Directed by Sriram Ragwan and starring Ayusman Kurana, Tabu and others, "The Tuner" has landed in theaters for more than a week, although there is no fierce publicity offensive, but the film has received unexpected surprises with its solid script and wonderful interpretation of the actors. Since its release in October 2018 in India, the film has not only topped IMDb's top 10 Indian films of the year, but also won several awards at the Indian Film Audience Awards, known as the "Oscar of India". At a time when the popularity of Indian realist films is gradually fading, "The Tuner" allows Chinese audiences to see another scenery of Indian films.
01 Movies that take off by word of mouth
The Tuner is an Indian film based on the French 2010 short microfilm of the same name (only 13 minutes).
It tells the story of a pianist pretending to be blind who is accidentally involved in a murder and thus encounters various bizarre experiences.
On October 5, 2018, it was released in both Indian and North American theaters.
After the release of the movie, it achieved results that made the film team laugh and wake up in their dreams, not only the box office was against the sky, but also the word of mouth exploded.
According to legend, the production cost of "The Tuner" was only $4.5 million, but it grossed more than $10 million in India alone and $6 million in North America.
Its freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes has been 100%, and it also ranks third in the IMDb Indian Movies TOP250 with a rating of 8.6.
Since the release of "The Tuner" in China, the Douban score has also soared to 8.4, which is enough to illustrate the watchability of this movie.
At present, the film has been released in major theaters in China on April 3, although the publicity is much inferior to that of several domestic films released at the same time.
But there is no denying that this will be another film that takes off because of a good viewing experience and the continuous spread of word of mouth.
Because most viewers feel after watching the movie is like this:
"I shouted more than a hundred times throughout the movie."
"Don't hold your urine before watching a movie."
"It's so brain-burning, you can brush two or three brush movies."
"Indian cinema has reached new heights."
02 It's either in the reversal or on the way to the reversal
Up to now, the most talked about by the audience is the wonderful plot design.
In the story of more than two hours, there will be a plot reversal almost every five minutes, large and small, no less than dozens, and there are also rumors that there are more than a hundred.
(Interested children's shoes can take a small book and go to the movie theater to count it.) ）
This is also the main reason why the audience can't hold their urine before watching the movie, and they can't restrain themselves from marveling at the movie.
We've all seen reversals, but the dizzying inversion plus reversals we really haven't seen.
Just a few examples.
At first, I thought that the male protagonist was blind, but to reverse it, it was actually a blind person.
The male protagonist inadvertently witnessed a murder, and wanted to go to the bathroom to calm down, turn around, and find the murderer hiding in the bathroom.
The male protagonist was poisoned by the female murderer, reversed, and changed from pretending to be blind to being really blind.
The male protagonist was hunted down and killed, and was finally rescued when the mountains and rivers were exhausted, reversed, and entered the black heart clinic that sold organs.
This first makes people feel a little relaxed, and then suddenly twist the bridge section, which is simply too numerous to count. (No more spoilers.) ）
The intensive reversal will make the audience involuntarily immersed in the plot and keep up with the interlocking development rhythm of the story.
If you have to go to the toilet halfway, you may miss several reversals, which is really a pity.
However, if you think that so many reversals exist throughout the movie have come to an end, then you are mistaken.
The director's fondness for reversals has reached the point of madness, and even the film itself has not fallen.
Now that everyone knows, this movie is a suspense thriller.
But this conclusion was only reflected after forty minutes of the film.
Until then, audiences would have thought they were watching a traditional Bollywood youth inspirational song and dance romantic comedy.
The male protagonist, Akash, is a pianist, talented and handsome.
In pursuit of higher artistic achievements, he deliberately hid his vision, deceived all people, and lived as a blind man.
This stems from Akash's whim, and if the eye can't see it, it may inspire more inspiration.
In fact, it is also understandable that artists always have some ideas that are different from ordinary people.
But some things, once started, there is no way to stop.
Pretending to be blind, the pianist was bumped on the road one day by the simple and cute restaurant Fuerdai Sophie.
In this way, he became a piano resident singer in the restaurant, not only receiving a lot of tips every day, but also quickly capturing Sophie's heart.
In the restaurant with a cloud of guests, handsome Akash wearing sunglasses, sitting at the piano, playing and singing with a spring breeze.
Guests dancing on the dance floor were overwhelmed by the great playing skills of the blind pianist and captivated by Akash's beautiful singing.
Behind the blind pianist's sunglasses, Akash's eyes stared passionately at the curly-haired, smiling girl in the crowd, Sophie.
Love is always a source of inspiration for the artist, and Sophie is Akash's beloved muse.
The left hand is sweet love, the right hand is intoxicating music, and the perfect life is no more than that.
For Akash, this was the highlight of his life.
For the audience, this lively scene of singing and dancing is not only a small climax of lighthearted pleasure, but also more in line with the traditional perception of Indian cinema in the impression.
Right, right, this is still the Indian movie that sings while acting and dancing when talking.
Still that same recipe, familiar taste.
However, you are mistaken.
Akash, who was proud of his career and love, was soon involved in a murder case by pretending to be blind.
It is really a success and a failure.
Because of pretending to be blind, he unexpectedly gained money and love, and because he pretended to be blind, he was forced to get involved in conspiracies and hunts.
At this point, the direction of the plot has undergone a huge reversal, from the light-hearted and witty traditional Indian song and dance romance, the painting style has suddenly changed, and it has turned into a plot stimulation, thriller and horror suspense film.
However, this is also one of the reasons why this movie makes people have to like it.
You think the plot will be like this, but that's it.
The policeman who represents justice is the real murderer.
The beauty of a good wife and mother is a serial killer who murders her husband.
You thought the man would die, but he ended up escaping.
You think that the male protagonist did not come to Tailai, but did not expect to fall into another wolf's den.
Reversal, reversal, reversal all the time, unexpected reversal, reversal close to the limit.
And the audience, in addition to the desperate shooting, what else can they do?
03 Song and dance, realism, thriller suspense
The "all-rounder" Indian cinema is no longer just Amir Khan
"Indian Partner", "Mysterious Superstar", "Hiccup Teacher", "Starting Line"... In 2018, Indian films appeared on the domestic screen particularly frequently, with "WrestleMania! After "Daddy" grossed nearly 1.3 billion yuan and achieved a double harvest of box office word-of-mouth, the "Made in Bollywood" film seems to have become a quality guarantee in the hearts of some fans.
In 2018, the performance of Indian films at home and abroad is worth mentioning, with domestic box office revenue reaching 123.7 billion Indian rupees (about 12 billion yuan), and also a historic birth of ten overseas box office films exceeding 10 million US dollars.
If the "song and dance" in "Three Fools Bollywood" and "Slumdog Millionaire" is the first impression left by Indian or Indian-themed films on Chinese audiences, then focusing on women's rights and interests and revealing social contradictions are the scripts that fans are most familiar with today. But the awakening of female consciousness is not the whole of Indian cinema, and in recent years, Bollywood's tentacles have also reached out more and more to a wider subject area, with good results.
In addition to "The Tuner", IMDb's top ten Indian films in 2018 include the thriller "Demon", the feature film "Willing", "Langastaram Enmity", and the legendary Indian actor Sanjay Dart's biopic "Generation of Superstar Sanjay Jun". In 2017, the top of the list was won by the criminal investigation film "Ecstasy".
When it comes to Indian movies, actor Amir Khan is an inseparable character, from "Stars on Earth" and "Three Fools Bollywood" to "My God" and "Wrestle!" Dad", "Mysterious Superstar", whether it is for the character to gain weight and lose weight, or to reveal social contradictions, the actor, who was called "the conscience of the country" by Time magazine, has become an irreplaceable benchmark figure. However, Amir Khan is not the only synonym for Indian cinema, nor is the light of a superstar enough to illuminate every film. In WrestleMania! After "Daddy" reached the top of the box office, the discounted "Mysterious Superstar" and the less than 70 million yuan "Indian Mob" all made people see the decline of homogeneous films and single actor attraction.
The movie "The Tuner" is absurd through the fermentation of the murder of the husband, but it has to be said that it is well versed in human nature. With the deepening of the plot, in fact, this movie does not have a real sense of good people, the starting point of everyone's understanding is self-interest, adulterous and wealth-loving wife, adulterer who has lost public power, doctor who sells organs, peddlers with lust for profit, everyone under the black humor is a profit seeker who has lost his humanity, and even the pianist's kind girlfriend, after finally listening to the pianist's lies made up again, actually said that he should take off the eyes of his cheating wife, and the true meaning of this role is really revealed at this moment. What it represents is actually public violence in the name of goodness and justice.
The Tuner's interpretation of human nature is actually the subtitle at the beginning of the movie, "What is life?" It depends on the liver" gives the answer, when human nature is deeply involved in the vortex of interests, who can really not be thrilled? In fact, everyone is blind under the benefits.