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Vidhu Vinod Chopra - Where the maverick filmmaker goes wrong OR Am I confused
iView Author: Shashank Walia
(Delhi, India)
EMAIL: shashankwalia [at] live [dot]com
Vidhu Vinod Chopra - Where the maverick filmmaker goes wrong OR Am I confused ?
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Now nobody can ignore the contribution of Vidhu Vinod Chopra in bringing quality cinema to India after a decade of qualitative and creative block. He was one of the first few directors who dared to be different in that existing era of commercialization. He is over-confident, self obsessed but at the same time he is highly talented. The aesthetical and technical sense of this director is considered to be one of the finest in today’s time.
Starting with Murder at the Monkey Hill, his diploma film at FTII, it promised us an intelligent filmmaker in making. The film was a satirical pop up on a Bombay film financier who never gave enough money to make a full film. The way the shots have been taken, the concept and its execution, the way film builds up the suspense, it showed that Vidhu Vinod Chopra has some brilliant cinematic sense in him. In this film he focused more on the concept and its execution rather than the performances by the actors (he played the lead himself). But then expecting to get every damn thing right from a debutant filmmaker is also not a good habit.
Then came a nonfiction film An Encounter with faces, which got nominated for an Academy Award for Documentary short subject. It also won numerous awards in the international film festival circuit. Well this film certainly brought honor to our country in terms of production of a creative art form. Then came Saza–e-Maut that I have not seen and unfortunately know very little about that film so I may not write much about the film except that it was taken well by the critics at that time.
The film that literally sent chills through my nerves when I first saw it was a true Hitchcockian suspense thriller Khamosh, which is also considered as cult due to its popular demand in the video market. The best thing about this film is the way it unfolds the whole mystery. The suspense builds up in a typical Hitchcock style; making viewers glued to it till the end. The film was shot on very tight budget but it still holds very good production and technical values. Another very interesting point that I loved in the film was the tribute to Alfred Hitchcock by the means of playing the shower scene of the film PSYCHO on Television while Shabana Azmi, the main protagonist is taking a bath. Till now Vidhu Vinod Chopra works the way one expects him to.
Then comes the much awarded film Parinda which is also considered to be as a trend setter by various film lovers due to its documentarian style of filming despite the fact that Ardhsatya came much before it. May be the confusion went in to the conflict that the latter was an art film and Parinda was realistically shot crime drama which had elements of commercialism. Now here starts the problem. Parinda is one of my favorite films due to its sheer technical and aesthetical brilliance but at a point Vidhu Vinod Chopra compromises on various levels to give elements of commercialism in the film. Especially the song in the end where Jackie Shroff and Anil Kapoor plans their future life – Now that was very abrupt and unexpected stuff in a film that promises so much. It can easily be noticed that songs in the film have been put up to make it saleable in the market. Hats off to the film’s cinematographer Binod Pradhan and editor Renu Saluja for justifying truly with the director’s vision. Parinda was the point from where the problem started.
Then after the gap of four years came the much-awaited historical drama 1942 – A Love Story. The film was released on video on the same day of its theatrical release, which ultimately led to the box office failure. The aura, the mood, the performances, the cinematography, the music, the editing, the sets, the direction, and the screenplay everything was just perfect except the angle of making a realistic film commercial again. Yes the film was totally fictional but at the same time it promised to portray the struggle of Indian revolutionaries and civilians during the British Raj, which is presented brilliantly in parts but too much involvement of love story and the unachieved love triangle later on destroys the spice of the film. The only problem of the film was that it becomes too filmy at a point of time. Also special mention about the boss R.D.Burman for providing splendid and soothing songs for the film which were beautifully shot by Sanjay Leela Bhansali who was also credited as Director Of Songs.
Kareeb was a sincere attempt to go out of the settled genre by the filmmaker and make an out and out love story. To me it was hang over of the unfulfilled love angle of 1942 – A Love Story. The film was not his best and so not much analysis goes in to it.
Mission Kashmir could have been Eklavya for Vidhu Vinod Chopra i.e. it could have been the film which would have taken the filmmaker with such different and unique sensibilities to the University of California and Los Angeles and Academy of Motion Picture Sciences much before Eklavya. With a subject close to his heart and again a brilliantly shot story goes wrong when the filmy “Bumbaro”, “Rind Posh Mal” and “Chupke Se Sun” comes to destroy a well prepared curry. I was stunned at the time when I saw the film because of its unimaginable and spectacular cinematography and sound design. The film was taught us at the college for its technical point .
Watching Eklavya was definitely a treat, so what if there were only 20 people present in the theatre. The film boasts of great technical values with some earth shattering visual quality present in it too. The film won huge critical acclaim especially amongst the film critics and film lovers in the west. I was blown away by the revenge sequence where everything goes black and Eklavya kills the killer of his Maharaja with a knife just by sensing the sound of his breath. The film was just perfect except the end going filmy again where a bodyguard in conflict with a father in himself ultimately leading to trust his son and even the police officers seems to work in favor of him. Again the film goes filmyyyyyyyyyy.
I consider Vidhu Vinod Chopra one of the finest filmmakers in India today but a problem of getting lost in the transition of commercializing the film with various unrequited elements persists. His films are too good in parts but as a whole it struggles.
Is getting too many songs or a love angle in a said to be realistic film wrong or Is it a sin to become filmy at times or my expectation from this brilliant storyteller is too much or I am getting overcritical or simply AM I CONFUSED. Yes it can be a problem with me as I am no intellectual. May be you all at PFC can help.
23 Responses to “Vidhu Vinod Chopra - Where the maverick filmmaker goes wrong OR Am I confused”
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nice writeup on someone i admire too…
had the same feeling about Mission kashmir , when i saw it for the first time i was blown away by it…but now i just regard it as a good film at best…
eklavya i feel sometimes is unfairly criticized …i loved the film…
one of my fav scenes in the movie is when sharmila tagore’s character dies and saif returns…u see a scene where women are crying all seen from top…..excellent camerawork..
i think he should also be given credit for producing some exceptional films like MunnaBhai 1 & 2 and parineeta and introducing talent like Raj kumar hirani , Pradeep sarkar and many others..
he seems to be a little snobbish about his work..though i wont judge him on that……
i read some where that he is collaborating with nicolas goodfellas pillegi for a hollywood film…hmmm sounds interesting
I found Eklavya a hollow film decorated by the grandeur of a palace and its impossible tryst with time. All the characters in the film, who appear and disappear against the colossal walls of the palace, are like mannequins out of someone’s decadent dream. Every character is granted more silence than speech, more inertia than action – not to highlight some existential angst, but to merely make them a spectacle for a tired and narcissist camera. The camera is more anxious to prove itself than the characters it wants to portray. A director who lost his vision, and later his hindsight, comes back after a gap to show the world what he’s learnt all these years. But he instead ends up showing what he’s not only not learnt but forgotten what he knew as well. So forget what you liked of Chopra in Parinda. Instead, we learn what essence of story telling he gobbled up from his ex-assistant’s Black – a residence cut off from time and society, characters that squeak and whisper more than speak, unable to either exist or exit, everyone being blissful victims of the director’s desire to make them human. But human beings for Bansali and now Chopra don’t even need air to breathe and face the world – they live and die within the cocooned world of the camera’s urge to “capture” them where they exist but as mere ghosts.
Mr. Chopra claims he took five years for writing the story. One wonders whether he lost the pages or the pages lost him. The main theme of the film – its take on the Eklavya story from The Mahabharata – could have been woven into an interesting script. But Chopra doesn’t allow that. Because, like so many others around and before him in Bollywood, Chopra began to take himself more seriously than his craft. And that calls for desperation when faced with doubts. So we heard him make the most ridiculous declaration that Eklavya was Amitabh’s best ever performance. The cheap, Rolls Royce publicity stunt is all we remember about the film though.
Hey Ashwin Now that shot you are talking about is brilliant use of jimmy jib. These kinda shot prroves the sensibilities to which VVC belongs too.
And yes he is working with Nicolas pillegi for his hollywood venture - Broken Horses.
@Manish
Yes you areright at a point that Eklavya culd have been a much better screenplay but he lost it. Thats what I have witten. Rest speaking about Bhansali or Chopra in this manner shows your dissapointment or anguish, but remember one thing that wheather it is Steven Spielberg or Martin Scorsese or Ridley Scott everybody seems to lost things in one or more of thier films. Nobody is perfec and so is the case with Chopra and Bhansali. As far as forgetting how to make a film is concerned the level of aesthetical and aesthetical value this two brilliant minds create is unachievable by any of the so called super duper hit directors today. Anurag Kashyap and Sreeram Raghvan are the only exception. Also talking about Eklavya - yes its not a great film but its not that bad as you state here, may be you are getting overcritical. As I said he has some great moments in his films but as a whole its appears to be grey.
While I personally enjoyed 1942ALS and Mission Kashmir, in my opinion, Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s graph has been going downhill since Parinda. One reason could be that Parinda was a classic, and it set expectations which are difficult to meet…
While you have a lot of good things to say about his movies like Kareeb and Eklavya, I am not aligned with the opinions. I don’t think either of them was a very good movie. I also find 1942 and Mission Kashmir to be entertaining, but nonetheless, nowhere close to the class of Parinda.
So, if you ask me, Vidhu Vinod Chopra did not go wrong anywhere. His case is like that of a batsman hitting a century on debut and being hailed as the next Tendulkar… he never was a next Tendulkar.. he was probably just a Dinesh Mongia who got lucky on his first innings, and always looks god in parts, but without exception fails to recreate his debut inning
Shashank,
Neat piece on an ever-relevant subject in Indian cinema: Vidhu Vinod Chopra.
I would like to just add a couple of points. Mr. Chopra tends to dabble in the tragic elements of his stories very, very deeply. Take ‘Mission Kashmir’ and ‘Ekalavya,’ for instance. The audience has no relief for about the first half hour of the film. No relief, whatsoever. There is nothing wrong with a bent toward tragic but even Good ol’ Shakespeare applied comic relief in ‘King Lear’.
In VVC’s media interactions in the past, he has talked about a gruesome and bloody Kashmir where he grew up. I sometimes wonder if his view of life has been influenced by his environment, and hence the bent toward tragedy in his works. Even Polanski’s ‘The Pianist’ has shades of his upbringing, for instance.
VVC gets most things right. He is an original thinker, as ‘Khamosh’ and ‘Parinda’ proved. He is also a natural in presenting drama and climax — Anupam Kher’s last scene in ‘1942: A Love Story’.
Lastly, his attention to detail is most useful when he is producer. I think ‘Munnabhai MBBS’ is a good example. A competent director meets a fabulous writer… and perhaps the best producer in the country completed the triangle. He is so good as producer because of his knowledge of the medium and passion for it.
@ shashank
You misplaced a vowel in my name but doesn’t matter :)
Let’s draw out the bones of the matter. Sharmila Tagore is brought out of retirement to do - for god’s sake - a death scene!! Boman Irani is made to look femininely masculine to tell us later he’s (obviously) impotent. How profound! Saif Ali Khan mouths five to six lines in the whole film including a shloka, and for the rest of his presence, shows us his biceps. After Saif’s ‘Omkara’ performance, all Chopra has for him is a bystander’s role. The women in the film were no different than the pigeons around the haveli. They flutter, look vulnerable and pretty, but they don’t matter. Jackie Shiroff is at best a zombie looking for a role. He finds none. Sanjay Dutt’s character appeared like a saving grace but since the film wasn’t looking for one – he was put away till the film was about to end the suffering. Amitabh Bachchan was turned into a designer’s delight, and the camera was happily taking pictures. Such are the ways in which the characters were treated and yet made to feel special. Because they were apparently directed by god himself!
Am not interested in mere technical finesse or in the bits-and-pieces of good cinematic moments. We have a tendency to do that for popular films. Get some solace out of pointing out to a good point here or there. But for me, a film’s essence is in the characterizations and how the director creates memorable performances through a meaningful script. I didn’t find it in Ekalavya.
@Nirav
Well i think that the example you gave with cricket in mind does not seems to impress me. Parinda is till not considered as classic in India rather it is a cult film. Secondaly yes Parinda is a trend setter and so is Mission Kashmir. VVC is not a great director, he is just very good director. And Yes at any cost he is now Dinesh Mongia - May be he is Rahul Dravid not in form.
Manash, I agree with you. I feel that VVC is himself not sure if commercial things come first or the film’s integrity. He chooses his subjects quite well but is permanently dazzled by the aura of big stars. So he keeps signing Anil, Madhuri, Jackie, Big B, Saif, Hritik, Sanju and so on. Then the budget shoots up. As a result, compromises have to be made in the script. The film has to sell too. So VVC’s flair for stunning visuals becomes more important from publicity POV than his storytelling skills. At the same time, VVC isn’t completely ready to sacrifice his film to the masala. So what we get is something that is neither here nor there. Raj Kumar Santoshi is another case which is mostly the same.
Here is where I feel, Ram Gopal Varma’s crooked genius makes him different from these guys. Ramu never takes his films too seriously, keeps making fun of himself. And once in a while, he does deliver a minor classic which straddles commerce and art both admirably well. So what if it is preceded by five duds!
@ Manash
Sorry bro for the spelling mistake. Its your point of the film and I dont agree with you on it. Its an immateurish and over critisicm. Yes the film had its fault but its not that bad the way you are portraying it to be.
Sanjeev
In my opinion you are right to an extent that VVC goes wrong at places but then comparing it to Ram Gopal Verma is also not the deal. VVC has far betther aesthetical and technical sense if he goes for a tilted pan shot he has a reason for it not like RGV who just plays around with the jimmy jib and super techno to prove hopw different he is. You know there is a shot in Sarkar Raj where the villan Govind Namdeo is sitting with his glasses on and you can easily sense a reflector and lights in it. This can be a small thing to you but then its all about filmmaking bro.
RGV has delivered good films like Rangeela, Satya and company but then he also had his share of blunders.
Shashank,
That Vidhu Vinod Chopra is technically brilliant, is well known and few question it!
Most people point to his earlier work.
I remember watching an interview of his( I think it was an History Channel production on Indian Cinema) in which he called all his earlier work (alluding to his first three film) “pompous” and an obvious attempt at working with Indian context in European manner.
The way he spoke almost made he clear they he was not to proud of it.
Parinda was not only a pause moment for Indian film goers ( no…not just because of a brilliantly shot love scene between Anil Kapoor and Maduri Dixit)but also for its maker.
Shashank, I did say that RGV’s one good film is usualy preceded by numerous painful ones. I am an ordinary film fan who tries to understand film making techniques. But the fact is that, after Parinda, I have never unquestionably liked a Vidhu film. 1942, Mission and Kareeb made me feel as if something vital was missing in them. As for Eklavya, I hated it. Period.
Here’s my thoughts:
Every director has an ambition to make a hit film. Directors like VVC also has parallel (and possibly superior) ambitions to satisfy his own creative ego, and garner critical acclaim.
Trying to keep a balance between those two, often opposing goals has to be immensely difficult task. You try to cater to the general public and the critics are going to frown at you. You make a movie to satisfy those who look at movies as an artistic expression, but the junta rejects your movie. The mass and the class meets at a very narrow alley. A great director tries to push through the boundaries of this “wiggle room”.
So I am sympathetic to VVC when he trie(d/s) to insert a song or two in his movies in a hope that they will not degrade the cinematic excellence of his movies, and at the same time the aam junta might enjoy them.
By the way, can someone *please* tell me how to get hold of DVD’s (if they exist) of Murder At The Monkey Hill, An Encounter With Faces, and Khamosh? (I live in the United States.)
“Is getting too many songs or a love angle in a said to be realistic film wrong or Is it a sin to become filmy at times or my expectation from this brilliant storyteller is too much or I am getting overcritical or simply AM I CONFUSED. Yes it can be a problem with me as I am no intellectual. May be you all at PFC can help.”
in reply to that question…i think its unecesarry but sometimes it can work to your advatadge
i think you should ignore to the words right and wrong and take a look at what works and what doesent
sometimes adding music or a love angle can work for the film and sometimes it can kill it
example
I initially thought the lvoe angle between sue and DJ in RDB was useless but it did work for the better as when later on in the film when dj dies…it did create a new moment for me
[yes i cried for sue]
even the music and “dance sequences” in rdb enhanced the movie completely
all of them were fucking important to the movie in my opinion
I was awestruck by a film by VVC, which unfortunately i cant remember the name. It is film produced by NFDC, naseeruddin playing the lead. I can say this movie gave me the best viewing experience till date, story fold n unfolds, twist n drama is mind blowing.
Can anyone tell me the movie name??i wanna watch it again
I am shocked actually, is he the same guy who gave us crappy kareeb n Ekalavya…
Srikanth Reddy - The name of the film is Khamosh.
Vishal - Khamosh is available on EROS DVD and Murder at Monkey Hill can be found in Palador World Cinema Collection. Its a short film which i got with Francois Trufautt’s Shoot The Piano Player. As far as encounter with faces is concerned I dnt think so its available commercialy.
Shashank,
My analogy was just to drive home my opinion on Vidhu Vinod Chopra - that he is probably not the so-called ‘great film-maker’ that you make him out to be. He just started with a flourish, but never was able to keep up to the standards he set initially. And Parinda is in no way a cult movie - It was hugely successful at the box office and also received critical acclaim - It was a classic movie and till date remains his best creation.
On another note, I agree with Manash’s observations on Eklavya, and I don’t see how they are immature and overcritical - he is right in saying that while Eklavya was aesthetically and visually appealing, it was not a great movie - It is an opinion which is very valid, and please take it in your stride in the right spirit.
Years ago, when Bachchan senior was in quiet retirement, yes, there was such a phase, one of the film magazines had asked the happening film makers then, what would they make with Bachchan if he decided to get back into the industry.
I cannot recollect who the string of directors was and what they said, but I remember one of them was Vinod Chopra and also a smattering of what he said.
Chopra mentioned, Bachchan as an artist, a painter to be precis. The idea was that the character would seclude himself in a cave to paint, while the world awaited.
The only two films Chopra will be remembered for so far is “Khamosh” and “Parinda”. I now wonder how and where they came from. Rest is trash. 1942 was a waste of a film - imagine all song and romance in the first half and all revolutionary nonsense in the second. The film did not move at all - except perhaps around Chopra’s head. Since then, he’s degenerated. Mission Kashmir was worse than a Kashmiri pandit’s view on Kashmir - it showcased the problem and beauty of Kashmir the way jingoists and tourist agencies do, respectively. I don’t need to say more.
Ha Lag’ukha battan ba’laye!
@Nirav
Well get your figures right, Parinda was just able to earn its production cost. Yes it was a critical succcess but who said a film with critical success cant be a cult film. I never called him a complete film-maker but yes he has some some brilliant technical and aesthetical sense. And yeah Manash’s arguement is totally taken in right spirit here, I myself never said Eklavya is a great film.I too said the same you have written. You are taking me in a wrong sense may be or may be I must have written in such fashion. I had issues with Manash on asking why Sharmila Tagore this and why that I mean these were not logocal enought to make me realise that it was bad film. You can talk about story structure, cinematography, screenplay, characterisation but stating a film bad on the point that how many minutes Sanjay Dutt had in it or Why Saif was standing upper stripped is not the way to critisice a film boss. I never stated anywhere that Eklavya is a great film, I just said it had it moments.
@Manash
I respect your opinion on 1942 - A love story and Mission Kashmir but i do not agree with you on it. And also I would like you to a bit more detailed in context of Mission Kashmir. You reasons for saying it bad does not impress me a bit.
@Vinayak
Boss what is your last post about.
@Srikanth (16)
The film is Sazaa.E.Maut