[HN Gopher] Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster "RRR"
___________________________________________________________________
Visual effects for the Indian blockbuster "RRR"
Author : rrampage
Score : 569 points
Date : 2022-09-10 13:30 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.blender.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.blender.org)
| 29athrowaway wrote:
| They will never surpass the most excellent Indian production
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8OJB5qLZ6o
| andsoitis wrote:
| Ah, and I see you can watch RRR on Netflix.
| vipa123 wrote:
| Is it any good?
| [deleted]
| efficax wrote:
| It's completely over the top, with absurd action sequences,
| fantastical characters, dance numbers, melodrama and
| heartbreak, one sided caricatures of evil Englishmen, and
| lots and lots of fun. It's excessive in every way, down it's
| more than 3 hour runtime. It's a blast!
| that_girl wrote:
| Not much different from over the top movies by Tom Cruise.
| brink wrote:
| I love those.
| spaceman_2020 wrote:
| Its very well made for its genre.
|
| I personally found 90% of the movie to be great, but was let
| down by the climax. Went too hard on the CGI.
| doodlebugging wrote:
| I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie and found myself
| grinning ear to ear when it was done as I was describing it
| to my wife. She had been working while I watched so we plan
| to cue it up again and see it together.
|
| I felt totally entertained at the conclusion. I even watched
| the credits roll.
|
| Many of the CGI effects were pretty obvious but it made the
| movie more watchable in my opinion. The blending of real
| action with fake enhanced the ability to tell the story. It
| was great.
|
| Kudos to all involved in this epic!
| hannofcart wrote:
| Depends on who's asking and what they're looking for.
|
| Let's just say that nuance/subtlety is not a high priority of
| this genre of film. :)
| pen2l wrote:
| I liked it. It's like if you mix Snatch with Inglorious
| Bastards and then made it over-the-top cheesy.
|
| But on the topic -- I think this changes everything. Blender
| is now literally a viable alternative against behemoth setups
| that easily go in 5-digits (and 6 digits if you have hundreds
| of designers as some shops do). It's now crossed that magical
| threshold where competent firms will choose it for their
| projects and any weaknesses that surface then, it will now be
| the, the big buys at big chops like the Mill or what-have-
| you, who will be contributing fixes and pushing Blender to
| new directions. Full alembic support, better volume-related
| features, some more UI touch-up, and we're almost all there.
|
| I'm nothing short of stunned at the pace with which Blender
| is moving forward and it's clear that come another 5 years,
| it'll be a force to reckon with and a worthy competitor to
| dethrone Houdini.
| silisili wrote:
| I think it's going to depend on what kind of movies you like.
|
| I went in thinking it was going to be some nonstop action
| flick, and didn't like it at all. It seemed like an overly
| long musical to me, which I've never been a fan of.
|
| My wife on the other hand thought it was beautiful and loved
| it.
|
| YMMV.
| dominotw wrote:
| yes if you have kids below 7 yrs.
| robin_reala wrote:
| I really wouldn't show it to kids below 12; there's some
| pretty horrific torture scenes in it.
| dagmx wrote:
| It's highly enjoyable though it is also very nationalist
| propaganda in parts, which foreigners won't pick up on. For
| the most part it never becomes an issue because the brunt of
| the movie is fighting colonialism and therefore quite
| appropriate and incredibly good. The end credit scene is the
| only part that I'd consider problematic from a messaging
| standpoint as it takes a hard line on who they celebrate and
| isn't subtle about the directors political allegiances.
|
| Anyway would really recommend watching it. It's a wild ride,
| and incredibly well done. If you're not from India, you can
| largely ignore the issues with internal politics
|
| Edit: Since people are asking for links about the politics...
|
| https://www.vox.com/23220275/rrr-netflix-tollywood-
| hindutva-...
|
| https://slate.com/culture/2022/06/rrr-review-indian-
| blockbus...
|
| Essentially it's holding up some of the more radical freedom
| fighters and downplaying the more pacifist and equitable ones
| which reflects the directors political stance
| hermitcrab wrote:
| I did wonder about the Indian politics in the film. I did
| pick up a few bits here and there, but probably missed a
| lot. Care to say a bit more about that? If not, I
| understand.
| dagmx wrote:
| I updated my post above with links of why many consider
| it nationalist, but I can elaborate more if you want.
| Just let me know.
|
| It's subtle but it's in the same vein of how many
| military and cop films push messaging
| bergenty wrote:
| What are you talking about? The part where they refer to
| Indian freedom fighters? Because I thought they did a
| really good job of highlighting a lot of them, not just
| well known ones and across vast political spectrums. I mean
| they had Bhagat Singh and Subhash Chandra Bose as well as
| Shivaji and Mirabai.
| dagmx wrote:
| That scene was good till you consider a few factors:
|
| - Bose was allied with the Nazi's. I know it's debatable
| whether the ends justify the means but he also held some
| fairly hostile views that are being used again
|
| - there were notable omissions of freedom fighters who
| preached peace , but more importantly, those who were
| against the division of Pakistan and India.
|
| I shared a couple links above in an edit, but there's
| definitely an messaging to align with the directors more
| hardline views of modern Indian politics
| unmole wrote:
| > Bose was allied with the Nazi's
|
| A marriage of convenience like when Gandhi allied with
| the Ali Brothers.
|
| > there were notable omissions of freedom fighters who
| preached peace
|
| Three of them where Gandhians but OK.
|
| > but more importantly, those who were against the
| division of Pakistan and India.
|
| Nobody in the Congress wanted partion to begin with. But
| there was no leader against it when it became clear that
| it was apparent. Who exactly do you have in mind?
| dagmx wrote:
| Your entire comment is a "so what?"
|
| You don't think it's suspect that major figures were
| excluded from the list? And they just happen to be the
| same major figures the right wing governments try and
| move away from.
|
| You don't think being allied with the Nazis and never
| denouncing their views was an issue either?
|
| the movie had a clear political agenda to it.
| unmole wrote:
| > Your entire comment is a "so what?"
|
| Yes. Because it's a fantasy movie. Reading complex
| political messaging into it is rather silly.
|
| > Your entire comment is a "so what?"
|
| I don't think excluding Gandhi and Nehru from a cheesy
| dance number is the end of the world.
|
| > never denouncing their views
|
| Again, read what the man had to say about the Nazis after
| he left Germany. Also read about what Gandhi had to say
| about Bose and what Bose had to say about Gandhi. We've
| had an international airport named after him for decades.
| Bose is not even remotely controversial in India.
|
| > the movie had a clear political agenda to it.
|
| But somehow that wasn't clear to overwhelming majority of
| the audience who actually saw it.
| bergenty wrote:
| Who did they exclude from the list? I counted almost
| everyone I can think of and more.
| bergenty wrote:
| Bose "aligned" with the Nazis so he could free the Indian
| POWs captured by the Japanese which he then used to build
| the Indian national army. Also, the Nazis were fighting
| the British who in India were enemy number one. He wasn't
| antisemitic or racist so his alignment is pretty
| irrelevant.
| v512 wrote:
| > highly enjoyable Doubt.
| dagmx wrote:
| What's there to doubt? I'm not speculating that it will
| be enjoyable. I am making a statement that it was
| enjoyable to me (and my friends, along with many many
| others online who've raved about it)
|
| if you don't find it enjoyable, that doesn't mean
| doubting the veracity of my stated opinion. You may
| however disagree
| mikymoothrowa wrote:
| Those articles reaffirm more the extreme political
| mentality of vox and slate than any political leanings of
| the director.
|
| That these websites practically thrive on conjuring up
| issues even where none exists should surprise no one.
| dagmx wrote:
| How can you possibly seriously describe Vox as extreme?
| Perhaps they're more liberally biased but "extreme"?
| There's no world where that would be an accurate
| description
| pessimizer wrote:
| Imagine thinking that about those boring-ass centrist
| websites.
| mikymoothrowa wrote:
| imagine thinking these websites are centrist because you
| have more ridiculous extremist websites on the left and
| the right.
| xmonkee wrote:
| Vox is literally the definition of neolib trash. I don't
| understand how you can call it far left. People on the
| left don't actually mind the label, but don't call
| shitlib stuff far left. The left is explicitly opposed to
| neoliberalism. If you wanna read something actually on
| the left: https://jacobin.com/
| unmole wrote:
| Vox is just cookoo. Jacobin on the other hand is full on
| deranged.
| random314 wrote:
| +1 on that. I only watched the action sequences in the
| movie as RRR is not the kind if movie I enjoy.
|
| But the end of the movie, makes it quite clear that it is a
| nod to right wing Hindu nationalism. The most pointed
| example is the exclusion, in the end credits, of the 2
| biggest icons of Indian liberation - Mahatma Gandhi and the
| first prime minister Nehru( the British locked him up for
| over a decade) who were secular liberals. Nehru happens to
| be the great grandfather of the main opposition leader
| Rahul Gandhi.
|
| As the right wing Hindu pre independence movement largely
| connived with the colonialists, the right wing government
| today is focused on appropriating a select few independence
| fighters and projecting them as right wing icons even
| though they were liberals or socialists. 3 prominent
| figures.
|
| 1. Bhagat Singh - a socialist who is now projected as a
| right wing icon and stripped of his Sikh beard
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhagat_Singh
|
| 2. Sardar Patel - Nehru and Gandhis colleague who had some
| right wing sympathies, but actually banned RSS (Modi's
| organization) following the assassination of Gandhi by RSS
| workers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Unity
|
| 3. Subhash Bose - A foolhardy military strategist who tried
| to partner with the Nazis to fight the British. Eventually,
| assisting the Japanese in Burma and helping them invade
| India. Gandhi was extremely wary of Bose's plans.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose
|
| Towards the end, it projects the independence fight as a
| largely Hindu fight against British and anoints upper caste
| Rama as a leader of lower caste Bheem. At this point, it
| seems that the exclusion of muslims, sikhs and some
| Christians etc. From the script as freedom fighters seems
| deliberate.
|
| Bheem is a nod to lower caste icon bhimrao Ambedkar, who
| converted from Hinduism to buddhism to escape caste
| hierarchies. This could have been a positive inclusion in
| the story, but it is flipped on its head when Bheem is
| shown swearing fealty to upper caste Rama in the end. The
| Ramayana itself, has a negative attitude towards lower
| castes, which makes this highly improper.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._R._Ambedkar
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shambuka [1]
|
| Moreover the choice of Rama is sensitive in the current
| political situation in India as Rama is being used as a
| tool to bully poor Muslims on the streets.
|
| https://www.google.com/search?q=muslim+jai+shree+ram
|
| [1] You will notice that Shambuka is noted as an
| "interpolated" character in Ramayana. This almost certainly
| true, but the Godliness of Rama as an avatar of Vishnu is
| part of the same interpolation. The original smaller
| Ramayana is simply the story of an "ideal king". This was
| converted into a story of divinity by the interpolation of
| Godliness, sexism and casteism(uttara and bala kanda) .
| Wikipedia has been edited to clarify that Shambuka is a
| later interpolation, while the article on Rama and Ramayana
| simply forget to headline that the divinity of Rama is a
| later interpolation. The interpolation makes complete sense
| as the brahmins successfully solidified the caste system
| and inserted casteist and sexist texts into several ancient
| sanskrit texts to anoint the caste system with divine
| status. There is a small ongoing movement to refer to the
| current version of Hinduism as Brahminism.
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Brahminism
| unmole wrote:
| > At this point, it seems that the exclusion of muslims,
| sikhs and some Christians etc. From the script as freedom
| fighters seems deliberate.
|
| It's a fantasy based very loosely on two historical
| characters. Bheem for the bulk of the movie pretends to
| be a Muslim and is sheltered by a Muslim family that
| knows his true identity. Claiming that this somehow
| excludes non-Hindus is farcical.
|
| > Bheem is a nod to lower caste icon bhimrao Ambedkar
|
| Bheem is loosely based on Komaram Bheem:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komaram_Bheem and Ram is
| loosely based on Alluri Sitaramaraju:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alluri_Sitarama_Raju
|
| You are ignorant of even the basic premise of the movie.
| But hey, don't let that stop you from theorising grand
| conspiracies.
| random314 wrote:
| That Ram can map to Alluri, but the mapping to Lord Rama
| is absolutely loud and vociferous.
|
| I could be mistaken about the mapping of Bheem, but given
| that Komaram Bheem is also lower caste, my meta point
| stands virtually unchanged. And that's just one point
| amongst the 10 I have made with references.
|
| Moreover, it is very easy for me to see that you are
| upper caste hindu - about 40% of indias population. You
| should ask the rest of the 60% about what they read from
| the movie.
|
| > pretends to be a Muslim
|
| Yes, I watched parts of the movie. How does this matter?
| unmole wrote:
| > That Ram can map to Alluri, but the mapping to Lord
| Rama is absolutely loud and vociferous.
|
| Any elements that you might perceive as _mapping_ to Rama
| is an homage to the 1974 classic movie:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alluri_Sitarama_Raju
|
| That representation is what is etched into the minds of
| Telugu audience.
|
| > I could be mistaken about the mapping of Bheem
|
| You _are_ mistaken.
|
| > And that's just one point amongst the 10 I have made
| with references.
|
| Yeah, the rest them are either unfalsifiable or
| statements of opinion.
|
| > Moreover, it is very easy for me to see that you are
| upper caste hindu
|
| I'm fascinated to know how you came to that conclusion.
| I'm a half-caste with one side of my family entitled to
| minority status. Try again.
|
| > Yes, I watched parts of the movie.
|
| Wait, you didn't even watch the movie in its entirety?
| random314 wrote:
| The mapping to divine Lord Rama is unmistakable, and the
| Godliness bestowed leaves no room for doubt. The
| iconography of lower caste Bheem showing fealty to lord
| rama is how the movie ends.
|
| The facts I mentioned are well cited and referenced facts
| that are well supported. Thanks for acknowledging that
| you offer no contradiction.
|
| It is also obvious from your play with words - "half
| minority" that you are upper caste. Eg, Hindu Jain
| marriages are common.
|
| > I'm fascinated to know how you came to that conclusion.
|
| Lower castes - SC/ST would be irritated by the
| supplication by Bheem in the end. Non Hindus would find
| the conversion of a secular independence movement to a
| hindu religious paen and the exclusion of secular liberal
| leaders (the father of the nation and first PM)
| offensive.
|
| This is a typical UC thinking. The only things that are
| offensive are those that offend me. If someone else gets
| offended by something else, there is something wrong with
| them.
| dagmx wrote:
| Thank you for adding to the list of subtleties that
| foreigners wouldn't pick up on. These are great points
| and I'm very appreciative you took the time to list them
|
| My wife isn't Indian and she really enjoyed the film
| (which I did too as an action film) but I was aware the
| whole time of significant choices used to push the Hindu
| nationalist messaging. So I've been using it as an
| example of explaining the political climate in India
|
| As a Hindu myself , but with a mixed caste/religion
| family, I've slowly been realizing how much messaging
| there has been in the media we consume as I expand on
| this with her.
| random314 wrote:
| Caste discrimination doesn't get as much air, but here is
| what urban casteism look like
|
| https://youtu.be/x_9326pheho
|
| For rural caste discrimination there are enough incidents
| like Hathras rape, but this movie gives a good
| perspective
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fandry
| unmole wrote:
| > The end credit scene is the only part that I'd consider
| problematic from a messaging standpoint as it takes a hard
| line on who they celebrate and isn't subtle about the
| directors political allegiances.
|
| I don't actually remember the end credit scene and I didn't
| pick up on any contemporary political references. Could you
| elaborate?
| dagmx wrote:
| I updated my post with links for reading but it's
| essentially subtle but insidious.
|
| There's a movement among the right to downplay the more
| equitable and peace friendly freedom fighters in favour
| of more radical ones, including ones with ties to the
| Axis powers.
|
| Again, it barely takes away from the film since it's just
| the final credits but it's quite a clear signal of the
| directors outspoken political views
| cuteboy19 wrote:
| From their perspective the Axis powers were not that much
| worse than the British
| asenna wrote:
| I agree with this. I saw this in the theater in India and
| the overtly Hindutva stuff definitely got me laughing. It's
| not even subtle, hard to miss when you know the context.
| unmole wrote:
| Honestly, a lot of the criticism reads like a tin-foil fan
| theory. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
|
| And some of it makes me question the author's familiarity
| with the actual background.
|
| > he's seen assuming a wardrobe that invokes his namesake
| Rama
|
| No, he assumes a wardrobe that invokes Alluri Sitaramaraju,
| the historical figure his character is based on:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alluri_Sitarama_Raju
|
| And this popular representation and the fictional fiancee
| named Sita come from a classic 1974 movie:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alluri_Seetarama_Raju_(film)
|
| Rajamouli is not exactly big on subtlety. If the troubling
| implications need so much ink to explain, maybe the
| implications aren't actually there?
|
| > Essentially it's holding up some of the more radical
| freedom fighters and downplaying the more pacifist and
| equitable ones
|
| Sardar Patel, Chidambaram Pillai and Tanguturi Prakasam
| were not radicals, they were lifelong members of the INC
| and were committed to Gandhian non-violence. Bhagat Singh
| and Subhash Chandra Bose were capital S Socialists, it
| doesn't get more equitable than that. This argument would
| have held weight if someone like Savarkar was included. As
| it stands, it makes no sense.
| dagmx wrote:
| Bose was a socialist in the sense that nazis were
| nationalist socialists so I'm not sure what your point is
| there.
| unmole wrote:
| Maybe read about man's views on the matter?
| dagmx wrote:
| I have in the countless times this has been brought up.
| My high school had a Bose statue and taught us a lot of
| his history as well to try and reaffirm his greatness.
|
| In the end , I haven't ever seen anyone show me anything
| that didn't also require ignoring Bose's significant ties
| to the Nazis to have a charitable take on the man and his
| followers.
| unmole wrote:
| > I have in the countless times this has been brought up.
|
| And you didn't come across any references of him
| advocating for authoritarian socialism? This was way
| before he went into exile or joined hands with Hitler.
| JohnBooty wrote:
| Thank you for posting that. I learned a lot!
|
| Like many (most?) Westerners, I obviously appreciated the
| anti-colonialism aspect, but had _no_ idea about all of
| that other context.
|
| I am deeply appreciative.
| mikymoothrowa wrote:
| I'm Indian and I didn't see those either.
|
| There's no scenario in which slate/vox would have written
| a ideologically uncoated positive review of this movie.
| dagmx wrote:
| I'm Indian and I saw it when I watched the movie. Your
| comments show you have a right wing attitude to these
| things and I doubt you'd have therefore picked up on it
| since it affirms a particular world view.
| unmole wrote:
| If you didn't realise Ramcharan taking up a bow was an
| homage to Alluri Sitaramaraju, maybe you don't know what
| you're talking about?
| dagmx wrote:
| Where did I say I didn't know that? You're putting words
| in my mouth.
| unmole wrote:
| Because you posted a link to an article that claimed
| otherwise and commended a comment that got it wrong.
| JohnBooty wrote:
| I feel like you two are both on the same side?
| unmole wrote:
| No, we're not. I believe the movie is just ridiculous in
| a very fun way. The other side claims that in addition to
| that it has subtle propaganda that promotes a Hindu
| nationalist agenda.
| gwill wrote:
| I loved it. It's over the top, but embraces it really well. I
| recommend watching with someone else because discussing the
| movie is really fun. Don't get put off by the runtime, it's
| very well paced.
| screye wrote:
| Probably the best Indian-as-indian-can-be movie that's
| released in a longtime. This is the highest grossing film of
| all time in Indian cinema, the Avengers Endgame / Jurrassic
| Park of India.
|
| Pros
|
| * Incredibly stylized and fresh (not derivative)
|
| * great bro-drama
|
| * arguably best dance scene EVER
|
| * Not deeply cynical towards society like everything made
| today.
|
| Cons:
|
| * Long (but still somehow incredibly fast paced and dense,
| just a lot of arcs)
|
| * over the top (but shamelessly so, and taken seriously)
|
| ______
|
| RRR is a tectonic shift in how Indian cinema views itself. It
| is worth watching purely because of its place in the Movie
| movement zeitgeist.
|
| IMO, This is the first Indian movie in 10 years that makes it
| to must watch territory for universal audiences (the last one
| being 3 idiots).
| nsajko wrote:
| It's fun, but seeing it was concerning because it's basically
| propaganda, and it seems like it's not out of place in this
| way where it came from.
| throwaway49374 wrote:
| +1
| throwaway49374 wrote:
| My +1 is for the parent propaganda comment, Bollywood has
| a lot of right wing propaganda these days.
| nsajko wrote:
| FTR, it seems that this is categorized as a "Tollywood"
| (Telugu) movie, as opposed to Bollywood (Hindi).
| unmole wrote:
| It's _propaganda_ in the same way _Sharpe 's Eagle_ is
| propaganda.
| UtopiaPunk wrote:
| Yeah, it's tons of fun. It's a big goofy action movie, and
| they really lean into it in all the best ways. It's basically
| a superhero movie.
| andsoitis wrote:
| I don't know yet, but I added it to My List to watch this
| weekend.
| gernb wrote:
| I enjoyed it. In fact it might be the best Indian movie I've
| seen in terms of just being interesting all the way through.
|
| I'm curious what if any serious Indian movies there are. Are
| they common or rare? Pretty much every Indian movie I've seen
| is full of amazing and fun nonsense in one form or another.
| Not that I've seen more than 10 or 15 Indian movies, just
| curious what the mix is of serious drama vs, break into dance
| and or show crazy stunt movies is
| i67vw3 wrote:
| It is not even a 'best' indian movie. It just the current
| most popular indian movie with western audience.
|
| Tumbbad is somewhat considered masterpiece of indian
| cinema. It was made with just 700 thousand $
| https://m.timesofindia.com/entertainment/hindi/movie-
| reviews....
|
| >Pretty much every Indian movie I've seen is full of
| amazing and fun nonsense in one form or another.
|
| They are the most popular genre. Production houses love
| them as they make them money and viewers also love to watch
| them as they can be watched by whole families.
|
| >Not that I've seen more than 10 or 15 Indian movies, just
| curious what the mix is of serious drama vs, break into
| dance and or show crazy stunt movies is
|
| Most of indian cinema is action genre with slice of life
| twist. There are also good serious movies with genres like
| drama, romcom, comedy, horror, history, sci-fi etc.
|
| You must also know that Indian cinema is not a monolith
| like hollywood. There are 7 big 'woods' in india branched
| due to various languages. There is hindi wood (bollywood),
| tamil, telugu, kannad, marathi, bengali etc. Each have
| their own tasted with respective viewers. Over the counter
| action movies (like RRR) are most popular in south
| industries and viewers.
| unmole wrote:
| > Tumbbad is somewhat considered masterpiece of indian
| cinema.
|
| By whom? Don't get me wrong, Tumbbad is an excellent
| movie but _masterpiece_ is over selling it. And the low
| budget for VFX really shows.
|
| > kannad
|
| _Wince_
| smcl wrote:
| I'm curious what the wince is for - do Kannada-language
| films have a reputation?
| mikymoothrowa wrote:
| probably for "Kannad" instead of Kannada
|
| and if KGF 2 is any indication, they should stop making
| movies altogether
| unmole wrote:
| > probably for "Kannad" instead of Kannada
|
| Yup. It's inconsequential but I find it very grating.
|
| > and if KGF 2 is any indication, they should stop making
| movies altogether
|
| I absolutely hated KGF 1 and didn't bother with the
| sequel. I honestly don't understand why people compare it
| to RRR.
| mikymoothrowa wrote:
| Reportedly the Bollywood movies are worse and they would
| rather watch KGF
| unmole wrote:
| That sounds entirely plausible.
| unmole wrote:
| > I'm curious what the wince is for
|
| The language is called _Kannada_. Schwa deletion turns it
| into _Kannad_ which sounds grating and seeing it written
| without the _a_ is even worse.
|
| > do Kannada-language films have a reputation?
|
| I'll just say Sturgeon's law applies.
| smcl wrote:
| Ahhh sorry I didn't realise, I thought it was just a typo
| :)
| as1mov wrote:
| Like every other film industry, Bollywood movies also have
| a indie counterpart. I've seen quite a few, though it might
| not translate very well to a watcher who is not familiar
| with the cultural context for the movies.
|
| Still if you want a list of movies which are "serious" but
| still approachable enough (i.e doesn't gaze at it's own
| asshole) and fairly new, I do have a few recommendations -
|
| Udaan, Kahaani, Satya, Maqbool, Khosla's Nest, Masaan,
| Detective Byomkesh Bakshy, Gangs of Wasseypur, Johhny
| Gaddar, Kaminey, Black Friday (2004), Aaranya Kaandam (not
| bollywood)
|
| This list isn't some exhaustive "greatest" ever, just some
| oddball movies which stick out in my head.
|
| Also keep it in mind this is just the list of
| Hindi/Bollywood movies which were historically known as
| "Indian" movies. Other regions of the country have their
| own list of favorites.
| dagmx wrote:
| There's tons of very serious Indian movies. They just don't
| usually capture western audiences
|
| Sholay is a classic , in the vein of Eastwood films.
|
| Don is our take on Godfather
|
| Rang De Basanti and Lagaan are also great films.
|
| Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum , Dil Chahta Hai and other romantic
| dramas are also very serious but do have songs etc because
| they're huge drivers of engagement.
|
| In the west, people see the dancing as making the movie
| silly. But those musical breaks are prevalent in very
| serious films too. There'sa whole difference in cultural
| norms when it comes to cinematic language.
| washadjeffmad wrote:
| I'm not very attuned to modern Indian cinema, but Satyajit
| Ray's Apu trilogy is excellent, as is Charulata.
|
| For non fiction, Mira Nair's "So Far from Home" and Roberto
| Rossellini's "India: Matri Bhumi" are also captivating
| watches.
| srik wrote:
| Satyajit Ray's entire catalog is delightful, and
| timeless. The Indian new wave parallel cinema movement
| that held such promise back then has bemoaningly since
| declined to a disappointing one or two entries every
| couple years. Distributors and studios being conservative
| and reluctant to change from the "bollywood doctrine"
| held the indian film industry hostage in a state of
| arrested development for the past few decades. It's kind
| of why I'm thankful for the rise of streaming services,
| they're enabling younger indie directors to break free
| and be bold again. It's a very hopeful time for indian
| cinema.
| ivanmilles wrote:
| Netflix's Sacred Games. It was their first domestic
| production and is a straight faced noir cop drama. It's my
| favorite crime series of all time - I think it blends The
| crime boss mythology of The Usual Suspects with the multi-
| decade story telling of The Godfather. It is told in a way
| that it feels like a picture coming into focus, rather than
| a linear narrative.
| [deleted]
| SanjayMehta wrote:
| "The Kashmir Files" is the most serious movie in the recent
| past.
| butterNaN wrote:
| Ugly (2013) Court Jai Bhim
|
| Off the top of my head
| hermitcrab wrote:
| Obviously that is highly subjective. I really liked it, as
| did my 16 year old son. Although, being British, it was weird
| to see my countrymen as the cartoon baddies[1]. It is
| completely over the top and fantastical. But that is part of
| the appeal. I thought it made a very refreshing change from
| hollywood movies.
|
| [1] Not without reason. Read up on the depradations of the
| East India company
| blackoil wrote:
| Random digression. In wake of recent demise of the Queen,
| good curious how much do British see the colonion past as
| glorious and how much as a dark legacy?
| robocat wrote:
| > it was weird to see my countrymen as the cartoon baddies
|
| I really enjoyed IP Man 2 for the one dimensional portrayal
| of the British antagonists. Disclaimer: I'm from the
| colonies.
| lizardactivist wrote:
| It's very cool to see Blender grow bigger each year and moving
| into the mainstream movie production.
|
| I can recommend Blender Bob's YouTube channel, he has worked in
| the VFX industry for many years and primarily uses Blender and
| shows how VFX is made:
|
| https://www.youtube.com/c/BlenderBob
| spaghettiToy wrote:
| I hope to have one of these articles about FreeCAD one day. Maybe
| the stakes are lower for movies than engineering and that's why
| it hasn't happened yet.
| NavinF wrote:
| Some blockers I've encountered after spending a lot of time in
| FreeCAD:
|
| - No built-in assembly workbench. If you create more than 1
| object, there is no way to align/attach them together. There
| are several competing, incompatible, and buggy plugins.
|
| - Topological naming problem is way worse than in paid CAD
| software. It's very difficult to edit old constraints without
| breaking new actions as they're replayed:
| https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Topological_naming_problem
|
| - Software dependencies are not included. Essential features
| like viewing the dependency graph (to unbreak your model; See
| above) are broken out of the box. You have to manually install
| specific versions of tools like graphviz (no, not the same
| version used by all the other software on your system) to
| unbreak these features first. Same goes for rendering images,
| exporting to some formats, using some mesh generators, etc. You
| really get the full "linux desktop" experience even if you are
| not on linux ;)
| bsder wrote:
| > Topological naming problem is way worse than in paid CAD
| software. It's very difficult to edit old constraints without
| breaking new actions as they're replayed:
| https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Topological_naming_problem
|
| This is the single, number one, absolute must fix problem in
| FreeCAD. All other FreeCAD work should stop until this gets
| fixed. Period.
|
| Broken constraints were bad enough, but as an amateur I could
| live with them. However, every now and then the system would
| renumber and _reconnect_ constraints wrongly. That 's just
| not acceptable and should never happen.
|
| Until FreeCAD fixes this not only can't I recommend it but I
| have to give anti-recommendations to stay far, far away from
| it. That pains me greatly as FreeCAD is the _only_ piece of
| open-source software I have ever had to chase people away
| from.
| progfix wrote:
| FreeCAD needs a drastic UI/UX overhaul and then some serious
| funding to get at the same level of todays CAD software.
| gwicke wrote:
| I agree the FreeCAD UX could use some improvements, but I
| think even more important would be improving reliability and
| feature coverage in the OpenCascade CAD geometry library it
| uses. Slightly more complex things like fillets, lofts, nurbs
| surfaces are very limited and unreliable today. Mixing any of
| these with booleans tends to create more trouble.
|
| Blender on the other hand is very solid in the modeling
| department, in my experience. The mesh based approach
| certainly helps, but not depending on an external
| organization for the core geometry functionality does not
| hurt either.
| samwillis wrote:
| Completely agree with this, OpenCascade is just not a good
| enough foundation to build a CAD package at the same level
| as SolidWorks or Fusion360. The unfortunate thing is that
| the level of investment to build a kernel of that quality
| is in the 10s or millions dollars. Without a corporate
| backer who wants it, it won't happen.
|
| The only way I could see it happening is if a consortium of
| large companies decided that they wanted to drop the big
| players and build an open source one. It needs a visionary
| in the position to decide to do it.
| phkahler wrote:
| >> but I think even more important would be improving
| reliability and feature coverage in the OpenCascade CAD
| geometry library it uses
|
| I've been wondering what portion of the FreeCAD "problems"
| people report are actually issues with OpenCascade. I don't
| have time to deal with any of it, just a question that pops
| into my head when I see complaints about FreeCAD. When I
| have time I spend it in Solvespace, which is decades behind
| commercial CAD but is so much more fun.
| spacebeer wrote:
| I've been using various CAD programs, and IMO, FreeCAD UI/UX
| is quite ok. If you are Inventor or Solidworks user and try
| to switch to SolidEdge for example, it won't be easy. Not to
| mention some others like VariCAD (~30 years old professional
| MCAD)
|
| There are many issues with FreeCAD being OSS alternative to
| professional MCAD software, but UI/UX is not one of them
| xmonkee wrote:
| I can't think of another OSS desktop app that comes close to
| the success of blender and firefox. How did blender do what
| Gimp etc couldn't?
| Ayesh wrote:
| I'd like to throw in OBS Studio as well. There's absolutely
| no software even close to the quality and functionality of
| it.
| rcarmo wrote:
| I've been trying to get to grips with FreeCAD for a few months
| and it reminds me a lot of pre-2.8 Blender - the UX is very
| opinionated and clunky, needs some serious re-thinking...
|
| (I am trying to avoid using Fusion 360, which has a much more
| streamlined experience)
| agumonkey wrote:
| Maybe it's the perfect time to rebuild it.
| dahart wrote:
| > Maybe the stakes are lower for movies than engineering and
| that's why it hasn't happened yet.
|
| I really doubt that has much to do with it. The Blender team
| has been working the hardest on creating sustainable funding,
| that is the major difference. Blender's "Get Involved" link
| takes you to the Blender Foundation page, which is a business
| entity setup and devoted to funding Blender. FreeCAD's "Get
| Involved" link takes you to GitHub. The Blender site lists paid
| jobs, and has a one-click donate button highlighted with
| monthly corporate level sponsorships listed, where FreeCAD's
| has only a single $5 suggestion behind a menu. There's a
| further link to a list on a wiki of a couple more ways to
| sponsor FreeCAD, but you can feel the difference in scale just
| browsing the two sites. Blender got started ~8 years ahead of
| FreeCAD, so yeah maybe if FreeCAD focuses on growing a business
| model they can get there too. The Blender Foundation was
| launched about 20 years ago though, and it seems like it look a
| looong time to get the real traction they seem to have now.
| sen wrote:
| I spent a solid month trying to switch from Fusion 360 to
| FreeCAD (as a hobbyist maker) and while I got to the point
| where I could pretty much make anything I needed... it never
| stopped being a struggle, and taking twice as long.
|
| I really really want an OSS alternative to Fusion/etc but
| FreeCAD needs a lot of work before it'll even come close.
| mihaaly wrote:
| FreeCAD's user experience is incoherent or perhaps more like
| chaotic for a newcomer - to FreeCAD, but experienced in CAD
| -. Like there was no coherent way of thinking or common
| approaches in it, like if hundreds of people added pieces to
| it here and there the way they pleased.
|
| At least this is what I seen 5-7 years ago, gave up very
| quickly struggling with it - a software supposed to make
| things easier, not more complex, and FreeCAD made things
| unnecessarily difficult and complicated. Maybe I should look
| at it again now, hopefully things improved.
| Lio wrote:
| I can't thinking that the struggles of an experienced Fusion
| 360 user such as yourself would be a very valuable thing to
| contribute to the FreeCAD project.
|
| It's only a few years since we used to hear regular reports
| of people really struggling with the Blender UI too. It's
| great to see the improvements to Blender now paying off.
|
| I think there's a fairly good chance that the devs aren't
| aware of all the rough edges or quirky choices in the same
| way that a power user of another CAD system would be.
|
| (My own personal CAD experience is so dated at this point as
| to be pretty useless. I learnt on Unigraphics on a Sun
| workstation way back in the mists of time but have forget
| almost everything about it.)
| jker wrote:
| Agreed, FreeCAD is painful to use when you've been spoiled by
| Fusion or OnShape. I've tried using SALOME as an OSS
| alternative, it's somewhat reminiscent of FreeCAD but
| something of an improvement. CadQuery is another possibility,
| but I would miss some of the drawing tools - full parametric
| CAD seems too limiting.
| tulasichintha wrote:
| I watched this movie and visual feast for audience. Nice to see
| they used Blender pipeline for Visuals.
| weinzierl wrote:
| There is also _" I Lost My Body"_ which is full-length movie made
| in Blender. An interview with the director Jeremy Clapin[1] gives
| a bit of the backgound of the project.
|
| Both _" RRR"_ [2] and _" I Lost My Body"_ [3] are on Netflix.
|
| [1] https://www.blender.org/user-stories/i-lost-my-body-a-
| stunni...
|
| [2]
| https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81476453?s=i&trkid=13747225...
|
| [3]
| https://www.netflix.com/us/title/81120982?s=i&trkid=13747225...
| jvdvegt wrote:
| Too bad Netflix won't let me play [3]
| krama wrote:
| Who cares if they used Blender or Maya. As an Indian (and a South
| Indian at that), I must say I'm embarrassed at the level of
| attention this movie is getting for its over the top use of
| cringey special effects. There are so many other worthwhile
| Indian films to watch and enjoy.
| sremani wrote:
| Indian Cinema and esp. Telugu Cinema has its own style of story
| telling, remember this is make believe. I find it refreshing as
| a Telugu speaking American that they are staying true to their
| traditions.
|
| The Bombay production houses have gone Hollywood-lite making
| movies for affluent westernized Indian class which as it turns
| out is not profitable. I am for artsy Indian movies but at the
| end of the day, this is commercial undertaking and the film
| crew and its producers should make money out of it.
| akritrime wrote:
| Why? I am so tired of certain section of Indians online
| pretending that somehow all entertainment should be dictated as
| per their sensibilities of what's acceptable and what's not.
| What's wrong in having movies that are over the top? Everyone
| has different tastes. What's worthwhile for you maybe boring
| for someone else. I am not saying you have to start
| appreciating RRR if it's not something that you enjoy, but
| don't invalidate an experience that millions of people clearly
| enjoyed. I can appreciate a K Balachander, Gopalkrishnan,
| Satyajit Ray masterpiece while also hooting for Bheem in RRR.
| The greatest achievement of Indian cinema is how varied our
| repertoire is and there is something for everyone to enjoy.
| Celebrate it, don't be embarrassed about it.
| basti724 wrote:
| Really weird that we're reviewing a movie on a tech platform.
| Also, your comment suggests a need for western validation which
| I think is not needed for Asian cinema. I just enjoy Chinese
| and Korean cinema for the way they are. I searched for this
| film and seems its loved a lot by westerners too. Sorry if I
| misunderstood you buddy!
| pen2l wrote:
| Relatedly, I've come full circle on my feelings when it comes
| to Indian movies. I grew up with Bollywood/lollywood movies,
| and pretty much stopped watching all of this silly stuff upon
| arriving to America and thought the breaking out in a song in
| the middle of things was absurd.
|
| I don't know what changed but now I'm not just down with it
| I'm actually a big fan. I'm there to be entertained - give me
| Gesamtkunstwerk; I'll suspend belief for those few brief
| moments, give me wonderful melodies and over-the-top sights.
| All types of art each have their place! I mean, we put up
| with soliloquys in Shakespeare plays, we cherish fanciful
| wordplay, why not give me songs!
| pdntspa wrote:
| The effects sequences I saw in the video clip didn't look over
| the top...
|
| Besides what's wrong with a little ridiculousness? Some of the
| special FX I've seen in memes of indian movies look like they
| take a decent amount of imagination to visualize
|
| Note that I have not seen any indian cinema, no idea where to
| start with that, other than to say that the Bollywood format
| (and musicals in general) has little appeal to me...
| firasd wrote:
| Bollywood movies aren't really musicals. The way I would put
| it is that musicals are a genre, and Bollywood movies are all
| sorts of genres with songs interspersed. So you could
| literally edit out (or more practically, forward through) all
| the songs and fully watch the movie which is not really
| possible with musicals
| bergenty wrote:
| I think I understand what you're saying but it was a large
| spanning tale and though there may be some parts that are
| cringey I thought overall it kept my interest and had something
| for everyone.
| krama wrote:
| I agree that RRR has its place. Like so many other Avenger
| style genre movies. The problem is that it just advances a
| stereotype and bias about what an American audience expects
| when they sit down to watch a Korean film, or a Chinese film,
| or an Indian film.
|
| They are all just films, just like Hollywood makes different
| genres, these countries make films in every genre. At least
| the Indian film industry is a behemoth large enough to be
| able to make movies in every genre.
| gamblor956 wrote:
| Agreed, while the movie was fun to watch, the FX are quite poor
| compared to US films. In terms of something American viewers
| would understand: it's about the equivalent of a Disney Plus
| show like the Mandalorian or Ms Marvel.
|
| As far as FX quality goes, the recently released Bhramastra
| sets the high watermark for Indian films. The FX are Hollywood
| level...probably because it's made by Disney's Indian film
| studios (Star Studios) and the FX were outsourced to some of
| the same FX studios working on Marvel films. (And as a side
| bonus, there isn't any of the weird fetishization of
| British/white women or obsequious political pandering to the
| India's current ultra-nationalist government like there are in
| RRR.)
|
| As an example of the difference in FX quality: in RRR, you're
| always aware of the artificial nature of the CGI because it
| doesn't "blend" into the world around it; the CGI sits on top
| of the world and is clearly separate from the action on screen.
| The animal FX are especially bad. In Bhramastra, the "astra"
| that give people various powers blend in with, light up, and
| shade the world around them even though they're purely CGI.
| firasd wrote:
| Yeah I have some mixed feelings. It's good that an Indian movie
| is breaking over to such significant consciousness in the US
| but a lot of the interest is like gawking. Like: 'OMG a tiger
| is jumping out of a truck with the hero, I'm laughing'
|
| So as an Indian I feel like this shouldn't be generalized as
| the 'image' in people's minds of what an Indian movie is. The
| over the top parts should be considered as a genre of its own
| dereg wrote:
| Don't worry, I don't think Americans started thinking that,
| in movies, all Chinese people should fly after watching
| Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon.
| nyokodo wrote:
| > So as an Indian I feel like this shouldn't be generalized
| as the 'image' in people's minds of what an Indian movie is.
|
| We'll do that as long as you do us a similar favor for
| Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich.
| shp0ngle wrote:
| For what it's worth I love all S S Rajamouli movies I have
| seen. And like them or not, they are crazy successful.
|
| (I haven't seen this one yet though)
| athulp wrote:
| Your comment is cringe.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| I care! As an open source advocate, it is important to me to
| see Blender being used in successful feature films, regardless
| of the artistic merits of the film itself.
| tandr wrote:
| What would you recommend to watch instead?
| karanmg wrote:
| Delhi Belly for sure!
| perfectstorm wrote:
| If you have Hulu watch Drishyam (Malayalam) and its sequel on
| Amazon prime Drishyam 2.
| krama wrote:
| Given the number of movies made and regions, and decades, I'd
| run out of breath. But I'd start here.
|
| Malayalam Films : Known for their subtlety and craft in film
| making, and obsession with crime novels. Dhrishyam part 1 & 2
| are like no movies I've seen in Hollywood.
|
| Hindi Films: Or Bollywood movies, known for their big stars,
| great attention to set pieces of grand dance sequence s and
| decent romantic comedies / sports movies. Hard to pick one as
| nothing has shined recently. I'd give "Zindagi Na milega
| dubara" / "Chak dhe" a look. Again nothing spectacular
| recently unless you want to watch a classic from the
| seventies "Sholay"
|
| Tamil movies : Gritty movies about inner city gangs / social
| upheaval or focus on stellar music/dance romantic comedies
| and major action blockbusters. From recent years I'd give
| "Vada Chennai", or "Vikram Vedha" a chance for gritty urban
| movies. Or just the most recent action blockbuster "Vikram".
| Which has a really good score.
|
| Telugu movies (the original language for RRR) : I'd give
| "Pushpa" a look before watching CGI drenched RRR.
| sremani wrote:
| Nah Bro.. RRR beats all the 3rd rate movies you have
| mentioned for global audiences.. this coming from a guy who
| loved Pushpa more than RRR.
| bhupy wrote:
| > Hard to pick one as nothing has shined recently. I'd give
| "Zindagi Na milega dubara" / "Chak dhe" a look.
|
| +1 for _Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara_ - one of my all time
| favorites. For a more recent Bollywood film, _Kapoor and
| Sons_ is pretty good.
| prashantsengar wrote:
| I will also add "Andhadhun" to the list of bollywood
| movies. One of the best movies I have _ever_ seen.
| bergenty wrote:
| Malayalam films really are something else. For everyone
| else that isn't Indian, the trope is Bollywood copies
| Malayalam films (who are known to have fantastic character
| development and original stories) and makes them over the
| top ridiculous, campy and throws in sappy love songs with a
| bigger budget. It's kind of like the book was better than
| the movie argument.
| [deleted]
| unmole wrote:
| > embarrassed
|
| Why are you embarassed?
| krama wrote:
| paisawalla wrote:
| Indian action films typically don't strive for believable
| action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply
| the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top in
| a major way.
|
| The embarrassment is for the comparably unsophisticated
| tastes, and I don't share the feeling but I can understand.
| It's like everyone discovering that your uncle is addicted to
| something cheap and insubstantial that only children like,
| like junk food.
| michaelt wrote:
| American action movies aren't striving for realism these
| days - their output is 98% superhero movies.
|
| Action movies have always been unashamed about having an
| element of lowbrow populism. You can enjoy seeing bad guys
| get their asses kicked in The Matrix even if you've never
| heard of plato's cave - and there's nothing wrong with
| that.
| dsign wrote:
| > Indian action films typically don't strive for believable
| action scenes, like American films do.
|
| I'm taking your "believable American action scenes" with a
| big semi full of salt.
| paisawalla wrote:
| Hah point taken, let me put it a different way.
|
| In American films, if someone does extreme, superhuman
| stunts, the filmmaker typically feels pressure to explain
| that the character is actually superhuman in some way and
| not an ordinary guy with an office job. And he or she
| will be in peak physical shape.
|
| In Indian film, an utterly ordinary character in "office
| job" physical condition will catch bullets, run faster
| than a full speed train, etc. No pressure to explain the
| seeming contradiction with ordinary reality. The film
| could be considered a romance, having ordinary people as
| protagonists, and these characters would be doing the
| above-mentioned stunts as part of the plot.
|
| These aren't hard and fast rules, both sides of the
| divide deviate from them, but that's been my observation.
| dereg wrote:
| > No pressure to explain the seeming contradiction with
| ordinary reality
|
| this is a feature and not a bug. The urge for excessive
| exposition is so tiring. Not everything needs an origins
| story, explanation, or a prequel. Hollywood has been
| leaning on that formula and you can see it in the product
| - the movies have become tiresome.
|
| Nobody needs an explanation for their "powers".
| Excessively qualifying a character more likely burdens
| then than lifts them. RRR was such a refreshing,
| thrilling watch parallel to Mad Max: Fury Road.
| CrazyStat wrote:
| >a big semi full of salt
|
| Let's have the semi jump off the end of an unfinished
| highway overpass and do a barrel roll. While the truck is
| slo-mo flying through the air we'll cut to a ground shot
| of a middle-aged dad about to salt some meat on the
| grill, but the barrel-rolling truck overhead spills just
| the perfect amount of salt on his burgers so he just
| looks up and shrugs. Finally we'll cut back to the
| massive explosion as the truck hits the ground.
| tomcam wrote:
| Some of us are very happy to pay for entertainment like
| that. I consider this exuberant style a worthwhile niche of
| its own, like wire work in Asian films.
| krama wrote:
| Exactly. When I saw the reaction to RRR, I was reminded
| of how "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon" was received in
| the US back then. It would be akin to an Asian / Indian
| audience only watching A sub genre of movies made in
| Hollywood.
| GiorgioG wrote:
| I don't think American films strive for believable action
| scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elpUGB9Ap1Y
| gamblor956 wrote:
| Tom Cruise actually performed that stunt. There is a
| highlight BTS reel showing how they composited that shot
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZjsZCMBT-s one of
| several; just the first result in my Google search). As
| you can see, he's very well secured to the plane in the
| BTS footage; the cables and other protection are
| composited out in post-production. Similarly, in the
| water tank scene later in the movie, Cruise actually
| jumped 120 feet into water, and held his breath in a
| water tank for several minutes (though the fountain in
| the jump, and the arm in the tank were both composited
| into the scene in post).
|
| In fact, Tom Cruise actually performs most of his stunts,
| especially for the MI movies. It's kind of his thing;
| while the context of the stunt might be CGI the action
| itself is real.
|
| He's worth more than a billion dollars, so he can afford
| to pay specialists to train him; he supposedly spent over
| a year learning to hold his breath for several minutes
| just for the water tank scene.
| random314 wrote:
| Except that it is claimed that Tom Cruise actually
| performed that stunt
|
| https://youtu.be/afS5ks54tms
| ramesh31 wrote:
| > Indian action films typically don't strive for believable
| action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply
| the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top
| in a major way.
|
| This is precisely what Americans love about it though.
| Indian cinema comes from a completely different tradition
| than Hollywood, and it's a breath of fresh air. Action
| movies _should_ be more silly. It's just entertainment.
|
| A great analogy is to the Ugandan action films as well (go
| watch "Who Killed Captain Alex" right now if you haven't).
| They are doing something completely new that breaks the
| Hollywood tropes. We really need more of this, because the
| American film industry has reached a creative dead end.
| sprkwd wrote:
| > Indian action films typically don't strive for believable
| action scenes, like American films do. Instead, they apply
| the effects and stunts excessively -- they go over the top
| in a major way.
|
| That's why I like them. So refreshing.
| aloknnikhil wrote:
| Being over the top is a unique characteristic of the Indian
| Cinema. If I wanted to watch "believable action scenes",
| I'd go watch a documentary. I honestly don't get this idea
| of standardizing everything as the West does. It's a great
| idea for some. For art? Come on.
| samuraijack wrote:
| bozhark wrote:
| what would you recommend?
|
| overthetop cgi is equated with bollywood, to my knowledge
| unmole wrote:
| > overthetop cgi is equated with bollywood, to my knowledge
|
| No. The overwhelming majority of Bollywood movies don't have
| much CGI. And RRR isn't a _Bollywood_ movie to begin with.
| vivegi wrote:
| The film certainly took the level of art and craft in Indian
| cinema several notches up. Pleasantly surprised that some of the
| visual effects used the Blender pipeline. Very cool.
| lern_too_spel wrote:
| Multiple VFX companies worked on RRR. This article is about one
| of them, which used Blender.
| js2 wrote:
| This movie is apparently available to U.S. audiences only on
| Netflix with a Hindi dub. I'd really like to see it in its
| original language with English subtitles. As well, the total size
| of the UHD stream is about 14 GB which isn't going to be the best
| quality for a 3 hour runtime.
|
| https://old.reddit.com/r/Bluray/comments/v3fzni/rrr_bluray/
|
| I'll watch it anyway. Looks like a fun time.
| protoc wrote:
| What type of computers do they use to render these FX these days?
| kelsolaar wrote:
| Depends on the studio and the type of VFX. The most complex
| tend to be CPU/Memory bound as the datasets typically do not
| fit in GPU memory (48GB for an NVIDIA A6000). Thus you find AMD
| EPYC with a lot of RAM and NVME disks on the server side or AMD
| Threadripper Pro at artists desks.
| dagmx wrote:
| Title is misleading. It was made primarily in Blender but not
| entirely in it.
|
| From the article
|
| > Blender was used in our entire pipeline aside from the FX
| department
|
| Houdini was likely used for FX work since Blender isn't quite
| competitive with it yet.
|
| Additionally, this is about a single studio's pipeline and not
| reflective of all the total work involved.
| dang wrote:
| Fixed now. Thanks!
|
| (Submitted title was "Visual Effects for the Indian Blockbuster
| "RRR" made entirely in Blender".)
| dagmx wrote:
| Thanks for consistently being on top of submissions , even on
| the weekend :-)
| dboon wrote:
| Speaking of Houdini, https://github.com/setzer22/blackjack is
| an excellent open source alternative that loses a ton of cruft
| and is scriptable in Lua. I highly recommend checking it out if
| this is your kind of thing
| gabereiser wrote:
| Not even close to Houdini. It's on par with its modeling but
| has nothing on Houdini's sim, particles, FX.
| virtualritz wrote:
| I like Blackjack and I'm even working on porting some of my
| Rust geometry code to Blackjack nodes. But calling it a
| Houdini alternative is, pardon my French, BS. :)
|
| Blackjack atm covers less than <1% of Houdini's modeling
| toolset. And modeling is the least used part of Houdini in
| VFX (less so in games, i.e. for massive open world building
| etc.)
|
| Houdini is usually used for what is called FX/effects in VFX.
| I.e. fire, water, explosions, destructions. Also crowd stuff
| is not seldomly done in Houdini.
| capableweb wrote:
| blackjack seems like a great (initial version of a) tool for
| doing procedural modelling, just like geometry nodes in
| Blender.
|
| However, it seems the similarities with Houdini stops there.
| While Houdini might be famous for the procedural nature of
| the tool, where it really shines is the physics, simulation
| and effects department. Which blackjack seems to not have any
| features about at all.
| makach wrote:
| Nothing but masterful! Blender is a tool to be reckon with
| jwitthuhn wrote:
| Excited to see this posted here, I'm the author of the Cycles for
| Max plugin mentioned in the article. I was delighted when I first
| heard it was used in RRR.
|
| https://cyclesformax.net
| sizzle wrote:
| This movie looks EPIC where can we stream it??
| nickhalfasleep wrote:
| Netflix
| pen2l wrote:
| I saw it in imax at the insistence of an acquaintance. While
| watching I kept thinking: "ok, so this is the results when you
| have a massive budget, access to lots of designers and top-of-
| the-line tools".
|
| I'm totally thunderstruck to learn it was all done in Blender
| pipeline. Bravo for making this possible.
| 2Gkashmiri wrote:
| i have a designer friend who, after years of me prodding him
| to try blender recently said "i should give blender a try".
| this is the same guy who lives on adobe, and all that
| shizz...
|
| "industry tools" he calls them. "why should i invest my time
| to learn a software when no one else in the industry is using
| them"...
|
| glad the industry is changing behind the scenes to a point
| people like my friend would have to put blender in their
| workflow and maybe, just maybe one day work entirely off of
| FOSS tools.
| tomcam wrote:
| Same. The movie was very fun and it was plainly obvious to me
| that they had a giant budget for crowds, visual effects, etc.
| Gobsmacked that this was an all-Blender operation.
| tooltower wrote:
| I'm confused. What does budget have to do with using
| Blender? I thought a big movie budget is needed mainly for
| the labor and artistry, and comparatively little goes into
| software licensing. Is that not the case?
| ZiiS wrote:
| Plenty of good films have been made with very small
| budgets. If you are shooting on a consumer DSLR or even
| phones then Blender is a godsend.
|
| If you have RRR's budget you can easily waste more money
| explaining to the lawyers and accountants that something
| is free. The decisions is purly on which software is
| better.
| blackoil wrote:
| The budget of ~60 million is huge by Indian standard not by
| Hollywood where >200 million is now increasingly common.
| rockemsockem wrote:
| My favorite comparison now is to look at what the Indian
| Mars Orbiter Mission cost.
|
| It cost $73 million (according to Wikipedia:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Orbiter_Mission) RRR's
| budget was $72 million (according to Wikipedia:
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RRR_(film))
|
| Seems a bit crazy with that comparison.
| silentsea90 wrote:
| Funnier still was a comparison between Indian Mars
| Orbital Mission ($73 M) and the budgets for Gravity
| ($100M), The Martian ($108M), Interstellar ($165M). ISRO
| (India's space agency) engineers missions to Mars for the
| price it takes Hollywood to make movies with Mars, space
| etc.
| dereg wrote:
| A good chunk of that goes to actor pay. For instance, in
| the $200m budgeted Gray Man, Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans
| took home $20m each. Even net those two salaries, Gray Man
| was twice the budget of RRR and visually pales in
| comparison to it. Huge budgets mean nothing.
| bozhark wrote:
| Americans are paid a higher wage.
|
| Dollar goes further with exchanges
| echelon wrote:
| > Americans are paid a higher wage.
|
| For now. The rest of the world is rapidly catching up in
| pretty much every sphere.
|
| But take movies:
|
| America has but a paltry 330 M people. The appetite for
| "American" media will wane as India, China, and other
| vastly more populous Asian countries begin to produce
| Hollywood-caliber films. American box office increasingly
| relies on non-domestic consumption. Chinese films are
| doing bigger revenues, and soon Indian films will too.
|
| Korea is starting to sweep the Oscars, Emmy's, and Golden
| Globes.
|
| Hollywood is going to be washed out by the vast talent,
| capital, and differing tastes beyond American borders.
|
| The age of the "American" film has already peaked. (It's
| not just the market growing up. Kids today no longer want
| to be Hollywood stars - they want to be famous on
| YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch.)
|
| The same trend is observable in other fields. Science,
| technology, fashion, etc.
|
| edit for downvotes: Do not confuse this post for anti-
| American sentiment. It's an honest current and forward-
| looking assessment.
| geodel wrote:
| Those 330 million have highest spending capacity in the
| world so that makes big difference.
|
| Are those Chinese movies making big revenues outside
| China? Until that happens they are just catering local
| market. So far Chinese movies successful in China or
| Chinese speaking population. I think it is just logical
| thing not world changing.
|
| One can also read about Indian movie economics where
| movies with massive budgets sank like giant turds.
| Clueless directors in India are shocked that their
| successful formula of movies is failing so badly.
|
| Kids today also do not want to be doctors, should I be
| worried that no one will be there to treat my old ass
| very soon?
| hilbertseries wrote:
| > Korea is starting to sweep the Oscars, Emmy's, and
| Golden Globes.
|
| I don't think Korea won a single award at the Oscars this
| year. They won a single golden globe and two Emmys. It's
| just parasite and squid game, so far. They are very far
| from sweeping the award ceremonies.
| echelon wrote:
| I was referring to _Parasite_ , which won six Oscars,
| including the coveted Best Picture and Best Director
| nods. That was two years ago, but it speaks to the new
| high water mark Korea is now hitting at.
| otikik wrote:
| Isn't that a bit like saying that Australians are great
| at playing piano and singing songs and cracking jokes
| about religion because Tim Minchin exists?
| oarabbus_ wrote:
| >The age of the "American" film has already peaked.
|
| >edit for downvotes: Do not confuse this post for anti-
| American sentiment. It's an honest current and forward-
| looking assessment.
|
| I don't think it's "anti-American sentiment" as much as
| unsubstantiated claims.
|
| Parasite was an excellent film I thought deserves all its
| praise. But "Korea is starting to sweep the Oscars" is a
| very different statement than "Bong Joon-ho and the
| Parasite team swept the 2019 Oscars".
|
| What you're claiming is that American cinema has peaked,
| and "Hollywood is going to be washed out". A more
| reasonable statement is "The age of exclusively
| USA/Hollywood filmmaking awards is over".
| majormajor wrote:
| > The age of the "American" film has already peaked.
| (It's not just the market growing up. Kids today no
| longer want to be Hollywood stars - they want to be
| famous on YouTube, TikTok, and Twitch.)
|
| Currently a big next step for TikTok stars is moving into
| Hollywood stuff - Addison Rae, the D'Amelios - just like
| it was for the Kardashians a couple decades ago.
|
| Even as you talk about American films doing less at the
| box office, Hollywood itself is rapidly adapting to
| produce more content for serialized US-market TV
| (primarily streaming, but this actually started in the
| cable era).
|
| Many people argue that this stuff is actually _better_
| than the "blockbuster films" that are still trying to
| have global appeal, because of the ability to make more
| niche content of varying sorts.
|
| It's hard to see Hollywood or a domestic US media market
| fed by US productions going anywhere. Thinking that the
| average US media consumption will turn into non-American
| stuff is the same fallacy as thinking that _everywhere
| else in the world_ would have just consumed American
| stuff forever instead of creating their own local
| markets.
| kyriakos wrote:
| how much of those 200+ are going to actual VFX though?
| Isn't most of it being used to buy A-list actors ?
| rob74 wrote:
| Speaking of "lots of designers": while everything else looks
| very realistic to me, that tram (I think it's a tram) in the
| motorbike chase scene
| (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbuZQTud7YE&t=85s) looks
| very odd. A low floor tram in the 1920s? Is that based on any
| real model? Also, the overhead wire seems to be just hanging
| there in mid air while the poles that are actually supposed
| to support it are off to the side...
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Haha, good catch. Would be nice to have floating tram
| lines.
|
| In this other shot (https://youtu.be/wbuZQTud7YE?t=94) you
| can see there are actually support lines, but they have
| been "eaten" by the post-processing.
| Daub wrote:
| Love Blender, but in my experience, the biggest advantage that
| 3DS Max has over Blender is its ability to handle massive scenes.
| In VFX, especially those involving explosions, dust, crowds and
| suchlike, this can be a deal breaker.
| Etheryte wrote:
| You clearly haven't watched the movie mentioned in the article.
| Most of the movie is massive scenes including exactly the kind
| of elements you described.
| TaylorAlexander wrote:
| For anyone unfamiliar with the movie or seeking some perspective
| on the film, I did very much enjoy this review/retrospective of
| RRR by Patrick H Willems, a channel which I generally enjoy. The
| same video is also on Nebula for folks with a subscription.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPU2D5Ftjbw
| [deleted]
| andrewstuart wrote:
| The Critical Drinker - a YouTube movie reviewer who is very very
| selective about what he calls a good movie, says:
|
| "RRR is the best movie you've never seen"
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKN6FAKjFPU
| rufusroflpunch wrote:
| I love the Critical Drinker and I also loved this movie. I am
| not a fan of Indian movies usually, but this one was so good
| that it is really almost mythical in the way can tell a
| universal story.
| jmartrican wrote:
| I can't finish watching this movie because I do not want to see
| the two dudes fight each other. lol. I want to live in a world
| where they still BFFs.
| mikymoothrowa wrote:
| If that's your problem, you can watch the ending and then
| rewatch the whole film.
| bergenty wrote:
| This is a spoiler you probably want to get rid of it though you
| can probably see what you're saying coming.
| pvsukale3 wrote:
| Unrelated:
|
| If you enjoyed RRR and it's over the top drama, action sequences
| you might also like following movies.
|
| 1) Bahubali 1 & 2 (same director)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G62HrubdD6o
|
| 2) KGF chapter 1 and 2
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qah9sSIXJqk
| mikymoothrowa wrote:
| I second Bahubali
|
| but please do not waste your time watching KGF. It's just a
| series of hype scenes made for tik tok recreation. Not a movie.
| Has great music though
| kshacker wrote:
| I agree. This is how I describe KGF
|
| Part 1 has shot / camera angle changing every 2 seconds, like
| an American music video (movie is not musical just talking
| about the video)
|
| Part 2 is more traditional with the camera angle / shot
| changing every 4 seconds.
|
| And then there is some story to fill these few thousand
| camera shots, but your head hurts so much from the very
| changing screen visuals ... maybe it is my age :)
| tomcam wrote:
| Right up my alley, thanks!
|
| Do you have any recommendations for musicals? I love the 2000s
| era ones with super melodic songs. Last one I loved was Janatha
| Garage though. I feel like Telugu movies have seized the
| Bollywood crown. Not a lot of the jukeboxes on YouTube have
| impressed me since.
| pvsukale3 wrote:
| On top of my mind, not an exhaustive list
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geetha_Govindam
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2796_(film)
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saathiya_(film)
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sairat
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_States_(2014_film)
|
| https://youtu.be/XTTAHt4VlUA
| tomcam wrote:
| You are my new best friend. Cannot wait to see these!
| lwn wrote:
| I absolutely loved Baahubali and watched RRR last night for the
| first time. I'm planning to watch KFG tonight. I'd highly
| recommend Tumbbad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tumbbad too.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2022-09-10 23:00 UTC)