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..]