“Life in a … village”
They say more than 60% India lives in the villages. Hardly the impression you get watching Hindi movies of this decade. When was the last time you saw a village in a Hindi film? I think barring LAGAAN, SWADES and MALAAMAL WEEKLY (which was a remake) I can’t recall too many in the last … let’s see how many years … 10, 15 or more? Isn’t there really a dearth of films depicting rural life?
Let me ponder on this in some detail and try to understand how this might have happened. Is it a case of the audience turning away or is it that the producers stopped catering to their tastes, or a bit of both?
Well, over the last decade and a half the content in Hindi films has evolved and changed and at present is heavily urbanized. The themes, the ambience, the language … all these as found in today’s Hindi films are likely to be found unfamiliar by the Interior audience. There is nothing wrong with that, though, and is all perfectly understandable. All this has happened not as a programmed move but in response to the changing realities all around us.
The economic progress of the last 15 years or so has resulted in more than just a digital divide. It has created blocks and pockets of citizenry craving for and upholding different tastes, trends, thought processes and value systems. Such blocks / pockets are bound to patronize different kinds of cinema, too.
Therefore, we now have any number of ‘hit’ films that do well in some territories but fail in some other. In fact a large number of films get an overwhelming percentage of their gross returns from Bombay, Delhi – NCR and some other urban centers only. A few more might click big time in UP also. But the general trend remains that Bihar patronizes HUM TUMHARE HAIN SANAM while Punjab embraces SINGH IS KINNG. Twice or thrice a year we get a GHAJINI which opens big everywhere, otherwise it is mostly different cinema for different territories.
Clearly these are the times of niche cinema. Films are made for target audience. And the economics have been worked out so well that it is indeed now possible to make all kinds of cinema; from the most abstract themes to the most mundane ones; from a minuscule budget to a mega budget. They are making films for yuppie crowd, for the Diaspora, for the discerning audience, for the just-out-to-have-fun audience. Films are being made on 9/11 related issues, on terrorism related issues, on identity crisis, on the coming-of-age themes etc.
Then, one wonders, why not on the villages and the villagers! Do they have no issues worth looking into? Do they provide no material for interesting stories? Do they not form a niche of their own?
Perhaps the impression is that today’s overwhelmingly young cinema-going audience wouldn’t identify with and patronize themes espousing rural causes. But how do we know? Why just assume? Why not attempt and see. And in fact those few attempts that have actually come about have done rather well at the box office. For example the same movies mentioned at the beginning.
It is not that the villages have completely disappeared from the scene. No, they haven’t. They do make appearances … but they are mostly special appearances, guest appearances or friendly appearances; no main leads. Heroes / Heroines do visit a village but only to get married or to unite (or reunite) with a big Punjabi family. They leave the village, return to the village, or sometimes take a break there. But they do not stay there. I wonder why they can’t, at least occasionally.
Now, another interesting observation … during this same period (of last 15 years or so) the Bhojpuri cinema has seen a big revival. So much so that it is now well established and viable. In fact in places like Lucknow Bhojpuri films have substantial patronage and you can come across hoardings and poster s displaying titles like DAROGA BABU I LOVE YOU quite regularly. Well, my point is: has it anything to do by the neglect shown by the Hind filmmakers towards this niche audience?
Hindi cinema has certainly moved on and in doing so it definitely created a vacuum. It is quite possible that Bhojpuri cinema has moved in to fill that gap only. Whatever be the reason, the fact remains that, for the time being at least, we cannot expect a GANGA JAMUNA or a NADIYA KE PAAR, or even something like “Life in a … village”.
Tags: niche, rural, Village
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
Who wants to see a village anyways…
What about “Welcome to Sajjanpur”? Even Iqbal was set in a village..
The point is lost my friend, are you taking about there is dearth of village based movies in Hindi or dearth of movies that do not cater to all India sensibilities.
the hindi film makers would take ages to relate to a village story, they can at best create period drama (lagaan) or an indian ‘village’ setting to tell a modern, return to the roots tale (swades). i dont know how many directors in the hindi film industry have lived in a village for a considerable time or are willing to do so as a part of research for their films
It calls for a movies. Some suggested titles are
Life in a….kasbah.
Life in a….District.
Life in a….Gram Panchayat
Life in a….Jhuggi Jhopdi.
Life in a….and so on.
~Ashu Bhai MAPRM Wale
It calls for a movie. Some suggested titles are
Life in a….kasbah.
Life in a….District.
Life in a….Gram Panchayat
Life in a….Jhuggi Jhopdi.
Life in a….and so on.
~Ashu Bhai MAPRM Wale
lolz! ashu u dawg u! how rude is that.
Well yes I think its a lot to do with knowing the milieu.You have a lot of movies in the south still shot in the rural/semi rural areas because the director and/or writer have a connect with that milieu.I dont see that in case of Bollywood directors and writers- atleast the contemporary ones.But yes there are people like Priyan or a Vishal Bharadwaj who can do it convincingly if required.BTW there was even a Salman-Jackie movie Bandhan which was a village movie and even did well in the interiors.half of Karan Arjun was also village based.
wait for Paan Singh Tomar bro.
Maqbool?
Omkara? part of DevD?Sajjanpur?..they are there…do we get the feel of a vilage in it is the question and have villages remained the same as they were..say about 20 years ago?
I don’t want to think of a film as a village film or a city film. If the intention is that the purpose is defeated.
Seriously, how can you miss out Welcome to Sajjanpur: It really reflects our times and our villages in the light of global evolution. It was so heart warming to see how Benegal used humor to convey the transition period and cultural transformations happening in our villages. If you havent seen it already, then you must. It will answer a lot of your questions
I agree with Sethu here… While there have been a few recent films based entirely on village (Welcome to Sajjanpur, Billu Barber), they are made by Benegal and Priyan, which proves his point…
And of course we have Vishal Bharadwaj… Omkara, Makdi, Blue Umbrella all are based on villages/small towns…
Also Prakash Jha has made some good movies (Apharan, Gangajal) based on small town Bihar/UP.
wud like to add Tahaan & Frozen as well. Thanks.
Govinda’s Rajababu was set in village. Bade Mian Chhote Mian, though set in urban backdrop, reminds us of village.
One take the movie out of a village, but you can never take the village out of the movie…..
“has it anything to do by the neglect shown by the Hind filmmakers towards this niche audience?”
Sort of, basically hinterland audiences can’t really identify with issues like live in relationships( Salaam Namaste) or infidelity( Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna), so this is where Bhojpuri movies are stepping in to fill the void.
Its like KANK will do well in urban centers and overseas, while Vivaah is the first choice for hinterland audience.
@ uh- well said about Govinda.He also did movies like Aag and Saajan Chale Sasural ( part of it village based ) all of which ensured that Govinda has a wide acceptance in the hinterland.
Also I dont think its just about city or village, its more to do with the subject matter and also the star cast.A Dasvidaniya or an Aamir will hardly find any takers in the hinterland.
Similarly Salman Khan and Sunny Deol will continue to rock the hinterland.
This has everything to do with market economics. There’s more money to be made catering to the metropolitan and NRI audience and therefore the so-called different films that mainly reflect urban middle-class worldview are being made. Thanks to multiplexes, film-going is now beyond the reach of the ‘common man’. Not only have the villages disappeared from Hindi films so has the lower-middle class. The angry young man of the seventies and eighties was a coolie, a taxi driver, a labourer or a the wheeler dealer at the lower end of the pecking order – the man on the street so to say. These too have been wiped out from Hindi films completely. Though it appears at times that this is a creatively good period for Hindi films, because of the supposed good films, the fact is Hindi film industry has shot itself in the foot by ‘losing’ the very large number of its potential audience. In time this is going to prove to be limiting for it both from a creative as well as a business perspective. It is no longer the national pan-Indian industry it was or could have been. But the industry, if it has to survive and grow cannot afford to neglect potential of making money from the rest of India. Once this reality is accepted the films will change.Making cinema-going expensive has been hugely harmful for the industry ( an industry it is, let us not con ourselves and assume that ‘artists’ work here to survive on their own terms). Once people realize there is money to be made in this niche, it will change.If it does not, it also means the Hindi films will be the ones with the smallest reach in this country.
Has anyone watched these village based extra ordinary tamil movies?
Subramanyapuram, Parativiran,Pitamaghan,Vennela Kabbaddi kulu
Tamil and extraordinary????
Raj- I’ve seen all the movies mentioned by you.All are good but Subramaniapuram is not exactly a village story- its semi rural, actually supposed to be outskirts of Madurai in the early 80’s.
Yes, it is because of neglect of hindi cinema that bhojpuri cinema has thrived.
Again no real stories coming out of villages, THAT CATER to ALL INDIA SENSIBILITIES.
Lagaan, Billu Barber, Makdee, WElcome to Sajjanpur are all movies, which HAD to be set in a village. I myself dont care for movies like Ghabricha paus. I know most of the movie would be regards misery and waiting for rain. I just dont care. I wud rather go for Sankat City or Love Aaj Kal or Harishchandrachi factory.
It took a Manoj Knight Shyamalan to make a Village in Hollywood. I dont remember hollywood movies too making movies in villages. Their village is Mexico.
TO Dabba
Dude… Indian cinema has got a bit of worth because of South industry not by Loveaajkals ,Grw up and watch the Tamil movie names I mentioned..
Indian cinema has got a bit of worth because of South industry HAHAHAHAHAHA