Sci-fi journey from Star Wars to Robot

Science fiction is a speculative notion, scientific based, prediction of phenomena not accepted by theoretical sciences. It is one genre which has fascinated both the filmmakers and audiences since the inception of movies. Hollywood started experimenting with this genre from the early 1900’s with George Milles silent movie ‘Journey to the Moon’, considered  the 1^st ever sci- fi movie, with other examples being Frankenstein (1910), Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde(1920), Metropolis(1927), and many more.

Now let’s jump straight to our very own Indian cinema. In the 50-60’s, films in Bollywood were still emerging from the shell and directors were slowly experimenting new themes. The first sci-fi attempt was actually made in the Bengali cinema by director Satyajit Ray who wanted to make a film on alien life forms but due to some production problems, the project was shut down. There were no further attempts made by any other filmmaker in Bollywood and making movies on romance, comedy, family dramas were only considered as bankable options. Then the 70’s arrived which were mainly dominated with films of Rajesh Khanna which fuelled more romance in our lives and the revolutionary anti-system movies of Amitabh bachchan which accurately displayed the emotions of the time period. But a thought of ever producing a full-fledged sci -fi movie was still considered by many, ahead of its times.

During this period, Hollywood was started providing the world with some 

of the best sci-fi movies of all times. In 1968, the maverick director Stanley Kubrick made the movie 2001:A Space odyssey which broke the barriers of visual effects at that time. This was followed by possibly the most influential duo directors the world of cinema would ever see, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. George Lucas pioneered the trend of Sci-Fi movies with his box-office sensation Star Wars which gave way to other successful movies such as Jaws, The close encounters of the third kind, E.T the extra terrestrial, Terminator etc. The filmmakers in Hollywood suddenly woke up to the plethora of possibilities available in the Science fiction genre and suddenly every other movie started following this upwardly trend. Subjects ranging from Aliens to supernatural entities to natural disasters, all were part of the overall science fiction.

Shekhar Kapoor who was an avid follower of the Hollywood cinema, finally took it upon himself to give India its first fully commercial Sci-fi movie. The movie was Mr. India starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi which held a mass appeal but it was the children who primarily loved the film.

 It was only after 16 years that another director would resurrect the genre back into bollywood. The director was Rakesh Roshan and the movie was Koi Mil Gaya which was largely inspired from the Spielberg classic E.T the extra terrestrial. The movie became an instant hit and struck a chord with children across India. This also led Rakesh Roshan to produce the sequel to the film called Krishh with Hrithik again reprising the role of the main protagonist who attains superhuman capabilities. There were many sci-fi movies in Bollywood which followed soon after but none could repeat this same success story. It became a certain undertone that a mega sci-fi project generally lacked a good story line which ultimately led to the movies becoming massive duds. Movies ranging from Prince with the high-class technology to Alag, a story of a child with miraculous healing powers, neither could make an impact on the audiences. Even the over-hyped Sci-fi romantic movie Love Story 2050 which was rumored to be made on an elaborate budget of 60 crores, was blatantly rejected by the public. Audiences as well as critics panned the movie for having nothing innovative and the acting abilities of the main actor weren’t much of a treat either.

Bollywood, since then has refrained from going anywhere near the sci-fi genre. But now there are big expectations from Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai starrer movie ROBOT whose promos look promising. It remains to be seen whether the movie works or not but for the sake of the genre and for the need of a fresh idea, I would pray that it really works !!!