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Where does Hindi Cinema go from here!!
This year has seen some abysmal productions, some “just there” kinds and a smattering of good ones. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly, as the case may be), reviews and blogs have torn into some of the movies that have done well. Some horrible ones have just been put aside, dismissed, if that is the right word. I foresee some more in this category starting with “C Kkompany” or whatever the numerologically inane name is!!
Frankly, cinema, as we know it, and all of us discuss very energetically here, is going through one of its most difficult transitions in its history of 80 odd years in India. Let me put up some unpalatable facts here:
Arthouse or alternative cinema is not doing well in India and this is not just due to lack of viewer interest. It is also due to paucity of good stories, sharp film makers, committed Production houses and lastly an adequate store of good actors to walk those roles correctly. Commercial cinema suffers from all the above and more, directors and producers who have not been to hinterland India at all and know about Akola, Ranikhet, Anantapur or Palghat only when a gangster is killed there or a bomb blast happens in those places. So, they write the language of New York, Mumbai and Singapore. Even when they attempt something with the hinterland it comes out as muddled and cringe worthy as TASHAN. Ah! And when they finally plot a story in the hinterland, the language, characters and ambience becomes fake. By some huge boon from the lord above all this is also put right then we have the same stock actors having to enact the village or small town roles lending no newness to the story
Ex: all village based female characters are being enacted by Konkona or Nandita. Why? Simple question. But can I have a simple answer? No, because Andheri, Oshiwara and Goregaon rule. No casting director wants to take the trouble of moving out of the comfort of Mumbai, go to Meerut, Jabalpur or Kakinada to find talent anymore!
Look at our past and see the gems that have come out of the Indian hinterland. Rakhee came from rural West Bengal, Jayaprada from coastal Andhra, Waheeda and Tabu from Hyderabad and a host of others in the 50s and 60s who were brought into the Indian cinema from various small towns of South or North India. They created some memorable characters on Indian screen for us to remember and savour. Waheeda in Guide, Zeenat in Qurbani, Sharmila in Amar Prem, Jaya Bhaduri in Guddi, Tabu in Chandni Bar, Padmini Kolhapure in Woh saat din, Suchitra Sen in Aandhi, Konkona in Omkara or even Sridevi in Mr. India. They brought spice and talent to our movies, coming from various parts of the country. Look at now, of course many would say that Tabu and Konkona are still around, but why do always see the same carbon copies doing the same inane things on screen, even gyrating to the same way when any number crops up!
This was about the actresses. Now, about the actors. Firstly, it is so shameful that lately these actors have become dancers, item boys, gossip masters, dandies and story writers all rolled into one. Where does it leave the film? Why, because huge amounts of money ride on these guys. The Corporations want to sell their music, trailors, commercials, theatricals, overseas and video/TV rights in proper fashion and since there is no heroine who can pull this off all by herself, so my dandy man, come along, and perform better than Rakhi Sawant up there, we want to see you happening there. The actor does not shave, puffs his chest, rolls his biceps, purses his lips, tunelessly sings ARR ditties, wears tight shirts and a lot of bling, talks about some unknown fetish and just stops short of hugging a pole and strip in front of ogling audiences. WTF???
Now, count the real actors amongst them. Paresh, Irrfan, Kay Kay, Aamir, Zakir, Ranvir, Vinay, AB, Pankaj, Naseer, Om Puri, Sharman, Boman, Saif, Akshay and Shreyas deliver the goods reasonably. Some others like Ajay, Abhay, SRK, Anupam, Aditya, Govinda and Rahul deliver intermittently. The rest, well, I would reserve my comments here. I exclude actors without a body of work. So, I exclude the young actors debuting in the last two years. Also, the way they are being paraded, I do not see much hope for them unless one among them puts his head down like Saif and works really hard on himself and his performances. But what of the actors in other parts of the country? We have no knowledge of them. All right, the South exists in its own realm and so there is a Jeeva, a Suman Kalyan or a Mahesh Babu. But, having checked them out, I find no difference between them and a John. Hard working but acting….mmmm!! The rest of the country wallows in mediocrity – Bengali, Assamese, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Rajasthani, Gujarati, all of them. Marathi cinema has woken up after Dombivili Fast but actors are far and between! Sad scene.
Then we come to the hallowed directors. All right guys, I know you will protest that your good scripts are not heard, are not narrated, actors hear you during their makeup and lunch, actresses cannot understand if you speak in Hindi, a script based out of Buldhana has to transmuted to London before you have been given the signing amount (when they deign to give you that!), you want that Wang Kar Wai lighting, a narrative like what Nolan has done with TDK and these guys give you an edict, four songs, one orgasmic item song, even if you cannot fit that into the narrative, do put that into the and credits, get SRK or Salman or Ranbir or that Harman. As it is, Aamir and Hrithik have already refused you! So, there starts the grind of your career and you compromise all the way.
But, isn’t there a way to stop this slide. Hasn’t the actor Aamir and the movie Aamir shown a way out of this morass. Hone your craft, be so passionate so that relevant people do take notice of you. Work hard at alternatives because a plan has to condition failure in and make a film that is honest to our country, its sensibilities and its little nuances. Tell a good story, pick up good actors from anywhere, make them sing, cry, laugh, emote, fight, die or live happily ever after, budget be damned!
I am not professing here, not my place. But, movies like Khuda key Liye, Aamir, Khosla ka Ghosla and Black Friday have succeeded without any apparent compromise anywhere. So, there is no reason why you should start a movie like”Summer of 2007” and make those huge compromises that you have gone and done. The cast and crew, I am sure was eager, but what’s happened..your producer dictated things..or you wanted suddenly to appeal to everyone…heck!!!
Writers! They there? Where?…….Weren’t they the most important part of a creative pursuit or something wrong in the way the masters thought?
Let me bell the cat here. Say, if I were to give a director a thrilling story about a Radioactive coin collector at the Orissa – Jharkhand border trying to do a multi crore deal with ruffians from Bangladesh, Nepal, Bihar through an agent from Tirunelveli. What would my dear script writer and director do?
Can I have the forum please!
28 Responses to “Where does Hindi Cinema go from here!!”
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Something close to what i think
Well,your idea would be be mutated into a hero who’s a combo of Rambo and Indy Jones,a heroine or maybe 2,1 of whom would be a local gal unwittingly tagging along,and the 2nd one definitely a leather clad wakaw lookin chick,the ruffians will strangely be led by a villain so over the top you can’t believe he can control a hamster and add to this a hazaar shitty comedy scenes,total maar dhaad,explosions etc,an item number or 2 and only a passing reference to the protagonist’s hobby ;)
But that’s just bollywood.
I’ll just go into hibernation for 2 weeks and come out with something remotely interesting :D
An awesome first post!!! Welcome to PFC!
And, just because your dear script writer and director love your narration enough to not tamper with it, will director’s producer do the same, or force songs, an item number, and a love story onto your idea ;)
@t!..Thanks..a love story in the jungles of Jharkhand with daakus around..takes me back to the Pran days:))
Indraneel: welcome! so there’s another one to meet next time in Mumbai. May be try out some ex-chef’s specialities as well!
Aao aao Indraneel babu :) welcome to PFC :)
@Subrat n Oz…bhaiya log…Thanks..hope to follow the illustrious and hallowed footsteps of both of you..
Indraneel, Hindi cinema is going to follow the path it’s always been on, with a few detours here and there. We just have to join the caravan and enjoy the journey!
Good to see you as a PFC author!
Welcome! Everything you’ve said holds true. Irrfan Khan has said “Our art movies need to be more entertaining and our commercial movies need to be more sensible.” He put it very well. I’m hopeful, though, Aamir, Mitya, Khosla Ka Ghosla, Black Friday, Ek Hasina Thi, Ab Tak Chhappan, Chak De - these films have all made me optimistic
Great post Indraneel……
Btw, i think that depends on the sort of people trying to make a mark in Bollywood and what do they think of making changes in the way our movies are made…..Even the film makers who are trying to make movies or who have interesting scripts need to stand by the story they are trying to portray and not succumb to the demands of the producers which invariably end up hampering the end product…
We need more film makers like Kashyap, Banerjee, Raghavan, Kamat, Gupta who keep on trying to raise the standards for our cinema….
Until then, we still wont see a change within the so called Commercial format of our movies and will require to put up with the so called crap that is dished out in the name of cinema week after week….
Still, i agree with what u said …Hope to see more intersting stuff from u Indraneel….
again somethign close to what i think
“Ex: all village based female characters are being enacted by Konkona or Nandita. Why? Simple question. But can I have a simple answer? No, because Andheri, Oshiwara and Goregaon rule. No casting director wants to take the trouble of moving out of the comfort of Mumbai, go to Meerut, Jabalpur or Kakinada to find talent anymore!”
the girl who plays paro in dev d is a girl from punjab who is supposedly really really good
lets wait and watch :)
“All right, the South exists in its own realm and so there is a Jeeva, a Suman Kalyan or a Mahesh Babu. But, having checked them out, I find no difference between them and a John”
Dont know if your intention was to generalise but if it was you are sadly mistaken. In South the actor you named are not the people who are ruling the rooster. Just wanted to clarify that. And somehow Indian films are associated with Bollywood films which is a sad scenario since there are so many films down in south and also in lot of other regional languages which are far far better than the ones being made in Bollywood but dont get half the recognition because they ‘are just another film in India”.
well written indraneel…….
what i would like to add is this…
how many people are out there who think like you……
i have read about some wonderful films on pfc and enjoyed them but when i recommend them to my friends what i get to listen in return is…
” achi hai pa bahut slow hai yaar”
the most prevalent syndrome in this country is the HERD EFFECT…
when a Kuch Kuch hota hai does well u’ll get tens of filmmakers who would say ” arre mujhe kuch kuch hota hai jaisi film banani hai ”
so what u get in return is 10 shit movies…..
Anurag Kashyap said about Black that
” Black is a good movie to those who havent seen better”
this sums it all…
the quality of hit fims is pathetically low …..
and since the emphasis is always on making a hit film what we get is not even decent entertaining films but a rehash of five hit films of the past….
few interesting and heartening events have occured in this year………..
all the shitty movies churned out by yashraj have bombed inspite of having everything what it takes to make a so called hit film…..
i just hope tht this shakes them up and makes them a liitle more respnsible and sensible….
if they change …..i can atleast expect the herd effect to help in a postive way……..
@Indraneel,
Worry Not. If Hindi cinema has been existing since many decades then it will stay in future also. Every time there is something which is passing through the transition phase. Todays kings become ordinary tomorrow and new definitions come in to the existence.
Film work is deeply dependent on team work and slowly scene changes every few years and good teams are gathered around some visionary, energetic and talented people and cinema is enriched with their products. It has happened in every decade and this trend will go on.
It may be true to great extent that Jangal mein mor nacha kisi ne na dekha, because may be no human was present there then but even without seeing a free lion personally in a forest we always have this impression that he is there. That Lion is always there in the forest of Film world and he is not going to belong to extinct class.
Good things always exist less in numbers but they do exist and they write and define the history and not the everybody who may have speaking ability at a given time.
We dont know names of every stars but few chosen ones.
so there is nothing to worry.
Old palaces will go on decaying but new buildings will be errected.
Change is the law of Universe.
Welcome to PFC.
Thanx..Kenny, Mudassir, Ashwin, Arun, Rk!!
Shyam..did not mean to say that quality of actors in all cinema is bad, my point here is are the people being noticed..I’ll tell you about the guy who did Dombivili Fast as the protagonist..I do not know his name..unfortunate..but since then have only seen him in a small role in Traffic signal..so, where do regional actors stand!
Rk..saab..ummeed pe duniya kaayam hai..yes, do know that big ticket brainless films are flopping..but my say was not that..are the fresh makers putting enough heart into it..standing up for their products like Aamir..look at Aditya Lakhia..what nonsense is that Mission Istanbul??…he is supposed to be a educated film maker??!!..and Aamir had a scrap with Amolji to get his way..fight for your vision of creativity..not just survival..look at Anurag also..anyone else would have given up on Gulaal..anyone…but he didn’t..after this the sad thing would be if does injustice to his script(not that he will do it..itna to keh hi sakte hain)…so, ummeed pe duniya kaayam hai!!!
Interesting post - and I do agree with a number of the points that you have raised here, especially the one about rural and small town talent and themes being squeezed out of contemporary Hindi cinema (Katrina devi, bahot saal ho gaye, ab to Hindi seekhiye).
Though may I venture to suggest that you have used some very broad brush-strokes to paint this picture?
Art-house movies have never really played to full houses in India ever. I think Ardha Satya did well in its time, but it was more the exception than the rule.
Also, I would argue that the art-house commercial balance is about the same as it has been in every decade of film-making in Hindi films and there have always been alternative cinema stalwarts who’ve done their own thing to great acclaim.
KA Abbas, Guru Dutt, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Shyam Benegal, Sai Paranjape, Rajat Kapoor
See the continuity there? There’s cinema with mass appeal and cinema with niche appeal and they’ve always managed to coexist fairly well, and I believe would continue to do so.
@Dewi..I agree that I have given a broad brush stroke to Hindi Cinema today and the art house - commercial balance with the makers that you have mentioned exists..but with the emergence of so much talent after RGV’s and Mani Ratnam’s emergence in the 90s, one would have thought that contemporary cinema shall have just crossed that barrier between art and commercial and jumped at making good, thoughtful yet commercial cinema. Cinema that would keep viewers glued for two odd hours with or without music. Has that happened?
Some exceptions that did not do well because of the Producers anathema towards marketing his product should be put aside. Ex: Manorama, Haasil, Sehar, etc.
In fact, I shall always take Chandni Bar as the example of how Good Cinema should be made, Produced, acted out, marketed all at a very reasonable cost. How many guys have managed what Madhur Bhandarkar has done. He still plays in his corner of the sandpit and relatively does well. His reviews are not all that great but yet he gets good viewer interest just on the strength of his subjects.
Traffic Signal was not the most well made movie, but tell me who would have attempted that subject and put in actors of the calibre of Ranvir, Konkona, Neetu Chandra into characters that he has done. This is storytelling integrity. Something that your above mentioned directors had in abundance and yes, Rajat has it too. Mithya is still this year’s best out of Mumbai!
there is no suman kalyan in south. There is no south for that matter. there is only Telugu, tamil, kannada and malayalam.
And there are plenty of good actors among these - Surya, Vikram, Prithviraj, Sudeep, Jeeva(o and John Abraham is not in the same planet as this guy as far as acting is concerned), to name but a few. Sadly, I cant think of a Telugu actor who fits the description but that is neither here nor there.
Indraneel great post.I completely agree with ur views on Madhur Bhandarker.He is a great director who has made attempts to lesson gap betweem commercial and art cinema and to some extend succeeded with his movies.If only directors like David Dhavan,Karan Johar take audience seriously and make some attempts to change their style then only this gap can be bridged to some extent
great write up! Would like to add a point - Its sad to see directors/producers changing the spelling of their movie name just because their astrologer advise them to do so. Singh is “kinng” - is a fine example for this. Director believe that if only the movie is renamed as Kinng (instead of king) he foresee the success. What else bullshit you want to laugh !!!
[...] LINK [...]
You will probably laugh harder on how crappy Singh the Kinng is and wonder how and why on earth this movie could be a blockbuster.
@Soha..what to say..Indians world over root for “timepass” movies..the Indianised Indiana Jones kind..whats crap for us is a good time for many others..In fact, sometimes I do feel that we get what we deserve, also, that as a society we have dumbed down from even the 90s..so, the “KINNG” rules the roost!
@Sharath, Zia..Thanks!
[...] LINK [...]
yes Indraneel i agree very much with you.. definitely as a society we have dumbed down.. that can be seen in the level of discussions people do in public or private places.. books we read, programs we see.. everything, even politicians have dumbed down as we see the lack of wittiness in recent session of parliament..
so its not only films we as a society are a dumber lot.. i totally relate with Ashwin what he calls HERD EFFECT
hmm….khudaaaa jaaaaneeee……