Why Agent Vinod matters

Whenever a hugely hyped film opens, film critics tend to approach it with corresponding scepticism and extra-sharpened claws. In this day and age of carpet bombing of trailers and film star interviews, it is almost an accepted truism that the more intense the marketing, the bigger the possibility that the film will be lousy. When Shahrukh Khan went into overdrive to promote his mega-production Ra.One, he was lampooned and the subsequent poor box office performance was held up as a vindication of that theorem.
Now comes Agent Vinod, another big-budget extravaganza with top stars, exotic foreign locations, glossy sets, peppy songs and yes, non-stop marketing. For about two weeks before the film’s release one couldn’t turn on any channel without seeing Saif Ali Khan dancing, shooting, fighting and doing all the things a Hindi film hero does without missing a heartbeat or messing up his hair.
Yet, almost inevitably, all these raised expectations were not met and the critics went after it with vigour. The audiences too appeared underwhelmed, at least going by the vox pop interviews outside cinema houses conducted by breathless reporters after the first show. Their verdict — mixed reactions by the viewers, which is, literally, neither here nor there. The overall impression is that this pastiche of James Bond and Jason Bourne, peppered with director Sriram Raghavan’s clever references to 1970s Hindi films was a damp squib. Why couldn’t we have something on the scale of Mission Impossible, moaned one reviewer, forgetting the fact that just one stunt in that film would probably have cost half the budget of Agent Vinod.
To each their own, but there are those, including this writer, who found the film quite entertaining, once you suspended disbelief and went with an open mind. The same of course can be said of most Bond films. The plot of Agent Vinod may have been a bit cheesy and the sly references get too much, but it is visually stunning, the songs are great and it keeps one entertained. Raghavan has an innovative mind as was evident with his earlier outings; here, too, he comes up with some new ideas. I also liked the notion of a globe-trotting Indian spy in the current context when India is developing strategic interests all over the world; a putative superpower needs a superspy.
But films like Agent Vinod deserve closer attention for another reason — they are one more step towards trying to carve out a bigger niche in the global cinema stakes. In a scenario where filmmakers tend to play it safe at the box office, churning out moronic comedies, or NRI-oriented weepy sagas, it is films like Agent Vinod and Ra.One that represent an audacious attempt by our film makers — and our stars — to transcend the small pond they have been swimming in and make a leap for the big time.
To those who love those small films with heartwarming stories peopled with non-stars, this kind of assertion may sound blasphemous. The arty crowd, which simply adores anything “alternative” and scoffs at the big, star-studded production, will insist that what the world needs from us is more “Indian” stories and less copies of the kind of cinema that Hollywood does so much better. In short, why bother to make Agent Vinod when Bond exists and who would care about Ra.One when there are bigger, better superhero films rolling out of Hollywood all the time? This kind of mindset wants India to remain confined to making “Indian” films rather than producing global films with an Indian sensibility and accent.
This is a patently absurd suggestion. For all our boastfulness of producing the maximum number of films in the world, the Indian film industry accounts for a tiny percentage of the global market; we are barely 2.5 per cent of the US in revenues. Even accounting for the differential in the dollar and the rupee, it shows us as a minnow before the big, Hollywood juggernaut. And the mammoth Hollywood machine generates those billions of dollars not by making sweet, life-affirming stories, but by producing the likes of Avatar, Titanic and Transformers. These are films that appeal to mass audiences everywhere. They are made well and marketed even better.
Avatar and Titanic were huge risks when they were conceived and made. Not only was the $200 million budget for Avatar unprecedented in Hollywood, the technology too was untried and untested. It could have turned out to be a bomb. Yet, today we call it a seminal work that brought about new ways of thinking in cinema and hail James Cameron as a visionary.
Both Ra.One and Agent Vinod were huge bets by the stars who produced and acted in them. Shahrukh Khan wanted to go beyond being a softie hero of romantic films and Saif Ali Khan too was ready to go out on a limb; to make their dreams a reality, they decided to turn producers. They were not only gambling with their reputations but also their money. Ego is definitely a great motivating factor here, but so is the ambition to try out something that is different and on a bigger, grander scale. If these gambles had succeeded, we would have applauded them for being far-sighted pioneers who changed the way the industry thinks and scores of imitators would have followed.
It is films like these that will lead India’s charge into the big global market and further increase its soft power. Why should the blockbuster action genre be limited to Hollywood? Can’t India produce its own Shwarzenegger or its own Transformers? Hollywood is making inroads into this country slowly but surely, and corporates, too, have been funding movies. Their record so far has been patchy, because the Power Point using suits want to play it safe. But here are Indian stars with a passion for cinema and an eye on commerce who are showing boldness and gumption. Indian films are big in India and among the NRI communities worldwide and the sound of cash registers jingling keeps our producers happy; but we need to conquer the bigger world out there and that will happen only when we make really big films that stand their own ground against the Hollywood machine. It’s not going to be easy, but the likes of Ra.One and Agent Vinod show we are on the right track.