The trailer for director Sriram Raghavan’s AndhaDhun, starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu and Radhika Apte, was released yesterday and in this writer’s opinion, it is easily the best Bollywood trailer of the year so far.
While it’s too early to comment on the film itself, let’s break down a few reasons why this trailer is so good.
It’s the Perfect Length
At a time when most Bollywood trailers clock in around 3 minutes long, if not more, the AndhaDhun trailer is a brisk 2 minutes. That makes it way shorter than average and thus bucks the trend. It is often remarked that 90 seconds to 2 minutes is the ideal length to cut a movie trailer. Forcing them to be three minutes long can not just ruin the rhythm and flow of a good trailer, it also places strain on editors to fill those 3 minutes. Which leads us to the second point.
It Shows You Just Enough
So what happens when a trailer is forced to three or more minutes? It ends up giving away the entire movie. You know what I’m talking about; how many recent trailers have showed you the entire film, beat for beat, start to finish? Putting something in the trailer because it it could draw in audiences is different from the urge to include everything from the film in there.
Bollywood trailers have a become a generic greatest hits montage that also tries to be a summary of the plot.
Take for instance the trailer for upcoming Shahid Kapoor-starrer Batti Gul Meter Chalu.
Perhaps it’s easy to pick on this trailer but it exemplifies all the bad things we’ve just talked about. It’s long, gives away entire plot beats and is so rambling that the tone seems to change from minute-to-minute. Let alone convey what the film is like, this trailer is itself suffering from multiple personalities. Sadly, this has been the case with trailers for bigger, better films as well.
It would be tedious at this point to say film trailers are an art form, but come on, they are. And that’s where the AndhaDhun trailer shines, showing the audience just enough to get us intrigued. We know Ayushmann plays a blind piano player, Radhika plays his lady love, Tabu the woman who hires his services, there’s a murder, Ayushmann gets embroiled but he may not be as innocent as he seems.
And that’s enough! The audience is hooked. The trailer teases us with where the film might go with the plot, but we’ll still have to see it to know what happens.
It’s Got a Cat
The cat is prominently placed on the poster as well, so we know she has a role to play in the murder.
It’s Simply a Great Trailer
Listen, this is Sriram Raghavan we’re talking about, the director of Ek Hasina Thi and Johnny Gaddaar. I would watch anything he makes sight unseen (pun not intended), but I’m glad I watched this trailer. Tabu and Sriram are a match made in heaven, I love seeing her in Haider-mode. It’s a great 2 minutes of Sriram’s signature style, cut very well and shown me just enough to get me very pumped for 5 October.