Hariharan, who is a graduate from FTII Pune, is the director of the National Award winning Tamil film, ‘Ezhavadhu Manidhan’. He also has many documentaries, children’s films and short features to his credit. Hariharan is a visiting faculty member at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai and at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. [/box]
How successful has Bollywood been in defining ‘Brand India’?
Within a typical consumerist framework there is no doubt that the term ‘Bollywood’ has established India and her cinema on the world map. But unfortunately, like most of the late-capitalist initiatives, it has come at a huge price. A small group of star-studded films from Mumbai have come to represent the face of Indian cinema and all her dynamic nuances. And the emerging corporate film world, despite being run by the most qualified MBAs and Cost Accountants, is tagging onto this brand name and trying to leverage international investments into such a mythical zone.
What is your opinion on how receptive the industry is to ‘meaningful cinema’ – do you see Bollywood moving beyond glitzy glamour and its running-around-the-trees identity?
Honestly, I would not like to be arrogant and declare that ‘Bollywood’ does not make meaningful films. After all, films like ‘Lagaan’, ‘Swades’ or ‘Rang De Basanti’ have come from this so-called stable. At the same time, I would also like to say that I will not look down upon films with songs and glamorous looking people. They too are a kind of genre that we need to accept and just because film scholars/ critics consider it fashionable to run them down, we need not follow suit.
How have the regional film industries, particularly the Tamil and Telugu industries shaped India’s brand image in recent years?
Unfortunately, regional cinema has come to be associated with non-Hindi language cinemas. I think a film like ‘Maqbool’ or ‘Parzania’ are the regional cinemas of Mumbai while films like ‘Sivaji’ or ‘Ravanan’ are the ‘Bollywood’ type films from the so-called regions. Malayalam cinema is in severe crisis today because it has become trendy to get away from their regular ‘realistic’ diet to mimicking the big budget Tamil films.
So, can we say that as far as non-Hindi movies are concerned, it’s the films made on a big scale that are recognized nationally and globally and are adding a dimension to Indian cinema?
Yes and no. At the box office the big films get obviously recognized. But the ‘other’ variety gets all the attention at the various international and national film festivals where they also get a lot of media attention. The recent film ‘Udaan’ is an example. A lot of hype at Cannes but a box office dud!
Finally, do you think the newer Indian films, say in the last fifteen years, (despite the language) have succeeded in imbibing patriotism and a sense of responsibility towards the country among the audience?
In today’s trans-national world-view ‘patriotism’ is a meaningless term! In fact it is even a slightly dangerous term since it forces you to subscribe to certain ‘exclusive’ ideas like religion or borders or ethnic groups as ‘ours’ and the rest of ‘the others’. So, I wish that this kind of ‘patriotism’ is not thought of being synonymous with ‘imbibing a sense of responsibility’! In short ‘hating Pakistan’ should not be see as anyone’s sense of being a ‘good’ citizen!
That’s a very interesting and thought provoking perspective on patriotism. Yet, how successful has Indian cinema been in recent years, in telling youngsters about their role in shaping our society, in terms of social responsibility?
I don’t think films tell youngsters anything instructional or moral for them to go and follow suit. If media scholars do see any such influential reaction then there are many other factors besides cinema at play! Let us not believe that audiences are gullible enough to get inputs on ‘social responsibility’ from films!
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