The success of movies underscoring Indian ethos and nationalism, or challenging social norms, reflects the people’s desire to feel personal connection to the past and influence by the current set of political and social narratives, turning a movie experience into an active collaboration between the movie maker and the audience for awakening human conscience. By Dr S. Raghunath
With entertainment content from anywhere in the world being only
a click away, recent Bollywood releases are continuing to draw the audience to
the movie halls. The success of movies such as Raazi, Uri, Kesari, Padmavat and
many others shows the role of movies in shaping the way people today feel the
need to visualize, understand and feel invested in events and happenings
relating to their country – India. It appears as if it is not just the Indian
movie audience in cinema halls that are demonstrating their veneration for the
flag and national anthem, but so are the moviemakers in a similar mode of
reverence and adoration.
While
considering the experiential mode of engagement in a movie hall as evident from
the box office figures, it appears to be influenced by the current set of
political and social narratives. There is a popular desire to have a felt,
personal connection to the past – distant or recent.
Indians
who derive an understanding of current happenings of national importance do so
by reading the newspaper or watching the debates on television and interpreting
the issues in the recent and distant past, specifically on the role of women in
spearheading the Indian ethos and nationalism; the discrimination of people on
the basis of caste or the heroic acts of bravery and defense.
Movies
based on the knowledge of such events are enabled in interesting and
provocative ways by a range of popular representations of the recent past, situations
where the audience is not merely being presented enactments of the recent past,
but are being forced to reflect on their own act of thinking as well.
Consider
the movie Article 15. The movie deals with Article 15 of the Constitution of
India, which prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex
or place of birth.
While the
movie content is claimed to be based on multiple true life events including
2014 Badaun gang rape allegations and 2016 Una flogging incident, the storyline
follows the socio-political situation of the country. The movie attempts to
deepen the understanding and reflects on social mores that have antecedents in
history that require attention.
How the
audience in the movie hall understands and uses its societal awareness is by
having some kind of immediate, direct access to it while viewing the movie and,
therefore, the understanding of societal anomalies turns into an active
collaboration between the movie maker and the audience for awakening human
conscience. The experience in the movie hall then is not of just reliving the
past but of pulling the past and present together in a short frame of two
hours. Movies such as Article 15 making it to the box office, signifies an
emerging profound and popular desire to touch and be touched by recent events
and distant history pertaining to social anomalies.
People are also most motivated to action by those issues in
which they feel a personal stake. The expressed reaction of the
audience while watching the movie Uri – The Surgical Strike was reportedly
exceptional. The movie is about the Indian Army’s special forces carrying out a
covert operation, avenging the killing of fellow army men at their base by a
terrorist group. Moreover, the year 2018 until mid 2019 was a period in the
country when heightened awareness of political and military related events
concerned the audience.
Movies
such as Kesari and Uri, which are about historic events such as those relating
to Indian soldiers in British regiments or the Uri attack, foster narratives
that touch, move and provoke, engaging not only intellectually but in affective
ways as well. These are fresh attempts by moviemakers to offer a cinematic
experience that produces historical knowledge and appreciation.
All these movies use a variety of techniques to shock rather than to pacify the audience. There is a revolutionary impact of montage—the piecing together of the movie so as to create a jarring or shocking experience for the audience. The cinematic experience possibly leads to cognitive shifts in thoughts and ideas translating to societal and historical insights. As a result, there is also a certain character type that is emerging as a preference of the discerning audience. The characteristics of the Indian hero or heroine—his or her composure, commitment to unfettered movement towards
the justifiable goals; reluctant but morally clarified use of violence—make him
or her the super hero or heroine.
Inevitably
the protagonist is presented as a brave, independent, considerate character and
the reappearance of these qualities, movies after movies suggest how the
patriotic Indian functions as a symbol of national pride.
In such
movies a debate arises of whether violence is justifiable. That debate is
resolved through the view that violence is justified when it is inflicted on
the guilty in the name of justice. Therefore, these movies in a sense justify
vigilantism.
For
example, Raazi, an adaptation of Harinder Sikka’s 2008 novel Calling Sehmat, is
a true account of an Indian Research and Analysis (RAW) agent who, upon her
father’s request, is married into a family of military officials in Pakistan to
relay information to India, prior to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 and she
successfully carries out her mission at great personal risk.
Similarly,
the movie Kesari depicts the valour of Havaldar Ishar Singh as a part of the
Sikh Regiment of British Indian Army posted at Gulistan fort along the Indian
Afghan border.
The movie
follows the events leading to the Battle of Saragarhi, a battle between 21
soldiers of the 36th Sikhs of the British Indian Army and 6,000–10,000 Afridi
and Orakzai Pashtun tribesmen in 1897.
These movies represent entertainment
content, wherein a society sees its fantasies acted on the screen. When the
society’s fantasies evolve, so do unconventional plots and visual details in
movie making .The flexibility of Bollywood’s conventions ensures its
adaptability for popular Indian society’s shifting concerns and interests.
Driven by a fresh burst of energy, a new breed of independent filmmakers are delivering films based on their own individualistic visions, erasing the gap between the socially meaningful and the commercially viable Indian cinema – By Saibal Chatterjee
Mediocrity is mainstream Indian cinema’s comfort zone. It has always been. But today, being middling is more than just an old habit for filmmakers seeking easy ways to achieve runaway commercial success. It has become a necessity. Low-grade, star-driven commercial cinema and its purveyors are being gleefully embraced by both the masses and the official agencies charged with the promotion of film culture in the country.
It is hardly surprising, therefore, that an unabashedly misogynistic film like Arjun Reddy hits the box-office bull’s eye. Its Hindi remake, Kabir Singh, made by the same director with a different actor, does even better.
Another easy-to-sell category of cinema has emerged, especially in Mumbai, over the past few years: adulatory biopics and puff jobs. These are films that are either aggressively jingoistic (Uri: The Surgical Strike, RAW: Romeo Akbar Walter) or are unabashed extended, fictionalized public service adverts (Toilet: Ek Prem Katha). Taking the line of least resistance pays instant dividends. These films not only make pots of money but also often go on to win national awards at the cost of essays that are leagues ahead in cinematic terms.
But for a new breed of independent filmmakers who are consciously pulling away from the crowd and following their own individualistic visions to deliver films aimed at erasing the gap between the socially meaningful and the commercially viable, Indian cinema today would have worn the looks of a hopeless wasteland.
Mercifully, even filmmakers working in the mainstream space – Pa. Ranjith and Vetrimaaran in Chennai and Anurag Kashyap and Anubhav Sinha in Mumbai – do not shy away from hitting political hot-buttons and questioning gender presumptions in stories couched in popular narrative formulations.
When Vetrimaaran makes Vada Chennai, he ensures that it isn’t any ordinary gangster flick. He infuses it with a social resonance that communicates truths about a city and society in ways that are beyond the reach of less clued-in filmmakers. Pretty much the same is true of Pa. Ranjith. His two Rajinikanth vehicles, Kabali and Kaala, have a strong caste struggle sub-text delivered in a style that never strays into the preachy and boring. Ranjith also recently produced Mari Selvaraj’s Pariyerum Perumal, the story of a boy from an oppressed caste struggling to ward of continuing discrimination.
Ranjith is now in the midst of directing his first Hindi-language film – a drama based on the life of tribal freedom fighter Birsa Munda. The choice of hero is a natural progression for a filmmaker whose cinema has probed the place of the deprived and dispossessed in a society where power flows from religious identity and caste allegiance.
Important elements dovetailed into the plot of Anurag Kashyap’s boxing drama Mukkabaaz also reflects the political consciousness of the maker. The ills of the caste system have also been laid bare in stark detail in Anubhav Sinha’s Article 15. The film is a worthy follow-up to Sinha’s Mulk, which addressed the issue of Islamophobia head-on. We might argue that Indian films still haven’t gone far enough to call out patriarchy and the Brahmanical order. But the very fact that some films are making an attempt, no matter a feeble, is itself a sign of the changing times.
A fresh burst of energy is driving independent filmmakers not just in Tamil Nadu and Kerala but also in Mumbai. The primary space in debutant Madhu C. Narayanan’s Malayalam film Kumbalangi Nights, scripted by Syam Puskaran, is the home of four brothers who have no woman in their lives. The siblings are all flawed, scalded individuals until women enter their lives and make them see life and love in a different light. The film is an examination of masculinity that turns the entire notion of patriarchy on its head.
Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s daringly innovative multi-plot drama Super Deluxe is a film that throws caution to the wind and yet comes with such astounding formal precision that one cannot but watch in awe and applaud. Kumararaja throws four sub-plots into a giant, constantly whirring grinder and emerges with a film so fascinating and so wondrously inventive that one is caught by surprise at every turn.
Super Deluxe subverts our expectations at every turn. A couple is thrown into turmoil following the death of the woman’s ex-boyfriend in her bed. A father of a boy returns to his family after a seven-year absence in the guise of a transwoman. A schoolboy who bunks school with his friends to watch a pornographic film flies into a rage on discovering that his mother is an adult movie actress. Four friends get into terrible tangle with the underworld in an attempt to wriggle out of a minor jam.
The fast-paced, almost breathless film delivers a dazzling kaleidoscope of an urban landscape where every single day is as strange and disconcerting as the previous one. Super Deluxe is testimony to what younger Tamil filmmakers are capable of as storytellers and craftsmen.
The new Malayalam cinema, too, is going through a wonderfully fecund phase. Three films made by Kerala directors are in two of world’s major festivals this year. Sanal Kumar Sasidharan’s Chola (Shape of Water) premieres at the Venice Film Festival while Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Jallikattu and Getu Mohandas’s Moothon are in the Toronto International Film Festival. Sasidharan’s S Durga won the Hivos Tiger Award at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam a couple of years ago, the first Indian film to bag the prize.
Lijo is, of course, also a name to reckon with. He is in the midst of a urple patch., Before Jallikattu, he delivered two absolutely stunning films – Angamaly Diaries and Ee. Ma. Yau – both of which prove his grasp over the medium and his phenomenal ability to handle a multiplicity of actors within single uninterrupted sequences.
The first world that spring to mind when watching a Lijo film is dynamism, the kind that can be extremely infectious. It would be no exaggeration if we were to suggest that he, along with Sasidharan, are the ones who are propelling the resurgence of Malayalam cinema on the global stage. We expect more surprises as filmmakers from Kerala reclaim the place they had in international festivals in the 1980s and a part of the 1990s.
The National Awards for films, which were started as an annual incentive by the Government of India , for the making of artistic, competent and meaningful films, have come a long way, to cover the entire national spectrum of Indian Cinema, to judge merit by the highest possible yardstick and to become the most coveted and prestigious awards in the country.
In their 66th year now, the National Film Awards continue to underline cinematic excellence. The awards have over the years brought the best talent present in India Cinema to national limelight. In its over a half a century long history, the National Film Awards have nurtured numerous talent who are now national icons and also known internationally.
The 66th National Film Awards were announced by Rahul Rawail, Chairperson, Feature Film Category, AS Kanal, Chairperson, Non-Feature Film Category and Utpal Borpujari, Chairperson, Best Writing on Cinema for the year 2018..
National Awards aim at encouraging the production of films of aesthetic and technical excellence and social relevance contributing to the understanding and appreciation of cultures of different regions of the country in cinematic form and thereby also promoting integration and unity of the nation.
Best Feature Film: Hellaro (Gujarati)
Best Direction: Aditya Dhar for Uri: The Surgical Strike
Best Actress: Keerthy Suresh for Mahanati
Best Actor: Ayushmann Khurrana for Andhadhun and Vicky Kaushal for Uri: The Surgical Strike
Best Supporting Actress: Surekha Sikri for Badhaai Ho
Best Supporting Actor: Swanand Kirkire for Chumbak
Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment: Badhaai Ho
Best Film on Social Issues: Pad Man
Nargis Dutt Award for National Integration: Ondalla Eradalla
Best Children’s Film: Sarkari Hiriya Prathamika Shale Kasargodu
Best Child Actors: PV Rohith for Ondalla Eradalla (Kannada), Sameep Singh for Harjeeta (Punjabi), Talha Arshad Reshi for Hamid (Urdu), Shrinivas Pokale for Naal(Marathi)
Best Film on Environment Conservation: Paani
Jury Awards: Kedara (Bengali), Hellaro (Gujarati)
Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of A Director: Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti for Naal
Special mention for performances: Sruthi Hariharan (Nathicharami), Chandrachud Rai (Kadakh), Joju Joseph (Joseph), Savithri (Sudani from Nigeria)
Best Female Playback Singer: Bindhu Malini for Mayavi Manave from Nathicharami
Best Male Playback Singer: Arijit Singh for Binte Dil from Padmaavat
Best Choreography: Kruti Mahesh Madya & Jyoti Tomar for Ghoomar, Padmaavat
Best Music Director (Songs): Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Padmaavat
Best Special Effect: Awe, KGF
Best Music Direction: Sanjay Leela Bhasali for Padmaavat
Best Music Direction (Background Music): Shashwat Sachdev for Uri: The Surgical Strike
Best Makeup Artist: Ranjith for Awe
Best Costume Designer: Indrakshi Pattanaik, Gaurang Shah & Archana Rao for Mahanati
Best Action: Vikram More and Anbu Ariv for KGF
Best Lyrics: Manjunatha S for Nathicharami
Best Production Design: Kammara Sambhavam
Best Editing: Nathicharami
Best Location Sound: Tendlya
Best Sound Design: Uri: The Surgical Strike
Best Mixed Track: Rangasthalam
Best Original Screenplay: Rahul Ravindran for Chi Arjun La Sow
Best Adapted Screenplay: Sriram Raghavan , Arijit Biswas, Yogesh Chandekar, Hemant Rao & Pooja Ladha Surti for Andhadhun
Best Dialogue: Churni Ganguly for Tarikh
Best Cinematography: MJ Radhakrishnan for Olu (Malayalam)
Best Rajasthani Film: Turtle
Best Sherdukpan Film: Mishing
Best Pangchenpa Film: In The Land Of Poisonous Women
Best Garo Film: Ma’Ama
Best Marathi Film: Bhonga
Best Tamil Film: Baaram
Best Hindi Film: Andhadhun
Best Urdu Film: Hamid
Best Bengali Film: Ek Je Chhilo Raja
Best Malayalam Film: Sudani From Nigeria
Best Telugu Film: Mahanati
Best Kannada Film: Nathicharami
Best Konkani Film: Amori
Best Assamese Film: Bulbul Can Sing
Best Punjabi Film: Harjeeta
Best Gujarati Film: Reva
Non-feature Films Category
Best Film on Family Values: Chalo Jeetey Hai
Best Short Fiction Film: Kasab
Social Justice Film: Why Me, Ekant
Best Investigation Film: Amoli
Best Sports Film: Swimming Through The Darkness
Best Educational Film: Sarlabh Virala
Best Film on Social Issue: Talate Kunji
Best Environmental Film: The World’s Most Famous Tiger
Best Promotional Film: Rediscovering Jahannum
Best Film on Science and Technology: GD Naidu: The Edison of India
Best Arts and Cultural Film: Munkar
Best Debut non-feature film of a Director: Feluda
Best Non-Feature Film: Sunrise, The Secret Life of Frogs
Most film-friendly state: Uttarakhand
Best book on cinema: Malayalam Book Mano Prarthana Pulley; In A Cult Of Their Own gets Special Mention
Best Film Critic: Blase Johnny (Malayalam), Ananth Vijay (Hindi)
Most film-friendly state: Uttarakhand
Best book on cinema: Malayalam Book Mano Prarthana Pulley; In A Cult Of Their Own gets Special Mention
Best Film Critic: Blase Johnny (Malayalam), Ananth Vijay (Hindi)
Shahid Kapoor-starrer Kabir Singh has emerged as the highest-grossing film of 2019 (July 8, 2019) with the box office collection inching towards Rs 250 crore in its third week, surpassing Vicky Kaushal’s Uri: The Surgical Strike (lifetime collection Rs 246 crore) and Salman Khan’s Bharat (Rs 211 core).
Kabir Singh is a remake of Telugu film Arjun Reddy and expectations are that the film would touch Rs 300 life-time collection. The film has been released in over 2,000 theatres across India.
Jointly produced by Cine1 Studios and T-Series, Shahid Kapoor plays title character Kabir Singh, Kiara Advani is Preeti, Suresh Oberoi plays the role of Shahid’s father (Rajdheer Singh) and Adil Hussain is the dean of the college.
Film critic Saibal Chatterjee commented that “Shahid Kapoor stretches himself very thin indeed in trying to convince us that Kabir Singh is a present-day incarnation of Devdas that we should shed tears for. But the man he portrays does not suffer quite as irreversibly as the classic tragic hero did. But he raves and rants through his ordeal and would have us believe that he is more sinned against than sinning. Sorry, we aren’t buying that”.
Film critic Shubhra Gupta gave 1.5 ratings in her Indian Express Review. Raja Sen gave 1.5 ratings in Hindustan Times. CNN IBN and Network 18’s Rajeev Masand gave 2 stars. Many described the film as misogynistic and patriarchal.
Despite mixed reviews by film critics and its controversy on social media, Kabir Singh is a smashing hit and has been well-received by Shahid Kapoor fans.