Disclaimer: I enjoy a good movie/series that has a nice cinematic experience along with a good story. This blog is a rant.

Recently, I saw the trailer of the movie Materialists (2025) and I am quite eager to watch the movie in the theatres. A nice aspect of this movie is that it looks like a simple romantic movie. The comments I saw under the trailer video were something like ‘After a long time, it’s refreshing to see Chris Evans as a simple human in a normal romantic movie. That got me thinking – where did we lose the simplicity and old-world charm in movies and when did we encourage gore and violence as part of our cinematic experience?

The Shift in Cinematic Experience

Let’s go back to probably two decades ago when we were kids who loved going to the movies with family and friends. The snacks, the washroom break, the whole movie experience, it all made such a memorable nostalgic mark, partly because of the kind of movies that encouraged a whole family to witness the experience and make it a part of their core memory.

Fast forward to the current trend, all we get to see running successfully in the theatres are movies like KGF, Pushpa, Animal, etc., Subtle movies like Hi Nanna, Court – State vs Nobody is gaining marginal or critics’ fame though they are considered as box office success. It makes me wonder why such subtle movies with either a ‘feel-good’ vibe or ‘spreading a message’ concepts don’t run with the same hype as movies where villains are considered God-like.

The Core Issue

I am aware that a movie experience comes with various definitions and to each, their own. I also understand that one must watch movies/series as an experience and should not take things personally. However, an example: a woman being harassed in a movie does not offer a great cinematic experience for women as it’s basically the fear of every woman in reality, how can one not take it personally?

I understand in some movies, reality must be displayed in such a gruesome way to make people understand how reality is around us like Mardaani or Pink. But, when you take these movies as examples, the gore or violence doesn’t stem from an unnecessary POV but rather the truth POV.

The problem is that in the name of hyping the ‘antagonist’, movie makers go all the way like using Kalashnikov in KGF or War Machine in Animal and destroying everything that comes their way. Of course, it does gather popularity and people cheer for such a grand scene. However, what goes into some vulnerable minds of people cheering such scenes: violence is the new cool?

Amidst all the growing popularity of violence, there are some good movies/series that I loved watching in recent times (Set it Up, Emily in Paris, Your Place or Mine, Hi Nanna, etc.) We all have loved films like Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara, Karwaan, etc., and revisit them too. Then why did movie makers give a pause on making such movies again? (God knows I’ve been waiting for some ray of light on the movie ‘Jee Le Zara’). No wonder why people are still re-visiting old movies in the theatre not just because of the nostalgic charm but because of the quality of the whole experience. The elevation is natural and organic, unlike the artificial and over-hyped elevations of current times.

Conclusion

Similar to a simple rom-com or a feel-good movie/series, violence and gore also have their own genres. In this aspect, it makes sense that movies are being made using this genre as a focal category on a demand basis. However, in the quest to make profits or gain popularity, the simple genres are getting backstage and it would be refreshing to see a movie or a series that falls in this category. The whole point of watching movies or series is to escape from the daily stress of life. After watching the movie, some of us expect to feel like ‘Life is not that bad’. If there are any movie/series recommendations that fall under the ‘feel-good’ genre, kindly share.