In India, there are "three khans" who cover most of the film industry - Amir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, in the top ten lists of the Indian film history box office, in addition to the champion and runner-up "Baahubali" series, the other films starring the "Three Khans" are contracted. Amir Khan ("Three Fools Bollywood", "Wrestle, Daddy!) In the past two years of fire in China, Shah Rukh Khan ("Brain Dead Powder") is known as the "King of Bollywood", and salman Khan, the least famous in the mainland, is known as the "Godfather of Fitness" in India, his works are mostly action movies, "Little Lolita's Monkey God Uncle" (hereinafter referred to as "Little Lolita") became his debut on the Chinese screen, this time he played the tough but gentle personality, friendly, no matter when the sincere Hanuman god believer "Monkey God" Pavan. "Little Lori" has a very good reputation: IMDb 8.1 points, Rotten Tomatoes freshness 100%, Douban score 8.6. In India, the film grossed more than 200 million Indian rupees (about 19.45 million yuan) in eight days after its release in July 2015, breaking the record for the fastest Bollywood film to break by 200 million rupees. Although it has been two and a half years since the film was released in India, the data shows that the film's performance was tepid at first, but the word of mouth has increased and the attendance rate has gradually increased. By the time of the deadline, the film had counterattacked to the third place in the single-day box office list, far exceeding the European and American films "Peter Rabbit" and "Money World" released at the same time, harvesting more than 100 million box office in 7 days, although it was impossible to copy "Wrestling!" "Daddy" has a dark horse record, but it still proves that "good movies, not afraid to wait".
plot
Simple resonance pokes tears
The core of the story of "Little Lolita", telling the story of the "Monkey God" uncle sending a lost child who can't speak home, the plot is not complicated, but it is full of religious, cultural, political, legal and other tests, director Kabir Khan has done a lot of documentary filming before, he said that he wants to use these experiences in "Little Lolita", "To any city I will specifically observe the way people talk and act, "Little Lolita" itself shows the relationship and feelings between people, I wanted to be able to make this film in an entertaining way that lived with humor. "'Little Lolita' uses the most familiar elements of the audience to bring people strong resonance, and any clip, the film can accurately grasp the audience's tears."
The journey of reporters, little Lori and uncle is humorous and touching.
performance
No need to write words without stress
Little Lori Mooney is played by Indian child actress Marlotla, who said that Mooney's personality is very similar to her own. Mooney in the film has always been very shy, rarely speaks, and the beautiful and cute Marlotla does not say much in the interview, although the whole film has only a little line, but it is easy to make people have a desire to protect, and a smile has earned enough tears from the audience. Asked if there was a challenge to the role, the naïve Mallottra laughed and said, "There is no challenge at all, I can still not remember the lines", "In fact, my favorite is the scene where I spoke at the end, and sometimes I want to talk during the filming, especially when I watch Salman Khan sing and dance." The uncle was very nice and played table tennis with me during filming, and I especially enjoyed performing with him. ”
■ Question resolution
18 minutes cut from the mainland version?
The original length of "Little Lolita" shown on IMDb is 163 minutes, while the version released on the mainland screen is only 141 minutes, which is 18 minutes less, comparing the two versions, we can find that there are mainly the following deletions.
The whole film style is warm comedy, does not involve too many sensitive and bloody scenes, in general, the deletion part does not affect the viewing effect, such as the song and dance that has nothing to do with the narrative, which will be smooth after deletion, it is more regrettable that at the end of the film, Xiao Loli opened her mouth and hugged the uncle and cried very tear-inducing, but because the interaction between the uncle and Xiao Loli on the way home was deleted, it failed to let the audience feel the depth and tacit understanding of the relationship between the two.
Mooney is unhappy because she misses her mother, and Pavan and his girlfriend sing and dance together to make her happy.
● Mooney took away the beautiful bracelet from the roadside stall without permission, and the boss chased Pavan for money, and Pavan angrily returned it to the boss and taught Moone not to steal.
● Pavan disguises himself as the reporter's wife to hide his identity, and on the way, the reporter comes up with a plan to let the passing car give them a ride, let Moone stuff the banana into the exhaust cylinder of the car, and then disguise herself as a mechanic to fix the car. This move was naturally thanked by the driver, who did not expect that the driver was actually a policeman.
● The journey of Pavan, Mooney and the reporter shows the moments of their journey home in a video-style continuous footage.
(2) Why are Indian films long?
In addition to "Little Lori", in fact, "WrestleMania" released last year! "Daddy" was also cut from 160 minutes to 140 minutes, when the filmmakers responded to make the film more rhythmic. In fact, in Indian movies, three-hour length is very common, according to statistics, the longest Indian release film is 4 hours and 35 minutes, such as the domestic audience familiar with the film, "Three Fools Bollywood" 171 minutes, "My Name is Khan" 165 minutes, "My God" 153 minutes... Even the publicity of "Three Fools Bollywood" when it was released in China at that time played the banner of "the longest New Year film in history", claiming to accompany the audience to laugh for three hours.
● Large sections of song and dance are full of films: This is the most popular bridge section for Indian audiences, for example, the length of several songs and dances in "Little Lolita" is not short, which increases the length of the film, most of the song and dance shooting costs are low, and can also be sold as soundtracks, which naturally accounts for an important proportion.
● There are too many elements of the plot: Indian directors like to give Indian movies a surreal feeling, love, family, friendship, religion, war, military, suspense... Elements that can be incorporated into the film must be added, allowing the audience to escape from reality for three hours.
● Cinemas are inexpensive summer resorts: Indian movie ticket prices are usually only a dozen rupees, not only cheaper but also allow the whole family to enter the cinema to blow air conditioning, and many theaters also type the words "air conditioning inside". There is usually a 5 to 15-minute "intermission" in between three or four hours of movies, and the audience can take advantage of this time to relax.
Indian cinema usually incorporates elements of many genres.
■ Director talk
I don't want to make a sequel, I want to try something new
Beijing News: How to find Marlotla to play the girl Mooney?
Kabir Khan: If we couldn't find the right actor to play Mooney, we wouldn't be able to make this movie happen. So we selected seven or eight kids from hundreds of girls to perform as a group, and the first time I saw the video of Marottera's audition, her spirituality and enthusiasm were in line with what I wanted in my heart, so I decided to give her the role.
Beijing News: How long did the movie take?
Kabir Khan: The whole film was shot for six months, and the second part of the story is almost always on the way home, and we also travel to different places (laughs). I've always paid close attention to filming, and fortunately I thought about the composition when I wrote the script, had a clear plan for shooting in one place for a month or two and then turned to where to fight, and spent a lot of time letting the uncle and the little girl get along before filming.
Beijing News: Will you make a sequel to tell the story of little Lori growing up?
Kabir Khan: Every director has regrets and always feels like they can do better, but I think the most important thing is how you feel when you shoot at the time, and once you make a decision, you can make what you can make and let it develop. I'm basically a director who won't make a sequel, and if the film is more successful, I will try it, but personally I don't really want to make a sequel, or I want to try something new.
Written by/Beijing News reporter Zhou Huixiaowan