Oye Oye–Ye Kya Keh Diya Oye!
An open letter to Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri:
Dear Naseer and Omji,
This is in reference to your comments made at Nehru Centre, London where both of you were felicitated for your contribution to Indian and British cinema.I could not believe it! Fortune telling corrupt cops Pandit and Purohit of Maqbool once again coming together and being honoured by the British! Its like hauling coals to Newcastle.First accept my heartiest congratulations.
And now coming straight to heart of the matter. At this awards function,Sir both of you had taken severe objection to Indian Film industry and more specifically Hindi Film industry being called Bollywood . According to you Naseerji,this term is derogatory and humiliating. I could not believe this too!! I mean what else would you call a place where law of jungle prevails and predators prowl to prey on the sensibilities of gullible masses?Where audiences are like lambs to the slaughter. Where all stars have English as their mother tongue and Hindi as a stepmother. Where there is so much of insecurity and uncertainty that even most ’stealy’ and ’steely’ people take every step and execute every action by knocking on their vegetating heads- touchwood!
Its these pilfering,pillaging,pompous,paranoid instincts that led to Hindi Film industry’s changeover to Bollywood.
Omji you said that Bollywood is associated with Hindi Films which are perceived as nothing but ’song and dance’ films.I fully agree with you on this. Remember these films are not meant for Sundance Film festival.They are churned out for a song and to make public dance to the whims and fancies of dream merchants. Which industry in the world has the balls to bluff like that! And Naseerji how can you forget that this same song and dance routine made Jai Singh of Tridev a household name. Had it not been for Gloria Estefan song lifted without acknowledgements(thats the norm here) you would have remained a brilliant actor without everybody on the streets elbowing each other and saying ‘Oye,Oye dekh Naseer, Naseeruddin Shah,Naseer Bhai ja rahein hain!’
If Turkey and Morocco like Amitabh Bachchan its for his chutzpah in carrying out those same song and dance routines. If USA and France fall head over heels for SRK its for his nonchalance in carrying out difficult to digest dance routines in dramatic storylines. Of late people all over the world–the die hard fans of Indian cinema(more specifically Hindi films)don’t know how to relate to the stuff being made in terms of creatvity and breaking- new- ground in Hindi Films.So they express their confusion by joining in the mindless song and dance routines and doing thier own jig.
Sir maybe you know maybe you dont, because of this sauce of song and dance in Bollywood ,Indian matrimonial market is one of the biggest money spinners. Imagine any shaadi, ladies sangeet. doli without these latkas and jhatkas.
Naseerji you went ahead and further elaborated that the term Bollywood was used to mock us by the western press.Now who cares for western press? Its Al Jazeera, ARY, Geo TV that we go for.Let barking dogs do what they do best.Let Western press keep mocking . Though I know that it will keep taking pot shots at us till we make films that are rooted in ethos of Hindustan. Now that again is a debatable point. What is Hindustan? Like potatoes it is everywhere. In all corners of the globe.
Hindi Film industry is a relic of soviet style socialistic nomenclature. Times have changed. In an era where you need guts to market bullc*** as box of choclates at box office, Bollywood is the word that goes with the spirit of the times. Bollywood is all balls and all about balls.There is no place for chicken hearted and becharas here any more.
I empathise with you Naseerji. I can very well understand your anguish when you said that ‘it’s just an indication of our own idiocy that we still use it. It’s like being called an idiot all your life and then making it your name.’ Here I believe your angst. But what to do. All this raising the voices against such degradation have no impact. Even Amitabh Bachchan’s baritone has been in vain trying to stop this false vanity in flaunting our idiocy. Media is no doubt the culprit as Omji said that this term has been created by media. And Naseerji when you urge the Indian media not to use the term Bollywood, my heart echoes the same sentiment.
I have an option. Hope it filters through sensibilities of you both. Since Bombay has come to be known as Mumbai. Since hardly any original work is taking shape or very little being done to tailor local culture, issues and ethos to global sensibilities in our films.Since Bollywood had some affinity with Bombay and now Mumbai is all about multiplexes and malls.Since most of the stuff is being mauled from foreign films anyway–why not rename it Mauliwood!
Of course before media pilfers it your comments are eagerly awaited.
regards,
Sincerely yours
(One of the balls in Bollywood)
P.S. Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puris’ bytes–courtesy a news item in After Hrs supplement of DNA dtd july 09,2007
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Honestly,this the same case with Telugu and Tamil movies as well, they call Tollywood,Kollywood….etc.I sincerely feel there has to be a genuine name.This is also because of the numerous mediocre and low quality films being produced incessantly.As long as there is a more meaningful cinema, the song and dance sequences will never be a threat,infact they in a way are identity of commercial Indian cinema.Although,they can still be avoided, as some directors have already done.Lets see what Nassirji and Omji say.
In the Hindi Film Industry, one hears, that scripts these days are written in Roman…none of today’s actors and actresses are confortable reading Hindi while they make a living off entertaining people in that very language.
I want to know if this is true of nay other regional language cinema…hope not..
By the way…in television news, too, these days Hindi news is read in Roman—no one can read the Hindi script…while this is not truw of regional language news channels..am I right?
there is a sharp and subtle difference between bollywood and hindi cinema.bollywood is an integral part of hindi cinema.art cinema,parrelal cinma,new wave cinema,mainstream cinema,formula cinema…all are included in hindi cinema.for me hindi cinema must has the essence of hindi society and culture.lots of people dont understand the nuances of hindi culture.they make films in hindi,but its not related with aspirations of hindi people.karan johar is representative of bollywood cinema and vishal n anurag are trying to create hindi cinema 21st century.
thats true many telugu actresses do not know even how to speak the language no matter how successful they are….while actors like Mr.Amrish Puri Mr.Paresh Rawal, Ashish Vidhyardhi give their efforts to speak telugu when they act in the movie…take any movie in the recent past its only one dubbing artiste who speaks for atleast 10 actresses..if you listen only the audio you can never make out who the actress was…moreover these actresses are so transient you do not even see them after next couple of movies so efforts to find a new dubbing artiste everytime..must be a problem.
Ajay, but its the so called Bollywood that is shown as a identity of Hindi cinema…I wonder how this name even came into existance but for mere imitation of hollywood…Hollywood ahs its reasons for the name..since this place Hollywood was congenial for outdoor shooting the whole industry moved there…where on warth are these bolly, tolly, kolly..hope things change as generations go by..
aditi, this malaise is mostly prevalent in Mumbai. Irony is that most of the regional cinema, especially in North is almost dead or in hibernation except for Bhojpuri films. And there scripts are in bhojpuri(with devnagiri script–the same as for Hindi). Down south i think they stick to regional languages and no ‘romanisation’.I am not sure and anyone more familiar with Tamil,Telugu,Malyalam and Kannad industry will be better equipped to comment on that.I think ditto is case with TV News also.
most of the hindi film directors,actors and pr people are using english in their day to day activities.
hamare actors hindi culture,language,muhavron aur bareekiyon ke baare mein nahi jante.mind it,main hindu culture ki baat nahi kar raha hoon.young directors greek mythology se parichit honge,lekin bhartiya mythology mein unhe sabkuch bakwas lagta hai,isliye padhte bhi nahi.
hindi cinema ka future hindi belt ke small town se aaye talented logon par depend karega.anurag,vishal,pravesh,sanjay,tigmanshu,ishan adi young directors sahi soch rahe hain aur lad bhi rahe hain.
http://passionforcinema.com/hindi-film-industry-mein-hindi/
ise bhi padhen.
Ajay sahab, aap yuva nirdeshakon ko lekar kuchh zyada his ba-ummeed hain - kaash ke Greek mythakon se hi unka waasta ho! Aapne Shaad Ali ka naam nahin liya - Bunty aur Bubli se khaase nirash they aap?
I think it’s wonderful that one of the films that truly captured the nuances of the cultural landscape of central UP was “Garam Hawa”, made by the very Kannadiga MS Sathyu.
Most of the early Rajashri films, though socially conservative, at least made an attempt to authentically render the milieu of Eastern UP (are the Barjatiyas from Eastern UP?). Even in Maine Pyar Kiya, the banter between Reema Laagu and Alok Nath had a sincere, natural flair to it.
I don’t see anything of the sort being attempted these days. All gloss and sheen, little substance. I think I infinitely prefer Jeetendra-Sridevi’s kitschy 80s melodramas to the desperately wannabe stuff that comes out of Bollywood these days.
Films should really have no language. The film itself is a language
I am not certain how this can even be a concern as most of the audience on this website see and enjoy east European films as much as they enjoy a good Hindi or a English flick.
This was something the Great Adoor Gopalakrishna did as an experiment in Kerala and the results were stupendous. He had along with a mobile theater unit taken some of the best classics like “Battleship Potemkin”, “Rashomon” into the interiors of Kerala many years back and showed these amazing films to Malayalam speaking villagers and they had actually understood the story with actually no subtitles as they were all speaking the language of films.
A story has to be well thought out and contain something that comes searing through and it would be impossible to look away from it. If it has to be translated, then so be it. Its a small price to be paid for seeing some phenomenal stuff.
I am from Karnataka and loved Thalassa’s remarks on MS Satyu’s “Garam Hawa”. I agree with it and feel it’s much better to get a story in place rather than just the look & feel. I would be more than happy to see a Original Mani Rathnam or Gautam Menon movie just translated to Kannada rather than a shoddy remake of the same done by a director who has absolutely no vision of the actual movie just to solve this language barrier.
I mean, I have lived abroad and about 0.002% of people live like how they live in the movies. That’s escapism and we need to wonder where that will go rather than what language the sotry is written or shot in.
Now, the brick-bats & bouquets, Ladies & Gentleman