three, Finale and Final Image. In AD, hero suddenly finds a hope in
the character of Brahmanandam. The emotions piled up in previous
(emotional) scenes start to get relieved. Hero again enters Nadia house
in order to achieve his goal. While ACT-1 usually occupies first 25% of
time, ACT-3 occupies last 25% of time (on average). In AV, hero starting
to Bulgaria marks the beginning of ACT-3. But in ACT-2 hero was never
pushed and cornered, so neither the hero nor audience felt any pain.
So start of ACT-3 doesn’t bring any excitement to the audience. While
“Katamarayudu” song was part of ACT-3 in AD, it was in sync with
screenplay requirement and audience expectations. But such fun part
was already over in ACT-2 in AV. So writer attempted to provide such
relief in ACT-3 through heroines fighting among themselves that hardly
evokes any laughs. Though climax was handled well, it was too late!!
The result is as expected. All movies need not follow same screenplay
structure. Movies like “Hum Apke Hain Kaun” are very successful and
yet do not fit into the screenplay format as discussed above. But, of
course that movie was watched not for its screenplay but for it’s music
and for Madhuri Dixit. There are several such examples. But there are
other bunch of movies that had “immense potential” in their stories but
still failed because of not following proper screenplay techniques.
Agnathavasi is one such movie. If Trivikram narrates to any hero –ONLY
the beginning of the movie, interval twist, flashback episode and the
final twist, any hero in Tollywood will accept this story. But all this put
together will occupy less than 45 minutes. What audience get to watch
in remaining 2 hours and how the story is revealed (i.e. screenplay) is in
Trivikram’s hands and it is exactly here Trivikram failed, to the extent to
be called ‘miserable’ for the first time.