Meghna, Aditi and Meera of Indian Cinema
Adithya Srikrishna
The indie film revolution in Mumbai is not news anymore. It’s well alive and kicking, producing movies in different genres or more often than not, an amalgamation of genres. There is more subtlety in place of melodrama and more underplayed characters in place of boisterous performances. A bigger development is always a result of smaller successes, and one of them is the portrayal of women in what has now been classified as multiplex films.
The fact remains that our society had to go through these changes too. We needed a Raja Ram Mohun Roy to abolish practices like sati. A few parts of our country are still fighting female infanticide. There are still families that fatten up, literally or otherwise, the daughter only to be married off to a more wealthy-and chauvinistic- family as soon as the girl attains the marriageable age. Sometimes, cruelly, much before that. Dowry is still rampant albeit under the table with by products like domestic violence have grown in numbers.
Therefore it was inevitable that this fragmented development reflected in other art forms too. The phases of continuing emancipation of women can be derived from the changing portrayal of women in Indian films. A couple of decades ago the stronger women roles were restricted to what was then called art films. The kind of films that were screened only at festivals and were more critically acclaimed than being box office number grossers. The mainstream films only had a fleeting appearance centric roles for women. She was made to dance on shards of glasses, or amble around in a bikini, which shockingly, is a selling point even today with the changes notwithstanding, or played just another uninspiring college student.
But times, they are changing. Meera Pundit restores art and frescoes for a living in Love Aaj Kal. And she is even ready to break a relationship in pursuit of that passion. Aisha is the more responsible and career oriented individual who is ultimately the reason for the slacker Sid’s epiphany in Wake Up Sid. Rhea, in Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna, proclaims to her unsuccessful husband how she couldn’t be a mother because she had to be the father in more ways than one. And a cheerful applause wouldn’t have been inappropriate when Meghna, in Gautham Vasudev Menon’s Vaaranam Aayiram, insists that her grad studies in Berkley are more important than the besotted Surya in her life at that point of time. In fact it harks back to Kiran Vairale in Pallavi Anu Pallavi, Mani Ratnam’s debut film, when she goes away leaving Anil Kapoor to study MS in Biotechnology. It was 1983. And more recently, we had the sparkling Vidya Balan playing the femme fatale with every bit charm of a neo-noire siren in Ishqiya.
Even in the roles that are drawn in considerable broad strokes, without any hint of the independence of today’s Indian women, they are made to be endearing in a way never known to mainstream cinema before. Reena Joseph (Minnale) and Geet (Jab We Met) remind us of the kind of women most of us would fall for- a city bred, simplistic and affable woman who probably exists only in fairytales. Or films. The more realistic of these modern women was probably Meera from Aayitha Ezhuthu. Though the Hindi film industry has grown leaps and bounds with respect to female roles, other languages like Tamil/Telugu still continue practicing old habits of caricaturing women in either of the extremes.
The mainstream masala potboiler from the south is still dominated by men. Leaving out a few noteworthy established directors, there is an alarming trend of hypocrisy that refuses to leave these parts of the country. The morally upright hero has to bring in line the immoral heroine wearing skimpy tops and miniskirts. The tried and tested recipe always includes the diatribe the hero has to deliver to the heroine so that she acts according to his will and fancy hereon. But nevertheless, the song picturizations demand that the cinematographer spend more time on the heroine’s navel and other objects of interest without which it is believed to be impossible for the movie to rake in the collections. The heroine is no more than eye candy, strutting in and out of scenes that demand both her goodness and innocence to be sufficiently showcased if she plays a village belle, or her brazen slatternliness conveyed if she plays an ego maniacal bitch from the city.
It would take a while for the herd to realize that the path taken by the classy few is a more holistic approach. The fact remains that they know what they are doing, which probably makes the issue all the more delicate. Until then, we have to feel content and liberated with Sakthis(Alai Payuthey) and Mayas(Khaaka Khaaka) of the world.
Pearls Among Swine
“There has been tremendous growth in the Hindi film industry over the last decade. Not only are new subjects discovered but often repeated subjects find new treatment and come across fresh. “
With a bunch of adventurous production houses willing to experiment with new directors, the Indie culture is here to stay. Not all of them succeed and not all of them deserve the brickbat meted out to them. Some of them, indeed brilliant are misunderstood by the audience or seem Greek and Latin to them. Here we see five underrated movies from the year that is drawing to a close and why they should have got their due.
Delhi 6
An ensemble performance cruelly reduced to a nonstarter thanks to a shoddily done climax. Delhi-6, at first look, had a lot riding for it. After the success and cult status attained by Rang De Basanti, the expectations from Rakesh Omprakash Mehra grew to skyrocketing levels. And added to that the music of AR Rahman, that was his finest in a long time, knocking itself into the library of his best records like Roja, Thiruda Thiruda and Rangeela. A script written with almost perfect precision and some brilliant sequences that move the characters towards that unification of principles (not story or plot, mind you) that turned out to be both the best and the worst aspect of Delhi-6. With the pushing-down-your-throat message climax being its only gripe, Delhi-6 was wee bit less than the sum of its parts. What was needed here was little justice and appreciation for a breezy two hours or so, with some of the best and subtle performances of the year. And Delhi-6 deserved that much.
Best Scene: Most of the Ram Leela sequences that parallel Roshan’s visit to India.
Luck By Chance:
Thanks maybe to her illustrious brother, Zoya Akhtar generated a lot of buzz for Luck By Chance, a seminal look at the Indian film factory with its myriad of characters, cartoons and buffoons. From a single viewing, we can be pretty sure that when Zoya started shooting the movie, she had a perfectly bound script in hand. If that was not the case, we wouldn’t have watched one of the most endearing character
based movies without squirming in our seats, slowly losing patience. Beginning with the year’s best opening credits, almost every tiny detail, including the name of the movie within the movie is etched with care. Zoya does a huge favor by not resorting to Madhur Bhandarkar sensationalism and “realism”, but rather takes us through a journey where we observe every aspect of the movie making industry in a way that manages to break the fourth wall. It’s tough to gauge why this movie failed the way it did, but it surely ranks as one of the top five movies of year.
Best Scene: Zoya managed to rope in a number of actors for special appearances. One appearance that stands out is that of Shah Rukh Khan, mainly because of the importance of the lesson he imparts to Vikram, the new star in the making. Spoken with the charm that’s Shah Rukh’s own, it’s a scene that triggers Vikram’s
Gulaal:
If I had got an opportunity to watch a preview of Gulaal, I would have implored the makers to give it a wider release. For reasons best known to them, Gulaal did not even get a release in Chennai. Neither did it get a release at major theaters in New Jersey, USA. An ambitious effort from Anurag Kashyap following the success of Dev D, with lesser known faces but with some of the most powerful performances of the year, Gulaal truly deserved better. Taking up a topic seldom dealt with – student politics – Gulaal had some amazingly written scenes with a different story and a radically different treatment. With the quest for power as it’s main theme throughout, with able characters failing and seemingly powerless characters outwitting the former, Gulaal was as surprisingly good as it gets. With a great background score, references to John Lennon, The Gita, and some nice directorial touches, Gulaal is a film I, personally, loved more than Dev D.
Best Scene: As Ransa and Dileep amble back after getting a beating by Jadwal and his gang, you hear a very different version of Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna performed by Prithvi Bana (sung by the actor who plays Prithvi Bana – Piyush Mishra – himself). The timing and the song befitting the situation was quite understated but marvelous.
Sankat City:
A few years ago, Kamal Haasan made one of his numerous comic capers, called Mumbai Express. As extremely misunderstood as it was, it was also one of Kamal Haasan’s best scripts. Sankat City, maybe not as great, falls into a similar league. It isn’t a comedy of errors or the traditional comic flick we are all so used to. The characters in Sankat City are funny without trying to be so. The sequences, most of them, are funny without trying to be so. As in the whole sequence of events are funny on screen but not inherently so for the characters that are part of them. And that’s one of the main reasons why Sankat City failed much the way Mumbai Express did. Most of the set pieces quite cleverly created, Sankat City had the stamp of The New Indie Movie from Mumbai.
Best Scene: In the beginning, a radio announcer gives out a warning about an expected earthquake. It’s not the main focus of the scene and is in fact, completely offhand at first. And towards the end of the movie, this event sets up a finale that though not entirely unexpected, comes as an ingenious touch when you see how it alters the fortune of the main characters.
Kaminey:
Though declared a semi-hit, Kaminey finds itself in this list because of the appreciation that it never got. Judging only by the quality of film making and plot device, Kaminey is the kind of movie that Guy Ritchie or maybe even the Coen Brothers, would have been proud of. Kaminey spoke of a number of factors in its favor – quirky characters, intelligent set-pieces, great original performances and some of the best lines uttered – the stuff that cult cinema are made of. Vishal Bharadwaj’s gorgeous soundtrack and dialogues lend itself to the kind of film seldom seen on the Indian screens – a film that instead of spoon feeding you leaves it for you to figure it out. And when you do, things do fall into place admirably well. That’s the kind of cinema you watch with your thinking
cap on.
Best Scene: That scene in Charlie’s makeshift cabin, with Bhope Bhau and his thugs; small talk over vada pav and the best Mexican standoff ever filmed in Hindi cinema
Aditya Shrikrishna
