Politics… rare, medium or well done?
Politics! It’s tackled by our B-town movies..only once in a flu moon. Right now, in Prakash Jha’s Rajniti, the Mahabharat is sought to be adapted to today’s realpolitik. Fine, should be punchy, worth spotting the reference to the context, who’s playing which epical character.
Shyam Benegal did practically the same update with Kalyug, incidentally. Twenty-eight years ago!
Never mind. Jha’s takes on the badlands of Bihar (Aparahan, Gangaajal) have been vital and volatile. And already there have been guesses that Katrina Kaif is portraying a film version of Sonia Gandhi. Insiders on the project, say nothing of the sort, that she is in fact has shades of the Mahabharata’s Draupadi.
Mani Ratnam is adapting Ramayana, with an accent on Raavan. Whether this project has a political underlinging isn’t known yet. For the time being, do let it be. Ratnam’s Guru sought to have one with disappointingly mixed results. Meaning a rags-to-riches industrialist’s manipulation of politics and the media was at most, surfacial. And it fostered another guessing game. Is that Dhirubhai Ambani? Is that Ramnath Goenka? Compared to Ratnam’s last uncompromised work – Iruvar – Guru was fair to middling.
They did it
Point is for popular cinema, politics can be a side dish never the main course.
Politics implies a maze of complications, establishing a stand and a hyperventilation of duh-or-die convictions. There’s no more radical critiquing, no subversion. No M S Sathyu’s lament at a divided nation in Garm Hawa, no Gulzar masquerading Suchitra Sen as Indira Gandhi in Aandhi, no Saeed Mirza leftist-inflected Salim Langde Pe Mat Ro, no Jabbar Patel’s look at chief ministership ke chukkers as in Simhasan, no taking off the lid between politicos-and media barons as in Ramesh Sharma’s New Delhi Times (unless Ram Gopal Varma’s similarly themed Rann turns out to be spot-on).
Politically probing is not allowed. To be politically correct is..because this route often ensures patronage by the ruling party and a slew of awards following fierce lobbying with the ministries, fixers – not to forget those seasoned hangers-on in Delhi’s dank offices and Asoka Hotel’s kabab-and-paneer tikka party halls. So, see the show business movers as well as wannashakers have to do the right thing.
Not surprisingly, political parties of various hues have drawn star names to pitch in their lot for poll campaigns. Salman Khan achieved the absurd feat of campaigning for rival parties. And some of yesteryear’s heroines, TV termagants, beauty pageant winners and slumdog kiddies are attracted to the fold for cash fees, either for a single campaign trip or as a package deal.
Writing on the wall
Ironically there is little or no danger of the election circus ever becoming a subject for a film script, serious, comedic or both. Rather, the film maker would remain apolitical.If an element of politics is a must, please stick to the tried and tested. To date, it’s a tradition to festoon the walls of government and police chowkies depicted in popular cinema, most frequently with calendar portraits of Pandit Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shashtri and Indira Gandhi. Implication: dead leaders tell no tales.
At one stage, particularly in the 1950s and ‘60s, Bollywood films often flashed stock footage of Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and for a secular touch Maulana Azad, addressing the nation. Automatically, the flashes drew goose bumps besides thunderous applause from the front benches as well as the balconies. Predictably, such flashes are no longer used, indicating that the moviegoer is no longer excited by post-Independence fervour.
In Mumbai, the practice of screening the National Anthem before the feature film, has been revived of late. Spectators snap to attention dutifully but at the end of the clip, there have been reported instances of sarcastic hoots from the uninhibited section of the audience. Obviously, national pride must be felt by each one of us rather than faced as a clockwork must-do.
Romancing politics
Popular cinema has to adopt a neutral stance, sit on the fence, and go with the current flow. Take the volte-face from the rabble rousing anti-Pakistan movies to the brief abracadabra-like honeymoon with the idea of pro-Pak co-productions. Mahesh-Mukesh Bhatt took the lead towards cross-bordering by ransacking the sufi-pop music of Pakistan. The Yash Chopra confected Veer-Zara, an Indo-Pak romance, close in genre to RK’s Henna. Very gung-ho, a former Information and Broadcasting Minister Ravishankar Prasad had announced a film on cross-border dosti to be produced by a Pakistani and directed by an Indian. It never happened.
On the other hand we have the recorded instance of the Marxist journalist-filmmaker K.A.Abbas’s Indo-Soviet film Pardesi dating back to 1960s.
Patriotism of the absolutely fantasticated and overwrought kind has been associated with Manoj Kumar. His Upkar was marked by a certain zeal and moral righteousness, touching upon the rural-urban divide. It had its heart in the proverbial right place, the heart pumping out more hits of questionable quality with Purab aur Paschim, Roti Kapda aur Makaan, Shor and Kranti.
Mr Bharat’s legacy
Here were films in an era when audiences were willing to listen and applaud. Manoj Kumar’s brand of nationalism spawned Subhash Ghai’s booming-blasting mind-benders (notably Karma, Pardes) and imitations galore. Indeed, Manoj Kumar’s Purab aur Paschim stands out as a precursor to the east-is-east, west-is-west NRI romance, Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. And more overtly, of course, to Vipul Shah’s Namaste London.
Sure, old wine can be served in a Swarovski decanter. Yet in the ongoing frenzy for commercial success, as opposed, to quality filmmaking, the crystal shatters into pieces. “Where did we go wrong?”, “Didn’t we package every ingredient in the book?” is the buzz in a business that has an astounding failure ratio, with the tanking of 85 per cent of the annual turnover of 170-plus films. Two recent examples: Blue and London Dreams. And in terms of sheer truth-and-dare telling Madhur Bhandarkar’s Jail isn’t a patch even on his Satta, which would in retrospect seem underrated.
Rules have to be followed. There can no in-betweens, no ambiguities, no complexities. The Central Board of Film Certification, read the Censor Board, plays the lamentable role of keeping matters srait-jacketed.
Entertainment mangta hai
Expectedly, panel members of the censors are political appointees, chosen by the ministry in Delhi. Down the years, the I and B ministry has dispensed favours and influence quite blatantly, besides the swift and debatable appointments to the posts of chiefs of several film making institutions like the Censor Board and the Children’s Film Society of India.
The official policy is to stick to the groove, or to make films which are commercial in intent and execution. Entertainment, entertainment, entertainmnent mangta hai is the credo without understanding the meaning of the word.
Toe the line
Result: experimentation has been the first casualty. Indeed, it is impossible to imagine any film maker securing a grant or finance from the National Development Corporation for a film that’s non-linear or fiercely individualistic. Toe the line or else take a walk has become the NFDC’s mantra. This kind of degeneration wasn’t nipped in the bud even by its enlightened chiefs, film producer Manmohan Shetty and subsequently Om Puri.
Students hatched from film schools like the UCLA and freshers who have been assisting directors ranging from Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Aditya Chopra to Karan Johar, are into thrillers, comedies, horror spookfests, dramas of pyaar-ishq-mohabbat,the works. No two ways about it – everyone’s working strictly within the ordained structure.
Those who want to buck the system – in the aspect of complex human relationships – have their messiahs in Anurag Kashyap, who with Dev D broke the barriers of the depiction of sexual polemics. Decades ago, B R Ishara did with Chetna and Society. Society was banned for its sexual frankspeak (have not seen it on DVD or VCD, help!). Did it remain banned or get a hushed, embarrassed..er..release?
Aah, such is politics.
Tags: Aandhi, B.R. Ishara, gulzar, k a abbas, Kalyug, mani ratnam, Manoj Kumar, politics, prakash jha, Raj Kapoor, Rajniti, saeed mirza, shyam benegal
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
“Not surprisingly, political parties of various hues have drawn star names to pitch in their lot for poll campaigns. Salman Khan achieved the absurd feat of campaigning for rival parties. And some of yesteryear’s heroines, TV termagants, beauty pageant winners and slumdog kiddies are attracted to the fold for cash fees, either for a single campaign trip or as a package deal.” – awesome!
every political party seems to be having one “STAR” campaigner, no matter what his background be… to an extent now that even somebody who is “badnaam” but has at least a “naam” is roped in … personally a fan, but still I cannot think of Mohd Azhar being an MLA… firstly he is already charged with almost a treachery (cricket evoking way too much passion than necessary) and he is banned by a govt board from playing a national game, is going on to a part of National politics…. Phoolan Devi… just cause people know her name…. Arun Gawli… all you have to do is somehow get your name publicised.. till the time ur opponent is a “gumnaam” then a known “badnaam” is better than an unknown “gumnaam” (with the apt substitutes possible for the words in quotes)
a post on the same subject was put up in PFC a couple of days back… though the clarity was not present, the intent was visible in it…
……………..
Politics Cinema and Cricket… way too much of unnecessary importance to the people holding positions in these fields….
Sorry but it may not be politically correct to say that “(Salman Khan achieved the absurd feat of campaigning for rival parties)”.
Salman Khan did not campaign for political parties but he campaigned for the candidates and it is a different matter that these candidates were contesting the elections on the tickets of different parties which were rivals also in some states. Filmi people have often done it. Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha did not campaign for their party against Dutt Saab.
Salman Kahn campaigned for his friends or people related to film world like Vinod Khanna and Raj Babbar.
In a way it is good.
Why there should be extreme kind of animosity among political parties?
If we don’t remain confined to the party politics only then several hindi films can be counted in which dealt with the politics in one way or other.
Films based on Class struggle and which had political under tone also>:
There were some good films in the 40s and 50s. Mahboob’s Roti, Paigham (Dilip Saab starrer), Raj Kapoor starrer Shri 420, Anadi and Jagte Raho, BR Chopra’s Naya Daur.
In the early 70s, Tapan Sinha’s Sageena came. Gulzar’s Mere Apne also came in early 70s. in the mid 70s Nishant came. In the late 70s, Aakrosh came. Mid 70s gave Aandhi also.
80s gave Shyam Benegal’s Arohan, Sudhir Mishra’s Ye manjil wo to nahin, Prakash Jha’s Damul, Romesh Sharma’s NDT, which is already quoted in the post.
90s gave Gulzar’s Hu Tu Tu.
Naseem had political undertone. Even Mammo can be counted in.
Later in 2000 Kamal Hassan made Hey Ram.
First decade of new century gave Hazaron khwahishein aisee, and politics has become one of the parts of many hindi of this decade.
Mr and Mrs Aiyar, Haasil, Sehar, Parzania, Gulaal,Baabar,even Sarkar Raj, etc all have dealt with politics at some level.
Khalid,
but you might have to wait several years for that.
Great post! I’m glad to see someone articulate this topic so well. My friend and I had been discussing this very same thing frequently…. in fact we just had a short discussion on this over chai about 30 mins ago! Even from a purely entertainment oriented standpoint politics holds such a lot of potential for great storytelling. Egoistic people , vote bank politics , community based politics , the difficulties of administrating such a large and diverse country , the intricacies/frustrations involved in managing a coalition government ….. all these can provide so much fodder for a movie based on politics. Hollywood has so many movies exploring various aspects of politics. It’s a domain that offers a never ending list of interesting stories to tell. You have raised very pertinent point about the impotency of the NFDC and the backward thinking of the censor board. I hope these will change for the better in the future.
I was very excited to read some time ago that Dibaker Banerjee was interested in working on a political thriller and that may be his next movie. I hope Nishikant Kamat also gets to this topic at some point! If they don’t then in any case my friend and I hope to make (atleast) a movie based on politics at some time
On another note,Mani Ratnam’s Yuva addressed politics at a certain level though it probably ended up being more about the protagonists than about politics though it did have an “inspiring” end. I am looking forward to Jha’s ‘Rajniti’. I hope many of the good filmmakers that read this blog are inspired by your post to make an attempt at making a movie with a political theme. By the way, do you think there will be producers who will support such projects?
These are the kinda posts i like u from more than ur reviews. Wish to see more of them.
Anyway comming back to the post, the issue is not just the movie land, its the reluctance of the average citizen to engage themselves in political discussion, understand the issues at hand. Every time i try discussing things deeper, i get a standard reply, “Please lets not talk politics Now”. WHY? Why this apathy towards politics? Why this unwillingness to take issues head on?
We seem content to do some Gandhigiri Marches or indugle in FB activism. We took out a great rally in Mumbai after 26/11, with placards screaming “Enough is Enough”. WHAT HAPPENED AFTER THAT? ZILCH. Tokenism has become a substitute for political activity.
Why would the average movie maker bother to do a movie on politics, when the people themselves are not interested? And if it’s because our living conditions are a kinda survival game, then more the reason, to shed our apathy. The only kind of political movies that seems to work are the LINE EM UP, SHOOT EM DOWN kind( RDB, A Wednesday). Good movies, but beyond fulfilling some wet dreams, they offer precious little.
I guess we r happy living in our sweet little bubbles, but the day they burst, its going to be a rude awakening.
“Hollywood has so many movies exploring various aspects of politics”
Well that’s because Hollywood has a number of movie makers, directors who are politically active, who have taken George Bush head on the Iraq War fiasco, and they have had strong political leanigns. Susan Sarandon, Sean Penn, George Clooney, Leo, Matt Damon, Oliver Stone, Spielberg all have been involved in some kind of political causes or other, most of them actively campaigned in the elections.
Sadly, barring a few, Bollywood actors seem disinterested in politics, leading their own sweet charmed lives. Except some kinda token activism, urging people to vote or doing some random fasts, have not seen any kind of political activism from our Kings and Stars.
Khalid Bhai, please read the following. Thanks.
http://passionforcinema.com/from-raj-kapoor-to-raj-malhotra-the-rajneeti-of-hindi-cinema/
New Delhi Times. Arguably the best political film I have seen from Bollywood. We can include Drohkaal as well which had really heavy political undertones. Nihalani is a genius!
Is new delhi times available anywhere? i have searched everywhere but could not find it. I have been searching for it for a very long time now.
In most movies, where politics was a backdrop, it was woven with the mafia, with the exception of Main Azad hoon. Another one was Phir Bhi dil hai hindustani where it was woven with media.
i missed Yuva and Hazaaron Khwahishen aisi in the list. Both were brilliant.