The slow moving “revolution” Kashyap talks about?!

By: Krishna DK |
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In the US it is a common trend that you see all these huge summer blockbusters like Spider-Mans, Pirates et al, and in the ‘dull’ fall season, all your ‘boring’ Oscar fare (read dramas, indies) are released. And needless to say, I look forward to fall every year.

I went through a similar experience in India this year, albeit it was probably unintentional. After wading through a slew of banal masala films the whole year like a zombie - all primarily produced to make a lot of money very fast - I all but gave up on Indian cinema. And then, incredibly, in our own dull season aka Ramzan season, I ended up watching four films in one month that give me hope.

Here are the four films behind the reaffirmation of my faith in the future of Indian cinema: Johnny Gaddar, Manorama Six Feet Under, Dil Dosti Etc, Loins Of Punjab.

These are all excellent films in my book purely for the fact that they were made with good sensibilities, by people who love cinema and who refuse to tread the formulaic Bollywood path. They all wanted to make films that are ‘different’. It’s their honest approach to filmmaking that I applaud.

None of these films are perfect - if I may be brutally critical. Loins suffers from an ultra low budget and a little bit of gimmickry but has its heart in the right place. And has some fresh comedy and a lot of lovable characters.

Dil Dosti Etc also suffers from low budget issues, has some under-par scenes, especially any scene where the characters speak in English. But the freshness of the setting, the honesty with which the characters are treated (very realistic, all with multiple shades of grey) and the bold plot elements are all a treat to watch.

Manorama suffers from an over-written plot. And a bigger budget could have helped here too. But the mood of the film is so well maintained, the setting so beautifully exploited, the plot is so engrossing, I’d recommend this film to anyone without a second thought.

Johnny Gaddar, on the other hand, is beautifully crafted; a pleasure to watch in every frame, well written, well acted… in fact, I really can’t find a flaw. But still, there is a reason why I walked out after the film knowing I’ve watched a good film, but not really thrilled or overly excited about the fact. Maybe that’s just the nature of pulp. How many Chase novels have we all read? And while we enjoy reading every page of the novel, the moment we close the book, it is out of our mind, failing to leave any sort of impact on us.

But that’s all pedantic criticism. Just a part of my own futile effort to figure out why they didn’t work at the box office. The easy answer is “no stars, no openings”.

Which I totally understand. Big star films get good openings and if they’re half-way decent, they succeed. Small films, however good they are, never get good openings, and – with some notable exceptions – never turn out to be huge hits.

But forget ‘hits.’ How about just commercial viability? The day that starts happening would be a good day for the industry. It’s simple: if a film is good (and is marketed right), it should be profitable. That’s all I ask.

I think we’re headed in the right direction though. I think the audiences are slowly maturing and soon there’ll be enough critical mass for good small films to be commercially profitable, if not huge hits. Once again, congratulations – and thanks – to all these filmmakers for just going ahead and making these films.

Keep at it, keep ‘em coming…