The Viral Fever: Brahmastra Leaked Audition Tape| A Creative Evaluation

 

Video Link

A very decent video. From sarcasm on Amitabh's will to pay leads to Aamir's same expressions in every film, the video doesn't fail to entertain. Here are few pointers that I have noted in the sketch.

Writing: 

1. Script was not the king of this video. It has clearly taken back seat when compared to impressions.  It felt like the thought before writing the script was, "we have these actors who can play these characters, let's write punch line for these characters." Relevance of these characters should have taken into consideration before writing the script.  For example: we could have taken Kartik Aryan, who is still forcing everyone to watch Bhool Bhulaiya 2. 

2. Aamir Khan's Lal Singh Chaddha's spoof is hilarious and could have come early in the video.

3. There could have been Kesariya song references/punch lines, considering the relevance. More over, surprise element like Karan Johar visiting the audition and gossiping with Aayan about nepotism could have been hilarious. 

4. Aayan is seen telling Pankaj Tripathi that he doesn't have to audition considering he has become a star doesn't seem to be landing anywhere when clearly they have called him for an audition. The dialogue could have been you have become star, you can throw tantrums. Probably a nepo joke saying now we will be casting your son/daughter too. 

5. Amitabh's exit expression transformation could have been justified. In this video, it's shown that he is really mad and then when Aayan asks him to go to the vanity, he is surprisingly very calm and leaves while joining his hands.

6. Nikhil Vijay could have been roped in to play Nawaz. Even Pankaj and Nawaz could have a face off for the lead role (In Gangs of Wassepur style)

Casting/Acting:

Since, I have mentioned that the video seemed cast centric not script centric, everyone has done their part really nicely. In some wide shots, Shivankit's body language appeared a little closed (especially while doing Akshay Kumar gestures.) The director's instructions to him could have been to open up a bit.

Edit:

1. At 2.08, when Amitabh is seen blabbering randomly, this could have looked better in close/mid shots.

2. When we see Ayaan auditioning for Rajnikant, an sfx could have helped making it funnier. Viewers might have gotten confused for a second, especially the crowd doing brainless binging in trains.

3. In Pankaj Tripathi's audition, we got to see side wide angle shots while he is giving audition. Same could have used to other auditionees also specially Salman Khan while sitting on the sofa.

Cinematography:

1. We could have avoided the visible Tube lights above the wall frames in the background. Light just above the photo frame is not very pleasing to eyes.

2. Studio lights could have been placed facing the auditionee not behind him. It should look like audition lights kept to light the face of the subject.

3. Treatment of Camera POV and normal frames could have been slightly different from each other. Here, the only separator between the two is camera recording frames.

4. Whenever the door opens while any character leaves the audition room, we get to see an over exposed exterior. This could have been avoided by using a black cloth/certain.