Ek Akela...
There has been nothing about Bollywood on the blog in a long time so here it goes. This is the part of Bollywood I like and care about...
Sunday, August 03, 2008
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11 comments:
nice. 70s were the last period the closest bollywood came close to showcase the alienation effect cutting the line between the populist and the art. though i've problems with the song and dance sequence in bollywood, films like these never had songs for fillers, but pushed the story forward too. Palekar was so identifiable. :)
Amol Palekar before coming into bollywood used to be active in theaters and brought them on the street. His regional films have been good too.
:) This is one of my all time favourite bollywood songs!!
I think the lyrics are Gulzar's - who is a great favourite as well...
Anonymous: I think this is one very good example of how a song can very effectively summarise the mood of the character or even comment on the events of a story. It doesn't really propel the narrative forward, it actually slows it down, forcing the viewer to think with the character and take stock of what has happened in the story. In this particular case this works even better because there is a contrast with the "happier" version of the same song, again something Bollywood was good at... Sad and Happy version of the same song!!
szerelem: yeah, it is by Gulzar and I think one of his best too...
Gulzar can probably write such gems in his sleep.
The 1970s were interesting times for Bollywood. Even a mainstream film like "Deewar" is not without some politics. (It helped that film school grads in India were going through what the western artists went through in the 1960s?)
My jaw still hits the floor at the sheer crap that came with the 1980s.
yes completely agree. it is actually true for even more over-the-top films like Amar Akbar Anthony. There was an undercurrent of authenticity even in the most artificial of plots and characters. May be there is some sociological reason as to why Bollywood lost it...
the Sholay syndrome perhaps (equivalent to the Jaws-syndrome in hollywood)? Five year run in the theaters and once it all but fizzed out, nothing was left but to take it to the logical extreme by those following. and then with it came the commercial nihilism - if the mass likes it, then who are you to say it's bad stuff. Only if some used nihilism to the other extreme, u know, the art for art's sake and the like.
though 80s parallel cinema continued where it left in the 70s. benegal, nihalani, kundan shah, saeed mirza, palekar all made good films. it all fell down around mid 80s with the popularity of television. benegal went into that slew of TV serials which were good too and did not make films post-86 or so. and when he came back, in the late 80s and early 90s the situation completely changed. and its been down ever since, except in bengal and kerala and few other places, where it hangs on the edge. naseeruddin shah questioned benegal's filmmaking standard in the 90s accusing him of falling into populist agenda. benegal points it towards the '91 trade liberalization and globalization of the govt. among others which made it hard to acquire funds.
that's an interesting parallel, 80s was the worst decade in hollywood history too!
in bollywood very few movies were commercially successful in 80s, hardly any in which Amitabh Bachchan was not there and when he left movies for politics even that was gone... the main reason that is generally given for this decline is the rise of home video.
changes in the 90s and the current bollywood cinema are more interesting to explain, though still very obvious. You just have to look at the names of the characters. See how Vijay Verma/Shrivastava changed to Raj Malhotra (in 90% cases an NRI). With liberalization there was a sea-change in the aspirational values of the middle class too and it reflects in the films. this is a vast topic, i am sure sociologists and culture studies people have been studying this.
nice discussion on the downfall of bollywood!!!!!!!!
the new millenium, like the 80s and 90s, has not been good either. there are occaasional movies from some innovative directors that have been a bit watchable otherwise it has just been all crap.. The location of the films from Dharavi has changed to Central Park, New York and the directors seem more keen to present the fleshy stuffs than putting in some grey matter in film making.
The public is still carrying the 40+actors and they are doing their typified roles again and again. Nothing new!!!!!
yes this is understandable too. with liberalization in the 90s and the rise of the urban middle class in india... it is not surprising that the films also reflect the same. Now if they could also show some intelligence, sensitivity and honesty but that sounds like asking too much from these bollywood filmmakers.
Hmmmmmmm...........seems you have completely lost hope on these bollywood film-makers!!!!!
Still there are a few film-makers whose films you can strive for.
Anyway, do you want to say that all the flesh that is being served to the Indian audience by the bollywood these days is a result of 'the rise of the urban middle class in india'? I dont think this can be caleed as 'rise'. its a downfall of people's morale and mentality. Some of the most sensuous songs in bollywood till date have come with heroines in saree, be it Sridevi in 'Kaate nahi Kat ti' or Mdhubala in 'Ek larki bheegi bhaagi si'. People loved these songs and we still like these and the recent songs like 'bheege hont' stand nowhere near these.....atleast not in sensuosity...........
by rise I meant the rise in power and in the economic sense. More than the skin-show what bores me and troubles me is their shallowness and stupidity and a total disinterest in any sort of realism. Bollywood is rarely known for realism and it has always shown how people want things to be rather than how things really are but in the old commerical films (even in things like Amar Akbar Anthony) there was a feeling of sincerity and authenticity which I rarely if ever see in contemporary bollywood.
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