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Manmohan Desai and Cricket


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Indians love predictability. And no one knew that more than the great Manmohan Desai, who created a trend with a theme that was widely followed not only by him but also by other filmmakers. 

 

The basic plot is usually about a family that unfortunately becomes a victim of the bad guys. In trying to escape their misfortune, the family gets separated. The dad is either killed or framed to go to jail. The mom either suffers some sort of memory loss or disability. The kids can be separated in a variety of ways depending upon how different the filmmaker wants to be. One of the most popular ways to separate the kids was when the brothers catch a train in trying to escape the villains. On the train, the younger sibling gets thirsty, therefore the older one goes to fetch water. Eventually, he is late to catch the train. 

 

To remain predictable to the Indian audiences, the characters name would be similar too (Vijay, Shankar, Amit, Rajesh, etc.), while the bad guys would be played by the same actors from the talented pool of Amjad Khan, Kadar Khan, Prem Chopra, Ranjeet, Jeevan, Ajit, and Shakti Kapoor. If it is a big budget movie, an Amitabh or a Shashi or a Dharmendra would be beating the bad guys. If it is mid to low budget movie, a Mithun will do the duties. If the movies did not follow a similar pattern, they were not likely to do well at the box office (Naseeruddin Shah is still complaining about it). 

 

Besides movies, the other favorite pass time in the subcontinent is cricket. Given the taste of Indian audiences for what is predictable, how can the country plays its cricket be any different? The cricket team tries to follow a formula too. Much like in movies, cricket also has key characters. In movies, if a key character is killed off early, it could lose interest for many. So in cricket, the idea is to preserve wicket. To achieve that aim, the team focuses on cutting down risks which includes simply blocking balls pointless. But since the wickets are intact, it provides a sense of security to the audiences. Much like how the villains are beaten at the end of the movie, most of the action is supposed to be reserved for the end (slog overs). 

 

Most movies will also have a character that is basically good but wild, along with a character that is good and responsible. At the end of the movie, the wild character learns from its mistake to turn good and responsible. Therefore, an attacking cricketer is seen as a wild character whose end goal is to turn into a responsibile one, which from the movie analogy would equate to not killing the villains until the climax. To take the game deep, the wild character is expected to block the balls too till a certain Laxman Rekha is crossed (and he would have acted responsibly). 

 

In the film industry, popular actors who are past their prime continue to play roles that are suited for people half their age. In the cricket industry, popular cricketers continue to wear India colors until its too late. 

 

An Italy in turmoil produced Renaissance. A Switzerland in relative peace produced the cuckoo clock. India with its love for predictability leans towards Switzerland but remains in turmoil like the old Italy. Which means that India as a country or the Subcon as a region is usually not at the cutting edge of starting new trends despite the opportunities available.

 

The love for "Predictability" also ensured that Congress stayed in power for most of India's history. Every trend or theme has a shelf life but in India, the need to adhere to the predictability factor drive things to change often when it is too late or when the options run out. In movies, it can afford to take longer as the industry plays with itself. In sports or other international competition,  a country plays with other nations/cultures, who do not follow similar themes. Many may also point that what India has achieved today is only because of a selected group of enterprising individuals. Eventually, India to reach its potential would need its Renaissance, which would signal a move to be more enterprising and creative as a nation.  

 

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Very well thought out essay, but I am leaning towards less cultural and more financial reasons for the debacle -- India has super stars that attract ads and financial contracts. Players like Dhoni have massive power due to IPL and they are financially VERY lucrative. Fans turn out in droves, purchase whatever is being sold, as a result of very good branding and PR management. Try to rock the boat by removing those brands and you might get a much more optimal team, but individual heroes will be gone and so will the financial contracts. High performance teams cannot have superstars as they are poison in the long run. That is management 101.

Edited by poi
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