Multiplex (different) cinema is more formula driven and cliche

Couple of years back everybody was excited that multiplex cinema had changed the rules of the game and generated fresher content. Trade experts thought that it would keep dominating over single screens. But the success of 'Ghajini' followed by 'Wanted', 'Dabangg' and now 'Yamla Pagla Deewana' broke the mirage of 'multiplex - mania'.

This success of masala ventures has established the fact that nothing succeeds like entertaining film and people still love it. Poor production values, repetitive storyline, steep prices of tickets and uninspired starcast contributed to the downfall of multiplex wave. Audience has full right to expect good locales and big starcast when one is shelling out 200 to 300 rupees for single watch especially when content is poor, niche and formula driven.

In the beginning, everything looked promising when series of fresh multiplex hits came out i.e. 'Bheja Fry', 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', 'Dev D' and 'Pyar Ke Side Effects'. But soon makers of this genre started taking audience for granted. For example,Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Phatak and Ranvir Shrenoy delivered hits like 'Bheja Fry', 'Dasvidaniya' and 'Khosla Ka Ghosla' but on contrary they produced duds like 'Straight', 'Raat Gayi Baat Gayi', 'Emotional Atychaar-The Film' and 'Straight'.

So many films came with lot of critical acclaim but failed to ignite box office as well as audience. 'City Of Gold', 'Barah Aana' (poster screamed that Aamir Khanl oved the film but he proved to be the only one), 'Sankat City' and 'Chintu Ji' are few examples of that. The poor content was the main culprit behind this disaster. Now it is crystal clear that size of budget is immaterial but content is what audience is running after.

And there is one more myth established by media and there is good chunk of audience who are following it. The myth is that only small budget or art films have content and films with big budget and star power are repetitive. But this argument does not hold any water. Good content means that the promise shown by promo or star should be fulfilled in those 2-3 hours of screening. For example, 'Yamla Pagala Deewana', 'Dabangg' and 'My Name Is Khan' were hot since the launch of its first promo and went on to become a super hit because audience got what they were promised and on the contrary in the case of 'TMK', audience felt cheated as there was nothing beyond 'Jawani of Sheila'. 'Band Baaja Baraat' and 'Do Dooni Chaar' did business beyond expectations due to middle class feel and natural dialogues not because content was out of the world. What was even more interesting that most of the hits of last couple of years had done better business in single screen than multiplex so this can be seen as the sign of revival of 'pure' bollywood cinema and single screens.

In short, 'fake' urban and multiplex cinema is biting the dust and originality and freshness of content is the sure winner at box office and yes, genre and target audience should be clear.