Out-of-the-box works from Hindi Cinema
iView Author: Vishal Chaturvedi (Bangalore, India)
Email: vishalc2005[at]gmail[dot]com
Out-of-the-box works from Hindi Cinema
I’m quite obsessed with lists, the best movies I’ve watched, the best Indian movies, the greatest English movies, the greatest Italian movies, the worst cricketers of the world, the best songs, the best albums, the list goes on and on. Running out of the usual best and worst stuff, I tried to become a little more creative with my lists and came up with an idea of making a list of Hindi movies which were different, which broke conventions, which dared to break the mould, irrespective of their success or failure. By different, I don’t necessarily mean those which set a trend or were revolutionary, I only mean those which dared to break filmy stereotypes, social stereotypes, which went beyond the established ideas of making of movie and explored. I have, and of course, included only those I’ve watched, and that, by default, excludes a considerable number of options, particularly from the B&W era. So, here goes:
Samay
This movie by a fresh director Robby Grewal (who, incidentally, has taken potshots at our ‘Indian culture’ in an excellent entertainer ‘Aloo Chat’ recently) was unique not only in India but probably even worldwide in terms of its portrayal of a woman. In this movie, sushmita sen plays a super cop, who is on the trail of a serial killer and is assisted by men. Amazingly, there is not a single reference to the fact that she’s a woman cop. The film is just treated as a regular whodunit, with the only difference being that the cop is played by a woman. Throughout the movie, never once is it shown that she is special or remarkable because she’s a woman or she’s victimized, distressed and angry because of it, nor is she displayed as a crusader or a sex object,. Even the representation of her peers is fabulous, no one is shown as having a male ego, or trying to get fresh with her, no one tries to belittle her, these questions not even arise because the script doesn’t take into account the sex of the lead actor. The best possible representation of a woman I’ve ever seen in cinema.
Raat aur Din by Satyen Bose
Back in the 60s, a role on split personalities played to perfection by Nargis, was probably the first attempt at looking at a mental ailment in manner other than obnoxious ribaldry in disgustingly poor taste, which was the norm in Hindi cinema, and can be still seen once in a while, in films like Krazy 4. I was never too impressed with Nargis before watching this movie, thinking that she was probably another one of those sacred cows of yore, which we tend to have in our country. Watching Raat aur Din, changed my perception completely, a consummate performance for a character which was so far removed from the life we all know, Nargis brought to life the trauma of mental illness remarkable well. In an era of simplistic romances dominated by long song sequences, I wonder how the film fared at the box office. Nevertheless, it must’ve been a brave attempt considering the time it came about.
Missed call
Not many watched this one, but I suppose people from this forum would have, a valiant attempt by mridul toolsidas to dedicate a movie to what we all love the most in the whole wide world, without exception, ourselves. A spectacular performance by Ankur Vikal makes the whole concept of a wannabe filmmaker making a movie about his own life quite cr4edible and even with a somewhat theatrical ending, a memorable one and half hours. There was nothing extraordinary about the lead actor, nor did anything earth-shattering happen in his life, just the idea and the execution made it more than worth a watch.
Last week, an article in Tehelka about Anurag Kashyap mentioned that PFC has its members almost always just singing paeans to Anurag. Even Anurag himself objected to this tendency in one of his posts some time back. Before I go further, I must also add the rider that the next two movies in my list are Anurag Kashyap’s. The rationale is just what I suppose everyone who writes about his movies has; anyone who talks about quality cinema in India these days cannot do without discussing Anurag Kashyap, so this tendency has to be accepted.
No smoking: This forum would have discussed this work at length, I’m sure, and its quite obvious why I’m including it in the list of ‘movies which broke the norm.
Black Friday:
While this would also have been discussed quite a bit, I’d like to add something here. There were a lot of first that this movie achieved, Apart from the being the first movie in India to be made in the form of a documentary-fiction, it also was the first objective examination of the terrorists as a human being. For the first time ever, the terrorist was depicted as being someone who could emote, reason and communicate, and get frustrated. In this, it also had a message, though the tone was never didactic or melodramatic, it showed the sheer futility of following a path without a tangible objective other than mindless revenge. Aditya Srivastava, in what would be one of the landmark performances ever in Indian cinema as Badshah Khan , managed to evoke sympathy even while playing the role of a mass murderer. That precisely was the beauty of Black Friday, it was a corollary of events, which did not pass judgments at any stage and presented both sides of the coin.
I suppose that has been true for most of Anurag Kashyap’s films, be it No smoking, Dev D, or Black Friday, he doesn’t attempt to create a positive or negative character, neither does he force his opinions about the character about the audience, he leaves it to us to decide whether we like Dev or not, if we abhor Dukki Banaa or sympathize with him, if we find the arrogance of K annoying, disgusting, amusing or something you’d love to possess. Every time you watch his movies, you are likely to discover a new perspective.
Saudagar
It’s only in the last five or six years that I have become a movie lover, so very few of my lists contain older movies. Saudagar, however, is an old one I discovered pretty late, in spite of making tall claims of having watched all of Abs movies (how many of us do that). Till date I believe its one of his best performances, but that’s beside the point. What I found out-of-the-ordinary and audacious in this movie was the portrayal of the male lead. We’ve had plenty of negative characters played by leading actors, suave confident ones like Neil Nitin Mukesh in Johnny Gaddar or Akshaye Khanna in many recent movies, the jilted lover like SRK in Darr or Bachchan in Parwana, the avenging maniac in bazigar, the mentally unstable govinda in shikari and so on. But all of these had a distinct aura associated with their malevolence. There was always an incredible story, a shady past, an idiosyncrasy, which would make the negativity of the character stand out. It was not the day-to-day vice we see around us, the contemptible lows to which human beings can sink for no other reason except their own good, not for revenge, not for love, not for any other noble, far-flung cause. The only movie which showed such human evil in its basest form was ‘saudagar’. Bachchan played a despicable character who didn’t think twice before destroying someone else’s life just for corporeal pleasures and did he play this role in this low profile small time movie with utmost skill and master class. Even 30 years down the line, I’m yet to see a lead character as obnoxious as it was believable as Moti from Saudagar.
I can think of many more but I ought to get back to earning my living. These days, you never know when your love for cinema could leave you without resources to watch it
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, Black Friday, Missed Call, No Smoking, Raat aur din, Samay, saudagar
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
Vishal..nice list..i think Samay was a copy of some other movie..nevertheless..i liked it too..
Missed Call..watched it at IFFLA 2 years back..infact PFC presented this movie at IFFLA..liked it…
Saudagar was awesome..loved AB’s performance and also Nutan’s..
Cool write-up, Vishal. I really enjoyed Samay and thought Sushmita did a great job.
On a side note, have you seen Shri 420 and Chori Chori?–both films also feature Nargis.
@vishal: right post, wrong title :(
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so, why do u think out-of-the-box works? all the movies mentioned by u were box-office disasters. people have barely heard abt some of the movies mentioned by u. so, for whom did it work?? for u, me and a handful of people. tats not called ‘works’, tat just a personal liking.
ddlj works, hahk works, ghajini works…
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out-of-box rarely works for the masses, it works only for those who are ready to try new stuff.
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AB was brilliant in saudagar, but the movie will only be reembered for ’sajna hai mujhe sajna ke liye’.
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out-of-the-box seldoms works for hindi cinema
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by the way, on reading the title of ur post i was expecting a sarcastic write-up
@ vishal: for a split-second after reading the name saudagar, i just thought u lost it, as that subbu-movie came to mind, considering your self-declaration that u hv turned into a film-lover in the last 5-6 years or so..
thx for keeping my faith in u intact by choosing the ‘namesake’ gem of AB..
btw, raat aur din is remembered more for the songs ‘dil ki girah khol do..’ and ‘raat aur din diya jale..’. if im not mistaken, it was probably nargis’s last movie
Saudagar was really a good movie… One of the few with a formidable lead pair like Nutan and AB…
AB made the character look so morally reprehensible that u keep cursing him throughout the second half ..
Very good performance by Nutan too …
I haven’t seen any other movie mentioned in the list except BF and NS …
Never tried to watch Samay because I heard somewhere that its a rip off of ‘Bone Collector’…
But as u have mentioned it as a path breaking movie here.. I wl atleast watch it once …
How about Ab Tak Chhappan?
Yaadein (Sunil Dutt): Probably the only film in which you just see only one person on the screen all the time.
Pushpak : Need to say anything ? No words were required to tell the story
Kanoon (Ashok & Rajendra Kumar) : Must have been out-of-box to make a movie without songs then
I feel Guide should also be added to this list. Although it is a classic but it had broken many rules of portrayal of a woman back then…
RGV’s Satya, Kaun
Yash Chopra’s Ittefag- A songless thriller in the 70’s, now thats something.
B.R.Chopra’s Kanoon
Kishore Da’s Door Gagan Ki Chaaon Mein- An intensely personal movie in an era when melodrama ruled the roost.
Manorama 6 Feet Under- Truly noirish
Samay could have been an even better movie, but lost it out in the climax. I mean the resolution and the killers motives, seemed pretty lame to me. A key in making serial killer movies work, is the culprit’s motivations and character. And i felt this is where Samay failed.
Samay was a inspired by Seven.The reason you do not find any issue relating to women officers is because the director had written the story with a male character in mind.During later stage the producers i-dream suugested to chenge the character from male to female.
Its surprsing that on one hand you commend Samay’s portrayal of women, on the other hand you commend Raat or Din, one of the most chauvnistic movies even in those chauvnistic times. If it was made today, it would’ve been praised to heavens by the BJP.
An interesting list there Vishal…though I have only watched Black Friday among those
I’m sure there are a lot more out-of-the-box films (ones that defied conventions)…Ardh-Satya, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, Dil Chahta Hai, Satya come to mind…
“you never know when your love for cinema could leave you without resources to watch it.”
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TOTALLY AGREED.
@crazyrals-you totally got it wrong.
His title says “Out of the box works”
works=movies
works does not mean ‘working/commercially’
@crazyrals -its from hindi cinema
not
for hindi cinema
everyone, thanks for the good words,
crazyrals, even tho you did get the title wrong, as pointed out by jehan, your thoughts were interesting;
@Jehan: oh! man …shit…tat was such a horrible mistake. i m feeling so stupid now :(
saale…tu itna late kyon aya, pehle aana tha naa!
@vishal: sorry dude, read it in a hurry
@ Rals: How are you? Sab teek to hain
hmmm interestin list….out of the 6 u hav mentioend i hav watched 3….samay..no smoking and black friday….among these 3, 2 of them belong to Anurag Kashyap….well he’s one of the few indian directors who thinks out of the box….
Samay ws definitely out of box movie…but it ws taken by Se7en….Morgan Freeman n Brad Pitt had amazing performances in this one…Sushmita was equally impressive in this one…
well…the times are changing and i hope to see more of ‘out of the box’ movies now in bollywood…with film makers not afraid to try out new things…
Manorama 6 feet(Abhay Deol) and Strangers(Kay kay menon and Jimmy Shergill) should also be included in this list…..
In fact most Yash Chopra movies in the seventies as also B.R.Chopra’s movies in 60’s and 70’s were unconventional at the same time very entertaining.Dhool ka phool,Insaaf ka Tarazu,Nikah,Gumrah and Daag,Kabhie Kabhie,Silsila,Lamhe were truly hatke films of their times.Among the recent ones most of Abhay Deol films are unconventional.Chandni Bar,Astitva,Maachis,Ijazat also fall in the category.
some others that i think are out-of-the-box by hindi cinema standards:
mithya, salaam bombay, hey ram, hum apke hain koun (yes i know but it was pretty different).
@ratnakar: tat was a momentary lapse of concentration
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in any case, i stand-by those comments totally. and all the movies tat everyone have mentioned as out-of-the-box have not done well at BO
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my only concern remains tat good movies must do well at BO, max no. of ppl watch it. i dont mind if a bad movie becomes a hit, but when a good movie/attempt flops then it hurts
Hum aapke hain koun was a flossy remake of Rajshri classic’Nadiya ke Paar’ which indeed was out-of-the-box and one of the best Hindi movies ever made.
Yes Ratnakar! ‘Itefaq’ was fantastic!
Shoaib, I was impressed with how they altered the 2nd half of ‘Strangers’ rather than just being a remake of ‘Strangers on a train’.
‘Raat aur Din’ sure had some haunting music.
Saw it when I was about 8yrs old and still remember the music and movie!
Me too obsessed about lists
But I find discussion on lists become much focussed when you make the topic extremely pinpointed and specific. Else everyone, instead of commenting on your list, comes up with their own. But, movie appreciation is subjective hence no list can ever be exhaustive.
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Some example of specific lists can be
1. List of unconventional excellent underrated Hindi thrillers which are box office disasters (Khamosh)
2. List of successful Original Hindi Black Comedy movies (Mithya?)
3. List of Good Romantic films by debut Directors (Socha Na Tha by Imtiaz Ali)
4. List of dark Hindi movies copies from Great Directors ( e.g- Strangers from Hitchcock’s Starngers on the train)
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I have not seen Missed call and Raat aur Din. But happy to see you have mentioned my favourite ‘Moti ka gudh’wala Saudagar (and not the ILU ILU one).
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On taking a dig at Indian Culture from an NRI perspective (or laughing at ourselves) is outstandingly done in Loins of Punjab Presents ( 2007), than Aloo Chat.
Good article with honest confessions and necessary disclaimers ;-)
Cheers!
~uh~
Ratnakar@9 – Kishores Door Waadiyon Mein Kahin – would be more “out of the box”
ofcourse his Badhti Ka Naam Daadhi is out of the box and rolling on the floor !!
Yes i am agree with above comment that Saudagar is really amazing movie i am in favor of this.
Ummmm….one name that immediately comes up is Bheja Fry tho there are can be many more such as…
Kya Kehna (Hansal Mehta-Preity Zinta) was fairly out of the box in depicting single motherhood ….
Khosla ka Ghosla – subject,treatment etc …
Bazigar – SRK hamming aside, the concept was quite novel …
the list actually cud go on and on
@Shashvat,
was not Kya Kehna directed by Kundan Shah ? First film which brought image of a strong woman to Preity Zinta.
Though many films had been made on single motherhood in the past also. Aradhana, Julie, Trishool to name a few.
Yes kya Kehna..was by Kundan Shah…Anupam Kher, Saif Ali Khan, Preity..not the best of Shah though..and it featured the desi version of ‘Oh Carol…’ as the title ‘Kya Kehna…’
“the contemptible lows to which human beings can sink for no other reason except their own good, not for revenge, not for love, not for any other noble, far-flung cause. The only movie which showed such human evil in its basest form was ‘saudagar’.”
Very true and perhaps the only other character from hindi movies that comes close this description was SRK’s character in kabhi ha kabhi na
@Shashvat
Baazigar can’t be said to be a novel idea because it was inspired (not using the word copied) from A Kiss Before Dying.
There are many more movies that may be called Out of the Box like Sadma, Terrorist, etc.