In the last few years, Bollywood has redeemed itself by engaging in the making of some truly worth-watching movies. With the concept of pan-India audience no longer existing, a new experimental phase in movie-making has begun, writes Devashish Chakraborty.
Indians, who were growing up watching Hindi cinema in the 60’s and 70’s of the last century, will surely find the current stream of Bollywood movies quite intriguing. People were as crazy about cinema then as they are now. It won’t be an exaggeration to state that Indians love their cinema and this love could go to any extent. The passion of Indians for movies was witnessed in all its aggressiveness for the first time when the Indian-style cowboy movie ‘Sholay’ was released in 1975. At most of the cinema theatres screening the movie, there was a clash for tickets. So much was the hype created around the movie that many were disappointed as they could not get the tickets. In fact, ‘Sholay’ may rightly be seen as a game-changer as far as Hindi cinema is concerned. The movie had afforded a taste of Hollywood-style cowboy movie to ordinary Indians who had little access to Hollywood movies at that time. Moreover, the movie gave a new dimension to the portrayal of violence making it more palatable than before. Who doesn’t enjoy Gabbar Singh’s dialogues and persona despite the fact that he perpetrated reel violence? Also, the movie had prepared the Indian audience for new subjects and newer modes of treatment of these subjects.
Unfortunately, nothing dramatic happened in the progress of Bollywood movies in the decades of 80’s and 90’s, barring a few good ones coming into being occasionally. The hackneyed phrase “masala movies” will suffice to describe all that happened for Bollywood in these two decades. Even after economic liberalization in India, it seems to have taken some time before Bollywood began to realize its inherent potential in the 21st century. Now some emerging trends are apparent for Bollywood and not all of them can be termed as healthy.
Phase of Experimentation
The current phase of Bollywood can rightly be seen as a period of intense experimenting with respect to subject, idea, theme, plot, structure, design, use of technology, characterization, choice of characters, and a host of other factors. With the world taking more interest in Bollywood and the movies it produces, a synergy between Indian and international filmmakers is easy to find. Indian audiences are now exposed to satellite television and watch international movie channels and T.V. serials. They are more open to subjects unthinkable even in the late 80’s and early 90’s. This has allowed Indian movie-makers to experiment with almost all facets of a movie just to gauge the mood of the public. Movies like ‘Nishabd’, ‘Delhi Belly’, ‘The Dirty Picture’ and several others seem to have been made with the aim of experimenting with somewhat unconventional themes for the Indian audiences. ‘Krrish’ and ‘Ra.One’ are also experiments with the use of technology such as using visual effects and animation techniques to the maximum possible.
More recently, movies like ‘Jism2’ and ‘Raaz3’ are all experiments in a bid to know how the Indian audiences feel about such movies loaded with sensuality, suspense and violence, which is sometimes of a subtle kind.
Demise of Pan-India Audience
Bollywood producers no longer make movies with pan-India audience in mind. Producers know about the target audience which they need to satisfy. An audience that would watch ‘Delhi Belly’ may not necessarily watch ‘The Last Lear’. The Delhi Belly audience would be in their 20s and 30s, educated and from urban areas, who are exposed to crass and crude humour and are fun-loving without being particularly of the serious kind. The Last Lear audience would be more conservative, serious-minded, probably in their 40s and beyond. The subtlety of a subject is what interests and impresses them. A movie like ‘English Vinglish’ can be watched with the whole family, whereas ‘Delhi Belly’ and ‘The Dirty Picture’, even ‘The Gangs of Wasseypur’ are difficult to watch along with your kids. The producers are well-aware of this aspect. Certainly, Pooja Bhatt did not make ‘Jism2’ with the intention of attracting people from all age-groups.
Besides making movies for the Indian audience, now producers are encouraged by the success of their movies in other countries. The nonresident Indian communities settled in different countries have maintained an India connection predominantly through Bollywood movies. ‘Love Aaj Kal’, ‘Patiala House’, ‘Singh is Kinng’ and many other movies cater to NRI audiences.
Changing Image of Reel Women
In Bollywood, we are witnessing for the first time movies which portray women in an entirely different light. A female character in any of Bollywood movies can be found to play second fiddle to her male counterpart. Females are portrayed as sensual characters without the need to highlight any of their other characteristics. In fact, our female actors could not match the popularity of a superstar like Amitabh Bachchan. But now it seems we might get to watch movies solely on the strength of female actors and the characters they portray on the screen. Vidya Balan is a glaring example. Her performance in ‘Kahaani’ was phenomenal to say the least and the whole movie revolves around her character. Even in ‘The Dirty Picture’, she has shown the boldness to act in a movie that could make or mar her reputation. But she has justified her choice of the movie by her outstanding performance. It is now expected that more such female actors would come forward and act in movies which would be women-centric and yet interesting for audiences irrespective of their composition.
Blurring of Line Between Mainstream and Parallel Cinema
We have entered a phase in Bollywood cinema where directors like Anurag Kashyap are not apprehensive of making movies on themes which might be fit for parallel, out of the box cinema. Themes which have to do with terrorism, caste-based violence or the ones on differently-abled individuals have been considered fit for mainstream cinema by making them entertaining. Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Black Friday’ and Neeraj Pandey’s ‘A Wednesday’ are a few movies based on serious issues. ‘Black’, ‘Tare Zameen Par’, ‘Paa’, and even the recent movie ‘Barfi’ deal with subjects concerning the differently-abled persons.
Ingenious Ways of Publicity
Another interesting facet of Bollywood movies is the novel ways in which movie-makers do publicity of their movies. Actors, directors and producers decide on what publicity stunts would work and accordingly make plans before launching their movies. Sometimes a needless controversy is deliberately allowed to blow out of proportion with the assistance of the media that also want some ‘saucy’ news to keep their own gossip factories running. There are other ways also. For instance, the entire crew of ‘Gangs of Wasseypur’ went on a tour of cities, all dressed up like the characters in the movie. The whole issue of publicity of movies is tackled very professionally. Movie production houses make several movies simultaneously, all lined up for release keeping in mind the release of movies by their competitors as well as the season of the year. If the IPL cricket season is on, many movies wait for it to end. A romantic movie may be strategically lined up for release on the Valentine’s Day.
The Road Ahead
It is always fraught with risks to try and predict the future and it is all the more so in the case of Bollywood. Bollywood was once predictable. You could almost predict that the success of ‘Hum Apke Hain Kaun’ would encourage similar movies and it did. But now things seem to have changed somewhat. The success of one genre does not necessarily start a horde of movies on the same or similar subject and theme. This is a reflection of the maturity of Bollywood as well as that of the audience. The audience would appreciate movies on newer themes, rather than on one stereotyped theme or genre, even if that genre happens to be the most successful one.$