A (not so) brief background to my cinematic aesthetics-2

 [In the first part of the series "A brief background to my cinematic aesthetics", I tried to put forth my opinion of the "cause" of the slow evolution of Indian cinema. In this, i.e. the second installment of the series , I would state what I believe are the "effects" of the cause.]



Carrying on from where I left, I would now like to point out a few natural outcomes of excessive commercialization of cinema.

In a scenario where box-office success is considered the be-all and end-all of  the art of movie making, it gives rise to some very unhealthy trends; trends which, in the long run, become the undoing of the art-form itself. To name a few such trends (which come in vogue as a result of attaching too much importance to the commercial success of a film) :-

1- Encouragement to formula:- As in, following the current trend. For instance, if a comedy strikes big at the box-office, every Tom, Dick or Harry starts churning out comedies, just for the heck of it; whether or not he possesses the required tools for a successful comedy (for eg., a sense of humour in case of a director and 'comic-timing' in case of an actor)

The result: This trend halts the growth and evolution of cinema in the long run.

2- Encouragement to 'Star system':- The most over-rated, and as a result the most pampered exponents of the entire movie making machine are the actors. It's the actors who tend to run away with all the applause when a certain film succeeds, as if it's all thanks to them alone and the crew (director+ the rest of technical staff) is just incidental.

And the more the emphasis on commercial success; the more pampering the stars demand and succeed in getting.


3- Less emphasis on the three most vital aspects of cinema:the 3 S namely the Story, the Script & the Screenplay:- Point 3 is a direct outcome of point 1 & 2 i.e. when a movie is to be made keeping in mind the current formula and the actors are to be the stars of the show, then the 3 S's are bound to be ignored.


 4- Encouragement to plagiarism:- When box-office success is THE parameter and it's all about delivering hits non-stop, who really gives a fuck about things like 'originality' and shit! Pritam Chakraborty is a living example. Pritam sells like no other does and the one who sells the most is, quite naturally, the most deserving to be honoured with awards. Isn't it? (If your answer is "It isn't", you can go and fly a kite, Thank you!)

5- Encouragement to nefarious activities like having the media on payroll, buying out critics and even, awards! :- Such a moolah driven state of affair is an open invitation to corruption and it is precisely what follows. You see, when the only thing that matters is hitting the bull's eye at the box-office, the smarter of the bollywood lot are bound to employ every possible trick at their disposal, be it "inventing" gossip regarding the lead pair (in most cases, with the consent of the said lead pair!); "creating" some kind of controversy deliberately, for controversy begets publicity; other publicity stunts (I remember Mahesh Bhatt  circulating news of Manisha Koirala's murder prior to the release of his movie Criminal during the 90s..can you believe it?!); hiring efficient PR team to ensure good relations with Media; Buying out certain media houses (It's obvious that most of the top selling stars have many prominent media houses on their payroll for ensuing continued lip-service to them); buying out the so called critics; And last, but by no means the least, buying  out  the honours (awards), as well. [sarcasm]After all, how can the top-selling star (or director/producer etc.) not be THE best, too? It's inconceivable. Is it not? [/sarcasm]

Hence, the sham that goes on in the name of award functions.

(Disclaimer- Any resemblance to the likes of SRK-YRF-Dharma-Taran-Filmfare-etc. is "purely" coincidental ;)   )

And lastly,

6- Discouragement to the real meritorious artist; be him a director, an actor, music director, art director, lyricist, cinematographer, choreographer or any other exponent of this huge movie making machine:- 

This point is, perhaps, THE gravest harm that too much emphasis on commercial success of a venture does to the art of cinema. The real meritorious and passionate artist is bound to be discouraged by this state of affairs where mediocrity is not only rewarded heftily but awarded as well and is dubbed as if it's a thing of supreme beauty! I mean why would a director want to make an Ardhsatya when it's a Kaho Na Pyaar Hai  which sets the cash registers ringing?( And even if he somehow does, what's the probability of him finding a willing producer to finance his dream.....Zilch. ZERO); why would an actor bother honing his acting skills at theatre circuits or institutes like the FTII etc. when things like having a toned physique and being a good dancer, horse-rider, black-belt etc. are given more weightage than the skill of expressing various emotions through facial expressions, tone of dialogue delivery and body language?; why would a music director bother banging his head, spending sleepless nights just to come up with a never heard before tune when he can easily lift some popular tune from some other land, rejig it and not only get away doing so but even win awards for the great Ctrl C Ctrl V job?!

Why? What would be their motivation? A true artist, by his very nature, is a sort of person who can live without big money but not without recognition, acknowledgment, and respect to his craft. And what goes on in the name of these various award functions is nothing but the gravest insult to any true artist. I mean..one can understand if a SRK or a Hrithik or a Akshay Kumar gets the "Best Star or Superstar of the year" award but "Best Actor"??? Come onnnn......that's height of corruption!

The end result of all this is: even the most passionate and the meritorious ones are forced to kneel down to this monster of commercialization at some point or the other, and join this mediocrity if they wish to survive in this "market". That is why you see a thespian of the caliber of Naseeruddin Shah making an ass outta himself in the unbelievably crap Asambhav; a maestro like Priyadarshan churning out one crappy so-called comedy (with almost the same set of actors as well as the same kinda 'climax', with all characters running after one another in utter chaos)  after another; a Paresh Rawal getting typecast as a funny man to the point of not looking funny at all; a Om Puri embarassing himself as a gay sadhu in Buddha Mar Gaya. And so on...



And the loser in all mucky business this is the very art of the cinema itself.

*Sigh*

[This concludes the 2nd part i.e "the effect". In the 3rd and the concluding part, I intend to dwell upon MY solution to correct the flaws in the system.]

A brief background into my cinematic aesthetics- 1

Since as long as I can remember, I've been a connoisseur of quality cinema, be it of any genre, any language, any nation. I used the word "connoisseur" instead of "fan" deliberately, for unlike a casual fan, I've always viewed cinema from a connoisseur's, a student's, a critic's, point of view. I remember watching Satyajit Ray's Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne(Adventures of Goopy and Bagha) (1968)on Doordarshan  sometime around '93 and being completely smitten by the movie despite of my total lack of understanding of bengali. I remember watching the Marathi film Aaplee Maansee sometime around 1995 and falling completely in love with Renuka Shahane for the way she portrayed that innocence. I remember watching Mithun Chakravarthy perform as Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa (Yeah!) in the Odiya movie Swami Vivekananda sometime around 1996 and being in complete awe of the way in which Mithun not only managed to alter his body language and mannerism but even the texture of his voice! I can vividly remember cycling up at top speed along with my gang to a single screen theater about 15 kms. from my locality (those days, there was only one (half) decent cinema hall in Sitapur city, and Dil Se was showing at a hall in a tehseel of Sitapur, some 15-20 kms. away) so as to not miss even a frame of Shahrukh Khan dancing atop a moving toy train to the beats of "Chhainya Chhainya" in Mani Rathnam's Dil Se and once inside the dark theater, forgetting everything about the superstar and getting lost in the finer aspects of the genius director's craft- aspects like photography, cinematography, lighting, screenplay, background score etc.

But for many years, it was not possible for me to indulge myself in this passion of  mine of exploring quality cinema from all over the world, for the simple reason that there was only so much that was available to me staying at Sitapur. So, I had to make do with whatever I could manage to get my hands on, which was mostly the Hindi classics of yore by makers like Bimal Roy, Gurudutt, Raj Kapoor, K.Asif, Mehboob, Basu Bhattacharya, Hrishikesh Mukherji etc., besides some regional gems shown on Doordarshan on Sundays and a rare Video Cassette of some Charlie Chaplin classic here and there.

It was only after I left home and arrived at Nagpur for my engineering that I was exposed to cinema other than Hindi. Thanks partly to some like minded company at the hostel and partly to the free Internet & LAN across the campus, I finally got to quench my thirst for quality cinema, be it Indian regional or International (and not just Hollywood)

It was during my engineering years only that I first happened to watch what was to later become THE cinematic bible to me- Coppola's The Godfather. It was during this period that I made acquaintance with the work of actors like Humphrey Bogart, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, Tom Hanks, Morgan Freeman, Meryl Streep and above all, The Godfather of Acting- Marlon Brando and came to the shocking realization that contrary to my long cherished belief, Amitabh Bachchan, with all due respect, is NOT the last word on acting!

L'emme make it clear here, lest anyone is having any doubts regarding me being one of those "art-movie types", I am NOT. I would like to think of myself as just an admirer of "good, quality cinema", be it mainstream or non-mainstream. The fact that I genuinely consider Sholay as THE finest movie made in ANY Indian language EVER, should be proof enough. I would be the first to admit that not every so called art movie is actually quality. There are crap movies in non-mainstream as well. I myself have not been able to sit through boring supposed masterpieces like Zubeida etc. just like I can not sit through similar crap, albeit dressed rather ostentatiously, that the likes of YRF and Dharma production keep churning out with amazing regularity year after year. It becomes important to mention here that contrary to the popular opinion, I DO NOT have any axe to grind with either the YRF/Dharma/SRK school of cinema or, for that matter, with the fans of their brand of candyfloss cinema.  I perfectly understand that cinema, like any performing art, is a subjective medium and your opinion on what constitutes great cinema can be different than mine. Perfectly acceptable. To each his own.

But what gets my goat is when I see a well planned and financed propaganda on behalf of certain camps in the Indian Film Industry to legitimize their brand of cinema as THE finest cinema there could be. I mean how the hell can you explain an institution (The Filmfare) which used to award the best actor to the likes of Sanjeev Kumar, Amol Palekar, Naseeruddin Shah and Anupam Kher throughout the 70s and the 80s, suddenly start awarding the prestigious trophy to stars like SRK  for out n out commercial ventures (Dil To Pagal Hai in '98 & Devdas in '03) & Hrithik (for Kaho Na Pyaar Hai in '00, Dhoom 2 in '07 & Jodha Akbar in '09)!! Just because those movies did huge business, does that automatically translate that the lead actor in the said blockbuster gave the acting performance of the year??? What, if I may ask the FF jury was so great in what Hrithik did in his debut vehicle KNPH?? As far as I can remember, all he did was wear awesome jackets, cool specs, ride sexy bikes, did some funky new dance moves and flex his muscles towards the end. Is that what great acting is all about?? Same goes for SRK. (Mind you, I have not questioned SRK winning for his work in Baazigar, DDLJ, KKHH, Swades and Chak De). And I may have lived with it if this commercialization of award functions was limited to private institutions like The Filmfare/Stardust & Star screen/Zee Cine etc. but this cancer of commercialization seems to have crept it's way into even the National Awards for Cinema- the one institution which, till not too long ago, used to be the benchmark for merit and credibility- if the recent history of award winners is anything to go by. I mean..the likes of Saif Ali Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Kangana Ranaut & Arjun Rampal winning the National awards for acting...WTF!!

It's not as if this cancer of commercialization is a local epidemic. Naah, it's a global phenomenon. Even in Hollywood, the likes of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Will Smith enjoy far greater fan following than the likes of, say, a De Niro or a Pacino, or even their own contemporaries- Ed Norton, Sean Penn, Late Heath Ledger, Val Kilmer and Mickey Rourke etc. I can understand the reasons, After all, the phenomena of 'classes' and 'masses' is not limited to India alone. They are everywhere where ever there is an art up for public consumption. And because it is so, the individual with stronger mass-appeal is bound to enjoy more popularity, and as a result, more commercial success than one with stronger class-appeal.

I am perfectly okay with that as long as this popularity vs merit thingy does not start meddling with art-honours and robbing the really deserving ones of their rightful due.To their credit, Hollywood, has, so far, managed to stay clean on that count, more or less. Agreed, they too have goofed up on a couple of occasions but both the Golden Globe as well as The Academy Awards (Oscar) are still  any day far more credible than any that we have here in India. Proof is the fact that the likes of Cruise, Pitt, Depp and Smith are all yet to win an Oscar! Can you imagine a similar scenario in India?? No way...

[Just occurred to me that this piece has gone lengthier than I intended it to be and I am far from finished. So, let's make it a series with this one being part-1. More to come..]