Bollywood: The Show Must Grow On

Best of the Indian movies are art movies made in native languages - particularly in Bengali. My all time favorite Indian movie would be a Panjabi movie, named ``MaRhi da Diva``, only because I have not watched too many of art movies in other languages. One Bengali movie was one of the final 16 in a recent Swiss film festival which was won by a desi movie, Khamosh Pani.

dost-mittar #11

How could you miss V. Shanta Ram`s Jhanak jhanak Payal Baaje . How can any one forget the Tandav by Gopi Krishna. You also missed Pyasa, Kaghaz ke Phool, Garam Hava, Boot Polish, Do Bigha Zameen,Foot Path, Ganga Jamuna, Ankur, Nishant and Ardh Satya.

Mughl-e-Azam`s saving grace was Madhubala`s superb acting, compared to her,Prithviraj was theatrically loud, and Dilip Kumar was completely overshadowed by her performance. Naushad`s music was good specially `` Mohe Panghat pe Nandlal cheR gayo re`` by Lata and ``Prem Jogan bun gayee`` by BaRe Ghulam Ali Khan Saheb. Dialogues were superb, even though at times Agha Hashar type. A good film but not a great film.

veeresh #5:
[Nowadays, urstruly ji, Bollywood movies are usuallyabout bright young NRI girls with doctorates in interstellar medicine and rap falling in love with TWO boys, one each from India (urban) and India (pind).]

Because young NRI girls are raised on beef and the TWO Indian boys are vegetarians...:-))

dost-mittar:

you are entitled to your opinion but Mughal e Azam consistently comes in almost every critics list of the 10 greatest Indian films ever.

**
As for Umrao Jaan, Pakeezah, Chaudhvin ka Chand, Pyaasa etc. they are all excellent films and amongst my favourites.

Nasiruddin Shah`s films tend to be generally v good. Raj Kapoor also made excellent films--especially Awaara, Shri 420, Mera Naam Joker and Sangam. His other one`s were also good.

Manto: There was a letter in Jang applauding the ban on Indian channels. The same author also asked for a ban on Pakistani channels such as Geo, the same you said actually present much more entertainment, because they spreas obscenity.

I think the author was maybe related to Asif Naqshbandi :)

re: bollywood movies
I have seen some perceptible changes in the quality of bollywood movies in the last few years. What many seem to lack is a good story line. Some of them continue to torment us with dance sequences. It is true that few bollywood actors know how to dance (exceptions: Govinda, Prabhu Deva from South). Rest of them are pathetic. This trend of what i call as a ``PT drill`` was started by Jeetendra and is being faithfully followed by many others. A number of extras with the hero seem to be doing a PT drill. Why can`t they draw inspiration from Indian classical dance? Why do they have to copy Hollywood? I still regard the dances by Vijayanthi Mala in a movie Amrapali the best ever dance sequences in any movie. All those were based on Indian classical dances. There is something basically wrong with the mindset of bollywood movie makers who are copying the west left and right. Look at the clothes the characters in these movies wear. Am i to believe that India today has become so westernised that most females are going around in skimpy clothes?
I saw a movie some times ago. I am forgetting the name but the story was derived from Mahabharata. It was story of 2 brothers Arvasu and Parvasu and sages Raibhya and his blind brother. The real story was changed but the plot was very good. Why can`t bollywood make similar movies? Each little side story from Indian epics could be made into a movie.

There is literally no storyline in most movies. Bollywood has not experimented with serious themes (with some exceptions of course). Even when a movie was taken on that great character from Indian history viz Ashoka, it was with a love angle. Santhosh Sivam`s cinematography was breathtaking but his talent was wasted in that movie. Until a time when Bollywood can make serious movies like Benhur or Ten Commandments, it will not be taken seriously. South Indian director Mani Ratnam has been making better movies. One of his recent movies that i saw some months ago was ``Kannathil muththamittal`` (or Peck in the cheek), which was about a Srilankan girl who becomes a victim of Tamil militancy and is adopted by Indian parents. Nandita Das gave a sterling performance as a Tamil militant. That is the kind of movie i am talking about. Something that makes you sit up and take note. I will have to check out the one Anuradha is talking about (the one with Hritik Roshan). Most of the movies listed by Manto will not qualify as Bollywood movies. Most of those movies were by directors who are outside of Bollywood.
But despite all this, despite the fact that Bollywood songs are not of the same calibre as the Oldies, some movies are no doubt good. I saw a recent one by name Jhankar Beats, which i thought was hilarious with good music . Fun to watch.
Sridhar

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Good for you, Manto :)
do watch Koi Mil Gaya too... Hrithik is amazing in it... anyone who says he`s talentless doesn`t know what in hell he`s talking about... did you see him in Fiza? add that to my
little list... also Satya... if anyone could see Satya and not be moved, I wouldn`t know
what to call him...
and Kaun? that was some horror flick
and Duplicate... no brain feast that, but I really enjoyed it... then there was Maachis, Sarfarosh, Kachhe Dhaage, and last year Ajay Devgan`s `Legend of Bhagat Singh` ... beautifully made film... wonderful music..
then there were those small budget but completely delightful children`s movies like
Makdi and Chota Jadugar...
and probably so many more I can`t remember... not bad for the last few years, huh?

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I do not know of any other film industry which is so far removed from real life as Bollywood. But I also do not know of any which affects its people as much as Bollywood. Here, life truly imitates art, whether it is the latest fashions in clothes, hairstyles, jewellery, or young people`s manners and mannerisms. Go to any Indian function or even wedding function and they will be performing songs and dances from the Indian films; kids in colleges romance each other on the pattern of films; even in temples they sing bhajans from films often written and sung by non-hindus.
Yes, Bollyood is like no other `wood!

Urstruly#1
You are out of date. These days, films have even boy-meet-boy and girl-meet-girl scripts.
Of the three recent films I saw, Mr and Mrs Iyer (V. good) is about a married woman who pretends to be the wife of her fellow bus passenger to save his life in a communal riot; Bhoot (okayish) is about a ghost that torments a housewife and Ajnabi (bad) is about two vacationing couples doing the Indian version of wife swapping.

Asif naqshbandi:
I think you are a bit partial to your namesake who made Mughal-e-Azam. In my book, it is not even one of the greatest films, let alone the greatest. I would give ten Mughal-e-Azams to get one Umrao Jaan, Bandini, Jaagte Raho, Sahib Bibi Ghulam and many such films. In music, Mughal-e-Azam was not even as good as its predecessor, Anarkali with songs like Jaag dard-e-ishq jaag and Yeh zindagi usi ki hai.
But in sheer hype and marketing, there has been no film before or since Mughal-e-Azam. Asif even shot the film with two different endings; after the film had a successful run with the first version, the second version was released to give the film a second wind.

Anuradha,

I have seen all of them except Mr. and Mrs Iyer... I really want to watch it.
Here are some of my favorites (I don`t if they fit the Bollywood label though but they are Indian movies)

1) Hollywood Bollywood, or is it Bollywood Hollywood...

2) Perfect Murder

3) Monsoon Wedding

4) Bend it like Beckham

5) Earth 1947

6) East is East

7) Fire

8) Kama Sutra

...Writing isn`t a game with me. Neither is it ``a job`` as it is with many of my friends in ``the trade`` who work from 10 to 4 with an hour off for Beaujolais and biscuits. It is my life. Now snicker all you wish, that happens to be the plain and simple of it. And it not only offends me, it disgusts, short tempers, and enrages me to see people playing at being writers....

...When I was younger...I wrote from the gut. This led to all manner of clever riposts from my contemporaries who compared my effusions with the more advanced stages of gorge-buoancy. Since then I`ve tempered my semantics and relocated the source of my work. It comes from the heart and the soul and the head and the index fingers of my right and left hands which are the only ones (poor slobs) that ever learned to type....

There is no use writing anything that has been written before unless you can beat it. What a writer in our times has to do is write what hasn`t been written before or beat dead men at what they have done.

...All you have to do is write true. And anybody that writes for the fat man with the cigar, behind the big editorial desk, is a cheat and a liar and not worth the type fonts to set him up....

...To hell with the swimming pools and balling the starlets and impressing everybody.... Because, you see, I`m nothing. I`m nothing at all without writing. Without truth, my truth, The only truth I know, it`s all a gambol in the pasture without rhythm or sense. It`s empty. God gave it to me (so help me, Deist or no, I believe that!) and I can`t cheat myself or you or them or anyone by not doing it the best way I know how.
That`s the heart and head of the writer, to set it all down before they put him down the hole. To get it all out the right way, the best way, the truest way you know how.
Do you feel it?
Do you know what I mean?

Harlan Ellison: Truth and the Writer, 1961

Indian cinema has had its vicissitudes which were perhaps greatly influenced by the competition from Hollywood. In the 80s and 90s, movie themes were trite and there were a lot of films that seemed to be ditto copies of hollywood blockbusters. However, in my opinion, indian cinema has now outgrown that phase. Recent films like Ankhein, Darna Manaa Hai and 88 Antop Hill show that Indian cinema possesses the diversity and originality required to keep interest in Bollywood alive.

We should perhaps see Indian films without the spectre of hollywood lurking around. There is so much to appreciate.... the wonderful music that goes with all sorts of situations, be it romance, tragedy or comedy; the rich poetry and language that adds to the profundity of the plot and the characters; the brilliant dance choreographies, the colorful dresses and so much more. Recently, bollywood is also catching up in the technology department, I have seen some movies with CGI and excellent camera work. Watching a good bollywood movie unfold on the screen is really an unforgetable experience. Now, if only I could say the same thing about Lollywood :)

Bollywood is supposed to be making a film in Pakistan, that would be interesting to see, how they portray Pakistan and its people...

seems to me chowk has a lot of old fogies hankering after the golden era of hindi cinema...
stop moaning about the past you guys!! all new films aren`t bad... hasn`t one of you
seen Lagaan or Dil Chahta Hai? or Monsoon Wedding, Mr and Mrs Iyer, Hum dil de chuke
and so on?
speaking of which, don`t miss Koi Mil Gaya... it might have been inspired by ET but still
it`s a pretty good entertainer...

and Naqshbandi..# 3

go watch Hrithik`s performance in this and come back with egg on your face...

and urstruly # 1...

wow, wasn`t that clever of you! have you remembered or are you still itching? sure it wasn`t some lollywood film you were thinking about?? oh wait, those never have the `boy falls in love with girl` theme, right??

Dear Urstruly # 1,

Hope this finds you and family and neighbours with shukar of Almighty in tip-top shape. We received your letter about not recalling movie with plot about one boy falling in love with one girl. That movie was made when Great Great Grand Ammi jaan (who used to seak like a parrot, remember) was born.

Nowadays, urstruly ji, Bollywood movies are usuallyabout bright young NRI girls with doctorates in interstellar medicine and rap falling in love with TWO boys, one each from India (urban) and India (pind).

Please correct your correcting glasses.

sincerely,

`` aapkaa``