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The other day a friend of mine buttonholed me as he was itching to narrate his debut feature film script. Off drinks, off non-veg, he was a bit put off by my not adhering to Bollywood convention of listening to a script. Somehow he had always given some weightage to my opinions—perhaps that was the reason—as he agreed to go ahead with the narration in this non-Bollywood ambience sans drinks also.

Into five minutes of story telling, my vanity was punctured . He was narrating the script not to get my opinions but to show off his oratorial and directorial skills—whatever they were. More than the plot and characterization he was into camera angles—How the jimmy jib will move from low angle to up up in the sky!How the steadicam will capture the unsteady walk into the wild..Gauging a puzzled look on my face, he started adding more drama, more spice…For one of the scenes he said that even Abbas-Mustan will be thrilled!–where a naqaab will be lifted and man seen to race down the street.. you would have to see to do aitbaar..Wait till I shoot it!

At another turning point, he introduced his heroine falling head over heels in love wearing heels while gyrating on the slopes of Alps.. ‘And then she turns..Camera tracks in and in and in and in, repeatedly, yash chopra style..Then it goes wild in circles as chorus picks up to enhance this romantic, enchanting, bewitching moment!

He was into it and my mind wandered as I wondered, is shot taking such an important aspect? If that’s so then what would one make of 4 months, 3 weeks , 2 days in which going by Bollywood lingo, the director and cameraman seemed to have gone for a rendevouz in a loo—after nailing the camera to a spot.

In OSO, there is this turning point where Shahrukh rescues Deepika from raging fire ( a la Sunil Dutt rescuing Nargis)—And in the beginning of that sequence Arjun Rampal is introduced as a producer whom the director tells that this particular sequence has been wonderfully conceived with one Guru Dutt, one Satyajit Ray angle.. And Arjun Rampal retorts : Have one Manmohan Desai angle too if you want the film to be a hit.

Now what’s it with shots and angles? Do they really make the movie?

In the present times it seems so called whiz kid directors vouch for treatment of the film—fast and furious style. And heads of the head honchos at the corporates go into a tizzy listening to this roller-coaster of a camera ride.For them more the camera moves, more the movie moves b’coz movie is nothing but motion. But in this e-world its conveniently forgotten that the motion hinted at is emotion ( Taare Zameen Par is the recent instance). So many movies are marketed and packaged without emotions but full of motion. They are tom-tommed as racy, pacy, slick and chick! And what happens? They turn out to be chicken feed at the box-office.

It’s never ending source of animated discussions—Form vs Content. Shall form orchestrate the content or content dictate the form? If George Lucas took incipient video games into the realm of star wars—it was not merely a celebration of form. The content demanded the kind of treatment meted out to Yodhas! If Alfred Hitchcock made Rope in eight shots, that was deliberate—From the outset he wanted to experiment with the form..Citizen Kane turned the conventional execution upside down with its deep focus, wide angle shot-taking! It worked!

Does form always dictate the content? Or content rules and ultimately overrules the form?

In Bollywood, we take things literally. So there are connoisseurs of angle and shots, who swear by late Mukul Anand and lately Sanjay Guptas and the brigade. There were master craftsmen like Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla who knew how to use the camera as per the content..And there are many a practitioner today who know how to misuse and abuse it( In fit of anger some of them have sweared at the camera and cameramen!). Their aim is not to deliver but to dazzle, not to tell a story but to torpedo it. For them shots and angles are not the tools but the toys without any vision.

Agreed a script of Sholay being directed by any other director would have gone through a different treatment and execution but surely it would have missed on the vision of Ramesh Sippy ( infact, the script was first offered to Manmohan Desai to direct but he could not take up the project as he had other commitments on hand..One wonders how Manmohan Desai’s Sholay would have worked! One knows how Sholay’s remake has been massacred by RGV).

With steadicam in hand—nothing is steady. With jimmy jib to rotate everything is a swirl..And with motion control technology emotions are on the ramp..

All these thoughts flashed across my mind by the time my friend ended his narration..It seemed we were on parallel tracks..He looked at me assuming I was mesmerized by his narration..I stared at him wondering whether he was out of his senses. He expected a response regarding his subject and its treatment. He was angling for a compliment..And I was angling for a face saving answer. I could not be inauthentic, so I ventured : ‘ Good subject ..ah..ahm..but where is the emotion?’.. And he brushed aside my skepticism, ‘Oh you just wait and watch. The way I am going to shoot this film,people will be moved beyond imagination’..

And I shifted my fingers from drumming on the table to crossing them and murmured : ‘Hope they are not moved out of the auditorium’!Amen.