Extraction; A Big Step for Netflix to Enter Indian Market
BEFORE YOU WATCH EXTRACTION
If you are a fan of non-stop action movies that doesn’t need your brain to dig more into the story-line and characters, Extraction is a good choice for you. And if you are a racist who enjoys watching an American mercenary kills a lot of cops in another country, Extraction is made for you. Before you jump up I should say there is nothing racist in the movie but there is a usual unbalance attitude in showing people from different nations. An American mercenary and An Indian criminal fight against dozens of Bangladeshi cops and criminals.
AFTER YOU WATCHED
Extraction could be a fantasy movie based on a comic book like “300”, if its first-time director Sam Hargrave made the countless shooting scenes a bit more stylish. Instead he made them in real nasty locations in a realistic style.
By this approach, besides giving the movie a real taste of slumdog Bangladesh, Hargrave created an exotic atmosphere that is very attractive for audience; not only for western audience but also for Asian viewers.
Asian audience from Pakistan and Bangladesh to China and Japan are in love with Bollywood and Tamil Movies and that is why Rajinikanth, a famous Indian actor is the 2nd high-paid actor in Asia. Most popular recent Indian movies have the common motif of crime, gangs and revenge. For example, Kabali (2016) was a great hit in Asia and was using the same motifs in its story.
Extraction’s story is nothing more than what you can see in Indian movies. A gang leader in Bangladesh kidnaps Ovi, the son of a drug lord in India to humiliate him. In response, Ovi’s father hires a team of American mercenaries to extract his son, but at the same time, he orders his close ally Saju to kidnap his son from Americans in order to avoid payment for their rescue contract.
As you see, this is a brilliant story for an Indian movie and when an American director with a lot of experience in action movies leads the production, the result will be a great hit in Asia. Knowing this, we should accept this possibility that Extraction originally is produced for Asian Market. Actually it may be the best effort by Netflix to improve its presence in India and the vast territory of Bollywood and Tamil movie industry is Asia.
Placing Saju (Randeep Hooda) as a badass tough Indian guy against Tyler (Chris Hemsworth) is another proof of Netflix plan. Saju who fights even better than Tyler will play the role of the hero that Indian audience needs to stand up and cheer in theaters (now at their homes during the pandemic). Like how they celebrate each and every movie of Rajinikanth.
Of course Bangladeshi part of audience will not be very happy after dozens of their cops get killed in every scene by an American or an Indian hit man. The violent scenes of fighting between Tyler, Saju and cops are reminding me of spaghetti western movies.
Bangladeshi cops are playing the role of Native Americans who were killed easily in those movies. Perhaps, that is why at the final scene, a Bangladeshi young gang kills Tyler to pay back the honor to the losers of the story. Even though he kills Tyler from behind not like a brave fighter.
It is interesting that international production in India are successful in box office and some are blockbusters. Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Life of Pi (2012) and now Extraction are examples of this kind of production. They are following the same way as American movies produced in China with a cast mixed of Chinese and American actors like The Great Wall (2016).
These international production have some kind of guarantee to attract the audience of involved countries. The other advantage of this approach is to improve the movie industry of the hosting country as well as the obligation to have a fair view of other nations.
