Till the end of the last millennium, the elite, intelligentsia and the so-called arts buffs of India delighted in showing off their grey cells by exclaiming: “Oh gosh, I never watch Hindi films. I just don’t have patience to sit through to watch three hours of girl and boy flitting around trees and singing loud songs.”
Well, now the same crowd will sourly miss out on something if they don’t watch Hindi films. Of course, the dance-song films are still there but there are also films like Black, Phir Milenge, Maqbool, Page 3, Swades, Shabd, and the list continues. At the end of February, when Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black was released, many including the director didn’t expect the Amitabh Bachchan-Rani Mukherjee starrer to succeed. It began slowly but through sheer word of mouth, the verdict went out that the movie is a must dekho. The critics simply went gaga over it.
Bhansali admitted that when he debuted with Khamoshi, with Salman Khan and Manisha Koirala, dealing with the problems of a deaf and dumb couple bringing up their kids, the Indian audience wasn’t prepared to accept change. “I made Devdas and Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam. I prepared my own audience and was sure that they would spread the word and Black would be accepted,” said Bhansali.
Black — story of a deaf-mute-blind girl and her teacher who later in life is afflicted with Alzheimer’s — proves that the Hindi movies’ audience has not only matured but is willing to accept yet untested new themes. Other directors and producers need to take note.
Years ago, when Mahesh Manjrekar debuted with Nidaan, a movie based on a girl afflicted with Aids, it bombed without any trace. At that time, in the early 1990s, Aids was a phoren word to the people of India. But Phir Milenge of 2004 with Shilpa Shetty, Salman Khan and Abhishek Bachchan revolved around the character of Shilpa Shetty who is a victim of the HIV virus and the film did fairly well in Indian cinemas.
A decade of liberalization, the 90-plus TV channels and consumerist culture, a growing middle class who have access to easy finances, bored by Indipop music and lulled by archetype Bollywood, want something different — just like the new and exotic cuisines offered in their neighbourhood eatery such as Thai, Continental, Mexican while batata-wada and idli sambar is passe. They seek something closer to life, something they can identify with and is also different from what is dished out by the TV channels on prime time. As they say: “Zara hatke kind of films.”
Even Shahrukh Khan, the reigning king of Bollywood who had hitherto played safe by playing only the chocolate hero, decided to step out of the mould when he accepted Swades, which has no SRKism in it. Many have panned it, saying it is too preachy but it touched a chord with the urban middle class, who have someone or the other — a son, daughter, cousin or the neighbour’s sister — working or studying in the USA. They could identify with Mohan Bhargava (SRK), a NRI working with NASA who decides to return home to work in his village and help the people there.
This Ashutosh Gowarikar movie, diametrically different from his earlier Lagaan, reinforced that the audience was open to different stories other than the sarson da khet, karva chauth and huge tapestry covered windows — films made keeping the NRI audience in mind.
The last couple of years has witnessed film-makers making movies such as Gadar (on the theme of Partition), Roza (an Indian intelligence official kidnapped by terrorists), Bombay (communal riots), Shaheed Bhagat Singh (a Leftist interpretation of martyr Bhagat Singh’s life), Khaki (on the politician and state nexus), Kya Kehna (story of an unwed mother), Chandni Bar (based on the life of a girl working in a dance bar), Filhaal (on surrogate motherhood), Khwaish (famous for its 17 kisses), Dil Chahta Hai (story of three male friends who grow up and move out in different ways) and many others.
Black portrays a relationship never attempted before by Bollywood filmmaker. It is a movie based on the relationship of a teacher who teaches his deaf and blind student to survive in the world — really pathbreaking. And in the later part of the film the handicapped girl becomes her mentor’s crutch when he is struck by Alzheimer’s.
Relationships other than just the boy-girl or husband-wife have been routinely tackled by Bollywood movies. There have been films on relationships between handicapped people, about neighbours and childless couples. Like Sunil Dutt’s Yaadein, V. Shantaram’s Do Aankhen Barah Haath, Gulzar’s Koshish, Yash Chopra’s Lamhe and Saeed Mirza’s Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Aata Hai?
What has changed is the audience which is now young, educated, and entirely urban and who would like to view movies that have been packaged differently, and deal with themes that don’t revolve around star-struck lovers. Take for instance the Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra starrer Aitraaz, a story of a young girl who marries an older man and tries to harass her junior employee to fulfil her needs.
Come Friday and the nine-to-five bank executive who has just acquired his brand new SUV (sports utility vehicle, thanks to easy loans from private banks) would like to take his interior decorator wife for a late night movie at a multiplex theatre and settle back to watch films that reflect moments from their own lives.
The mushrooming of multiplexes, too, has helped in increasing the popularity of such films. With an assured audience and a guarantee that directors would at least recover their costs, scriptwriters have dusted up concepts they had abandoned as nonviable. As corporatization of the film industry happens, new production houses are emerging. On the one hand are biggies like Subhash Ghai Entertainment and on the other, production houses such as Dream Factory of Ramgopal Verma dishing out flicks like Ab Tak Chhappan, Bhoot, Gayab, Main Madhuri Dixit Banna Chahti Hoon, Darna Mana Hai, Vaastu Shastra, etc. Then there is former journalist-turned-film producer Pritish Nandy catering to the English speaking urban middle class cinema lovers with jhankar beats, shabd etc.
Most of these hatke films, released every alternate Friday in India, have extremely low budgets. Made by new directors and with new faces, they are not only received well by the audience but get good media coverage as well. Then there are synergies happenings, too, with media houses like The Times of India Group, Sahara TV, Lokmat, etc, either sponsoring films or making movies on their own.
This millennium, films are changing and so the intelligentsia needs to change their filmi haunts, too.
Till the end of the last millennium, the elite, intelligentsia and the so-called arts buffs of India delighted in showing off their grey cells by exclaiming: “Oh gosh, I never watch Hindi films. I just don’t have patience to sit through to watch three hours of girl and boy flitting around trees and singing loud songs.”
