“Industrialize and perish” - Mahatma Gandhi
“Industrialize or perish” - Sir M Visvesvaraya
The seemingly contradicting views of the two noble Indians are not what I am concerned about while writing this- at least less perfectly so ; there is one industry operational across the world, which satisfies the views of the former more aptly than the latter and that is the film industry. When Sir MV made the above statement in the context of the Indian economy, he certainly would not have thought of movies. Earlier (as far as I remember, even in my younger days) not many people were acquainted with the term ‘industry’ in the regard of films. However, as the days advanced, the number of films being made increased manifold and the money spent on them was enormous. People who were involved in their making turned out to be ‘celebrities’ and the importance attached to them hit a new high. The changes were witnessed not merely with the people on stage, but off stage as well. Individuals, who produced or funded movies are now a thing of the past. The corporate culture has sent its foot into the world of cinema and hence what we have now is not an individual or a group as ‘producers’, but an entire company as a ‘production house’ which has a CEO, a spokesperson, manager etc.! Thus, the 'film world' turned into a 'film industry'.
In India, we had films with a certain run time (usually 3 hours or close to it) with a storyline that had lots of drama, songs, fights etc. The actors then, usually had a background of the theatre, because of which their histrionics and oration were perfect. As time passed, the run time of the movies came down and so did the level of originality. In a bid to make fast-paced movies of the action and thriller genre, people started looking at films from Britain and Hollywood but it was still a good trend as a native touch was given to the story which certainly had a soul. The quality was'nt really lost. Cinema continued to be a fancy, an experience for the audience which would allow them to witness something that was not or could never possibly be a part of their lives. Simultaneously we had parallel cinema that intended to convey a socially relevant message to everyone but had a very small audience due to their slow pace or lack of songs and dance or fight scenes.
It was after all this that we witnessed a new wave of cinema where-in the themes revolved around what people witnessed in everyday life or “something which the audience could relate themselves to”, to quote the film makers of today which was a complete reversal of the trend. The only way in which people can relate to the movies of today, especially the ones from ‘Bollywood’ is by means of love affairs. The singles living in big cities either as students or employees who hang around together or get a hangover at pubs or parties, smoke, booze or even get into physical intimacy are the themes doing rounds in the movies today. No doubt, this is what is happening in the creamy layer of the society today but going to watch a movie to witness something that is essentially a part of our lives, seems rather stupid. Of course, there were certain absurd elements in the cinema of the yester-years as well, where-in guys danced around girls in colleges or fought with the baddies who had cast their lustful eye on the heroine, without the fear of the management throwing them out. These guys (the baddies in the college) had a very funny dress code that involved a blue jeans with a jacket worn on a black or a brown vest!!! As a rule, they were not supposed to have haircut. There were many more absurd elements like these ( I propose to mention a few that occur to me as and when I continue writing ).
The villains of the movies could have sons (who were as villainous as their father) but not a wife. When 2 people sat down for a conversation in melancholy to discuss their dead parents on a clear dark night, 2 stars had to be mandatorily shining brighter than all the others in the sky as both had the obligation of comforting each other by showing the stars, which essentially were their parents watching them! We no longer have ‘mod’ girls who take the “indifferent for love” kind of guys on a drive prompting them to say “I love you” and when he does’nt (Remember we had such men too), threatens to lose her life by speeding up the car in such a way that it could take the lives out of anyone and everyone, all of whom are in no way linked with the matter. Consequently the guys do not get to stop the mad drive and say “Stop thinking of me, as you may never know the dangers that are lurking around me” as he is presumably under constant threat from the villains. The girl replies in passion, her preparedness to die in his arms after which they sing a song in Switzerland. Nearly 150- 160 minutes after the movie starts, the villains had the obligation of kidnapping everyone associated with the hero so that they could ask him to come over to a place which was far from the city, well connected by a highway (so that he could zoom along nervously putting up a bold face), had lots of drums and boxes well arranged (so that they could all fall when the hero punches the people), a good number of henchmen, gunmen and last but not the least, enough place to hurl grenades as and when the hero runs. In a nutshell, offering the hero, an opportunity to settle scores and losing out to him, so that the film is ends in 3 hours, was what the most powerful villain had to do. The comparatively weaker ones could be dead halfway through the film. Despite all the above odds, the films then had their own soul and the people who performed in them, were truly artists and not merely actors.
*****Continued in the next post****
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