Tenet, a Christopher Nolan presentation, also starring Dimple Kapadia, is set to release in theatres in India tomorrow. However, I feel that it may not get the expected response from the public and the footfall in the screens will be low.
Here are my reasons for it:
1. It’s already released worldwide, and has been in theatres for two months now. The response of the audience has been nominally encouraging but largely dispiriting. The producers even got Tom Cruise to watch Tenet in a movie theatre. But that didn’t quicken ticket sales in any part of the world. Getting audiences into theatres is a Mission Impossible. Unless they get Akshay Kumar to do a Tom Cruise for his mother-in-law Dimple Kapadia by visiting a theatre to see Tenet. But first she will have to mask…I mean, ask.
2. That brings me to the incandescent Dimple Kapadia. Tenet’s Indian distributors Warner Brothers are hoping she would lure Indian audiences back to the theatres. But Dimple is hardly there for more than 10-15 minutes. Her role is as substantial as her friend Anil Kapoor’s laughable presence in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. It’s like hoping Govinda would make Coolie No 1 a hit. Well, almost.
3. Tenet is Christopher Nolan’s weakest film to date. Everyone mumbles in code language for 2 ½ hours. If you really want to catch the dialogues then I suggest you go to the most sophisticated theatre near you. But even if by some miracle you catch the dialogues, you’ll still be clueless as to what the plot is up to. I believe only two people who read the script understood it fully, and neither of them is the director Nolan.
4. Christopher Nolan’s diehard fans may brave it to the theatres in spite of Covid. But they constitute 1.5-2 percent of the movie-going audience in India. And they’ve already read the tepid-to-cold reviews in the world press. Those keen on seeing Tenet have already seen it on the Internet. The rest will wait for KFG before braving it to the theatres.
5. Most discouraging of all is the Covid-related studies by virologists and researchers all over the world. According to them, guess which is the most dangerous place to be in during these contagious times? A movie theatre! Ranks higher than airports as a health hazard.
Image source: IMDb