Between The Flash and Adipurush bad CGI and VFX increasingly seems like the rule rather than the exception

The post-credits scene in DC’s The Flash, is an underwhelming little trick plucked from the Marvel playbook. It says something about banality of pop culture that even market competitors are forced to produce limp imitations of each other. But between the last scene and that unnecessary tease at the end of the sorry film, there is a long credits roll that lists under vfx a host of Indian names. It’s no secret that Indian studios have gathered a foothold in the development of CGI’s (Computer Generated Graphics) global standards of late. From the first Avatar film to Gravity through Avengers:Infinity War, Indian studios have collaborated with some of the most lavishly mounted sci-fi films in recent memory and yet, in the same week, across oceans and diametrically opposite themes and languages, two tent-pole films underperformed on a common front – their CGI. It begs the question, why in 2023, is poor CGI everywhere? The answer to this question is both simple and complex. The simplest explanation is usually the most obvious one. Like any corporate skill, CGI artists have become commercial objects to be desired, poached and managed as opposed to creative artists who must be nurtured and protected with storytelling principles. A studio’s expansion has its financial imperatives in terms of a creative voice there are significantly more pitfalls. Pixar’s acquisition by Disney, for example, has drastically changed the outlook of a studio known for its plucky, indie charm and a surprisingly adolescent view of animation. Ever since the acquisition, few of the storied studio’s films have stood out the way they used to in the first two decades of its storied existence. The other answer to that question is more complex, and begs collating animation and technical wizardry with just about any form of art. Aggregate anything to the point of absoluteness, and eventually chunks of dour and tired imitations will begin to fall out.  CGI has become so common in cinema it is probably easier to get it wrong than to get it right. Then there are the considerations of context. The Flash’s challenging production journey probably earns it an olive branch but in the case of _Adipurush_ it is impossible to conceive of a reason why the film’s CGI was so indisputably poor.  From hacky demons to soul-crushingly amateur renditions of palaces and landscapes _Adipurush_ farcically, looks to behind Ramanand Sagar’s _Ramayana_, (a century behind Yugo Sako’s 1992 version) at least in terms of the visual packaging expected of it. Which begs the question of intent and of course know-how as opposed to technological adequacy alone. Most directors working with CGI – including the ones at Marvel – don’t understand how CGI works but the least you can expect of an _Adipurush_ is that it echoes India’s emerging presence as a destination for CGI seasoning if not as a pioneer of firsts. The fact is that like any other form CGI has become a technology so commonplace it has bred bottom-feeders on both sides of the storytelling ledge. The mass production of anything eventually corrupts its own density. It’s the law of mass generation if you like and CGI, like anything else really, has become a service that companies offer rather than the technological marvel that cinema once teased new frontiers with. The result is a demand heavy, low supply service chain that has undoubtedly expanded beyond the horizon, but continues to crawl on the ground. Turn any form of artistic pursuit into an economic compromise and people will eventually take the money over the story. It’s why none of the studios that produce wildly imaginative and large-scale films produce CGI with any form of consistency – not even Marvel.  To add to that, the universal demand for CGI has blunted a cutting edge technology by handing every other hand, a blade to play with. A knife at the end of the day is a knife. And so, from asking why there was so much CGI in our cinema, we have now moved onto asking why much of the CGI that we see, is so poor. This is trivialisation via popularity, the commodification of something that started out as new form of soap and has now replaced the bathing towel. Every time Marvel unveils their massive, at times overwhelming pipeline of production, their employees probably gasp and squirm. Working at the most successful studio can endow you with privileges, but it also leaves you in a vacuum, from where migration might not be an option for most. Cheaper offshore markets present opportunities but what they also, in effect do is create a herding model where native markets learn the least, charge pitiably and grow ever so slowly. Money here truly represents power but even with that caveat comparatively smaller films can at least aspire to global standards. Not too long ago, _Brahmastra_ proved it could be done. Only before _Adipurush_ evidenced, not once but twice, that it can’t. Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.