Mottled thoughts on some political films
If you are a grad student and you do everything on time then there is something wrong with you. Procrastination – that’s the one word guidebook to finishing your doctoral studies. It is way of living for grad students. And believe it or not – we get paid for that. Needless to say I am one of those geeks who practise this religiously. So it takes me months to get down to do things after thinking of doing it making plans alloting time slots and so on.
So yesterday I finally got around to reading some of the bookmarked PFC posts. No I am not going to bore you all with list of posts that I liked and didn’t. I came across this very interesting post by Pragya. As Pragya points out that though we do get regular doses of films that are about politics (Yes, they are few and far in between) there it is hard to find a film that can be called a ‘political film’ in the sense she elaborates in her article.
When I watched HKA for the first time it made me very restless. The only question on my mind was – why was the director so scared of taking sides? After watching it thrice I do not feel the same because the film is not really about naxalism…it’s only set in that time. That doesn’t mean that the era is irrevelant. The characters, their boldness, their thoughts, their acts, their courage, their choices – everything speaks of a time…perhaps one of the most tumultuous and revolutionary time in post independent India.
Paash wrote:
main aajkal akhbaaron se bahut darta hun
zaroor unmein kahin na kahin
kuchh na hone ki khabar chhapi hogi
shayad aap jaante nahi ya jaante bhi hon
ki kitna bhayanak hai kahin bhi kuchh na hona
lagataar nazaron ka haanfte jaana
aur cheezon ka chupchap lete rehna – kisi thandi aurat ki tarah
It was scary for them when things didn’t happen. That sums it up.
Coming back to the film – HKA though set in 70s has an understanding and knowledge of what has happened over the next 30 years. It’s a brilliant film but it can it be called a political film?
If you want to watch something that really hits you….something that says more about the political/social scenario of that era…watch Govind Nihlani’s ‘Hazaar Chaurasi ki Maa’. It deserves an independent post but those who have watched it know exactly what I mean.
I don’t know how tolerant our state /censor will be if such a film is made today. Not sure how tolerant they are when it comes to polical bashing or ideologically driven cinema….because there are no such films. In any case Naxalism – in present scenario – is definitely something that can land you in jail. They are terrorists now!
In 1950s a homeless Raj Kpoor is welcomed by homeless people living on the footpaths of mumbai (footpath mumbai ke hain aashiyaana hamara – Sahir). One of the over-friendly youth asks him his name. On hearing that his name is Raj the guy shouts out – “dekha mausi main na kehta tha ki ek din apna raj zaroor aayega”
I would be happy if we have at least such puns for dialogues but no the best we can come up with is either menacing caricaturish politicians or communal clashes.
The point of view has changed. We can make a Swades but we cannot make a Naya Daur because I guess we lack the perspective and it’s too much work to understand what others think. It’s easier to read a few books, watch a few movies and decide what’s good for others and make a movie on the basis on that understanding.
What is surprising is that even thought the politics itself makes such an interesting subject there are hardly any movies on it. I mean politics not viewed in a social context.
Bimal Roy made a number of socially concious partially political films like Sujata and Do beegha Zameen. One of his less famous films is Parakh. Althought it’s not one of his finest it builds an interesting parallel of Indian political system in a small village. It has all the quiessential elements of Indian political system. A zamindar
who makes the rules (government), a man who lends money to people (banks), a pandit ji (religious leaders), a man who builds tubewells and such things for the village (a MNC – lets make it a simple indian company for it was still a lot of time before globalisation happened), a doctor (medical system) and a school teacher. It’s a small feel-good film but it reflects the the system so well. How each one of them manipulates people to vote for them. The one who will win will get a huge sum of money for the ‘welfare of the village’ (so basically whoever wins the election forms the government with the sole aim of welfare of the state). Does it sound familiar? Not much has changed over all these years.
Another film that really depicts modern Indian politics in its truw colour is Jabba Patel’s Sinhasan. Set in Mumbai in 70s I think this is one film that has got it right all the way from the beginning to the end. A bunch of politicians from the party in power are planning a coup against their own CM under the leadership of the home minister played brilliantly by Shreeram Lagoo. The way he slowly and expertly tries to convince others to join him at parties, through personal visits and amicable conversations or by inviting them to satyanarayan ki pooja. The way he addresses the press rubbishing off any rumours of his disapproval of the present CM…is all so real.What does CM do to save his seat? A deal with the union leader or with the smugglers?
The film is a collage of variety of characters. Various important ministers in the government with their own characteristics…one of them is a huge fan of music, one of them is a newbie not sure if what he is doing is right and whether he has messed up (if I am not wrong Mohan Agashe played this one), a rural politician, a smuggler, two of his men (Nana Patekar and another marathi actor I do not know), a union leader, his collegue who keeps reminding him that in a way he is corrupt too, a socialite woman, an ambitious daughter-in-law and last but certainly not the least Nilu Phule as the journalist – who observes, smirks but does nothing. We watch the proceedings from his point of view. He is the passive onlooker like all of us. He represents the junta.
The incidents reverberate reality…caste based exploitation of a woman in village which shakes the roots of the government in mumbai, worker’s unrest that can result in major upheaval, an explosive news revealing the names of smugglers who work with government’s unofficial consent, lives of people who work with these smugglers, insecurities of a union leader, his collegue/friend who more or less acts as his conscience, political manipulations…everything seems familiar. Seems like we have read it or heard it somewhere.
The film ends in a symbolic way. Things go back to normal – nothing changes in the world of politoics…except loyalties. And what happens to the people who know everything but are too scared to raise a voice? They go mad in this crazy world of opportunists and manipulators. It’s perhaps the only way to survive and understand it.
samar shesh hai, paap ka bhaagi nahi hai kewal vyaadh
jo tatastha hai samay likhega unka bhi apraadh
-Dinkar
PS: If you find the my thoughts too scattered in the article, I am sorry….it just reflects my state of mind.
Tags: bimal roy, Hazaaron Khwahishein Aisi, Jabbar Patel, Parakh, political cinema, Sinhasan
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
Political films have become like nostalgia.. they keep hunting you as good old days of Indian cinema and parallel cinema movement. These films mentioned here are exception of general rule of production and never a wave of political cinema arises in our film industry. We had past of jingoistic movies or 5 bhagat singh movies in same year, but thats not political cinema.
View in the past become more romantic and idealistic with the passing of time. The judgement criteria about trash becomes blunt and we become distant with the actual realities of time. Hence all film makers while making film make a distant and romantic perception of things, otherwise face trouble in our so called tolerant country.
The sad state is that we have more collection of entertainment cinema and old political films are not getting proper attention. Even that does not haunt me, I am saddened by the failure of present movies like Parzania, Dev and Hey Ram which are precise in their depiction of politics. It shows negative mindset of us Indians and running from the fact phenomenon for propaganda.
Neeraja, I have read that article by Pragya and that was fantastic. You have raised few good concerns and questions but we have become more aploitical and consumption driven. Both of the poems presented by you correctly reflects mood of ours and our time. what to say more of it now.
“Iss mulk ne har shaks ko jo kaam tha sounpa … uss shaks ne uss kaam ki maachis jala ke chod di..”
I will never be able to watch Sinhasan due to lack of english subtitle or lack of availbility of this film.
Neeraja, good one. Enjoyed it..You’re right, there isn’t any one worth mentioning in recent times..the only ones we get are the age-old,cliched tales of a communist or a naxalite..told over and over again..
Don’t know if you follow malayalam, but try to get your hands on ‘Adwaitham’ – Mohanlal starrer, directed by Priyadarshan – it is not in the political film genre.. But somhow I was reminded of it when I read this post..set in different era’s, spoofs on politicians etc..and some superlative performances..
Award winning film Thalappavu was another good one that I saw..
Sorry if the comment isn’t relevant to the post..:)
Neeraja, a very good post, indeed. I found it much more comprehensible than the one written by Pragya. May be re-visit the other one some time in future to fully understand the true meaning of it.
Of late, any attempts to portray the political realities have been cofined to either showing communal discords or just repeating the plain old plight of communism in which one man has been shown fighting against the system.
Truly speaking there have been few films that have captured the inner plight and turmoil of a character caught betwen the political struggle or the politics of Politics, so-to-say. Ardha Satya was one such film, that came close, Kalyug being other but thereafter the attempts have been feeble and fumbled while communicating their POV.
@yayaver
Films like HKA or Hey Ram are not about contemporary politics. Pick up any “political film” which can be called contemporary…100% chances that it’s either about communal clashes or in ‘halla bol’ territory.
By the way you can get a DVD of Sinhasan (and some other marathi movie) in Rhythm House (mumbai). I think I saw it there. ‘Saamna’ – another interesting political film directed by Jabbar Patel was also available there.
@Rahul
Thanks for the suggestions. I just realized (after reading your comment) that I forgot to write about Iruvar!
@Manish
“I found it much more comprehensible than the one written by Pragya.”
Really? Because when I read my post now I find it rather confused :D
Good point about ‘…one man has been shown fighting against the system.’
Subrat wrote an interesting post on ‘vigilante justice’ here.
I find film investors smart, no matter how much the directors (wannabe) smirk at them.
A film can be made if it has meat. (Dont get me wrong about putting masala. I dont mean it). Movies like HKA, Gulaal, etc make for good books, not a full fledged feature film.
One hell of a politicial film was Sardar. It depicts the way our Sardar fought through political mess with his own hard decisions and singly responsible for the country being one! The script was his life itself and there was practically no need for any creative thinking to make the film. Aint taking the credit away from the director. But it was upto his mettle not to mess it up with
Another was Main Azaad Hoon.
RGV was the one who made politically inspired Sarkars engaging.
Dont care two hoots about the film actually having a social message. It has to be engaging.
i think Aandhi also needs a mention here!! just loved it!!its my fav in this genre(the movie on a political platform)!!