The lack of dialogue in this summer's Hollywood blockbusters has been compensated with the verbiage on the dumbing down of cinema.

Critics have actually looked for intelligence in the dinosaur remains of Steven Spielberg's The Lost World and been disappointed to find nothing but crass commercialism. They have looked for tortured debates on the modern man's identity in The Saint and Batman & Robin and found only cartoon strips characteristics.

They have even bemoaned the lack of character in the snake in Anaconda, the volcano in Volcano, and the cruise ship in Speed 2. Apparently, Men in Black, a sort of an Independence Day meets Mars Attacks! has worked because the aliens have distinctly formed personalities.

But really, does one look for higher life form in France's largest export the notion of nationalism; or Britain's the Royal Family? For America, Hollywood is an industry which supplies to the entire world. It may create the odd Contact to satisfy the craving for extra-terrestrials nurtured by X-Files or Air Force One for the obsession with American heroes, but its heart lies in the special effect stunners it churns out annually.

One estimate put the cost of Men in Black at $1 million a minute. Speed 2 cost $160 million and the yet-to-be-released Titanic is reported to cost $220 million, with the interest still ticking away, as the movie's release has been postponed to December.

But no one expects these movies to recoup the costs in the domestic market. At last count, American blockbusters were making only 40 per cent of their revenue in the US, the rest was from all over the world. So, is it a surprise that Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was paid $25 million for a 25-minute appearance encased in a metallic body suit as the villain, Mr Freeze, in Batman & Robin, should promote the movie in Japan, with none other than Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto in attendance?

Then again, is it surprising that Schwarzenegger and his friends, all $20-million superstars, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis and wife Demi Moore, should open a chain of Planet Hollywood restaurants in places as far-flung as Hong Kong and Tokyo? That's where America can still be sold as a franchise. For, whether it's Planet Hollywood or Jurassic Park, it all boils down to merchandising: of stars or dinosaurs.

The only good thing about this cultural imperialism is that it welcomes anyone from any nation who can do it better. One of this summer's most highly-regarded action films, Face/Off, was directed by Hong Kong martial arts meister John Woo. Because the premise was slightly shocking, the film quickly got dubbed as one with `character' (a much abused notion these days which merely means that actors have more than three pages of dialogue to memorise).

The point in all this is that movies are now made in the US with an eye firmly on international sales. Why have complex stories which don't export well? It's something our own film-makers are learning, which is why you see the margin between mainstream and alternative cinema blurring quickly (and not only thanks to the selection process of the National Film Awards Jury).So those who decried the lack of international relevance of Indian cinema might just be taken aback one day. Whether it's J.P. Dutta's Border which actually attempts to chronicle a nation's hatred for another, or Mani Ratnam's Iruvar, which looks at the interplay between Dravidian politics and cinema, `commercial' cinema has gone beyond its tired formulas to look for easy-to-market `issues'. The themes that experimental film-makers earlier explored tentatively are now being boldly (if inadequately) sketched in the lurid colours that one expects of worldwide spectacles. So don't be surprised when a Subhash Ghai, who hitherto stuck to making films of brothers and mothers, is now attempting a political statement on patriotism; Ketan Mehta who after trying his hand at potboilers, is making a film on the First War of Independence; and Shekhar Kapur after tasting success with the pseudo-intellectualism of Bandit Queen is doing a political history of Queen Elizabeth I. With luck, our cinema will also become a business.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.