Can We?
I am into B O (Barrack Obama) phenomenon too..But my B O has much to do with Box Office! And that too in Bollywood ( no judgement or offence meant to much versatile Tamil and Malyali and Bengali cinema though)..
Barrack Obama has done what was considered highly improbable, almost impossible..He came from nowhere and– is now everywhere..A first time senator becoming the first black President of America!..In his speeches he exhorted people that together we can..And it has become a buzz word of all the youth and young-minded who stand for change for the better in whichever way it can be possible..His ‘yes, we can’ has become a mantra..
And no sooner he accomplished what he set out to do, all over the world people started finding some areas where they could fit this mantra into their system..We at home indulged in soul-searching and after analysis came to a conclusion that this kind of a thing happening in Indian politics is not possible in foreseeable future..Our politics is too much seeped into familial bonds and tickets to mama, maasi, chacha, bhatija and all ‘bloody’ relations to leave space for some non-entity or a grass-root level worker to rise to the top..Dr Manmohan Singh partially fits the bill but not entirely..
So politics does not provide us with an opportunity to do the dekko..Then apart from politics we have sports and films that consume the passions of the public at large..Here we are going ga ga over Anubhav Bindra and Virender Singh..Ok lets give them their due..But are we a world class sports country? Is Chak De India fact than a flash?
In any endeavor it is easier said that they also serve who merely participate and show sportsmanship..But in the ultimate analysis it is the winning that is on the mind of an individual or the country..And apart from our cricket ( that shows the change, rejuvenation and winning attitude) and chess, nothing seems to be worth writing home about..Ok we have proved good at shooting..whether bullets or balls on the beige ( to an extent the racquet sports too)..But what about shooting for the screen..The stuff of cinema.. Though there is a whiff of freshness in the entertainment atmosphere and there is some path breaking stuff happening in Indian cinema, especially Hindi cinema but is it top class.. Are we anywhere near the world standards?..
Let me make it very clear that I have nothing against those who believe in the cinema of mass entertainment and masala movies and give a damn about awards whether national or international..I have nothing against cinema of Anil Sharmas or Dharmesh Darshans of the film industry..Because their priorities are clear..For them movies is a business venture..Period.. It is about those directors who want not only the commercial success but critical acclaim too..And undoubtedly they believe they have something to say through their movies..Its about their movies and their thought-processes I am referring to.
Only a hypocrite will dismiss the thought of bagging a Golden Bear, Golden Palm or an Oscar and say they want to make movies that only cater to the domestic audiences– resident or non-resident..Does this mean that South Korea, Turkey, Iran, Argentina or China are not catering to their domestic audience while producing world class cinema?
Isn’t it a fact that after winning international laurels and especially an award like an Oscar or Palm D’or the market value of the movie goes up?..Wag the Dog or Monsoon Wedding syndrome!
With Palador, NDTV Imagine et al releasing world movies on DVDs, now the world cinema is just a click away..But are we anywhere near the world class today?..A long time ago maybe..With Mother India, Mughl-E-Azam, Do Bigha Zameen, Pyasa, Awara may be we were..What about the present times that are touted as being filled with tremendous potential to bring a revolution in the cinema? Is the revolution really in the offing?
It seems to be, going by some decent stuff that has emerged of late, from young directors and writers..But is it enough? And is it by all means top notch..Lets not have an ostrich mentality and stop not looking beyond our eyebrows in this globalised melting pot( melting down at the moment)
There are questions that buzz in my mind and some may echo your doubts or views too..
Are we shirking the responsibility of being too lax or unimaginative in coming up with the stories that come from the heart and hit the head too that in consequence make us think on our own, instead of becoming judgemental, sermonizing or serving the messages in neat little capsules invariably towards the climax? Did not Bombay, Zakhm.Veer Zara to Guru all had such a rounding off to an obstacle race of situations and circumstances?
Is it just only about lobbying and marketing when it comes to promote movies for nominations at the international level..That’s why Lagaan lost to No Man’s Land in Best Foreign Film category at the Oscars?
What kind of movies are required by the juries world over for nomination and eventual awards at international..Would Black, Swades or Black Friday have touched the ribbon?
Are we somehow incapable of reaching world standards?..And what are those standards anyway?..Are they all about Babel, Four Months-Three Weeks-Two Days,Children Of Heaven or Three Monkeys?
Is our middle of the road cinema, that is of late, seeing the light on the multiplex screens world class?..No doubt KKG, Iqbal, Aamir, A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan are a stuff that has been different from our nautanki, melodrama and formula based masala ventures..But can they really stand the test at international level?
Are these middle-of-the-road and small-budget movies the only way to make our presence felt in the international cinema?..Can Welcome To Sajjanpur invite itself to the highest of international festivals?
Is every middle-of-the-road, small budget movie high class..Or is it just TV on the big screen or Movies For Television?..Is Mixed Doubles, Hulla and more recent Dasvadaniya the feature stuff?( A really debatable territory indeed!)
Is it all about paucity of original stories, ideas and concepts..Could Chandni Bar, Hazaron Khaweishein Aisi, My Brother Nikhil or Mithya go the whole hog?
Or is it about lobbying, marketing, distribution?..Then what about Eklavya for Oscars after pipping Dharma for nomination at home? Or Paheli for that matter?
Or is it about both?..And is it in this integration that we are lacking?..Either sending Jeans or Devdas to compete at the highest level?
Is their truth in the refrain that we have the ideas, stories that are really rooted in local ethos but dealing with universal emotions, but they don’t get the backing?..And even if they get the backing they have no takers?.. Do literary works from Munshi Premchand, Sahadat Hassan Manto, Shivani to Manu Bhandari or from English authors ranging from Amitav Ghosh to Arvind Diga or many good writers of the regional literature worthy of screen adaptation but are shunned by the producers?
Are the adaptations an answer to compete at the international level..Guide, Devdas, Parineeta had the meat..Would the world say Hello to adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s A Night At the Call Centre.?
Are historicals and period films the answer?..If that were so, then what about Ashoka, Bose(Subhash Chandra), Bhagat Singh series, Mangal Pandey and more recent Jodha Akbar?
Are the writers and directors (without casting aspersions on their sincerety and integrity) really having the conviction to tell stories that reach across the boundaries or do they soft peddle?..Leaving aside a Satya here or Munnabhai MBBS there are the directors telling what they really want to tell or indulging in self-congratulatory exercises at someone else’s expense?
How many of the debut directors (In past five years almost fifty new directors made their debut films) have really made something that has been truly original or coming from the heart?..Most of them either recycled or retreaded the Hollywood or European stuff and earned laurels..Could we send Bheja Fry, Aamir or Manorma Six Feet Under to international festival circuit?..
Are we too risk-averse to take up the challenge at the cost of return-on-investment yardstick and thus stick to big-budget star-studded megas and in the process produce a mixed bag ranging from SIK,Welcome, Golmaal series, SLBB, JBJS, Drona, Kidnap and clones galore?
Can we take refuge in the fact that we live in the land of contradictions where we have best of technical and scientific brains yet fifty percent plus population is illiterate, so our responsibility is to our masses only?..And mass can’t be world class..Will a mass movie like Lage Raho Munnabhai make waves across the world?
Can’t a mass movie be a world class movie..Titanic or Gandhi for instance.
Has a world class movie to be elitist? Then Bicycle Thief or Pather Panchali would not have materialized..
At the cost of sounding clich'©d we are largest producer of movies in the world..And when it comes to awards at international level we can count movies on the tips of our fingers.. Pather Panchali, Mother India or Jaagte Raho..( Monsoon Wedding can’t be termed an Indian production) or illustrious nominations like Bandit Queen, Lagaan ..Thats it!
It is being tom-tommed that winds of change are blowing in our industry…Tastes of the audience is changing..Hence the fare dished out to them too!..But it seems to be a syndrome of–the more things change the more they seem to remain the same..I think we are quite far away from reaching the critical mass that will really bring the change..
Will the emerging partnerships with foreign studios and independent production houses bring in the cultlure and content apart from the currency ( though it seems the other way around with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Films providing finance to legendary Steven Spielberg) to give us the necessary discipline and acumen to communicate internationally with our stories..Though Roadside Romeo can’t be taken as harbinger of things to come.
Do we have the necessary talent pool and wherewithal or we will have to live in the vicarious victories gained by migrants like Shekhar Kapoor, Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair?..Is it necessary to have a foreign tag attached somehow to gain entry into the haloed world of top notch international recognition?..
Or does the signs on the screen suggest a route that is through likes of M Night Shyamlan or movies being made in India on Indian subjects by foreign directors( Could David Lynch’s daughter’s creature feature Hisss starring Mallika Sherawat give more authenticity to our claims?)..
Martin Luther King Jr voiced his dream in 1963 and events culminated to form a critcal mass in 2008 to bring in the monumental change in the political space of America.. B O ( Barrack Obama) in America became the buzz word..B O ( Box Office) in Bollywood is still waiting to make its presence felt with the blaring of conch-shells and cymbals..Can Taare Zameen Par break the glass ceiling? Like Sushmita Sen and Aishwarya Rai did for the world of beauty fifteen years ago.
We have succeeded to crashland a MIP on the moon space..And we are in the exclusive club of five countries including the Euro-zone that have done so..It has proved to the world that we can..It is high time we did something world class in the cinema space too.. Is it too much?..Is it asking for the moon?
Can we really do it without hollow claims ?..Can we get international awards of top order not once but on consistent basis?
I am reminded of a drunkard from Punjab who was drinking in the middle of the road.. A traffic cop chided him “ O sharabia dunia chaand te ponch gai te tu sadak te baithan? (O drunkard world has landed on the moon and u r sitting on the road ?)..The drunkard replied..Bus g !! aa peg la kay main v chaleaa!..( That’s it..After this peg even I am proceeding there)..
Bon Voyage!
Tags: World Cinema
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
The choices for Indian entry for Oscar nomination in foreign film category show exactly why You have to actually write the article in the first place. If films like Dor, Black Friday, Hazaron Khwahishen Aisi or No Smoking don’t go there, what can we expect? While I don’t think we should change our movie patterns to suit western standards, our movies can definitely do well with lesser songs and songs only when necessary. KKG or Chak De are good examples. Forget Oscars, these movies didn’t make nominations in any indian award functions also. This needs to change. Only doing different movies isn’t the only thing. Those movies have to be done justice to also. That said, I don’t think there are too many oscar class movies too. I find MMJ, A Wednesday, Aamir etc very heavily overrated.
The problem is songs. The necessity to weave a narrative around songs. There hasn’t been any monster hit in Hindi cinema without songs. When you are always thinking about inserting songs and dances at the slightest provocation, how can you stay true to the momentum of the story.
But on the other hand, a Hindi film without song and dance would be simply unappetising for a majority of the Indian audiences. So we have a classic Catch-22 situation here. You are screwed if you screw songs, you are screwed if you don’t. This is Indian cinema’s tragedy. I don’t think we will ever get out of it.
We will continue to have little, small-budget songless wonders every once in a while, enough to keep us from blowing our heads off. But that’s it.
Unless, of course, unknown to us, there lies somewhere in the depths of the Indian Ocean the Barack Obama of Hindi films, biding his time, counting the change.
I’m looking for “Cannes”,.
not Oscars
Our main problem is… that we are very proud of a cinematic heritage that has done virtually nothing for our audiences. Cinema as a medium of art has a lot more responsibilities that what’s been achieved by our this very heritage. The day we start according this heritage with the requisite contempt that it deserves, our cinematic achievements too wud improve. Whats required of us is to start all over again..
A came to Hindi cinema after reading a review by Derek Elley of the movie Raincoat in Variety – http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117924517.html?categoryid=31&cs=1. I loved the movie and has since wondered why such movies are overlooked on most BW forums. Since then I have tried to find such small gems but it is slim pickings. I have enjoyed most of Mani Ratham’s movie although imperfect and have now gone back to old classics from Ray. Most of the current movies have not been to my taste but I have not given up on Indian cinema yet. I still feel there is hope.
small correction – the names of our sports heroes are wrong – Its Abinav Bindra and Vijender Kumar