Is it a case of absolute power corrupts absolutely? In Bollywood’s family-based industry hierarchy, Yash Chopra and his banner have been topping all power lists for some years now: difficult-to-get stars readily drop other commitments to take on Yash Raj films, and the media blitzkrieg ensures good box office pickings.

But for Tashan, multiplex owners — wary of the banner’s consistent failures — refused to compromise on the high share being demanded as always by the producer and boycotted the film. After a dismal first week, the banner has bent backwards for a multiplex release on the multiplex owners’ terms. This was unthinkable earlier.

What it goes to show is that posturing and tashan is fine so long as you deliver: power and continuing leadeship come from empowering everyone in the process. In films, that means everyone from the production team, every cog in the commercial machine, even the man who sells tickets on the black market, and last but not the least, the viewer, for whom there should be assurance of a memorable movie experience. Big banners can recover costs, though, from satellite transmission and other rights.

Son Aditya Chopra’s business models may well be in place — what’s missing perhaps is the heart that father Yash Chopra brought to the madness of film-making. And film making, at the end of the day, is an art; it has to appeal to the heart. Then the purse opens automatically. That’s what Yash Raj films used to be — from Daag (1973) to perhaps Veer Zaara (2004), which the elder Chopra directed last for his banner.

What’s happening at Yash Raj Films is a familiar Bollywood story — professionalism versus formula, which was archaic but tested and unique. The Yash Raj creative crisis is a statement on the larger experimental fancy that has gripped the industry of late, riding roughshod over tested Bollywood traditions for anything that is new, radical, different and essentially or helmed by the young.

The eagerness to revamp, retune, and retake misses out the power of a banner’s appeal, misses out the signature style of the film maker. What Yash Raj is today isn’t something achieved overnight. Yash Chopra too had his failures. Most notable, being the experimentative and different Lamhe (1991)! However, a less acknowledged fact also is that though the film bombed at the box office, it was the most rented film in the video circuit that year. So the viewers were there, they just didn’t come to the theatres to see it.

So why begrudge Aditya Chopra’s experimentations? Because, unlike Lamhe, they are all body and no soul — Tara Rum Pum (2007), Jhoom Barabar Jhoom (2007), even Madhuri Dixit’s comeback Aaja Nachle (2007). Lamhe had its soul in place, also the signature Yash Chopra ingredients — compelling story, great music, memorable dialogues.

Long before the lady in white sari dancing in the rain became an abiding Yash Raj image, the banner made its mark with some gritty narratives. No two films then could be called identical, both within a predominant romantic genre and outside in occasional experiments in the action-drama genre. A Deewar (1975) was as different from Silsila (1981), as a Chandni (1989) from a Mashaal (1984) or even a forgettable Parampara (1993). What you see coming from the banner today is a series of assembly line products with a pattern to them — big stars, great locations, stylish shots, crowded noisy song sequences — whatever happened to the melody, the compelling lyrics of a Yeh kahaan aa gaye hum? — and no story. In short, all body, no soul.

And going by the latest, Tashan, following the Dhoom series and the Neil ‘n’ Nikkis, the finesse of a master’s subtle stylized presentation of a lady’s sexual appeal has given way to the crassness of parading anorexic in-your-face female bodies performing acobatic contortions in two-pieces.

A USP (unique selling proposition) is not an overnight legacy; and with one like Yash Raj, the fritting away too won’t happen so quickly. People still flock to a Yash Raj film irrespective of near 10 consecutive disappointments in the recent past. But for how long? Given the banner’s recent body of evidence, Chakde! India (2007) actually looks a rare, welcome change. However, it also had most of the signature Yash Raj narrative sensibilities in place, never mind the missing lady in white.

The verve of youth needs a seasoned hand to point the right direction. The familiar age-old tussle between the young and the old playing out in the terrain of Bollywood’s leading studio, in its processes and pitfalls, has a larger moral for the entire industry. Whoever wins the final round, will also settle many an ongoing fight — between the creative and the commerce, a film and a project, a story and a product, characters and stars. We are watching! Bollywood is watching!