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Dark Horses
In a
year of unexpected hits, the Hindi film industry gets real and learns
to live without gossamer romances. INDIA TODAY Principal Correspondent
Sandeep Unnithan takes a look.
There
was a time in Hindi cinema when the formula was clear: babe in bustier
plus Khan hero plus exotic foreign locale plus music equals hit. Not anymore.
With the exception of the teenage love flick Mujhe Kuch Kehna Hain,
this year's box office triumphs have steered clear of stereotype and have
changed the way films are going to be made.
If Gadar was a violent story of cross-border romance, Lagaan,
a period film was about a cricket match. Other hits which have the industry
doing reality checks include the breezy male bonding themed Dil Chahta
Hai and the dark, realistic story of a bar girl in Chandni Bar and
even the unlikely Kasoor. More recently, it was the vigilante supercop
battling terrorists in Indian and the period epic Asoka which were
packing in audiences across the country.
There's something conspicuously absent in this hit list. Whatever happened
to those DKNY and Versace-swathed NRIs spouting joint-family values and
pursuing lissome lasses on the hills and vales of Switzerland? Well, Aditya
Chopra's Mohabbatein sidled past the box office with this formula last
year. But this year's superduds, Subhash Ghai's Yaadein, Rajiv
Rai's Pyaar Ishq Aur Mohabbat and Suneel Darshan's Ek Rishta
weren't so lucky.
Evidently, the love and relationship formula is now running out of steam.
Says trade analyst Komal Nahta: "We've had an overdose of syrupy
sweet musicals---today a Hum Aapke Hain Kaun wouldn't be as sweet
as it was in 1994.'' While the 1960s and early 1970s were about love and
romance, the late 1970s saw the rise of the angry young man whose fists
continued flying until he was displaced by the Rajshree and Yash Chopra
brand of gossamer romances and musicals in the 1990s. It was this which
heralded the renaissance of the cinema hall whose foundations had been
shaken by the blows of video and cable TV. Films like Hum Aapke Hain
Kaun and Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and their clones with
their staple of weddings, joint families and romance in exotic locales
drew millions of viewers and set new box-office standards. Then for several
years, the only variation in these assembly-line romances meant hunting
for fresher locales or adding a third angle to the jaded love triangle.
But these themes have now been beaten to death. Anything that doesn't
conform to these stereotypes is the done thing now. As Karan Johar says,
"We're heading for a film zone like you have in Hollywood, where
mainstream commercial films and art house movies co-exist, where a blockbuster
like Gladiator is released with an offbeat Chocolat. Filmmakers
will now serve every dish possible.''
The industry line-up in the next few months is just that, an entertainment
smorgasboard of period films, crime capers and historic flicks. Revving
up their motors are Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period-epic Devdas, J.P. Dutta's
20-hero Kargil war epic LOC (Line of Control), Company Ram Gopal
Varma's tale of jousting mobsters, Rakesh Roshan's ET-esque sci-fi fantasy
Koi Mil Gaya starring Hrithik Roshan and Kaante, Sanjay Gupta's
bank heist gone awry.
Johar's mammoth Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum may well be the last big
film of its genre. The director says he plans to make his next film smaller
and with fewer artistes. Perhaps one that's closer to life. Star-producer
Aamir Khan who has given two box-office hits this year, said recently,
"The audience is not merely open to change, it wants new, fresher
films.''
Producers and directors are now free to pursue dream projects. The period-historical,
for instance, strictly taboo since the Raziya Sultan disaster in
the early 1980s are now happy hunting grounds. A soaring credit rating
now sees Sunny Deol planning two multi-crore period flicks, a Bhagat Singh
bio-pic star
on Prithviraj Chauhan with him in the title role. Jackie Shroff, meanwhile,
will soon be shaving his moustache and donning khakhi to play Subhash
Chandra Bose. Says Devdas director Bhansali: "Formerly good
cinema was synonymous with parallel cinema. Now mainstream cinema is also
trying to be different and we should be applauded for that.''
Also worthy of applause is the infusion of new talent into the industry.
Two of the hit films this year, Chandni Bar and Dil Chahta Hai,
were made by young debutant directors, Madhur Bhandarkar and Farhan Akhtar.
Lagaan was steered by a two-film old Ashutosh Gowariker. Though
banned by the censors, first-time director Anurag Kashyap's stab at film
noir, Paanch, has already won critical acclaim in the limited circles
in which it has been screened. The industry mood now mirrors that of the
villagers in Lagaan in their perennial wide-eyed wait for the rain
cloud. Except the wait here is for more box-office successes. The bigger
the better.
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