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Friday, October 17, 2008

Info Post
The cheesy-for-some-romantic-for-most title line is actually a tagline for a Mel Gibson film, Forever Young. In the film, young Mel is in undying love with a girl, who has a 'fatal' accident. Heartbroken Mel gives himself up for a science project which has virtually no chances of success. Crazy bugger! For the project, he is cryogenically frozen and forgotten immediately afterwards. When he is accidentally revived some twenty years later, he is still a chirpy mid-twenty guy. And he comes across his old girlfriend, who had survived after all and is now married, dowdy and aghast at Mel's youthfulness.
There is no reason really for telling this story but then, there is no reason for most of the things on this blog... For example, why do I keep Udayan on the blogroll when he has not posted for the last millennium?

This post is an attempt to collate some wonderful, some arbitrary, some crappy taglines from movies. Some of them are obvious. Some of them are high philosophy. And some of them are simply better than the movies themselves!
I have a green diary from my college days, that is literally falling apart. Most of these quotes are from that vintage and I needed to preserve them before the diary disintegrated totally.
Readers are urged to add taglines from newer movies.

So, here are some of the better ones. Which incorporate a significant element of the plot and inject as much curiosity as possible! 

Robinhood: Prince of Thieves - For the love of all men. And one woman. He fought to uphold justice. By breaking the law. 

Psycho - Please don't give away the ending. It's the only one we have. 

Mississippi Masala - Love is colour blind. 

Cape Fear - There's nothing in the dark that isn't in the light. Except fear. 

Mrs Doubtfire - She does floors. She cooks dinner. She reads bedtime stories. She is a blessing in disguise. 

Pulp Fiction - You will never know the facts until you know the fiction. 

Alien - In space, no one can hear you scream. 

Anaconda - When you can't breath, you can't scream. 

Sommersby (starring Jodie Foster and Richard Gere in a film about the latter returning home after being given up for dead and Jodie does not find him at all like the husband she knew) - She knew his face. His voice. His touch. She knew everything about him. Except the truth. 

Bollywood has been quite unimaginative in coining taglines. The best example of that is the line for Main Khiladi Tu Anari (starring Akshay Kumar and Saif) - The Brave and The Brat!
Otherwise, it is either hyperbole (The Most Powerful Film Ever Made - Parinda and A Love Story of Epic Dimensions - 1942 A Love Story, both Vidhu Vinod Chopra!), literal translation (Paths of Fire - Agneepath) or plain & simple un-imagination (A Violent Love Story - Tezaab and Darr. 
Very rarely do we have a simple line which sums up the film without giving away the plot. Dil Hain Ke Manta Nahin had one such - A Journey into a Woman's Heart. Considering that they did not have spend any time thinking of a story, they obviously spent time thinking of the tagline! 
And my favourite? Jugal Hansraj's adult debut with his Masoom co-star, Urmila, was a film called Aa Gale Lag Ja. It advertised itself by saying - Never before a Love Story with 7 Songs and 11 Murders... 
How can you not want to see a movie like this? 

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