New Delhi Times (1986) :: A hard hitting Political Drama!
Hindi cinema has seldom dealt with serious political subjects. Once in a while we see films like Sagina, to some extent Aakrosh and recently Hazaron Khwahishen Aisee, otherwise we see masala films like Inqilaab, New Delhi, where hero kills all the corrupt politicians in the end and Comedies like Aaj ka MLA Ram Avtaar which makes mockery of our political system and through sarcasm reveals some shades of corrupt political system. Gulzar though have touched politics in some of his films like Mere Apne, Aandhi, Maachis and Hu Tu Tu but New Delhi Times is different than any of the above mentioned films.
Its made by Romesh Sharma, close friend of Amitabh Bachchan, and yet Amitabh is not there in the film. He had become member of parliament in 1985 and that can be a reason he could not do this political film. He had done Inqilaab in 1984 and another film with political tone, Main Azad Hun, he did later in 1989 after resigning from Loksabha.
Because Amitabh was not available, so lead role of an honest Journalist Vikas Pande went to Shashi Kapoor, who played it with perfection and won national award for the role.
Vikas Pande is an honest Journalist. He belongs to Ghazipur, an eastern UP city and he comes to New Delhi where he becomes editor of a national daily. Owner of the Newspaper, Jagannath Poddar , has been freedom fighter and he says that running newspaper is not a business for him but a mission. Vikas Pande is impressed with the ideal thoughts of his boss and he goes for investigative journalism and tries to expose the nexus between political leaders and mafias leaving in eastern UP. Vikas’s wife Nisha supports him in every manner and they are living almost a happy life. He is famous and quite influential also because he is editor of a reputed daily and politicians also look to meet him to win his favour. He has earned his individual fame also of a daring and honest journalist.
He is invited by a Minister and in the meeting Minister tells him about wrong deeds of his opponent, an energetic, daring and violent leader Ajay Singh. He says that Ajay Singh is conspiring to replace him. Vikas too has heard about Ajay Singh’s increasing influence in the politics and his mafia activities.
On his visit to his home city he is staying in a rest house and there he meets Ajay Singh. Ajay Singh talks to him nicely and tries to make friends with him but Vikas does not give much space to him. A murder happens and Minister convinces Vikas that Ajay Singh has arranged this murder to bring bad image to the Minister. Vikas starts investigations and he finds that a eye witness is lost. Ajay Singh tries to meet him but he scolds him on phone. As Vikas goes on with his investigations he gets threats on phone, his car is attacked by goons and attempts are done to kill him. His wife Nisha becomes fearful and Vikas too fears. He is mere a journalist and not a fighter. Few people want to stop him from further investigations. But soon he gathers courage again.
Vikas gets clue that lost eye witness is kept in a mental hospital in Shahdra, a place near Delhi. He goes to visit him. He has full impression that Ajay Singh has done all these as Ajay Singh also warns him that he is not doing good by tarnishing his political image. Vikas gets pressure from the son of his owner of his newspaper- Jugal Kishor. JK suggests him to drop the matter and says that Ajay Singh is a good politician and Vikas should not carry on any crusade against him. JK does not listen to his father also, who is now a helpless old man.
All circumstances are convincing Vikas that Ajay Singh is the man behind all these happenings. And day comes when he is face to face with Ajay Singh. Vikas is angry and in madness of his anger he accuses Ajay Singh for all these corrupt activities and murder.
Ajay Singh shouts over him and says,” you are mad. You think you know politics and know every thing. You don’t know anything,……..”.
He says many things but that’s not to reveal as that will take away the pleasure of watching the film.
But Ajay Singh’s dialogues send a chilling message not only to Vikas but to audience also and everybody is just stunned in those moments. Everybody feels what the hell we understand about politics.
Vikas Pande is a defeated journalist in the end. A warrior, who has lost the battle, which he himself had started, under the impression that he was fighting the crusade against the evil.
New Delhi Times is a hard hitting political drama. It’s a surprise film by Romesh Sharma. He maintains the simplistic narration throughout the film and thus brings realistic touch.
* * *
If New Delhi Times is seen with the then political scenario of India then it increases the importance of the film and makes it an interesting watch. Though film is set in the so called cow belt or U.P - a Northern Indian state which is neighbour state of India’s capital Delhi and inspite of giving away a new state Uttrakhand it still holds maximum number of MPs and thus affect the politics at centre. In 1985-86 U.P was united and the fact that U.P has given India, 7 P.Ms, out of 13, suggests its political importance. Its not irrelevant to consider some facts about political scene in India of 80s.
“Arun Shourie as executive editor of Indian Express had exposed corruption of Mahrashtra’s CM Abdul Rehman Antule and that feud between the two had resulted in to a big labour strike in Indian Express’s Bombay Office and several such events resulted in Ram Nath Goenka- the owner of Indian Express - turning against congress.
Rajiv Gandhi had become the PM of India after murder of his mother Smt Indira Gandhi on 31.10.84 and when country went for Loksabha poll in early 1985 he won it with thumping majority. But by the end of 1986 political scenario was getting different turn and Bofors scandal had come in to the existence and VP Singh had rebelled against Rajiv Gandhi. Ram Nath Goenka owner of Indian Express was against Rajiv Gandhi and Indian Express helped whole heartedly campaign of VP Singh against Rajiv Gandhi. Ram Jethamlani too jumped in to the arena against “Rajiv Gandhi and Amitabh Bachchan” and Indian Express became tool for this war against then Indian govt. It was much fuelled by political and economical fight between Nusli Wadia of Bombay Dying and Dheeru Bhai Ambani of Relience Industries and this struggle resulted in to a big political fight and perhaps changed the political scenario of India forever. VP Singh ultimately became PM of India and was replaced by Chandrashekhara, and Rajiv Gandhi was brutally and inhumanly killed by LTTE’s self killing squad, when Chandrashekhara was PM. Though later, Ram Nath Goenka might have felt differently as some later incidences suggested his regret and Indian Express’s later behaviour towards Indian politics in centre confirmed that”.
* * * *
Shashi Kapoor plays the role of Vikas Pande and he does his best and perhaps this is his one of the best performance in hindi cinema. He won national award in best actor category for this film.
Sharmila Tagore plays the role Nisha, the wife of Vikas Pande and she looks very convincing in the small role.
Om Puri plays the politician Ajay Singh and though he does not win any award for his acting but he is one of the best actor in the film. What he can do with the voice modulation he shows in the climax when he scolds Vikas Pande. A wonderful performance by Om Puri.
Manohar Singh plays the Jaggannath Poddar, the owner of the newspaper and he also plays his role very well. He plays the change in his position very well. Initially he is a proud freedom fighter who boasts that newspaper is not a business for him but a mission to do social service by bringing truth before the people and later when he is a helpless father whose son does not listen to him.
KulBhushan Kharbanda plays the Jugal Kishor. He is a good actor but he has a drawback. Here he plays a Marwari businessman but still his tone keeps same Punjabi tone which he maintains in every film. He chews his words and never change this way of dialogue delivery and therefore his performances look repetitive.
AK Hangal plays very well the role of old father of Vikas Pande and he has played such roles several times.
Ram Gopal Bajaj plays the role of minister. He is fine in his role but he has not got many roles in hindi films so he looks same in every role. Either he has maintained a good standard in all his roles so we never get this impression that this time he has done something remarkable or he does not bring variety in his performance.
When Gulzar is the writer of a film then a standard is always maintained in the story department of the film.
Do watch this, really a different film.
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Wonderful write up.
= Wonderful analysis. NDT was one of those rare gems made on a shoe string budget but unfortunately the 80s and (early) 90s weren’t conducive for such movies. It was the worst phase in my opinion for creativity in the Hindi film industry.
Look at Khosla ka Ghosla and it’s success. NDT deserved the same. The silver lining was Shashi Kapoor won his one and only National award for this and it was, in some way, a comeback film for Sharmila Tagore, who gave such a beautiful supporting performance. Powerhouses like Om Puri and Manhohar Singh (where the hell is this powerhouse of an actor with a terrific onscreen personality?) and MK Raina made NDT a real real treat.
The icing on the cake was - and I very clearly remember every flicker and emotion on Shashi’s face - when Shashi looks down and chokingly says “I’ve been used” - that was a real treat… Shashi in that scene makes “you” feel what “he” is going through… without having to go over the top. That subtle-slip-into you performance… I’ll rate Shashi’s performance in NDT in the top100 in Indian cinema.
Surprise Surprise… this one was directed by Romesh Sharma!!!! (produced movies like “Hum” and recently also directed the disaster “Dil Jo Bhi Kahey” with his son in the lead)… If that still doesn’t ring a bell then Romesh was the actor in the movie listening to the song “Suraj ki garmi se jalte hue jal ko mil jaye tarovar ki chaya”
O memories… I remember it was the early eighties and I was visiting my birthplace and my granma took me to meet this old couple loving in a simple modest house in Gurdaspur. The old man was joking with me all the time and as a kid I could just laugh… since his eyesight was a bit poor he asked me (as they would any small town/village in India) - “Who’s son are you?”… well he was expecting me to say the name of my dad/mom… and innocently I go “My mom’s”… he cracked up… Later in the evening I asked my granma who the old couple were and then I came to know that I had actually visited Romesh Sharma’s parents… not sure why I’m saying this, but pull one string (NDT) and all those memories barge in…
thanks again for this RK.
RK
Thanx for the para on the political scenario of 80s. Adds to the review.
K3
Thanks RK. This film has been on my radar for ever and I have never got down to watching it. The article is informative and serves as a good reminder to rent it.
This has to be one of the best political films made in India. I saw it as a kid & was quite taken by the feel of the movie. Having grown up in the masala formula of bollywood I was not sure what to make of it. I wasn’t even a big film fan then. But I still remember the feelings the movie evoked in me about politics & the state of our country. Something no other movie before this had managed to do. Thanks for reminding all of us about this amazing film. Romesh Sharma owns the TV station in Mauritius. His son was a soap star there before he came to bollywood. Most of the bollywood films shot there have to use his equipments. I worked for one of his friends in Bombay. Infact i worked in that camp throughout. Damn i never knew it was him who made this masterpiece.
Thanks again RK.
Is this available on DVD? I too recall this film as a kid on DD but have looked for it recently but no luck!
If you know of an avenue to see this film then please pass it along…
Thanx for the flashback description RK. This was the movie which got me interested into politics and into reading all of Indian Express editorials. Shashi Kapoor felt so damn real.
Nihalani’s Party and Benegal’s Kalyug are my other favorite socio-political dramas of the early 80’s(a notch above the mainstream ones plainly as a result of tighter screenplays and crisper dailogues). Any others worth a dekho?
RK and Oz,
Some facts: New Delhi Times was directed by Ramesh Sharma, not Romesh Sharma. The former is based in delhi and runs a company called Moving Picture Co (he had also produced a series called Portrait of a Director for DD and other channels).Ramesh has currently co directed a film on Daniel Pearl.
Romesh Sharma is indeed a Bachchan family friend (he was in the FTII batch with Jaya). He recently produced and directed a dud called Dil Jo Bhi Kare launching his son Karan.
cheers
spotboy, Thanks for the clarification… I went by the credentials of IMDB and was a bit confused about it. Yes now I clearly remember. Ramesh Sharma’s interviews about New Delhi Times… it had riot scenes which those who had watched (uncensored version) could not stop raving about it… but the Censor Board chopped off most of the scenes and when it was shown on Doordarshan even the minuscule riot scenes that remained were dropped. Came to know about it through Sharma’s interviews… remember his pic too… he was a bearded guy.
Vinayak, Kavita,Vijay,mainak,priya:
Thanks guys.
Savio: Google must surely carry you to the placed from where you can buy VD/DVD of the film.
OZ:u r right, there were some very good films made in mid 80s but they could not get proper attention.Hope the producers of those films wake up again and re-release them once again as now people are giving attention to small budget films.
Riots Scenes in NDT were perhaps related to 1984 Delhi riots and perhaps they were deleted because case was still on in the court.
Romesh Sharma’s film was “Parinaya” with Shabana Azami whose song” jaise Suraj kee garmee se..” you have quoted. Song was already a famous non filmi song sung by Sharma brothers of Meerut who actually are shown in the film also to sing the song.
Manohar Singh died 3-4 years ago.Last I recall him in a good role in 1942-A love story, where he played role of father of Anil Kapur.
Oz, your memmoirs abour Romesh Sharma’s parents is interesting. You share same home city. Romesh Sharma had acted in few AB’s films. He was there in Hum and Kala Pathar also.
Shashi acted here in NDT as he used to act in Ismail Merchant’s films or Shyam Benegal’s films.
The scene where his car is attacked and where he fearfully hides his face in the lap of Sharmila Tagore was so impressive. How wrongly and boastfully he believes that he is fighting a Dharma battle, and when truth comes before him naked form, then his shaken faith is visible on his face. Silence as a result of his failure comes along with us the watchers. Thats the success of the film.
spotboy:
Thanks for correction. Many film magazines and IMDB too have been crediting Romesh Sharma as Director of NDT. Perhaps Romesh Sharma was also earlier Ramesh Sharma when he acted in films but later he changed his name in to Romesh Sharma.
Incidently, if you have any info, Is this Ramesh Sharma of Delhi, the brother of Ananad Sharma, the spokes person of Congress party?
nice comments on a nice article about a very nice film. I too remember watching this movie on DD metro. Other significant movies I watched on DD metro (afternoons they used to show these movies) were,
1. Ek Doctor Ki mauth (mammoth performance by Pankaj Kapoor) a wonderful movie, first science based movie by Tapan Sinha.
2. Diksha starring Nana patekar - a movie on untouchability, widowhood, chastity and other hypocrisies in pre independence days. I dont know the name of the director (I thought it was Govind Nihalani).
3. Prahaar - another smashing performance by Nana - recently they showed it in some Sony channel.
4. Mirch Masala by Ketan Mehta - Mehta’s best.
In addition to these amazing hindi movies, they used to regularly show regional language gems like Chidambaram, Vidheyan, Ponthan maada (all malayalam), Accident, Katha sangama (kannada), Repati pouvurlum, adavi theevattilu, Sankarabharanam, Sagara sangamam (Telugu) and other language movies which I forgot. I remember a oriya movie by B.P.Mandal (he won the best cinematographer national award) and offcourse a whole lot of Ray, Ghatak - Bengali movies. I watched all of them sitting at home waiting for my engg college admission to come!! Great time it was. There was one particular Bengali movie I loved (i have a doubt if it was a Satyajit Ray movie). The story goes like this - a farmer owns a piece of land and a zamindar who is also the money lender wants it and forces him to write a will saying that the land belongs to him after the farmer’s death. The fun begins when the farmer begins to get healthier by the day and the money lender leading to growing frustration of the money lender!!
Jaiganesh:
you mentioned so beautiful films. Pankaj Kapur’s Ek Doctort kee maut was a beautiful film. I have faint memory that he got national award for this role. Tapan Sinha made one more beautiful hindi film” Sagina” with Dilip Kumar in lead role.
Diksha was based on story written by famous Author U.R Ananthmurthy. But Govind Nihalani did not direct this film.Somebody else directed it.
Prahaar has been first and till now only directorial venture of Nana Patekar. Hope he wears Director’s cap again.
Mirchmasala has truely been so far the, best film from Ketna Mehta’s creative contribution.
>Diksha was based on story written by famous Author >U.R Ananthmurthy. But Govind Nihalani did not >direct this film.Somebody else directed it.
Arun Kaul.. Died in july earlier this year..was closely associated with gulzar saab in projects like Ijaazat, Lekin and Mirza Ghalib.. Won national award for the best film for Diksha (Debute film ofc)
Oh those old DD days with just one ad break during the movie.
Some other good movies I remember watching on DD.
1. Garam Hawa : The redoubtable Balraj Sahni in one of the best performances in his career. Another socio-political movie way above the cut. Though I’m a staunch anti-leftie and the film had strong leftist leanings, I loved the movie.
2. Junoon : Another Shashi Kapoor gem.
3. Hip Hip Hurray : One of the most endearing movies from my childhood. And it was far better than Chak De. Prakash Jha rocks.
thats refreshing narcisist..remember hip hip hurray in those DD days.Hindi feature films on saturday evenings.The presenter would would say…aaj ki film hai XYZ..iske mukhya kalakaar hain..XYZ…nirdeshak…and aur sangeetkaar…lol
Oh yeah…and there was a time in the late 70’s and early 80’s when the movie from which 2-3 songs would play during Chitrahar on wednesdays would usually be telecast on fridays.
And having lunch while watching the regional language movie was a sunday ritual at my place. The news bulletin for the hearing impaired would be the heads up notice to
^^^spread the table
yea..spot on narcisist…i rmember those days…and these DD fellows started regional subtitles..they ruined it. News for the visually impaired…unforgetable!!!Those were the happy days:((
and the Days of Saptahiki, where they used to announce which would be the film coming this week..
Some real good sensitive and touching Chinese/Japanese cinema with children as the center point (would love to know the name of the films.. if any one can recall)
And cant thank enough for the film festivals on DD which was my introduction to great cinema of Gurudutt, Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak too..
I remember when Satyajit Ray expired..DD had a tribute to him…they showcased all his movies..that was the time when i was exposed to his cinema…as a child i vividly remember..Gopi Gayen Bhaga Bayen.:)
DD had organised a special programme (in either 1987 or 1988), called “Retrospection” where four films from each of the directors Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak were telecasted.
That was great decision. DD alone had done more work than 25 channels of these days working day in and day out
// Pankaj Kapur
[...] New Delhi Times [...]
yahoo.com
I have been trying hard to make a TV documentary film on
Secularism and India.
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I shall be grateful if you kindly sponsor my film for
projection worldwide.
@Sudarsan,
All the best for your efforts.
It would be nice for people to know more about your documentary. If possible, you could write an article about your documentary and perhaps put up a clip of that documentary so many people get a chance to be familiar with your work.
If you feel same then you may send your article at passionforcinema [at] gmail [dot] com