Remember I pointed out a bizarre TOI link about Munnabhai being made in English by Mira Nair in this post? At that time, I thought: the people at TOI anyway think that the Net contains pearls, pebbles, and dung - they just decided to add some more, ummm, pebbles to it, so what? They would surely not sully the pristine pages of the hardcopy so carelessly? It turns out that they would. Today's copy has the story proudly staring out at the reader from its own pretty box. It is difficult to know where to start.
I'll start with the timeline of the story. What on earth took them so long? This story was broken by this website on December 1, 2004. This blog refers to it on January 18th, 2005. A flurry of activity erupts on April 14th, 2005, like here and here and here. And for heaven's sake the venerable sister Economic Times carries this news under a suitably sober headline "Will the next decade of entertainment belong to India?" here.
OK they were not quick on the uptake. Not a big deal. They were probably busy chasing other stories like 14-year-olds topping NASA entrance tests. Anyway, lets move on. An excerpt from the Economic Times article:
OK that is just sloppy journalism. But why Mira Nair as the director? Did they see a thread of suppressed dumbed-down comic flair running through all her movies made till now? Wait, that could be it. I have seen three of her movies. All of them had the same inane air. And her bio here seem to justify her choice as director of another senseless comedy. Who cares about all those international awards anyway? Lastly, why Munnabhai? A Hollywood version of a Hindi movie inspired by various other Hollywood movies - Patch Adams being one?
OK they are just morons out there. Wait, did I really say that? Got carried away. Of course, if it turns out that the movie happens as described, the mud would be on me. But I would wager a biggish amount against that happening. Takers welcome.
I'll start with the timeline of the story. What on earth took them so long? This story was broken by this website on December 1, 2004. This blog refers to it on January 18th, 2005. A flurry of activity erupts on April 14th, 2005, like here and here and here. And for heaven's sake the venerable sister Economic Times carries this news under a suitably sober headline "Will the next decade of entertainment belong to India?" here.
OK they were not quick on the uptake. Not a big deal. They were probably busy chasing other stories like 14-year-olds topping NASA entrance tests. Anyway, lets move on. An excerpt from the Economic Times article:
It took six months of negotiating with Hollywood’s Twentieth Century Fox for Chopra to close the deal. “It took so long because I insisted that the movie carry a line saying that it had been adapted from ‘an Indian film Munnabhai MBBS written by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Raju Hirani and Abbas Tyrewala’. “That was crucial for me. And that is going global. Now Hollywood will be inspired by us,” says Chopra.It really doesn't matter if Mr Chopra is having ET or ET is having us. Shouldn't TOI have checked why searches on the movie name bring back no results on the 20th Century Fox site, nor searches on Mira Nair?
OK that is just sloppy journalism. But why Mira Nair as the director? Did they see a thread of suppressed dumbed-down comic flair running through all her movies made till now? Wait, that could be it. I have seen three of her movies. All of them had the same inane air. And her bio here seem to justify her choice as director of another senseless comedy. Who cares about all those international awards anyway? Lastly, why Munnabhai? A Hollywood version of a Hindi movie inspired by various other Hollywood movies - Patch Adams being one?
OK they are just morons out there. Wait, did I really say that? Got carried away. Of course, if it turns out that the movie happens as described, the mud would be on me. But I would wager a biggish amount against that happening. Takers welcome.
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