by Parth Pandya
[box]India is a movie-crazy country. We celebrate them with sheer delight, dump them heartlessly, adore movie stars, praying for them and cursing them like our own. Well, that’s India! Parth Pandya talks about what cinema means to this country, with particular emphasis on Hindi cinema.[/box]In the cacophonic din of the theater, a catatonic worn out male in his forties sits with his eyes glued to a big screen, where a cataclysmic event is unfolding itself. Pure evil drips from the tongue of a villain, clearly in command of the situation. The good guy is in suspended animation – his arms stretched to the hilt with ropes. His lady love has just been asked to dance on, for once her legs stop, the hero’s breath will too – as if they are Siamese twins, dependent upon each other for sustenance. The lady love projects a look of agony, breaks into a dance and to enunciate her undying devotion, sings dulcet tones in an impossibly perfect voice. The villain is not satisfied. He now breaks a bottle on the ground. The shards scatter on the rocky terrain. How strong is your love, he seems to ask. The heroine answers by dancing over the glass. All hope is lost. The face of the catatonic man does not change, but his eyes reflect the hopelessness. Love is defeated – or is it? In streams the good guy in a barrage of gunfire. The henchmen start dropping one after another, and the good guys regain control again. The man breaks into a smile. The one constant in his life has not failed him. His heroes have won. Again.
Cinema is different to different people. Is it a home away from home, a fight against the system, the voice of the little man, a fantasy of the oppressed? Or is it just a flight of fancy, poetry in motion, art condensed in three hours, an expression of emotion? Cinema in general, and Indian cinema in particular, have made inroads into the modern cultural landscape. They say that a thousand Indias reside within the borders of this country. I’d argue that a thousand cinemas reside here too. You may love it, you may hate it, but it is darn difficult to be indifferent to it. From the pan-Indian appeal of mainstream Hindi cinema, to the niche markets of art-house movies, from the regional strongholds down south, to the creative energies from the east, there is an audience for each type of movie. It is not by accident that a minor enterprise in the pre-independence era has turned out to be the largest movie producing industry in the world. About a thousand movies are released each year in India, and they find a different vehicle for projection. From the moving theaters in villages to the single screen large theaters to the new boom of multiplexes, money and eyeballs are dedicated to movies. People share their love of movies, but each receives their joy in their own personal way.
Hindi cinema is perhaps a good thing to discuss in this context. The impact of Hindi films on Indian society is a topic worth multiple doctorate theses. Hindi movies have served as a mirror for society, through socially relevant movies such as ‘Do Beegha Zameen’ or given voice to the angry young man of the seventies fighting the system in ‘Zanzeer’ and ‘Deewar’. On occasion, life has mirrored art, as movies such as ‘Rang De Basanti’ and ‘3 Idiots’ have led to an examination and discussion of issues because of their influence on the Indian populace. The question to ask is: why are we so hooked to movies as a nation? There is an almost emotional connection we have with our movies and our stars. The format is also to the liking of a country where nearly half the population is illiterate. The use of contemporary language and relatable situations makes us feel one with the characters and the stories. The make-believe nature of the movies is never questioned, and whether mindless or otherwise, it is considered entertainment.
What also sets us apart from films from Hollywood or other industries is the use of song and dances. This derives from the age-old Indian story-telling tradition where tales are weaved into music. Hindi film music has been blessed with some rich musical talent, right from the outset. If you thought that 14 songs in ‘Hum Aapke Hain Kaun’ were excessive, hark back to a movie released in 1932, Indrasabha, which had up to 70 songs! With greats like Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar lending their voices to thousands of songs composed by great composers like Naushad and astute poets like Sahir Ludhianvi, independent India was blessed with a rich treasure trove of music to connect the generations. Look around you, and you’ll find new parents turning to old music to spark the love of music in their kids and find a way to connect back to their own childhood. Indians by nature are attuned to music, and more than classical and semi-classical music, it is the humming of the film song that will escape the lips of an Indian the quickest.
Movies are also an aspirational vehicle in India. Zoya Akhtar captured the sentiment very well in her movie ‘Luck By Chance’, where the true spotlight really was on the behind-the-scenes people who flock to Mumbai in hope of making it big. Everyone aspires, or is inspired, at some stage or the other by the allure and aura of film stars. Who hasn’t imitated a heroine’s dance moves, or visualized himself as Amitabh bashing the goons and mouthing great dialogues by Salim-Javed? In this world of Twitter and instant approachability, while some of the mystique is lost, you may do well to remember that Amitabh Bachchan once approached Dilip Kumar for an autograph as a wide-eyed kid.
Hindi cinema in particular has gone through some good phases and bad. While the fifties to seventies were littered with classics and great music, the eighties and the nineties pushed the bar down. The stories had become staid and the willingness to experiment was little. The new millennium has brought in innovation. While the odd ‘Dabbang’ proliferates, so does ‘Taare Zameen Par’. For every ‘Main Hoon Na’, there is also an ‘Udaan’ being made. The film industry also has adopted and cashed in on the celebrity culture like never before. Today, there are cricketers and there are film stars and then there are the rest.
Ultimately though, when you are one among the many waiting for the silver screen to light up, it is hard to escape the sense of excitement that a well-lit screen in a dark room brings us. For a few hours, you can leave the world outside the doors and enjoy the task at hand. The world might have its worries, its tensions, its demands, but you know you can tell it to wait patiently. All you need to sayis, ‘Mere paas CineMaa hai’.
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