What are some scenes in Indian movies that show lack of creativity?

 Okay, there are several scenes that come to my mind. Let me pen down a few here.

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Scene One:

Heroine doing charity which makes the hero fall in love with heroine:

If the director is not able to think of a proper reason to make hero and heroine fall in love with each other, then there is one millennia old trick to overcome it.

• Heroine does some charity or social service.
• Hero coincidentally witnesses it, yeah trust me, by pure coincidence hero arrives there and witnesses the social service done by heroine.
• Hero smiles, which shows that he has fallen in love with the heroine.

I can remember several scenes in which the same scene appears.

Ghajini:

Sura:

In this movie, Heroine (Tamanna) witnesses Hero (Vijay na) doing charity and social service.

Just help the kAsHtApAdRa people to fall in love.

Am I still single because I seldom do social service? Or why, no one witnesses me doing charity?

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Scene Two:

Heroine has no role to play in the movie? No problem, just keep a scene where heroine consoles (or motivates) the hero.

Hundred examples can be shown. A few for you.

Anushka motivating Surya in Singham 1

Velaikaran: This scene from velaikaran movie is worse. At least, in Singham, the heroine got a bunch of dialogue to motivate the demotivated hero.

But, in Velaikaran, the hero Sivakarthikeyan na just vents out his grief to the heroine. She simply listens, utters no word and just holds his hands when he completes his sad story.

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Scene 3:

Villain who is super-powerful in the beginning of the movie, but doesn’t even have a shaving razor to defend him in the end.

This is the main concept in a lot of movies. Don’t be surprised if the villain is identified as the most powerful person in the continent, in the start of the movie. At the end, he won’t even have a small shaving razor to defend himself from hero.

Pokkiri:

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Scene 4:

Heroine gets captured by the villain. Hero fights to release her.

The scene can be dated back to Ramayana or Iliad which were written a couple of thousand years ago. But this scene can still be scene in movies.

Even a foetus inside mother's womb knows that the scene would end up with hero saving the heroine. But still, you have to wait until those stunt scenes are over.

Anjaan:

Vivegam:

These were some scenes that I could immediately remember. Almost all of these were from Tamil movies which I mostly see. Yes guys, I'm used to all this crap.

Image sources: YouTube.

I don't own the pictures in the answer. They are owned by the producers of the movies. Not something very proud to own.

What movie had a dumb concept but great execution?

 The Ruins (2008).

A group of friends go on a trip to Mexico. They hear about a secret abandoned Mayan temple. Being young thrill-seekers, they set out to explore it.

There's trouble as soon as they get there. The locals are at their heels. Aggressive. Yelling, threatening them with guns and machetes.

It's a good choice on the filmmakers’ part to not include subtitles to what the locals are saying. It serves to make us as scared and confused as the friends are. (I don't know if other versions provided subtitles. The one I saw didn't. By the way, they're speaking a native Mexican language, not Spanish).

Why are the locals mad? What are they yelling about? Is the temple sacred? Is no outsider or even just anybody allowed to go up there?

If the locals were trying to stop them from going into the temple, they failed tremendously. All that display of rage and hostility only served to send the thoroughly intimidated friends right onto it to take refuge.

This is where they meet the real big bad.

What's the dumb concept here?

Killer plants.

Not as in plants that are awesome at being plants, though that does sound like a cool concept; it's as in plants that literally kill.

Dumb as in it would be hard to take a plant as the bad guy seriously. To end its little reign of terror, you'd probably just need to hack it down, or set it on fire, or simply just walk away. It's a plant; what's it gonna do, grow menacingly after you at a deadly speed of 1 centimeter per week?

Unless...the plant is given super-plant powers such as unnatural speed, or maybe the ability to shoot poisonous darts at will. Which, in this case, the vine does have such abilities. Ha! Well, that's convenient. Now we're talking.

Even so, how would a killer vine look like in a movie that tries to take itself seriously? Like a live-action Goosebumps episode? A Jumanji movie?

So something for kids, then? It's still a bit unserious.

How is this one executed perfectly? For starters, I don't think it's perfect, just pretty decent.

The vine is terrifying, for a few reasons.

One, it eats people. Yes, the vine loves animal flesh, humans not an exception. Dead or alive. Clearly an unpicky eater.

Two, any cut of the vine - no matter how small - can slither its way into your flesh through a wound or an orifice and thrive in there like a worm from hell.

It seems to produce some kind of substance that makes its host numb - unable to feel that it is in there -, and, it makes them delirious.

Three, the vine can not only produce sound but perfectly mimic it as well. Uses this to manipulate people.

It can move around fast (otherwise none of this will work). Four, it seems to know when its being watched, or when someone can see it, so it mostly moves in the dark or out of our sight.

And five, like the Cordyceps fungi, it seems to be able to control the actions of its host, to some extent.

The locals have set up camp surrounding the temple and seem to be on guard for when they come down.

The friends are trapped. Given their reception of them, the friends don't exactly think they'll be greeted with warm hugs if they relent.

Plus, it's already a bad sign that none of those locals will put one foot anywhere near the structure.

It doesn't really scare me as much it just thoroughly disgusts me, the vine. It proves itself to be a formidable bad guy, however.

I read a good theory that says the locals weren't trying to scare the friends away; they were trying to force them onto the temple and keep them there, giving enough time to the vine to feast as it pleases.

Maybe they are not necessarily scared of it; maybe they are its caretakers, ensuring that everyone but their own people keeps its hunger sated. It could be anything from a pet to a god to them.

Still, the fact that the vine can live in a person and perhaps thrive elsewhere - wherever that person goes to - suggests the locals were trying to stop it from spreading this way.

Perhaps they were trying to save everybody else all along, and keep the vine restricted to the temple.

Which is the first movie of Paresh Rawal?

 Paresh Rawal made his debut with a Gujrati film titled Naseeb Ni Balihari in 1983. As far as Bollywood is concerned his first film was Hifazat - Life in Danger.

After doing one more not so popular film he was seen in Ketan Mehta’s, Holi which starred Aamir Khan, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah and Kittu Gidwani.

Further he was seen in films like Lorie, Arjun, Bhagwan Dada and Samundar. But the film which made him popular was the Mahesh Bhatt directed film Naam which starred Sunjay Dutt and Kumar Gaurav.

He playes an antagonist character named Rana. Though the character was negative there was a slight decency in his mannerisms and I can still remember his unique laughter in the film.

After Naam he mostly played negative roles later shifted to comedy genre and character roles. No doubt, Paresh Rawal’s performance in Naam surely finds a place in his top performances list. An actor par excellence.

Image(s) Courtesy: Google

Which movie had an amazing concept but poor execution?

 Ra.One (2011)

On paper the film has a great concept which could have been made into an enthralling film - a game with a stronger villain than the hero; and the digital game turned ugly. But the film despite its brilliant special effects had a pathetic screenplay.

I mean why the stereotypical South Indian characterisation?

Why Kareena Kapoor's character was made any annoying woman using weird abuses

Why so much vulgarity in a children film? B**t slaps, voyeristic gaze etc for cheap laughs (who in their wild thoughts believed it to be funny?)

(All this distracted the film from its core concept)

There was absolutely no need to add the rubbish masala elements. The strength of the film was its technical features and the film wastes its first hour doing absolutely nothing about it. G.One comes so late in the film that the audience is bored and frustrated by then.

The first two rounds of game between Ra.One and G.One were great and offered great visuals and action. But why so lame finale? The last round should have been the most complex and filled with elements. Instead they killed Ra.One so easily through shootout. The film didn't end on the same high as the 2nd half promise.

The film had good music, great VFX, good potential, but the screenplay was messy and all over the place. SRK was bad as Shekhar eating noodles with Dahi, Kareena was annoying and so was the child actor. He couldn't pull off the emotional gravitas of a boy losing his father and trying to bring back G.One to life.

The cameos were largely wasted. Priyanka, Sanjay Dutt and Rajnikanth added nothing to the story. They looked like cheap thrills rather than anything substantial to the plot.

Who are the top five greatest horror movie heroes of all time?

 I would like to specify five under appreciated heroes because the traditional ones have been mentioned by other Quorans.

1- Dutch Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Predator (1987).

Dutch’s muscles are no match for the Yautja’s plasma cannon and arm blades. In the end he survives by using humanity’s greatest weapon: ingenuity. Hence proving that humans are the apex predators on Earth.

2- Jay Height (Maika Monroe) in It Follows (2014).

She is an innocent girl thrust in a deadly predicament by her douchebag boyfriend. Jay’s friends are her greatest strength. Everybody sticks together in this horror film.

3- Jess Bradford (Olivia Hussey) in Black Christmas (1974).

One of the earliest examples of a ‘final girl’ in a horror movie. She’s kind to others and even vulnerable at times but Jess stays brave in adversity.

4- Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) in Get Out (2017).

He notices something is off about the Armitage family from the get-go. He ignores their awkwardness at first but is quick to trust his guts.

5- Almost everybody in Tremors (1990).

Bet you didn’t see that coming. Val (Kevin Bacon) and Earl (Fred Ward) know how to ride horses, fire guns and are smart enough to assess the Graboids’ intelligence. Earl gives the ‘fishing’ idea to hunt the Graboids.

Burt (Michael Gross) and Heather (Reba McEntire) are firearm experts and have an arsenal that the townsfolk use to fend off the giant worms.

Rhonda (Finn Carter) is a seismologist and is able to determine that they’re dealing with prehistoric organisms that hunt by detecting sound. She comes up with the idea of pole vaulting.

The remaining supporting characters are either part of the movie’s body count or are there to raise the stakes for survival. Even those who end up dying didn’t make stupid decisions but were victims of bad luck.

What is your favorite “why didn't they just…” movie scenario?

 Alien invasion.

Aliens invading earth for resources when there are plenty of planets out there in the universe.

Independence day.

War of the world.

Cowboys and Aliens.

I never understood the genre of an advanced alien civilization that have FTL technology willingly coming to earth for resources.

Like why come to earth for resources when there are millions of dead planets out there which is mainly composed of one element.

Want gold, try Psyche 16.

Want diamonds, try 55 Cancri e.

Want water, try Kepler-138c.

If the invasion is about experimentation on human beings or harvesting them for their brains like in Beyond Skyline, then it's understandable since you can't find such resources anywhere else.

But for resources like molten core or water that can be found elsewhere then it's plain stupid.

What do you think of the movie "Waterworld" (1995)?

 What if you had Mad Max on the water, three times the spectacle but with less to say?

This is Waterworld.

Planet almost covered in water. Humans survive on settlements they built on anything that floats. Land, dirt, dry earth is practically a myth.

Enter this guy, a lone sailor who accidentally harbours a kid who has a map tattooed on her back.

Map to where? To dry land. Naturally, everyone wants to get their grubby hands on the map, and our guy has to protect her.

Kevin Costner is a good old movie star. I've often heard the name but this is my first time seeing him in a leading role. I was suitably impressed. Him being hard to work with on this film does not detract from this. He did a lot of running around, tying ropes, throwing things, and a lot of swimming. He looks very fit and healthy. These days action movie stars are jacked to the nines while somehow simultaneously being unathletic, moving around as if gravity favors them more.

The protagonist's internal journey is painfully predictable: the lone ranger with a heart sealed off has his walls slowly torn down, and he comes to care for others over himself. He who once would throw anyone off board to preserve his sparse resources now risks everything he has to save his new family. Come to think of it, even Mad Max (2015) has a similar trajectory.

I mention Mad Max quite a bit because this movie reminds me so much of it. There's the dog-eat-dog world, the variety of crazy vehicles, and the creative repurposing of old tools into new ones.

Maybe it has to do with the desert being seen as far more resource-less than the sea, but the struggle for resources on a desert wasteland feel more pronounced. Mad Max had this big set up where the wives went searching for a green paradise but instead found more dry land. The feeling of despair and death more apparent, more...real.

I couldn't really get that with Waterworld. They had water they could filter, fish they could fish. Stakes don't feel so high. The movie tries to make simple resources such as a piece of paper or a plant be a rare artifact, but honestly this comes off as gimmicky.

It still is a dangerous world, and they need to reach land.

I appreciate the movie for being a spectacle. Apparently they built huge sets and sailed them out everyday to film. While this was such a pain that delayed filming and hiked up the costs, the result makes the movie a treasure, given something like this today would likely utilize green screen.

This movie was certainly made in a different time because it shows the kid being smacked up the head, adults smoking in her face, and someone being called the R-word as a basic quip. I miss movies like this. Not that I want to see children being smacked around and people being called heavy slurs, mind you. I'm just saying I miss things being less...sterilised for the big screen.