Wednesday, August 25, 2010

I "Love" new Indian Cinema!!

"Main.... tumhare bachhe ki maa banane wali hoon"

"revolver phek do .. maine kahan revolver phek do "

"Khandaan ki izzat"

These are a thing of past. They are prehistoric. These days hindi films have transferred from Formula number "Dance-song-love-fight" to Formula number "there is no formula".
I notice few very significant changes.

1. Songs- they are not merely melodies meant to be put for lover's assistance. Songs actually carry films forward. Songs have always been a strength of Indian cinema but very few directors used them effectively. (Gurudatt, Gulzaar and sometimes Hrishikesh Mukharjee)
But those days have passed. Finest example of movie carried entirely by songs? - Dev D

2. Regional languages and characters - Historically all characters in Bollywood used to speak "Hindi" - as if India didn't have other regions and people living in it!
Now we have a marathi speaking "babubhai", and panjabi speaking "DJ" in Rang de Basanti, Cosmopolitan Bombay's Parsi and so on. Even the characters speak "real time lingo" and not some urdu dictionary. Amazing. This is what India is about - Diversity. And it is reflecting.

3. Acting and direction - People are acting. Days of stardom seem to be over. Some of the finest performers are setting the screen on fire and directors are willing to experiment.

Bravo !

PS - this post is a result of sudden overwhelming sense of pride.

3 comments:

Mr. Commonsensical said...

I have taken such a long break from Hindi cinemas, that I didn't notice; but if this metamorphosis is indeed happening, it's time for me to start watching Hindi cinemas again. :-)

Abinav Kumar said...

Yeah. This 'metamorphosis' began in early 2000s, I guess, with DCH - though not a strict deviant from formula film - which sort of defined, or even created, a multiplex audience. Once that was done, indie film makers now had a audience which they could target, who would buy tickets and watch the movie, and even groom.

Jhankaar Beats took the move a step forward with non-heroes leading the way. Nagesh Kukunoor was an early bird who, I think, set all doubts aside with his low-budget, high-returns film making. And when the once behind the scenes Anurag Kashyap's Paanch & Black Friday started making waves on paper, a whole lot of youngsters broke loose.

The trend was on the up until 2008 and even early 2009 - but barring the Dibakar Bannerjee flicks, the past 12-15 months have been a huge let down. And I sense a sudden void in our pipeline with the occasional Peepli Live surfacing.

Daneshia said...

hmm! hmm! hmm!
after abinav's long comment peppered with movie names may i raise my silly head with rajat kapoor's name - after all he did star in DCH ;)

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