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Box Office: From biggest blockbusters to alarming disasters; what's up with S Shankar?
Here’s shedding light on what’s going wrong with Shankar Shanmughan, the visionary filmmaker. Read below!
Shankar Shanmughan is among the finest filmmakers of Indian cinema. Active in the industry for more than 30 years, Shankar has proven his mettle with magnificent filmmaking, grandeur, and incorporating new technologies in his movies. However, the once-legendary filmmaker is now struggling for a clean hit. Here's shedding light on what’s going wrong with Shankar, the visionary filmmaker.
In his rich and illustrious career, Shankar has delivered numerous big blockbusters like Indian, Jeans, Anniyan, Sivaji, Enthiran, and others. However, his last few releases couldn't strike the right chord with the audience. The 2016 mega-budgeted movie 2.0 still holds the #1 spot among Tamil movies at the worldwide box office. However, even that didn’t meet expectations on the content front. Furthermore, the Kamal Haasan starrer Indian 2 and Ram Charan's latest offering, Game Changer, crumbled at the box office and turned out to be big disasters.
Some of the major reasons why his latest offerings are not hitting the mark are an outdated and incoherent screenplay, repetitive plots centered on socio-political issues, patchy editing, and excessive length. The director needs to not only stay updated with technology but also improve his content and screenplay writing. The 62-year-old is still following the same style of writing, which is not favorable for today’s generation.
Shankar’s filmography has always been a voice for socio-political issues. The filmmaker has continuously made movies addressing corruption and injustice in society. While this is commendable, it has also become too repetitive for Shankar. If the director wants to raise the same issues repeatedly, he should adopt a more creative approach to ensure the audience doesn’t feel bored.
Moreover, the filmmaker has struggled to package his recent movies effectively. For instance, Game Changer had some terrible songs staged on unnatural, glossy sets. Not a single song justified the heavy costs the makers incurred. On the other hand, Indian 2 had some unintentionally funny action sequences and forced comedic gags that failed to click with the masses.
Shankar shot Indian 2 and Game Changer simultaneously. Reports suggest that Shankar shot more than five hours of content for each movie. This indicates that the director was unsure of what he was making and where the story should end. Ultimately, the makers decided to split Indian 2’s long cut into two parts, making it a trilogy. Had Shankar focused on one movie at a time, the results could have been different.
Another major reason why Shankar's latest movies are not creating the same impact as before is the lack of good writers on his team. In his earlier phase, he consistently collaborated with legendary Tamil author and novelist Sujatha on the screenplay, story, and dialogues for his movies. After Sujatha's demise in 2008, Shankar's movies began to lose their touch and quality in terms of content.
The audience misses the visionary Shankar, who made movies ahead of their time. To regain his former glory, Shankar must upgrade his stories, focus on more nuanced characters, control production costs, collaborate with talented writers, and steer clear of corruption-related plots—at least for a while. His next project is Indian 3, the third installment of the cult 1996 movie. We hope this film ends his bad phase and brings him back in full force.
What are your thoughts? Tell us in the comment section. Stay tuned to Pinkvilla for more updates.
ALSO READ: Box Office: Shankar's Game Changer crosses Indian 2 worldwide gross on day 6; still a HUGE disaster
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