In search of the perfect Bollywood action/comedy script - Preface

For quite sometime, I have been thinking how the script of the perfect bollywood action-comedy film would turn out to be. I am talking wholesome entertainment - action, comedy, story-telling, interesting conversations,, characters with depth and above all kick-assiness. I have seen a fair amount of Bollywood movies till date and but it is difficult for me to point out movies that have really entertained me. That being said, Sholay stands out and I can see how it made an impact (perhaps, and still does) on the Indian movie scene. I can see how it must have changed the then established kick-assiness of movies. However, with the movies that I grew up with, this certainly got diluted as the theme became beaten to death over and over again.

Then, Dabangg happened. A movie with unmatched entertainment and a fitting title. Not often do we get to see a movie driven by conversations. If the dialogues were not witty, they were downright funny. If there was no action sequence, the dialogues brandished swords and slashed each other. Veteran and new actors in short roles gave fine wings to what was a Chulbul-e roller-coaster. Dabangg's review in itself deserves another post. There are definitely things I would have liked to improve in Dabangg but let us just agree for now that this was the closest to the perfect Bollywood script that I have been dreaming of.

What, then, would the perfect Bollywood script of my dreams have? Let me begin with a few prerequisites:

• Conversations: The dialogue needs to be the soul of the movie. It will be the thread that ties the entire movie together.
• Character development: Character definitions will deepen as the story progresses.
• Kick-assiness: There will be confident characters thrown all over who speak for themselves. There would be no attempt to hide flaws of characters.
• Action: There will be hard-core as well as light-hearted action.
• Comedy: This is a tricky area. Suffice to say, there will be less slapstick and more driven by dialogues and situations.

Some of the things which are definitely not pre-requisites:

• Point/theme: The movie won't necessarily have a point. People asking what the point of the movie will be given specific directions to hell.
• Songs: Songs, if included at all, will be purely to titillate or/and as a medium to display kickassiness.

These are purely guidelines and in no form become rules. The script will evolve by itself; the characters will draw themselves. If the script wants it, any of these guidelines can be thrown out of the window.