“Bollywood”. Period. Comes of Age. Period.

“Bollywood is finally coming of age/ We are closing in on Hollywood very fast” - Nowadays I hear, or read, this statement or its variants uncomfortably often. Uncomfortable, because I have some objections. Firstly, why “Bollywood”? The term is at best an insult to the rich history of Hindi cinema, and I have not even included our great regional cinema which are derogatively referred to as Mollywood, Tollywood and God only knows how many other “****woods”. Hollywood is only ahead in terms of production values and that’s simply because they are loaded with the greenbacks. The Godfathers of Hollywood can’t even dream of achieving the production values that a regular Mumbai potboiler can achieve, at a beggarly fraction of the average Hollywood budget.

The second part of the statement that makes me uncomfortable is about Hindi cinema pushing the envelope, becoming more intelligent and all that. To those people who hold such opinions, I would like to say that please skip the 70s, 80s and 90s and go back, you will find cinema that was much farther ahead than the most cutting edge stuff that Bombay comes out with nowadays. And no, I’m not talking about high brow, dull, or sleep inducing stuff. I am referring to white knuckle thrillers, vertigo inducing mysteries, stomach bursting comedies and larger than life melodramas. These were movies which were not “inspired” by some substandard Hollywood product. These were original stuff produced by brains that grew upon the power of raw imagination. Minds that had not been paralyzed by information overload, multitasking, dumb television serials and dumber news channels. These were the minds of B.R. Chopra, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy, K. Asif, Hrishikesh Muherjee, the Anand brothers (Chetan, Dev and Vijay) and many more. They produced stuff which retains their razor’s edge even forty, fifty, sixty years after their release. Those were the times when people got to see great stuff with much more regularity than we get to see a Lagaan, a Dil Chahta Hai, a Black Friday, a Khosla Ka Ghosla or a Mithya. They had stuff like Awara, Shree 420, Madhumati, Kanoon, Ittefaq, Do Beegha Zameen, Johar Mehmood in Goa/Hong Kong, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Jewel Thief, etc. coming every few months.

But then came the seventies and the angry young Big B, and somehow everything changed. Probably gargantuan hits like Sholay convinced producers and directors that they only had to hire Amitabh Bachchan and the money would come rolling in. Probably the memories of the struggles of Independence had already started dying out… It is said that great works of art have been produced during times of oppression. Probably we had started getting used to the benefits of Independence, started taking it for granted, become complacent and lost our edge somewhere. Probably that’s only partially true, probably we are not proud enough of our country, our heritage, which would have made us find and tell interesting stories… It’s only the Indians who hold Indian film awards in foreign countries… Oh! How we salivate for their attention. It’s only in Hindi cinema where stories are more often than not set in foreign countries, or need excuses in the form of songs to go there. The Chinese tell stories of China, the Iranians tell stories of Iran, and their cinema has long surpassed Hindi cinema in terms of global renown. I don’t want to appear overtly nationalistic, but if we really want to push the envelope and win global respect, then its time that we forget “Bollywood” and tell stories of India and Indians.

Om Shanti Om - A Modern Classic

I can already see you smirking and sneering, dear reader. And if I am wrong, believe me, I will be very happy. Yes I do sincerely believe that the above-mentioned film is a modern classic, a milestone in Hindi cinema. I would have said Indian, but then I am not so well acquainted with the cinema of all regions of our country. I believe that I have already tapped a key too many around the bush and should cut to the chase, keeping in mind… the smirks… the sneers.

Om Shanti Om, brash, colorful, over-the-top, is everything I believe the makers intended it to be and in my opinion, one of the most intelligently written films of the recent times as well as in the past. The producers took a great risk by making a film whose enjoyment was to a large extent based on an extensive knowledge and reverence for the thoroughly kitschy and the so called B-grade cinema of the 70s and the 80s. Think about it, how many people in the prime target group of 15-25 years would have got all the in-jokes, the performances and the presentation of the story? Just think about its sources, Subhash Ghai’s Karz for the overall story, the Bimal Roy/ Ritwik Ghatak classic Madhumati and the genius Chetan Anand’s uncrowned classic Kudrat for the climax. And I have just mentioned some potential sources for the story line, the classics, to which this classic pays homage to. Then there are all those numerous set-pieces, from the king of all items songs, the howlarious and to some, irritating, Anna Rascala- Mind It!, the take-offs on the Sooraj Barjatya and the Rajshri classic ‘Maine Pyar Liya’, the archetypal sidekick pappu master and the feisty Indian mother, Govinda, Manoj Kumar among others. As if that was not enough we have cinema greats and even well known bloated egos like Subhash Ghai making fun of their tender spots (Mr. Ghai’s famous fascination with speaking the language of our former colonists, and his crippling inability to do so). It is refreshing to see such people actually making fun of really delicate issues concerning themselves. Arch rivals Shah Rukh Khan, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan hit their own weak spots with great gusto, an ability which I have found rare, especially among us Indians. The only spoilsport being a certain Mr. Manoj Kumar, who had his desperate fill of 15 minutes of fame, and revealed later that he would like to have Shah Rukh Khan in one of his films. LOL.

The only other film-maker who has been able to take his love for B-movies and turn it into highly satisfying and charged up pieces of art is Quentin Tarantino with Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and The Grindhouse. The international film community worships Taratino for his work, in the sense that he has really achieved something substantial. Sadly, I have largely found that a classic worthy of any respect in India is usually a movie which makes grand statements about the pathetic condition of humanity and similar themes. Believe me, it is a much more difficult task to write a movie with the inspirations of Om Shanti Om than farcical “Oh my lord! I am an intellectual” trash like ‘Black’. Farah Khan & Shah Rukh Khan are true artists because Om Shanti Om can only be made by true lovers of cinema. Unlike the likes of some high brow filmmakers whose movies almost carry the watermarks of their own mugs in every frame.

I think ‘Om Shanti Om’ deserves a label better than ‘commercial success’, which sounds so condescending. Several people say to me, Shah Rukh Khan knows what crap the public wants and he gives it to them. They forget how daringly different films he has gifted to Hindi cinema as a producer, from the far-ahead-of-its-time “Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani” to the wildly experimental and irreverent Asoka, to the misguided but again daringly different “Paheli” to the pre-cursor of “Om Shanti Om”- “Main Hoon Na”. Except for “Main Hoon Na,” which was critically panned, the rest have been big commercials failures… and why not, none of them were ‘safe films’ unlike say Mr. Perfectionist’s “Lagaan” and “Taare Zameen Par” which were designed for success and were comfortably predictable in an experimental garb.

If “Om Shanti Om” would have been a disaster, knives would have come out and people would have said “What did they think they were doing?” and much worse stuff. Look what happened to “Tashan” which attempted something similar - a take-off on the action cinema of the 70s and the 80s, an admirable effort/ intent but they came out of it horribly bruised, because paying homage to over the top movies is just no child’s play. “Om Shanti Om” delivered and it delivered big time. And it is much more than just a huge commercial success… and I hope it’s recognized that way.

I rest my case.

Chuck De! India

[Originally published in passionforcinema.com- http://passionforcinema.com/chak-de-india-jaideep-sahni-disappoints-this-time/]

I saw Chak De! India on the first Sunday of its release. After the show ended I remember walking out of the theatre with no remarkable feelings. For me the film was as lifeless as the promos (which were withdrawn) promised. I did not think about Kabir Khan, nor did I think about the state of the national game, Hockey, in India, vis-à-vis cricket. Not at all about the Vidya Malvade character (I don’t even remember the name.) I did not have any leftover feelings of being riveted to the screen, reveling in well-executed sports sequences. I remember having fleeting thoughts of Balbir and Komal because they played such endearing characters and they did it so well. I thought about Preety because she was quite pretty, but is that an achievement? But all this was before the Chak De! India or should I say the Yash Raj Films marketing juggernaut rolled on.

Over the next few weeks I was literally taken aback. Newspapers headlines screamed Chak De! at the drop of hat. TV presenters did the same. It was their on various websites. The Indian vocabulary seemed to have shrunk to two Punjabi words. It was dumbfounding, the movie was being presented as some kind of extraordinarily brave attempt at making good cinema, and somehow we were supposed to believe that it had contributed to everything, from women’s lib to the state of our national game hockey. I was at a loss! Didn’t we have 'Iqbal' recently, or 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar' or 'Naya Daur' in the past? And that’s only mentioning some Hindi films revolving around a game. Are only ‘apparently’ noble intentions, a huge star & production house, a handful of eager to please journalists/ film commentators enough to put a film on a pedestal? What happened to the good old parameters of substantial characters, a reasonably gripping and challenging, yet believingly executed story with some memorable set-pieces? A film that lingers in your mind for days afterwards, not because its all around you on newspapers, television channels and hoardings. Not because a bunch of the protagonists are being bundled to every city worth its salt, and being treated as if they actually achieved something as important as winning the world cup, for a country, which is starved of more substantial achievements.

And what is so noble about showing a bunch of losers, who play like novices and couldn’t care less for the game, because they were so lost in themselves, actually going on to win the world cup! 'Shaolin Soccer' was more convincing! Iqbal the deaf and dumb boy, who ate, drunk and slept cricket had me clapping when he got his chance in the Indian team. I felt like celebrating when Shankar (Dilip Kumar) pulled a breathless win with his tonga against an imported bus in 'Naya Daur'. And it was so very inspiring to see the ‘never do well’ Sanjay Lal (Aamir Khan) grow up and embrace his responsibilities by way of the central metaphor of the cycle race in 'Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar'. I rooted and cheered for the rag-tag group of gritty villagers to achieve the fantastical goal of winning against the cruel Englishmen in 'Lagaan'. Win they did and what a victory that was!!! Achievements, not big enough, when compared to what team India in Chak De! managed to do, but more convincing and satisfying with a lot more substance. 'Chak De! India' simply had the team somehow winning the games against apparently much better teams because the filmmakers wanted it that way, in the first place,but did not want to take the pain of conceiving it well. So the Chak De! team just sailed past after that first loss!!! No sweat. No grit. Hell! even Rocky Balboa had to lose in the first film!

Coming to the basics. It was a sports film, so the least one could expect were some riveting sequences of the game. No such memories. I just remember Ms. Malvade falling down on her knees in the same irritating manner for umpteen numbers of times, letting the ball into the post and the team, just going on to win every game after one loss from the reigning champs who they ultimately beat. Don’t ask me how. Contrast this with the racing sequences in ‘Naya Daur’ or ‘Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar’. Littered with overwhelming challenges, which the protagonists face and overcome with a grit that’s palpable. They never fail to set the pulses racing and consider the fact that the former was made about 50 years back and the latter more than 15 years.


There were so many characters in the film; so much scope to come up with a rich piece of filmmaking but most of them were just given cursory glances. Think 'Lagaan' and it’s huge cast where everyone came alive and most of them contributed in some way or other. 'Kachra' was much more than his freaky 'firkee' (spinning ball). Quite unlike the tribal girl in 'Chak De!' who was not allowed to go beyond saying ho!!! Or the north easterners who were limited to one scene were they are eve teased and a fight ensues. Bindiya Naik’s character/ Shilpa Shukla's talent was criminally underutilised. And pray on what ground the coach picked up Vidya Malvade as the captain, when he had got better players? Perhaps they didn’t suit his ego. The relationship between Vidya and Shahrukh seems to be just thrust in the script because it serves a sports film cliché. Same goes for the air-headed cricketer sub-plot. Am not against clichés, but the least one could expect from them is to have some logic/ believability and provide resonance to the story. There were clichés galore in Lagaan but they gave the story so much more depth because the writers had worked hard. Even the highly improbable love story of Rachel and Bhuvan in Lagaan was quite touching.

Coming to Lagaan, its been quite a few years since I saw it on its release. But I still fondly remember Bhuvan, Rachel, Kachra, Guran, Bhura, Lakha among others…Its been only a few weeks since I saw Chak De! and I only recognize a couple of the girls who hogged the screen time and because there faces are plastered everywhere. Shahrukh comes to my mind because he is always out there. Contrast his Kabir Khan with Naseer’s character Mohit in Iqbal, both are patent sports films clichés- washed out, disgraced individuals who come back for their dues. Mohit is a darker character than Kabir Khan- he is the reluctant embittered coach, a drunkard and a complete loser. But he grows with the film. On the other hand Kabir Khan is a lifeless card board cut with an air of self importance. He quotes so much about India [IN-DEE-YAAH ;-)] that if he really existed I would have serious doubts on his feelings for the country as well as his sanity.

I am a big fan of Jaideep Sahni; ‘Khosla ka Ghosla’ is a movie which is in my personal list of all time great movies. But Mr. Sahni disappointed me big time with Chak De! He may have his reasons. But at the end of the day Chak De! India is an assembly line product at heart, an example of passionless by-the-numbers filmmaking. And celeberating Chak De! Is celebrating mediocrity.