 |
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Dr.
Mala Chakravorty
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Mala Chakravorty
has a Ph.D. in American Women's
fiction from I.I.T. Delhi, and
Master's degrees in English and
American Studies from Delhi
University and Smith College,
Massachusetts. She has worked in
the School of Women's Studies,
Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and
Women's Studies Program at the
University of Hawai'i at Manoa,
Honolulu. She switched from
academics to Information
Technology in 1999, and is
currently working as Marketing
Manager with NIIT Technologies,
Inc. Atlanta, Georgia. Apart from
her academic articles, Mala's
short stories have been published
in Sulekha.com and BAGA annual
magazines. |
| Formula: Going,
Going, Gone? New Trends in
Popular Hindi Films |
NRIS! Do you
know? |
| "Films now are
marked by innovative subjects,
creative treatment,
unconventional characterization,
unpredictable casting, tight
scripts and superior technology.
The emphasis now is on innovation
and creativity without stepping
outside the realms of the
mainstream." |
|
|
Ever
since the shaky screen
images beamed down Raja
Harishchandra to us in
1913, cinema has been an
integral part of our
lives. Over the years, it
has turned into a vast
empire that has given
India the distinction of
being the largest
producer of films
worldwide. Through the
past nine decades of
Indian film history,
films, particularly
mainstream Hindi movies,
have been
India&rsquos most
popular form of
entertainment. They have
also been perceived as
cultural signifiers of
Indian identity and
adopted as a tool of
socialization and
cultural homogenization
by resident and
non-resident
Indians.
Over the years, films we
have seen and loved have
been shaped by the
social-political-economic
trajectories of the times
they were made in. In the
pre-independence and
early years of
independence, our films
reflected social
consciousness, idealism
and nation-building.
1960s brought color and
consolidated the formula
of escapism. Romantic
musicals and melodramas
became our trademark. The
typical Hindi film was
family-oriented with
plots simple enough to
reach across class and
regional differences. The
storyline was
straight-forward -- good
vs. evil and boy meets
girl. Problems crept up
through plot
contrivances, villains
had to be vanquished, and
a happy ending sent us
home satisfied. En route
we encountered numerous
songs and dances, comedy
sequences, emotional
scenes, fight scenes,
kidnapping, chase scenes
and the grand finale when
all the loose ends were
neatly tied up and the
hero and heroine lived
happily ever after.
|
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We started
to see change in the
1970s, a decade marked by
three parallel trends.
Equally popular in their
own way were
action-oriented
multi-starrers like
Sholay, Deewar and Yaadon
ki Baraat; middle-class
romantic comedies from
Hrishikesh Mukherjee and
Basu Chatterjee; and
socially relevant slices
of life from Shyam
Benegal and Govind
Nihalani. 1970s also saw
the emergence of the
Amitabh
Bachchan&rsquos
&lsquoangry-young-man&rsquo
persona, and a spate of
movies evolved around
this persona setting a
trend that dominated the
next decade. |
Film-as-complete-entertainment
formula was reinforced by
directors like Manmohan
Desai and Prakash Mehra,
with the Big B playing
the total-entertainer.
Simultaneously, a number
of family melodramas
(typified by regressive
values and crude humor)
made in the South rose on
the popularity charts in
the 1980s. Musical love
stories started making an
entry again with Qayamat
Se Qayamat Tak and Maine
Pyar Kiya by the end of
the 1980s and early
1990s. Concurrently,
slapstick crude comedies
were given respectability
as a genre by David
Dhavan. By this time the
alternate cinema movement
and the middle-class
romantic comedies
disappeared from the
public eye.
Even though filmmakers
often experimented with
different genres and
themes, formula still
remained sacrosanct
within the mainstream.
1995 was a watershed in
Indian cinema as Dilwale
Dulhaniya Le Jayenge
marked the resurfacing of
the Yash Chopra style of
film-making, re-packaged
by Aditya Chopra and
Karan Johar. These films
showed wealthy Indians
who lived in a world
where everything was
beautiful and all
problems could be
resolved through love and
forgiveness. Aimed
primarily at the overseas
market, these brought
NRIs closer to India by
modernizing the
traditional Hindi film
formula with enormous
budgets, superior
technical skills, good
scripts, exotic locales,
melodious music, and an
extremely professional
approach to film-making.
|
|
Films of
this genre continue to
rule the roost in the
2000s. However, looking
at current films
appreciated by masses
and/or classes, we find
an interesting
phenomenon.
A new breed of filmmakers
has emerged in the
contemporary global
culture that wants to
deconstruct Bollywood
formula or abandon it
altogether. Audiences
also seem to be satiated
with the predictable and
are ready for something
new. |
As
a corollary, financiers
and distributors are
willing to take risks and
invest in projects that
are different.
Consequently, we see
dramatic shifts in style
and subjects. Films now
are marked by innovative
subjects, creative
treatment, unconventional
characterization,
unpredictable casting,
tight scripts, superior
technology. Nothing like
the neo-realistic
alternate cinema of the
1970s, the emphasis now
is on innovation and
creativity without
stepping outside the
realms of the
mainstream.
The earlier shades of
black and white have been
replaced by various
shades of grays. Battles
between good and evil
have taken amorphous
shapes with leading stars
playing evil villains and
vamps. Some have dared to
make films with no songs
or dances. Young urban
India is depicted as it
actually is -- not as
middle-aged men and women
playing college students
dancing with a hundred
middle-aged classmates in
the background -- but in
the stories of young men
and women trying to
negotiate with their
choices in the clubs and
restaurants of Dil
Chahta Hai or the
mean streets of Yuva and
Company. The
very core of
communication has
changed, and linguistic
variations spanning rural
dialects to tapori slang
to urban Hinglish to
harsh expletives are used
as and when necessary.
Themes too have ranged
from historical
narratives to gangster
war to marital woes to
travails of AIDS victims.
So, in the last five
years, we collectively
rooted for six NRIs
robbing a bank in LA just
as we cheered a motley
group of villagers in the
19th century challenging
the British government to
a cricket match or
applauded the rebellion
of the our young freedom
fighters. We marveled at
a retired bank officer
and his team of three
blind men robbing a bank,
and empathized with an
NRI leaving his
prestigious job to build
a power-plant for a
remote village. We felt
the pains of bar girls,
and laughed at the
gangster who wants to be
a doctor. We followed the
quest for identity of
young men in the urban
cafes and restaurants
with as much empathy as
we followed youth
activism during the
Naxalite movement. We
laughed at comic capers
of unemployed youths
struggling in the big bad
city, and cried with
elderly parents
humiliated by their
children. We felt the
fear of a mother whose
child turns terrorist and
experienced helplessness
at the destruction of
humanism by extremism. We
seethed with fury against
the nation&rsquos
&lsquoenemies&rsquo
and preened with national
pride as we espoused
communal harmony. |
 |
We had a
glimpse of the lifestyle
of the urban elite
through the eyes of an
idealistic reporter, and
zoomed into the ruthless
corporate worlds created
by the mafia and/or
politicians.
We saw the vicious terror
unleashed by rural
warlords and the ruthless
encounters masterminded
by sadistic policemen. |
|
We
egged on a young girl to
break familial and
cultural mores by playing
soccer, and rooted for
AIDS victims fighting for
their rights to retain
personal dignity. We
joined in the family fun
of urban weddings, and
cringed at the dark
underside of abusive
family relationships. We
nodded with empathy at
middle-class marital
discord, and with a
little less sympathy at
upper-class, urban
marriages destroyed by
infidelity, adultery,
promiscuity. We commended
women who fought against
their oppressors and
asserted their rights for
equality. We also granted
agency to a spate of
predatory women using
sexuality as an
empowering tool. We
explored spring-winter
relationships, we
experienced the dark
world of the handicapped,
we reached out to
strangers bonding in the
midst communal violence.
We experienced terror and
threat, despair and
depression, love and
hope, accepting love
stories, action
thrillers, political
satires, family dramas,
historical narratives,
slapstick comedies,
supernatural mysteries,
mob stories, sexual
thrillers, with equal
enthusiasm.
Some of these films were
very good, some were
mediocre, a few were
remakes of Hollywood
hits, some adopted from
works of literature or
history. Some were big
budgeted films from major
movie houses, new
directors with small
budgets and unknown names
made some. The
interesting factor is
that many of them
challenged the standard
blueprints of Bollywood
traditions implicitly or
explicitly. That is not
to say that formula died.
The Yash Chopra-Karan
Johar formula-factories
churn out sophisticated
versions of a formula
they have patented as
their own. They continue
to give us stories of
love and sacrifice of a
kind that rarely exists
outside legendary fables,
set in families living in
London and New York with
values rooted in 19th
century Amritsar and
Lahore. But there were
enough movies outside
this genre that did well
to conclude that in the
21st century the trend in
Bollywood is of
challenging conventions
in creative ways. The
fact that these films
made money proves that
the contemporary Indian
audience is also open to
accept both the
traditional and the
experimental
simultaneously, if
packaged and presented
well. The challenge is
still tentative, but the
fact that formula is
neither revered by the
filmmaker nor of
importance to the
filmgoer is a small leap
in the history of Indian
cinema, opening up future
possibilities hitherto
unimagined.
Top films of this
century
2000:
Kaho Na Pyar Hai, Pukar,
Mohabbatein, Hera Pheri,
Fiza, Mission Kashmir,
Dhadkan, Astitva, 1947
Earth
2001: Dil Chahta
Hai, Lagaan, Kasoor, Aks,
Lajja, Asoka, Zubeida,
Kasoor, Gadar Ek Prem
Katha, Pyar Tune Kya
Kiya, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi
Gham.
2002: Company,
Monsoon Wedding, Devdas,
Saathiya, Humraaz,
Deewangee, Hollywood
Bollywood, Aankhen, The
Legend of Bhagat Singh,
Bend it Like Beckham,
Shakti: The Power, Kaante
2003: Jism,
Pinjar, Kal Ho Na Ho,
Munnabhai MBBS, Koi Mil
Gaya, Baghban, Armaan,
Bhoot, Tere Naam, Mr. and
Mrs. Iyer, Gangajaal,
Hungama, Jhankar Beats
Andaaz, Jogger's Park,
Satta, Chalte Chalte, 3
Deewarein, Calcutta Mail
2004: Main Hoon
Na, Maqbool, Khakee,
Vastu-shastra, Phir
Milenge, Lakshya, Murder,
Ek Hasna Thi, Dhoom, Hum
Tum, Dev, Mujhse Shaadi
Karogi, Aitraaz, Masti,
Deewar &ndash
Let&rsquos Bring Our
Heros Home, Yuva, Ab Tak
Chhappan, Veer Zara,
Swades
2005: Black, My
Brother Nikhil, Page 3,
Musafir, Lucky No Time
for Love, Bride and
Prejudice, Waqt: The Race
against Time, Kaal, Main
Aisa Hi Hoon, Bunty aur
Babli. |
|
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|
Archives:
June
1st: FORMULA: GOING,
GOING GONE?
May
16th: KAAL: TIME TO DIE (OF
TEDIUM?)
May1
1st: A FILM THAT TOUCHES
THE HEART: MY BROTHER ...NIKHIL
April 1st: THE
MANY SHADES OF BLACK
March 16th:
REQUIEM FOR THE LOST WORLD?
KISNA: THE WARRIOR POET
March 1st:
WHAT LIES BENEATH....MADHUR
BHANDARKAR'S PAGE 3
February 16th:
PHIR BHI DIL HAI HINDUSTANI-
FILMS FOR THE NRI HEART
February 1st:
SEX, CINEMA & THE NRI
January 16th:
LOSING YOUR WAY: AMRITSAR TO LA
(BRIDE & PREJUDICE)
January 1st: THE RETURN OF
THE NATIVE: A GLANCE AT SWADES
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