Purple patch in Bollywood

In the last six-odd weeks Indian Cinema, particularly the Hindi film industry woke up to great content. Should I use the word galvanising content, because it drove us to the theatres. As an avid movie buff and an equally opinionated individual, I have always believed that cinema’s best hope remains that it is able to deliver content, which is first – entertaining and secondly – while entertaining us can it also give us hope as it also subtly puts the concepts of value system in our heads.

And out of the blue it was our mass movie makers who have delivered hope. Not the foreign festival makers who display their golden peacocks and silver monkeys. The fact that, earlier their content has failed to impress the audience and most of the times it drowned in the collective high decibel cacophony of the well-bred critic and his gang of news bashers.

I have always maintained what is not watchable by the average audience will never impact with the intended result.

Therefore since July 10, I have been in a good mood. This day ‘Baahubali’ hit us. It hit us hard and we the masses loved it. It deserved every bit of that love. ‘Baahubali' is not just about great production values and great looking muscle men, however, it derives greatly from our mythology. The director thankfully was brought up on a rich diet of Amar Chitra Kathas. The epic scene where the leading man picks up the lingam and places it right under the waterfalls is hugely inspired by an incident mentioned in the life of Ravana. Kattappa a character, which is actually gaining huge popularity, is modelled completely on Bheeshma from Mahabharata. Baahubali has not just entertained us, it has put before our kids the concepts of good v/s bad , greed v/s ambition , fairness v/s bigotry so very clearly. Feminists please note while some of you got struck in Avantika’s disrobing and that scene has its own positioning and relevance in the plot – I also feel the feminists got the understanding of the scene wrong, which I shall discuss some other day. The director has placed the character of a fair and strong woman ruler in the movie too. Sivagami is one of the strongest female characters created in Indian cinema. She is a woman who does not flinch while depriving her own son from the throne. India could do with such strong women, most uncouth men on Indian streets are a direct result of a weak over-affectionate mom.

An honest fact, I am yet to go through ‘Bajrangi Bhaijan’ therefore I will not break my age-old rule of not commenting, for or against a movie which I have not yet watched but I did see its trailers and some scenes in the media. It is a positive message film. ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ is about peace, hope and basic humanity. The masses have taken it up. So for the time being let us respect the victory of positive content.

And let me come to my most favourite baby of a movie as of now – ‘Drishyam’. ‘Drishyam’ is, if there ever was a word, India’s first “emotional family thriller”. It is about a father who is determined to protect his family at all possible costs and outcomes; a woman who despite being scared remains steadfast with her partner and kids. At one point in time we are nonchalantly made aware of the fact that the girl, for whose dignity, the entire battle is pitched and fought is an adopted kid. The scene unfolds at a police conversation and the family is not even displayed at this point. The audience gets struck in the gut and there is no “aaaa-hoooo” background music in Karan Johar or Sooraj Barjatya style and yet we get connected further to the family. It won’t win the platinum mongrel at the Hawaii International Film Festival but ‘Drishyam’ delivered family values to a lot many audiences than probably Nirmal Baba’s lectures. The movie is also a message oriented film, law of the land and true justice might not always be in sync. What do you do when the powerful are out to exploit your own loved ones? ‘Drishyam’ delivers a simple message. You fight! You fight to win.

Let us celebrate this fabulous purple patch of mass Hindi cinema where we are told humanity and humans remain our best hope.

- Rahul Deo Bharadwaj