The Rotten Kids Of Papa Hollywood
Not all kids are the same.Never.Some are dumb,some are bright,some naughty and some simply devils! Now the big dads of Hollywood, running the studios are surely baffled when disobedient , wicked and rotten kids like the Coen brothers,Charlie Kaufman,Wes Anderson and Tarantino come up with their scripts. Not only are these scripts devoid of the conventional thrills and frills which define commercial American films, but in a way rebellious of the cliches existing in them. While Kaufman’s ‘Adaptation’ spoofs Hollywood screenwriting and it’s norms, Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ is a wicked take off on all the mafia films portraying stereotypical gangsters. ‘Kill Bill’ is a never seen before homage to Kung Fu films and ‘Being John Malkovich’ is probably the best blend of fact,fiction,fantasy and emotions in recent times employed to bring about a theme which is as real as ever. But real and Hollywood? Isn’t Hollywood all about larger than life themes and car chases and aliens? Aren’t the studios more interested in love stories and whodunit thrillers ? Or where people change completely in the end after learning life lessons? I am not trying to generalise here but saying that Hollywood is dictated by similar commercial norms and cliches just like in Bollywood. Same old happy endings and same old heroic heroes. The only difference here and there is that they provide us with a strong logical base for all that we see on screen. What Rajnikant and Mithun do here as police inspectors, Spiderman and Superman do there as superheroes.
BUT,they have a Darren Aronofsky,we don’t. They have a david Lynch,we don’t. What we are missing here is ‘alternative cinema’ , a term I have coined considering the fact that masses have seriously different taste buds. The characters and situations created in a Coen brothers film are something which probably you will never see in a routine English comic flick made for instant laughs. The kind of humour Wes Anderson has tried to infuse in ‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ is not only almost diametrically opposite to that of a ‘There’s Something Like Mary’ or an ‘American Pie’ , but also much more intelligent. Such directors and writers along with exhibiting the power of independent studios in a big way, also compel big players to sign them on ,thanks to their cult followings. And that’s why I call them the rotten kids of papa Hollywood!Is that what we are missing in India? Independent studios willing to experiment and back up the bastard kids of Hindi Cinema? ‘Satya’ was a bastard film which came out at a time when films like ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ and ‘Hum Aapke Hai Kaun’ were ruling the roost. ‘Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part 2′ and ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ were attempts in a directions which not many would dare to tread in. But we need more of them. More weird and wicked and twisted films. More crazy minds writing tangled scripts .
“Come on all out ya! Where all are ya Bastards!”
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
Waisa bhi hota hai part-2 was awes ome but I cant say the same about Khosla ka ghosla. It was an ok attempt but the film lost all steam in 2nd half. Sajid bhai(the character) and Boman irani saved it otherwise screenplay and story for 2nd half were very obvious and boring.
Waisa bhi hota hai part-2 was superb throughout. The lady gangster, sardar episode, music,arshad warsi all were good. Good humor throughout and good pace. btw how were “anthony kaun hai” and another movie where Arshad Waris played a cop ( forgot the name, serious backdrop..)
Oops. I Loved Khosla Ka Ghosla!
even i loved khosla ka ghosla…
anthony kaun hai was a crap… the other movie jwalant u saying about is sehar i suppose..
that movie is one of the most brilliant and underrated movies… i rate it as one of the best mafia flick…
Anthony Kaun hai, apart from being crap is also a frame to frame copy of a flick called , ‘Who is cletis tout?’ , so it really is out of the question. Just imagine the shortage of creativity : Who is cletis tout? becomes Anthony Kaun hai?
btw chaitanya.. ya hindi film industry have these kind of writers or bastards u can say.. but u know all these production houses have exploited them by payin them lesser then even a dress designer.. i mean wat with a fuckin dress when there is no good storyline… a writer will finally have 2 work for money…
hehe!.. ya chaitanya… the writer and the producer must be too lazy 2 even change the name.. infact it would have been better if they dubbed the original
I dont know much about that since I have had very little experience in screenwriting, but one thing is for sure is that the problem starts when you start calling it hindi film ‘industry’. What Industry? Industry,products and prjoects are words not to be mixed with art.:)
well i din want 2 use the word bollywood so just used whatever came in my mind… well movies r just the products of creativity so it can b termed as creative industry!!
Good article Chaitanya….I would still say the art of making movies and marketing your art comes under being labelled as an Industry…On one side we want all the commercialism which comes with movies…give them insurances and what not…and on other hand we want it to be called an Art…well…it definitely is an art..but, once you start marketing your art..and have clones of such “products” it is an Industry….My do sikke…And ohh yeahh Chaitu….would love to see your movie in LA or T!’s SoCal Film Fest brother
Whacky films, eh?’Daud’, ‘Road’, ‘Iss Raat Ki Subah Nahin’ and ‘Hazaron Khwaisein Aisi’ are all sort of whacky films. I believe, Paanch is sort of a crazy film as well. And perhaps, ‘No Smoking’ falls under that…
‘My Wife’s Muder’ could have been a really crazy/twisted film, but it fell a bit flat. But it was good.
OM, to each his own. If you feel the other way round, cool enough. And will show you the docu soon.
HG,I am really hoping ‘No Smoking’ falls in that category. And Yes, I love Daud.
Daud was awesome.Loved every frame of it. It was too good to flop. Sometimes you feel sorry for audience intelligence when movies like Daud flop. Muskurahat also met with similar fate, same with Janbaaz.
Daud was special. Paresh Rawal was brilliant. Remember the “ishq me jaan dena-lena, late night show, killed girl friend” dialogue. Chakoji, Dutt, Paresh’s crew, music everything was awesome about the movie. I was shocked to read one of Ramu’s interview when he mentioned ” I went overboard with Daud” because I thought it was awesome.
There is nothing wrong with studio control of your film. Thousands of filmmakers have worked on studio produced and financed films and not had to compromise their artistic integrity.
What do you think Sundance and Cannes are anyway? Have you seen what goes on at these festivals? Every so called “indie” film is a klaxon call for the studios: HIRE ME.
Every studio wants indie cred, why else would focus features release Crash and not Universal Studios who really put up the money. Every studio has an indie division in order to get indie cred.
David Lynch is anything but independent.
Hmm..let’s see… Pound for pound, the biggest and most successful independent director in the world is George Lucas.
Filmmakers need a studio as much as studios need them. Its nice to have that kind of financial backing. You can always add that low-budget look in post.
Also, that moniker of alternative cinema is fucking disgusting. Its like calling someone from India “desi”. I’m Indian, or American, thank you very much. Its just an advertising term that means nothing.
Good post, Chaitanya. Point taken, anangbhai.
Sehar, I felt, had nothing new to offer. It wasn’t a bad movie and Arshad Warsi showed he could do serious stuff too — but nothing more than that.
dude..u coined a new term and all you came up with is ‘alternative cinema’?? u name a few usual suspects and then tell that india is lacking them…and btw bollywood is not a representative of indian movies.
south india especially kerala and tamil nadu produced and are producing some really good movies…and ppl her talk as if non-hindi indian movies dosent exist.
anangbhai: you are right, unfortunately.but this phenomena of studios backing the indies is a recent one.few yrs back indies were truly indies.
a film cannot be called indie if a studio makes it,because, the philosophy of indie is exactly anti-studio…in terms of artisitc freedom.
name one good director who made movies within the studio without the studio interfering in the movie.which director has the final cut?
The only director who had the final cut was kubrick.
studio system is a disease becuase it is a monopoly.I hope indian film industry will never get under any studio systems.Mafia is doing fine.
sehar was anytime better then other movies nominated for awards… it was inspired by a real life incident and it din went off the track anytime… and the treatment was awesome… u can make a love story hundred times but if ur treatment is good then anybody will love it.. that was the case with sehar…
Daud,sehar, chhal r one of the most underrated movies… daud was a really brave attemp.. hardly any movies attemp black humor so successfully.. i love the movie… infact v can say that many rgv movies despite of being flops have something interestin 2 b seen…
btw just finished watching Socha Na Tha. Nice movie. I am shocked why I did not see last year.
Anangbhai, I understand your sentiments completely when you feel ‘alternative cinema’ is a disgusting moniker. It’s my fault. But the intention was different I assure you.
Taxydriver, sorry for my lack of creativity and the term ‘alternative cinema’. And the few usual suspects are exactly what we have in the past few years, atleast in Hindi. Can you help me out with the unusual suspects in other languages? I would be genuinely interested..
Loved Sehar. It was damn good. Somebody realised that there is police and crime story beyond Mumbai and underworld. It was a new perspective. The powerful words still resonate…woh daag daag ujala.
The counted few story writers think that the world is from churcgate to borivili and then switzerland, australia,malaysia and few other places for summer vacations. There is a differnt India too and there are many other untold stories…thats why loved khosla ka ghosla,hazaroon khwashein aisi, apharan, dor, parineeta,rockford,iqbal.And then yshraj tries to tell one small town story…bunty and babli…it looks so fake because BNBs…they dont move to big cities just to fall in love, get married and settle down. Because Yashraj doesnt knwo the world of real bunties and bablies. Thats why we need the bastards…not only from Mumbai but outside…to have new stories.
Taxydriver…many regional movies are good. Even in west bengal too. But teh case is same everywhere…mindless films are making money. The deal is to crack the code for smaller films. A producer doesnt want to spend 5 crores on a 2crore good movie. But he will spend 5 crore easily on a 1o crore movie. Whereas a 2crore movie needs more promotion that the usual big one. UTV picked up Khosla ka ghosla after it was lying for almost 2years and then had big money on its promotion to create that buzz, cz its a small movie.
The favorite line of many filmmakers is…movies are not big or small. Audiences make it big or small after its release…..but not everyone is willing to take risk with small ones.
@Chaitanya: I love these ’smallish’ (wrong word, I know) movies that turn out to be li’l gems; thought ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ was very nice, and liked ‘Being Cyrus’ a lot too (and o-boy, thought Daud was hilarious). My comment here is mainly in response to you asking for similar films in other languages:
MALAYALAM:
Vadakkunokki Yanthram (Device That Faces North): This was recently remade into Hindi with Rajpal Yadav as ‘Main Meri Patni Aur Woh’, which I havent seen though. Directed by and starring popular screenplay writer-cum-actor Sreenivasan dealt with the inferiority complex of an average-looking man, married to a beautiful woman.
Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala (Pensive Shyamala): Made by the same director, took a hilarious look at the inherent lazy attitude of an average citizen. Brilliant, really.
TAMIL:
Five-Star: The story of 4 friends trying to trace a fifth friend who’s gone missing. The entire team was made up of freshers, I think. Was a pretty neat effort.
Kaathal (Love): One of last year’s best movies, undoubtedly – features right up there on my lis. Tells the usual tale, but the ambience and ethos that the director creates are straight out of life.
Lots more, of course……but didn’t want to post a huge comment
.
Ranjit, even I simply adore gems like Khosla Ka Ghosla. I wouldn’t include Being Cyrus in my list but Mixed Doubles is a personal favourite. And please carry on with your list.
@Chaitanya: Also though ‘Pyar Ke Superhit Forumlae’ was okayish. There are a whole lot of Mallu movies that would fit easily into this list – small, reasonably-priced and natural. However am ignoring anything that has *stars* in it here. Continuing with my list….
MALAYALAM
Akale (Faraway): Is an adaptation of Tennessee William’s play named The Glass Menagerie. Was flawed, but thought it was a decent effort. Was especially impressed by the performance of Gitu Mohandas (who depicted Laura).
Kakkothi Kaavile Appooppan Thadikal: Very difficult to translate, is a title that evokes a lot of nostalgic feelings though. Roughly means the milkweed seeds floating around small temples (that’s a TERRIBLE translation!). Was one of the earliest movies of Kamal, who’s now a renowned director (he made Perumazhakkalam, that was remade by Nagesh as Dor). This is a gem of a movie, but largely ignored :( !!
TAMIL
Indira: Think this was dubbed into Hindi as Priyanka…features the lovely ARR number Thoda Thoda Pyar Ho Gaya..Was directed by Suhasini Maniratnam, and was released alongside ‘Bombay’, which all but swallowed it up, of course. Neverthless, it was a pretty decent effort.
Dum Dum Dum: *ing Madhavan and Jyothika, this was a simple, simple movie. Candyfloss, but nothing that made you cringe. Wonder why nobody remade this into Hindi.
Ranjit: Even I thought P.K.S.E. was okayish. But good list yaar. I will def. try to watch these films when I find them with subtitles.
By the way guys, I forgot to include one very very important name in the list of rotten kids of papa Hollywood; P.T.Anderson! Brilliant!
So artists like Michelangelo and Leornado da vinci are fucking sellouts right? I mean those fucking idiots. They sold out to the goddamn vatican church. The pope told them to do their thing and like every other corporate shill they took the money and didn’t say anything. I wonder what political or social message is contained in la pieta?
I’ll grant you this: The studio system in Bollywood is goddamned disgusting. You don’t even know where the money is coming from and I’m not gonna start some libelous shit about ongoing mafia financing.
I’ve had friends and relatives finance my projects so I fail to understand what is so wrong with the studio ensuring that they get good returns on their investment. You should find a studio that believes in you and your work, and not “sell out” immediatley. Look at people like Dave Chappelle, he coulda had a million dollar deal in the 90s. Chappelle’s show was in negotiations for years. He took his time and ensured his artistic integrity would be respected and upheld at whatever place he worked.
2 years of great comedy, and a $50 million deal. When he felt his integrity was compromised, he up and left, because he respected himself too much to worry about the money, that he had plenty of anyway.
@Ranjit: Chinthavishtayaya Shyamala, Five Star and Indira were above-average movies, but not in a must-watch list I’d put up. I’d recommend DDD for relaxation; but wonder how much fun it would be not knowing the language.
@Randramble: Its not really a list of must-watch films…its more a list of ’small’, quirky films that deserve to be noticed.
I’d disagree with you about ‘Chinthavishtayaya..’ (btw Chaitanya, this figures on the rediff list too!!), the film was a brilliant take on the average Malayali – a brilliant satire, a genre not so often seen in Indian cinema, I guess.
say that to Orsen wells.ever heard of ‘touch of evil’.
you are confusing between rich and powerful people with monopoly. Popes and kings were not monopoly on art..but studios are.in the 60’s even the theatres were owned by the studios and the courts ruled to sell them away.
when studios (they will) come to india, it will be good for while..but once they become powerful and control the means of production and distribution..then starts the trouble.sucking cock is a problem to lot of filmmakers…but they have a choice from hundreds of producers…not the few studio heads and their minions.
chiatanya : what i mean by usual suspects are the filmmakers you mention..
every one watch ‘pulp fiction’ and then come and tell that india lacks tarantino.
people dont mention those great film makers i admire..your article is not wrong..its just amateurish ..
ranjit : i am noting down all the movies u mentioned…can u plz go back to 70’s and 80’s era tooo.My roommate talks about this director called charan in tamil nadu.
when he described charans movies..they reminded me somewhat of ozus movies..
can u talk a bit abt his movies…
Taxydriver: ‘people dont mention those great film makers i admire’ ????? Hmmmm…:-”:-? No one forced you to write such elaborated comments on an amateurish post in the first place…
..i watch o’reilly too..what does that prove?
@Taxydriver: Its Cheran, I think. He has great storytelling skills, but his direction can sometimes be amateurish (and this is purely my opinion, he’s a much-acclaimed director). His recent movies were:
Autograph: a nostalgic movie about one’s lost loves; should have been named Autobiography instead! Reportedly, all major heroes and producers refused to back Cheran, until he decided to produce and act in the movie himself. Turned out to be the sleeper hit of the year. Think they’re gonna remake this in Hindi with Vivek (yeah, sriker!)
Thavamy Thavamirundhatu (The Patient Wait, roughly): Much better than the former, directorially if not in novelty. its about a son’s love for his father. Avoids melodrama, features decent performances.
Not very sure about the 70s, but the 80s had Malayalam cinema at its best. Check out any of the movies of the director P. Padmarajan – he usually wrote his own screenplays, and his movies (16 or so) were so completely different from one another (and most of these were BRILLIANT films as well), you’d often think you were dealing with a different director. Notable ones, personal favorites…
Moonnam Pakkom (Third Day): About a grandfather and his sole relative, his grandson.
Namukku Parkkan Mundiri Thoppukal (Vineyards For Us To Dwell): Deals with incestous feelings that a stepfather has toward his step-daughter. One of my personal favorites.
Thoovana Thumbikal (Butterflies In Gentle Showers – sounds lovely in Malayalam, despite my terrible translation)..the most beatiful depiction of a love triangle I have ever seen.
Lots more..check out this site, gives a lot of info about Malayalam cinema (this is the Padmarajan page):
http://www.cinemaofmalayalam.net/padmarajan.html
India doesn’t need a tarantino. India needs original filmmakers with their own visions and stories to tell. Hell, I’d settle for an Indian Michael Bay or Brett Ratner, those are filmmakers who weren’t influenced by truffaut or kurosawa, these guys are the perfect pop filmmakers, who grew up in the 80s watching beverly hills cop and top gun and television, so that’s what they base their style on.
Anangbhai: That’s exactly what I am trying to say. Tarantino is just a reference point for thinking out of the box. But some matured people just don’t get the point.
autograph was ok. i don’t see the hullaballoo created about how awesome of a movie it was. can’t believe it’s being remade in hindi with vivek..!!
i went to the premiere of thavamai thavamirindhu in chennai, and believe me it was an ass-number… as in my ass was NUMB by the time i got done watching this movie. again critically-acclaimed, but in my books, long and dragged out with melodrama coming out the ears.
cheran’s gift lies in the fact that he can make movies at the ultimate grassroot level and get them to connect with the masses. audience sheds a few tears (not me.. i was too busy shifting my ass trying to keep it from going numb), reporters write away, and BAM. critical success. how about judging it as a movie instead??
i haven’t seen his other movies.. but i think i’ll pass…
Autograph, in my book, got full marks for novelty. But some sequences – esp the Kerala ones – were mediocre, and the lack of research showed (for instance, the Malayalam spoken was abominable). Like I said, I found the direction not upto the mark. Read about the Vivek remake somewhere, that he’d acquired the rights or something like that.
Thavamai, I found better (though I did watch it at home). Melodrama…well, not of the K3G kinds, certainly. Suits the Tamil grass-root ethos, I guess, like you said.
found on the net:
Adoor Gopalakrishnan – Born in 1941 in Kerala, Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s films reflect the idyllic atmosphere and gentle pace of life in the southern city, and the inevitable crisis of change. His highly accomplished and narratively minimalist films present an acute awareness of human relationships and social inequity. Generally considered to be his greatest film, Elippathayam (The Rat Trap) is a graceful, poetic, and metaphoric film that explores the vestigial effects of feudalism and class stratification on a decadent, yet increasingly irrelevant, aristocratic family. Gopalakrishnan further explores similar themes of the inconstancy of individual perception and reality in Mukhamukham (Face to Face) and Anantaram (Monologue).
Govindan Aravindan – Like his contemporary Gopalakrishnan, Govindan Aravindan was born in Kerala. The son of famed humorist Govindan Nair, Aravindan’s films reflect his artistry as a painter and his acute sense of social observation as a satirist. His distinctive early films displayed his penchant for narrative economy, symbolism and inference, natural sounds, visual composition, and minimal dialogue. His first film, Uttarayanam (The Throne of Capricorn), understatedly examines the economic turmoil of a post-colonial 1970s India through a young graduate’s inability to find employment (a topic similarly explored by Ray in Jana Aranya). Hood cites Kanchana Sita (Golden Sita), a story adapted from the Indian epic, Ramayana, on the interrelationship between man and nature, and Thampu (The Circus Tent), a poignant examination of human cruelty and alienation, to be among Aravindan’s finest films. In contrast to the social realism of his early films, Aravindan’s subsequent films, Kummatty (The Bogeyman) and Esthappan (Stephen), possess elements of fable and suspension of disbelief to illustrate his familiar themes of harmony with nature and human compassion.
Ritwik Ghatak – Born in Dhaka in the former region of East Bengal in 1925, Ritwik Ghatak experienced the trauma of the Partition of Bengal that occurred after gaining independence from the British in 1947. Consequently, Ghatak’s poignant and personally relevant cinema often reflect the tragedy of exile, displacement, and poverty. Hood cites Ghatak’s 1960s films as his artistic and narrative zenith: Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star) portrays the travails of a displaced middle class East Bengal family in Calcutta; Komal Gandhar (E-Flat) chronicles the rivalry between two acting troupes of a once united theatrical company; Subarnarekha examines the divergent fates of two idealistic refugee teachers. Plagued by a propensity for self-indulgence and lack of discipline, as reflected in his final film, Jukti Takko Ar Gappo (Argument, Discussion, and Story), Ghatak nevertheless creates a profoundly moving portrait of the human condition and the devastation of imposed geographic, social, and political division.
paul thomas anderson is a brilliant director…loved watching his gems like magnolia & boogie nights…yet to watch sydney…hoping to catch it very soon…
Dear chaitanya:
I read about your documentary on DNA and have been looking to meet you. After a few calls and mails whose barter was time, here i am.
I need to speak to you about a few other things besides your documentary and would like to meet with a copy of your documentary and any other work you have done earlier.
Please call me or write an email to me.
PS: UTV-Palador is a division of UTV.
Mo Polamar
mohan@utvpalador.com
UTV – PALADOR
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