Defining Cinema of Indian New Wave
iView Author: Njudo-E-Dara (Nagpur, India)
Email: withheld
Defining Cinema of Indian New Wave
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Disclaimers :
I think English language is better way communication to large audience, hence this post is in English. Otherwise I have no Shakespearean reason to be grammatically correct. But I have reason to communicate better. Rest; blame it on my English Teacher
I am no critic, but I appreciate cinema in its various forms, whether with musical docudrama, three act narrative or non linear.
I right now live away from Mumbai and am a long distant observer of the industry
Now I can’t write whole post in disclaimers, so those who think I offended them please assume respective disclaimers
So do you think Indian new wave arrived?
Before moving to Indian new wave, a little bit about “Yash Raj Chopra.
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Yash Chopra’ism
He made different films at the start of his career. Thriller and drama was the main theme. Then probably he discovered what he wanted to do and he did it. He portrayed the emotions, he valued most and discovered the land, where he belonged to, and above all marketed it very well. He did it so successfully that it becomes rules of filmmaking.
Then Producers made the rules like every, Hindi film should have “Funjabi” touch, the lead hero should have Punjabi tone, and so on and there was positive film bias towards everything Punjabi under the sun. And the formula filmmaking really kicked off. Some films were good, but most of them were stereotypical and formulaic. To be very frank, Good cinema from YRC, bought a lot bad for Indian films. It still continues
Parallel Cinema
In the meantime Khwaja Abbas, Chetan Anand , V. Shantaram, Bimal Roy Ritwik Ghatak Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan Girish Kasaravalli were always there and making what they wanted to make. I think they were ahead of audiences all the time. The audience was niche and sometimes delivery mechanism was poor. For film audience experiences were varied. But this was no celebration cinema. Some got commercial success but all stayed away from formula filmmaking. That’s why it was parallel cinema. And it is an inspiration for Indian new wave
Is Indian new wave happening?
Now Indian new wave need not to have anything common with all other world cinema movement already happened.
I define the Indian new wave acceptance of offbeat or experimental films, or acceptance of the film which defied all set formula. And if you observe the number of time it happened in the recent years, you will agree with me that Indian new wave is going on.
Defining Cinema of Indian new wave
Satya-Start of the realistic “Underworld” (1998)
Satya was satya, original story told in very different manner and above all people loved it. But how it happened? Today a film’s 40 percent revenue comes from Bombay territory. And People here are well aware of underworld. They have had all kinds’ experiences. Satya was a very realistic story when underworld was on the national headlines. Those 60 percent living away had tremendous fascination about largest underworld of the country. It was Parinda who actually started it but it was never followed by other filmmakers. Satya was followed by countless of good and bad underworld films.
Ramu’ism
What would have happened if there were no “ramu”? Simple … either we were still be watching formula films or Indian film industry might have not coped with globalization.( Now this is an exaggeration but .. ).Whether you hate him or love him, you cannot ignore him and his contribution to Indian new wave. He started a new “Mumbai underworld” genre and brought back horror to mainstream. I think he was well aware about 40 % and targeted it.
Hyderabad Blues-Independent filmmaking dreams (1998)
Today if any independent filmmaker dreams of making an independent film outside industry, it is because of this one. It was very daring effort. It is said (no valid references) that it was shot on16mm and made in 17 Lakhs. May be someone catch Nagesh and write in detail what he went through making and distributing this film. It was well received by the audience and even by any standards it was good film and defining cinema of Indian new wave.
Nagesh 1
Ye “Dil (kyon) Chahta hai” (2001)
It is no parallel cinema. It was made for entrainment and business. But it was honest filmmaking. At the times it felt semi-autobiographical. I remember there were kind two reactions those who came out the theaters, either “love it” or “hate it”. It was like rich Indian Fellini, making “Amarcord”
Chandani Bar- The docudrama’s (2001)
How the hell, Madhur Bhandarkar convinced the producers about this film. What are the chances that producer was herself a “bar dancer”. Whosoever he/she was, it was great step. Madhur Bhandarkar and his docudramas have enriched the new wave.
Lets talk- Digital Dreams (2002)
It was supposed to be first DV to 35 mm film. It was even released in theaters. But DV to 35mm never happened again. Mumbai express was HD to 35, but then Kamal Hassan and SS Rao were no independent filmmakers. May be industry don’t want anybody to make film that challenges their “35mm” monopoly and money power or may be there wasn’t any good DV/HDV films. And also Piracy never made “Indie DVD film” as good business idea. Nevertheless it was defining film of Indian new wave because of its “DV to 35″ uniqueness, otherwise very average film considering it was shot twice
Maqbool-Shakespearean remake (2003)
I am big fan of Kurosawa and his films. It was almost after a year of watching Kumonosu j'ยด , I watched this one. I felt similarity but I was not so sure. I was confused as who played the roles of witches. It took me a while to figure it out. Call me stupid dumb or whatever it was great adaptation and equally powerful film and definitely a defining film of Indian new wave
Iqabal- an Indian sports film (2005)
It never appealed to me. Because i think there was no surprise element. But it was very well received by people. It paved way for other sports film. I would have included “Chak de” as a defining cinema, had it not been inspired from “Miracle”
Rang Dey Basanti-screenplay goes commercial (2006)
A story told through frequent flashbacks and their present relevance, one the great Indian film of the all time. I would say it was defining film of the new wave, because it was original different and blockbuster.
Khosala ka Ghosala (2006)
It was honest filmmaking. It becomes more popular after it taken off from the theaters. To be frank, it never worked for me. But it worked for my father and all other khosala’s out there. It was defining cinema because it was smash hit after it was taken off from theaters. It might have started another business model for small independent films.
No Smoking on Black Friday-(2004)-(2007)
I purposefully omitted “Black Friday” because of the censor board ban. It showed that we are not part of very tolerant community. At least censor board think so or they want the intolerant community to think like that. Anyway Black Friday was late and hence its impact on Indian new wave was kind of diluted. But nevertheless a great film. No smoking was very very very experimental , even for new wave. It was like watching dreamy films of Kubrick and Fellini, 3 teaspoon of abstractness, 3 teaspoon of exaggeration and 4 teaspoon of fiction. But I think it lacked to reach the expected height. Anyway it was too early for India. I don’t think any producer will agree to make another “no smoking”, at least for another few years.
Wednesday (2008)
Personally I think this film should not be called as a defining cinema of new wave. I mean it is imitation of Hollywood style filmmaking, right from theme to edit. Here instead of “America khatare mai hai” it was “India khatare mai hai”. But it is defining cinema because other number of reasons. It was song less film, with no commercial stars, first time director, low budget, and kind of thriller dependent on people not knowing the end, released among other big films. And it was smash hit. I like it or not, people loved it. And it shows how far audience paradigm shifted in last ten years.
Other Notable (original only) films
Company ,Sarkar Raj, Dor, being Cyrus , omkara, paanch, black Friday, Yuva , seher , ab tak chappan , Johny Gaddar , dasvidaniya , rock on, Jungle, Shool, Mumbai Express , Mithya, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, D , Cheeni Kum , Jogger’s Park, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, , Fire, Earth and Water, Monsoon Wedding ,Mumbai Meri Jaan , Raghu Romeo, ,Traffic Signal, Corporate ,Page 3 , Pinjar
Mainstream
The new wave has exerted tremendous pressure on the commercial cinema. People are now more cinematically educated. Different themes gave different kind audience reaction and hence the formulas were not working anymore. And hence it required import the ideas from the west. Just notice number remakes made during 98 to 08 and their commercial success, that’s how new wave have changed the commercial cinema and Indian Audience. The remakes also changed audience expectations and hence audiences are now more cinematically educated. As language barrier will disappear and audience get more exposed to world cinema, the demand for new narratives and different storyline will further increase and hopefully number of remakes will go down and Indian cinema will go global . Say Amen!
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
@Njudo-E-Dara,
I feel that old wave or new wave, only honest filmmaking transcends the time. Not that all films of parallel cinema can be remembered today and same is true with commercial films also. If a film has been made with utter honesty and without following any -ism then chances are high that it will not be completely forgotten and its possible that many of such films dont get commercial success at the time of theatrical release but they come on surface again and again and they are survived in the memories.
Many pseudo filmmakers tried to follow so called movement of parallel cinema and they actually harmed that movement. Any kind of filmmaking is survived when it comes naturally to its maker. Borrowed knowledge does not work anywhere in any field.
Jis ka kaam usi ko saaje.
Same is true with modern times and modern filmmakers also. To some, some kind of filmmaking comes natural and they excel in that type of films and whenever they try to enter into a foreign filmmaking they and their films fall flat.
More or less, at least in Hindi cinema, things have always been same. In 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s also filmmakers were there who had their individual paths and they established themselves on the basis of their own cinema which was different than other contemporaries.
Dishonest people can not bring any wave, old or new.
Audience and market possibilities, though, may create an illusion sometime that a new wave has been generating. There is no utterly new wave around. Whatever is, belongs to recycled phenomena.
nice article.
btw, “those who think I offended them please assume respective disclaimers” = hilarious.
the new wave is on, friends. we are surfing on it.
@Rk: there are times when suddenly a lot of good art comes out and gets recognition. It happened in different parts of Europe in different times, in America in the 70s and in Iran, parts of South America and Asia just recently. You are right when you say that some indivdual directors/filmmakers always stand out at any point in the history of film but there are noticeable periods when the film fraternity collectively churns out good stuff, and a larger demographic appreciates it. I believe the Indian New Wave has just gotten started. My gut says we are going to have some amazing cinema in the next few years.
define “Honest Film”… what is it? Was Manmohan Desai dishonest when he made Amar Akbar Anthony or was Farah Khan dishonest when she made Om Shanti Om? Was Farhan Akhtar honest when he made Dil Chahta Hai but dishonest when he made Lakshya?
Was “A Wednesday” dishonest when they misled the audience in the opening sequece (Kher calling Shah a bastard, but in the climax having sympathy for him) but then turned honest after the first five minutes?
Is a David Dhawan less honest in filmmaking than Shyam Benegal? Or is Saeed Mirza more honest than a Anurag Kashyap? Is Suparn Varma less honest than Hansal Mehta?
What is this “honest filmmaking”? Kya hain yeh? What is it? How is it defined… seriously I would love to see a geniune debate on what is filmmaking honesty?
I think you should have also included films of Rajat Kapoor they are indeed a part of the new wave though it can be called a series of indie filmaking
@oz
I guess honest cinema can be defined as the cinema which the director makes right from his heart not worrying or even thinking about the distribution or the reception of the film
As long as we are stuck on Friday results, hit and flop game, remake ya copy debates, I don’t think I would like to call it new wave. We first need to respect films for what they are, and then may be look beyond and put them in a category. New wave can’t be new wave if the directors themselves are not convinced of what they are making, and in these times this is sadly happening. It’s a losing game, on all sides, audience and the film makers and the people who want to live off this eternal conflict. Even cinematically, there isn’t an out and out mad attempt that one can recall, except for a few exceptions like No Smoking, Naach or Daud. We often like to associate new wave with terrible looking, shoddy, gritty films, for reasons best known to us. Frankly I don’t know if its even correct to just carry a decade old french burden of a terminology, but I would consider something path breaking purely on the merits of its balls. Give me a Tashan or a Jhoom barabar jhoom any day.
Oz for me a honest movie, is when the director focuses on the subject, and not deviate from the main issue.
Swades was a honest movie for me, because Ashutosh Gowarikar, extensively focussed on main issue, and did not put in too many sub plots. Even the romance between SRK and Gayatri Joshi is low key, and does not dominate the plot.
Something i can’t say about Kamal’s Anbe Sivam. It had its heart in the right place, most of the time, where Kamal and Maddy have a clash of ideologies, but the sub plot involving Kamal’s romance with Kiran Rathod, and her father opposing it, diverted from the issue.
Again Hrishida’s Satyakam, was a very honest movie, it entirely focused on the main issue, Idealism vs Pragmatism, but Namak Haraam, which again was a clash of ideals, lost focus in between, with a romance angle that was force fitted in.
Basically for me Honest movie is when the director focuses on the issue at hand, and does not deviate from it, nor does he attempt a cop out to please all.
nice article. i like. i like.
@OZ
also honest film making could be making the films on/with your experiences like Fellini and truffaut made films on their experiences and hence able to catch nuisances of the storytelling
@Papaji(3),
True there have been times all over the world where certain years have seen emergence and continuous creation of good art by many artists and an atmosphere has been generated where creation and watcher both have been matching each other. Things work towards an upliftment which works both way. Good audience < => good creation and then motion is vertical and goes upward.
But this phase is dependent on creator as well as surrounding also and surrounding includes the people who will recieve this art.
There have been passionate people in every area who dont care for every other thing but their art but at same time they have been very sensitive towards the era they have been living in and they have been respecting the time, era and surroudings. They want to make a connection with the people living around them. Their heart aches when they see pain around them and its reflected in their creation. If their creation is filled with happiness then it provides happines to the audience. They dont rely on borrowed knowledge. Unlike materialistic things which can be imported and one product produced in other part of world may satisfy the needs of a person living 10000 miles away in different society and country.
Art emerges from local definitions and first it satisfies the centre and surroundings and then it may affect the creatures globally.
Reproduction of any art form is not under consideration where things are produced on order and certain parameters are fixed.
A person has not taken birth at a certain place without any reason. Since childhood he is developing a relationship with that surroundings in which he was born and where he has been bringing up. He needs something which has connection with that existence. Its not without any reason that people start missing speaking in mother tongue, eating same food on which they were raised since childhood. Folk arts bring satisfaction though they are not refined art form but they have roots in the sapce where roots of a person are lying.
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Good films can make good atmosphere but at present there is no clue of new wave etc. It can be in minds of few filmmakers that they are bringing a (or any) change. Are they changing grammer of filmmaking? Presenting new stories or in new format? What change they are bringing for the betterment of the cinema?
If Sholay has been appealing the audience since last 33 years and it has not used abuses which we see in todays films then it can not be said as betterment. Only for the sake of showing the difference, certain filmmakers are clamouring about this new wave. If we say censor is more liberal now and films can use abuses, filthy language, sex scenes, scenes showing usage of drugs etc, then can we devote these changes as elements of new wave cinema?
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A certain filmmaker who is often represented as one of the flag bearers of so called new wave, says he does not keep TV or any kind of visual electronic medium at home as it wastes his time. The person who is earning his bread and butter from TV, and cinema medium can have such nonsense views and we have hope that these kind of gentlemen can bring a change in cinema? They are dishonest. His kids are kids but others kids are mere customers and they should definetely watch the films he makes?
TV and Cinema brings very good money and fame and hence they are there to earn these things and its not their passion.A scientist spends more and more time talking, reading and watching about his area and he does not say such views about his area. Only a hindi cinema guy can say this.
Kamal Hasan has not done experiments in his filmi career? Did he create any new wave? He delivered some good films and same happens with all devoted people and same will happen again.
If time and surrounding is not suitable then no wave can do anything.
What I meant that same things have happened in the past and same will happen in future. Some good filmmakers will deliver good films but filmmakers can not deliver on mass level because their characters dont support this hope.
Few things reiterated by few may hypnotize few people but they may not be facts or realities.
Old wave or new wave, cinema has always been progressed on the basis of good films. It can not follow fashion desiging Industry (though that also faces recycling though with little changes and more fusions and mixings).
Hindi cinema’s biggest asset or say most valuable thing has been superb music which had very high quality and one may asses it by any standard, do we have better music now? or over all quality has been declined? Music directors are more talented now than old maestros? New Film directors understand music better than old directors?
New directors under human psychology better than old great directors? They have more grip on socio-political and economical surroundings?
Certainly they have better equipments and technologies but these things alone dont make good films?
Today a good film may have more cinematic shortcomings than they were present in good old films. So where we are?
New wave can be accepted as we see many young people making films at very young age but that can be due to technology.
So this fact may give an illusion that a young director made so and so film but whether that improved cinema or not is an entirely different thing. Audeinces were never this much dissatisfied as they are now. We always can talk about good and bad films but this new and old wave is a confusing thing.
i think taare zameen par is defining and new wave :/
if cheeni kum is new wave then even lagaan and rang de are :/
There will be ‘new developments’ through out the history of our cinema. But I dont think its not time yet to talk about a ‘new wave.’ If a wave is there, its in the reception of alternate kind of (relatively) intelligent films.
‘Chandni bar’ was a road mark because it demonstrated the marketability of low budget ’social issue’ films. It gave more producers courage to take risks.
And ‘Dil Chahta hai’ because it demonstrated that it is possible to make a mainstream commercially successful film by avoiding cliches (atleast in the first half).
But all these movies listed above are rethinking only the content, not the visual language. We still dont have an example of craft which is radically different.
What Godard did to French New wave with ‘Breathless’ has not been done to Indian Cinema. Until now.
Papaji I completely agree with you
Now @Rk
I felt that you confusing at times (there are two many good points but not grouped according to relevance) hence I decided to divide your arguments into few categories, so I can explain about this all new wave
@scriptlarva
I will also club your arguments with this
Paradigm of Moviegoers
Quotes
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“But this phase is dependent on creator as well as surrounding also and surrounding includes the people who will receive this art.”
“Art emerges from local definitions and first it satisfies the centre and surroundings and then it may affect the creatures globally.”
“Folk arts bring satisfaction though they are not refined art form but they have roots in the space where roots of a person are lying.”
“Good films can make good atmosphere but at present there is no clue of new wave etc”
“What I meant that same things have happened in the past and same will happen in future. Some good filmmakers will deliver good films but filmmakers can not deliver on mass level because their characters dont support this hope.”
“If time and surrounding is not suitable then no wave can do anything.”
“Few things reiterated by few may hypnotize few people but they may not be facts or realities.”
“New wave can be accepted as we see many young people making films at very young age but that can be due to technology.”
“There will be ‘new developments’ through out the history of our cinema. But I dont think its not time yet to talk about a ‘new wave.’ If a wave is there, its in the reception of alternate kind of (relatively) intelligent films.”
“Audiences were never this much dissatisfied as they are now. We always can talk about good and bad films but this new and old wave is a confusing thing.”
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Do I need to say more, I mean if you read the quotes you will find answer yourself, in fact the whole article was trying to say same thing. People paradigm have changed and it changed in short period of time , number offbeat films produced distributed and accepted by people are gone up and people are not shy away from watching a experimental Indian films and hence it is the new wave
I wrote earlier
“I define the Indian new wave acceptance of offbeat or experimental films, or acceptance of the film which defied all set formula. And if you observe the number of time it happened in the recent years, you will agree with me that Indian new wave is going on.“
Grammar of Filmmaking
Quotes
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“Are they changing grammar of filmmaking? Presenting new stories or in new format? What change they are bringing for the betterment of the cinema?”
“‘Chandni bar’ was a road mark because it demonstrated the marketability of low budget ’social issue’ films. It gave more producers courage to take risks.”
“But all these movies listed above are rethinking only the content, not the “visual language” We still dont have an example of craft which is radically different.
What Godard did to French New wave with ‘Breathless’ has not been done to Indian Cinema. Until now.”
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Godard made breathless (1960) and it was the time film as language was still developing.Why? Introduction of widescreen and color films. People like Bergman then visualized film as independent form expressions and not advocate against making films based existing literature. Now that was the period most experiment with visual language happened in terms inventing new vocabulary and since then it was combination of that verb and vocabulary given rise new film grammar. Now you won’t see different shot sizes but you will find different composition, angles and editing possibilities of those compositions and angles.Breathless and Godard can neither become part of Indian new wave, nor an inspiration.
Indian new wave, like any other new wave, is all about finding your voice , telling stories you wanted to tell and not about “because what godard did x in breathless let me do y” ( Infact that is what is going on in bollywood for ages)
Actually new wave can be seen in two kinds of development
1) Narratives-they way story is told
2) Experimentation of existing with existing film grammar
Regarding narratives I already wrote, there were different kind narratives in last years even for that matter they are as good as world cinema narratives
Now let me quote few example of visual language
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Satya-the shot- where music director is threatened to hire urmila
If you see the visual style, it is very steady shot. First we see mid-ground the music director is sleeping, then bell rings, we observe phone in foreground, he picks up the phone and all abuses and stuff , we see car lights far off in the background as reflection on the window glass , car lights off , we again see music director-mid ground , phone -foreground, again midground , bullet-background and again midground and car lights-background and music director midground- amazing use two dimensional film to impress a third dimension and at the same time tell a nerve gripping portion of a extremely well told visual story
Maqbool
The wedding song-Quawali as musical art form and Intercut as film art form are combined to perfection
Sarkar Raj
The use different camera angles, as strange witnessing a scene” from below a chair- now who’s point of view that can be audience. But how many times you see world from below the chair- usually it is point of view of kid or person hiding. And it was used to
Also close up of the half face- critics said what the hell? And that’s what they said about anything different in all the old waves.
Bhoot
Use of wide shots instead following (steadycam) close up shots
Use of Montages as storytelling tool
Well this is nothing new, when but it was forgotten in the global cinema 90’s but was adapted again by new wave , because of low budget. Montage can be become good and low budget way propelling story forwards. But many creative directors used it to impress other dimension of storytelling
Notable examples, Back Friday, seher , pinjar, satya
And so on…
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But I still feel there is not enough radical experiments but the point is let the first different narrative establish as need and then it will be followed by visual language
At the same time experimenting with visual language, just for sake of it, won’t work
It is all about new wave director finding their original voice first through narratives and then as new visual language.