The fascinating progress of Indian cinema

Indian film industry is limping back to normality. The pandemic-hit industry will take time to recover. It needs to reshape itself with a relook of its priorities. A review of Indian film industry is going on alongside the 51st International Film Festival of India at Goa. It is time to reflect on the 60s, 70s and even 80s and what has changed the very idea of cinema.

Prior to 'Chetna' in the 70s; it was all about magnificent sets. But the 70s brought about a revolution with shootings done on location over four to five weeks. It was unusual to do so. As acclaimed filmmaker Rahul Rawail puts it, bold themes effected a lot of changes then onwards. Dev Anand starrer 'Johnny Mera Naam' gave rise to a new form of action oriented, big plot films in that period. The golden 70s when business was growing fast in the Hindi film-industry saw an 'unconventional hero' played by Amaitabh Bachchan in Zanjeer giving birth to the image of 'angry young man', a newly established brand back then. Nasir Hussain's 'Yaadon Ki Baaraat' (1973) which saw the coming of Salim-Javed had a great script.

Raj Kapoor's 'Bobby' which introduced Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia also started a new trend. These films were bringing in a change and adding to the whole palate of film-making. Another star, Jeetendra also came in with a new appeal and new style in the world of Hindi cinema. 'Deewar' – a brilliantly toned film took Yash Chopra to great heights in that period. Yash Chopra went further with more memorable films like Trishul. However, if one notices, in those days there existed a healthy competition among the film stars.

Every actor was rising above each other, but there was no rivalry. On one particular occasion the three stalwarts – Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar came across each other in a restaurant and started talking like intimate friends about the old days and each other's films, old timers recall. It is also well known that the great Sachin Dev Burman politely said that doing music for 'Laila Majnu' was not for him and recommended Madan Mohan for it.

The music directors, great singers and lyricists would sit together with directors and get to know the story and also the actor who would lip-sync, all for adding perfection to the film. Then there was another experiment in L V Prasad's 'Ek Dujhe Ke Liye' where a hero who did not speak Hindi and spoke only Tamil and an actress who spoke only Hindi and not Tamil" did a love story. People were inventing and doing different kinds of works.

It carried on into the 80s when more new people came in, although the old-guards were still there. The 80s saw the coming of stalwarts like Subhash Ghai and Shatrughna Sinha, among others. It was also the period when Amjad Khan, who was popular for playing villains, did a comic role. There are lessons in all this for everyone. When the going gets tough, the tough get going, it is said and the industry must not forget that.