...and the award goes to !

The Cannes Film Festival is coming to an end today. Cannes ( pronounced as /ˈkæn/  or Can ) has been a  regular gathering of film-makers, connoisseurs and  internationally acclaimed film personalities on the French Riviera. The Cannes Awards are one of the most respected film awards of the world. While the red carpet and curtain raisers have been prominently featuring Indian film personalities, the essence of Cannes are its awards.

There are many categories of awards at Cannes. The Golden Palm is their most coveted award but there are a bevy of awards to compete for, both by established film artistes as well as debutants for feature films as well as documentaries and short films.

  Though Hindi films are made primarily for commercial profits, there have been quite a few Hindi films to have made their mark in International awards. With a host of parallel cinema directors in India over the years, one expects that the   likes of Satyjit Ray, Kumar Shahani, Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Govind Nihalani and  Mira Nair would be in the list of winners.

Ironically, year after year, we find mainstream Bollywood stars hogging the limelight. The true actors who work in films which deserve a place at Cannes and other such festivals are relegated to sidelines. Such is the unfairness of life, perhaps !
So, let us find out the Indian Films to have made a mark at Cannes over the years and see if there are pleasant  surprises in store for us. This year, however, except for the short film Afternoon Clouds by FTII student  Payal Kapadia was the only entry from India.

But there have been better times in the past for Indian films at  Cannes..

Let's begin at the beginning. 

Year 1946 and a young film maker Chetan Anand, going against the tide of regular style of cinema, made a film called Neecha Nagar. The film, based on a story by Hayatullah Ansari was said to be inspired by Maxim Gorky's novel The Lower Depths. It was a pioneering effort in social realism and laid the foundation of parallel cinema in India. The film was shot with innovation , keeping the camera angles such that the deprived protagonists of that part of the town called Neecha Nagar would appear to be short-statured, a reflection of their position vis a vis the rich Ooncha Nagar residents.


Neecha Nagar was sent to the second edition of Cannes, held after six years, post-Second World War  and it won the  Golden Palm ( known as Palme d'Or )in the Festival, the first and only Hindi film to achieve the honour, even though it did not get a release in India.

In 1951, V.Shantaram had made a film in Marathi called Amar Bhoopali. The film was a biographical account of musician Honaji Bala. Bala was best known for popularising Lavani dance and his rise to fame coincided with the Marathas getting defeated by the British. 
The film was nominated for Grand Prize in Cannes festival, which eluded the film. However, the film was awarded for Excellence in Sound Recording.

Bimal Roy was a film-maker who knew the ground reality like no one else. So when he made Do Beegha Zameen, based on  the realism in the film was striking. The acting prowess of Balraj sahni, the music of Salil Chaudhary and the direction of Roy made the film a classic. It paved the way for neo-realism in Indian films. The film won Prix Internationale, a respected award in the 1954 edition of Cannes. 

The first film of Satyajit Ray's Apu's triology was Apur Sansar ( 1954). The film tells the story of a young boy who lives with his family and the joys and travails  of living in rural Bengal. The film was considered a classic and won wide critical acclaim. In Cannes Film festival, Ray's masterpiece was awarded Best Human Document.

The 50s were, indeed,  the Golden Era in Hindi films, in terms of both content and style of films being made. While the mainstream cinema had their blockbusters, there were attempts to fuse art and commerce, with melodious compositions punctuating the narrative.

In 1955, Bimal Roy's Biraj Bahu, based on Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyaya's novel of the same name, was screened in competition. The second Hindi film to be screened was Raj Kapoor's  Boot Polish. For this film, Baby Naaz received a Special Distinction Award for her charismatic performance.It is a fact that Raj Kapoor had visited 12 schools in Bombay in order to search for a suitable child actor, before zeroing on Baby Naaz !

 Khwaja Ahmed Abbas had produced a film called Pardesi in 1957. This was the first  Indo-Russian venture , based on the travelogue of Russian Afanasy Nikitin to India and his falling in love with an Indian girl.

 Satyajit Rays's Parash Pathar ( a 1958 comedy-fantasy film centered on a middle-class clerk who accidentally discovers a stone that can turn other objects into gold ) was also an entry in Cannes.Bimal Roy's Sujata, released in 1959 explored the situation of caste in India through the story of a girl who is considered an out-caste. The film was entered in the 1960 festival at Cannes.

The sixties and seventies were the barren years for Indian cinema at Cannes. The films being made were more of the escapist stuff, with lot of songs and dance routines and western influence getting more and more pronounced in music being in films.However, there were screenings of a few  Indian  films  in the competition at the festival, without winning any award.

India foremost art film director Satyajit Ray had another go at the festival, with his  Devi(1960), about a housewife who is believed to be an incarnation of Goddess Kali !

Moni Bhattachajee's  Mujhe Jeene Do ( 1963) was a close-to-reality dacoit saga ( check out the blog about Stockholm Syndrome at http://amitabhn-randomthinking.blogspot.in/2017/05/blog-post_19.html) was screened at Cannes, but without a mention in the list of awardees.

Despite the parallel cinema in full bloom in the 70s in India, only three Indian films could make the grade at Cannes in the 70s, regrettably. The film makers of that era were actually struggling on many fronts. Censorship has always been an issue with those who have wanted to speak out their mind. Made on   shoe-string budgets and devoid of stars, these films failed to get audiences in theatres. Finally, the  procedures to send entries in International Film Festivals were also plagued with red-tape in the 70s with a big part of the decade being affected by War, Unrest, Emergency and lack of political stability.

One of the films in 70s to get to Cannes was  M S Sathyu's Garam Hawa ( 1973),which dealt with the dilemma of a family in the times of Partition.The film details the slow disintegration of his family, and is one of the most poignant films made on India's partition.  It remains one of the few serious films dealing with the post-Partition plight of Muslims in India. 

The second film was  Shyam Benegal's Nishant (1975). This film focussed on the powers of rural elite and the sexual exploitation of women.The film was selected to compete for the Golden palm, but could not get the award.  

The third film was Mrinal Sen's Bangla masterpiece Ek Din Pratidin (1979). This is a  story of a   girl who is the only bread-winner of a middle-class family and how the family deals with the situation of her failing to return from work, one day.

The luck turned in our favour the 80s, after a ten year drought. many art cinema icons deserted the movement for greener commercial pastures ( Naseeruddin Shah and Smita Patil being the main culprits) and the new-age cinema started to move towards it inevitable end. However, out of the dying embers, new film-makers emerged and got their due in front of the world !
Two films made their presence felt in the festival in 1988.

 Gautam Ghose's Antarjali Jatra was  screened under Un Certain Regard ( meaning Another Point of View). The film depicts the institution of Kuleen Brahmin polygamy of 19th Century Bengal.

The icing on the cake was an award, not in one but in two categories for the same film !
Mira Nair's Salaam Bombay! made history of sorts by winning in the categories  Camera d'Or and the Audience Prize.The film chronicles the day-to-day life of children living on the streets of Bombay ( now Mumbai).  Most of the young actors who appeared in Salaam Bombay! were actual street children. They received dramatic training at a special workshop in Bombay before they appeared in the film. The film remains one the most remarkable film made in the country.

The next year, while   Satyajit Ray's Ganashatru ( based on Isben's Enemy of the people) was screened out of competition,  Shaji N Karun's Malayalam film Piravi (based on the real-life incident of Rajan, an engineering student who died as a result of torture by police during Emergency and how his father deals with the trauma) won a Special Mention for Camera d'Or.

The change in the Indian cinema scene in 90s was evident as a multi-lingual manifestation of the spirit of being Indian. Good cinema started to move away from Hindi film -Mumbai Industry nexus and the films made in regional languages made heads to turn. Out of the many Indian films getting special mentions at Cannes, only one of them was in Hindi,

The regional films broke through not only national but international boundaries to project India as truly a multi-cultural confederation that it is.

Look at the range of topics on which the film-makers of the country were devoting their craft to, getting international applause !

In 1991, a film from the North East made a rare appearance in Un Certain Regard - Manipuri director Aribam Syam Sharma's Ishanou ( The Chosen One). The film is about a gentle , loving housewife becoming a violent woman with wild visions.

Indian films continued to be screened at Cannes.  In 1994, Shaji N Karun, whose earlier film Piravi had got acclaim , came up with Swaham, about a family who has to deal with tragedies, one after other.

 Sandeep Ray's Uttoran, which showed the divide between the urban and rural sensibilities, was exhibited  under Un Certain Regard.

 Regional cinema continued to make international forays the next year with Oriya film Indradhanura Chhai ( showing the conflicts of three women of different generations) ,competed for the Grand Prize.
The solitary Hindi film to be screened at Cannes ( in 1997)  was  Goutam Ghose's Gudia (story of a simple ventriloquist)   in the Un Certain Regard section, his second film to achieve the distinction.

In 1999, Shaji N Karun  came up with the third film to be screened at Cannes, a great accomplishment. Vanaprastham ( the tale of a lower-caste Kathakali  artist during the 1940s era in Travancore)  competed in Un Certain Regard.However, the film which won a Cannes award in the 90s was  the 1999 Murali Nair's film  Marana Simhasanam, which won the Camera d'Or. The film is a poignant story of a petty thief, charged for murder instead and his inability to prevent capital punishment by   electric chair , the latest technology ! 

This was the last time an Indian film has won an award at Cannes...


In the last decade and a half , many Indian films have been screened at Cannes, in various categories. These include Murali Nair's Arimpara , Vikramaditya Motwane's Udaan, ,  Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely , Anurag Kashyap's two part Gangs Of Wasseypur and   Vasan Bala's Peddlers.  

The Lunchbox was screened as part of International Critics' Week and Satyajit Ray's Charulata was part of the Cannes Classics line up. Other films include Kanu Behl's Titli , Chauthi Koot, Masaan, Memories and my mother and Raman Raghav 2.0  

It may take another year for an Indian film to get the top award at Cannes. However, the vast pool of talent in Indian cinema gives us hope that good cinema will get appreciation, once it reaches the international arena and competes with the best in the world.

Leaving you with the desire to see some of the films mentioned above and glimpses from The Lunchbox

क़ैद मांगी थी, रिहाई तो नहीं मांगी थी

The world wide capturing  of electronic data by a ransomware has been the highlight of the week. The hackers are getting more audacious and it appears that all forms of crime can be replicated digitally. The ransom of 300 Bitcoins for recovery of data indicates the large-scale operation that must have been carried out. Going by the ransom demand, this appears to be nothing but digital kidnapping !

As the joke goes, earlier it was ransom for returning the kidnapped बेटा and now it is for data !

Seriously though, kidnapping is a brutal crime. The trauma of the captured is unending. However, there have been documentation of cases exhibiting a psychological playoff at times, known as Stockholm Syndrome.

This is said to happen  when the kidnapped person develops an affinity for the kidnapper, leading to sympathy and even love!

This is known to happen in real life and our Hindi films have also weaved such narratives  in the script, from time to time. Some digging reveals that there have been many Hindi films covering this phenomenon.


The film Aan ( 1953) re-told   the story of "Taming of the Shrew". Dilip Kumar the villager abducts Nadira, the princess and forces her to live the life of a peasant girl.The two eventually come closer and despite the chalk-and-cheese difference, love blooms, eventually.

                                 


The plot of a girl getting kidnapped and later on falling in love with the kidnapper was tried out in Mr.&  Mrs. 55, a breezy film having a free-spirited versus bond-of-marriage debate as the backdrop. Lalita Pawar wants her daughter to be single. However, the property worth lakhs ( in those times !) could be owned only if  Madhubala, the  daughter, marries. So Pawar hires Guru Dutt to kidnap Madhubala, hold a sham marriage and then divorce her.

Cupid had other plans, with  the captor and captive becoming Mr. and Mrs. 55

The next film that comes to mind is the dacoit saga of 1963: Mujhe Jeene Do. Sunil Dutt and Waheeda Rehman starred in this down-to-earth tale about dacoits, without glorifying them. The dreaded dacoit, played by Dutt abducts a courtesan Chameli ( played by Waheeda)  and after a series of encounters, the captive nautch-girl comes around and they marry ( a scene in the film has Waheeda delivering the dialogue," who'll believe a dacoit married a tawaif" ). The music was excellent and this song was piece de resistance

Analysing the reasons of Stockholm's Syndrome is an interesting study. Psychologists opine  that the attachment to one's captor may be due to many reasons.
 It may be a show of sympathy outwardly but actually an act of self-preservation, for which the "affinity"  is just a facade.

It is also possible that isolation from the world makes the hostage see the world from the eyes of the abductor and may actually empathise. If the captor shows even an iota of kindness ( even if it is perceived) , the captive person develops a feeling.

 Finally, the kidnapper may succeed in persuading the kidnapped person to believe that his family or friends are not actually interesting in his welfare and the captive person turns against his/her  own well-wishers.
Sometimes, it is true also !


Enough of analysis ! Back to the Hindi films showing Stockholm's Syndrome , now in the 70s.

The instances of heroine kidnapping hero are not known ( I'll be happy to be enlightened!), but a vamp capturing a hero was seen in Mere Jeevan Saathi ( 1972), when Helen takes Rajesh Khanna to her palace, as she was smitten by him. Khanna feigns love, as a tactic for self-preservation.and manages to escape.

The kidnapping incidents in the films were many, but very few would be applicable here.
In a sub-plot of the  film Baarood ( 1976), Rishi Kapoor kidnaps Shoma Anand and keeps her in a boat, in the midst of the sea. The lady tries to seduce her way out , by singing a provocative, albeit melodious number.

The next notable instance of Stockholm Syndrome is seen in Hero, the Subhash Ghai film,  where Jackie Shroff is the abductor and his prey Meenakshi Seshadri manages to fall in love with him.and eventually reforms him.
 Interestingly,  she gets kidnapped a second time, now by Amrish Puri, the bad man.The Stockholm Syndrome does not strike this time ( Hindi film hai bhai, hero aur villain mein farq to hoga !)

There are films showing a similar narrative but the love blossoms too quickly to qualify for the Syndrome. In the film Betaab, Sunny Deol forcibly takes Amrita Singh to his farm. Not too long after this, thanks to a rainy night and a duet,  they realise they were friends as children and lovers now !

Gulzar made a statement on corruption in his film Hu Tu Tu ( 1999), but it had a sub-plot of Tabu getting abducted by Sunil Shetty. The two had known each other earlier and once she realises the atrocities committed by her mother (who is the Chief Minister), she moves over to the side of the revolutionaries, against establishment.

Capture-bonding is another name given to this phenomenon. The statistics show that about one-fourth of all persons subjected to abduction develop this complicated emotion, which can be very dangerous long after they have come out of captivity. Why  some people develop these feelings and others don't, is not known. Suffice to say that it is the ultimate survival mechanism, which takes a lot of time and intensive care to get healed. 


Of course, in films the emphasis being on love and songs/dances, the treatment of the phenomenon is rarely done with sensitivity. Something of this kind happened in the Salman Khan- Bhumika Chawla starrer Tere Naam ( 2002), which tells the story of a goon falling in love with a timid girl, abducting her and in due course , she reciprocates. Despite the film being quite regressive, the audiences lapped it up, partly due to Salman craze and partly due to  acculturation, over the years.

Sad, to say the least !

Over the last decade and a half there have been more than half a dozen films featuring Stockholm Syndrome in different manners.

Kaabul Express (2006) is about  journalists John Abraham and Arshad Warsi in post-Taliban Afghanistan. They sympathise and even help their kidnapper who is a Pakistani posing as Taliban.

The film Kidnap ( 2008) told the story of Imran Khan kidnapping Minissha Lamba, in order to take a revenge from her father Sanjay Dutt. While in captivity, she realises that he is a wronged man and his actions are out of frustration. She does not escape even when she gets a chance.

In Raavan(2010) Abhishek Bachchan kidnaps Aishwarya, a married woman , who sympathises with him, once she realises that the he had kidnapped   to avenge the death of his sister. The story of Ramayana, with a twist.

Tere Naal Love Hogaya (2012) was a romantic comedy in which Genelia D'Souza forces Ritesh Deshmukh to kidnap her, in order to avoid getting married forcibly. She starts to love him soon after.

 Hero ( 2015) was a remake of the earlier film, starring Suraj Pancholi and Athiya Shetty.

Two films , however, rose above the mundane to showcase the Syndrome with sensitivity.

Pinjar (2003)  was the story set in times of Partition where Urmila Matondkar, playing a married woman, is abducted by Manoj Bajpayee due to their clans being at war since times immemorial. However, when she escapes and goes back to her house , she is not welcome and returns to Bajpayee. An uneasy marriage takes place and the bond gets stronger as both of them strive to help her sister-in-law cross over to Lahore.

Highway ( 2014) was a classic case of weaving a story around Stockholm Syndrome. Alia Bhatt, just before her wedding,  is kidnapped by Randeep Hooda. The constant proximity between them and the horrors of their childhood bond them, both seeking   refuge from the harsh realities of life.  The story was successful in  depicting the mental state of the hostage vividly and how individual emotional baggage affects the turn of events.

 It appears that for such instances the lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri had penned the songतेरी ज़ुल्फ़ों से, जुदाई तो नहीं मांगी थी /
क़ैद मांगी थी, रिहाई तो नहीं मांगी थी //

ये एक लम्बी कहानी है, मेरे दोस्त...

The release of  "Bahubali: The Conclusion" to packed houses and its staggering collection figures made headlines this week. The clever ploy to tell a story in two parts ( Bahubali: was the first part) with an unanswered question linking the two films paid off, and how !

While the whole nation wanted to know why Katappa killed Bahubali, few realised that by watching the two films, they had put in a total of 5 hours and 26 minutes of film-viewing.

The complete story  ( in two parts) seems to be  one of the longest story ever told on the silver screen. But is it so, really?
Let's do some digging....


In the early years of Hindi films, a film named Indrasabha ( 1932)was released. The most well-known fact about the film is that it had a total of 71 songs !

It is therefore, not surprising that the film was too long... 3 hours and 31 minutes, to be exact. Now, with 70-odd songs, each about 3 minute long, on an average, it appears that there wouldn't have been anything else in the film, except songs. But that is not the case.Many films in that era had more than 30 songs. In fact, it was normal to have more than 15 songs. it was disclosed by a knowledgeable source that these songs are not the type of songs we are familiar with. Songs in these films were often simply 4 or 6 or 8 lines of poetry, sung to music and it was considered a song. This goes back to the theatre era when the dialogues are sometimes prosaic and at other times, poetic. Incidentally, the first ever song from Alam Ara ( 1931) was also a simple verse of 4 lines, De De Khuda Ke Naam Pe . Thesongs of Indrasabha are not possible to be located, though there were 71 of them !

The period of 40s and 50s did not see films cross the 3 hour mark. Called the Golden Age, it was probably the era of moderation. Even though the shows were called 3 to 6 or 6 to 9, the average length of films stayed around 160 minutes , if it was a long film. The longest film probably in that period was Mother India ( 1957) , just short of 3 hours.

In the beginning of 60s, we had Mughal e Azam !
So much has been written on the film ( my blog इंतहा हो गयी, इंतज़ार की ... included) that almost all th facts concerning the film are in public domain. The film was 3 hours and 17 minutes long and a grand spectacle of a love story of the Mughal times. This was the first film to be digitally coloured and given a re-release in 2004.

Cut to 1964 and,,,,Sangam !
Sangam was a great showpiece by the Showman-to-be, Raj Kapoor. Beginnig with Aag and gathering momentum through Barsaat, Awara and  Sri 420, this colour film became his first big release, his fifth directorial venture,  in 1964, The film told the story of a love triangle ( raj Kapoor, Vyjantimala and Rajendra Kumar ) and events ranging from childhood of the three protagonists were covered, in some detail. Incidentally, this was one of the three films turned down by Dilip Kumar, each of which became a mile stone. The other two  were Pyasa and Lawrence of Arabia . The twists and turns of the narrative, punctuated with beautiful songs and foreign locales generated a public frenzy for the film, despite the length of the film being a staggering 3 hours and 58 minutes ! 

Incidentally, the Hindi songs of the film were also much longer than the usual 3 minute songs which were the norm. The shortest of the seven melodies was a 3 minute and 45 second cribbing about getting an old man for a lover ! And, yes there was a multi-language song in the film, too. 
The longest song was about the betrayal by a friend, which was 5 minutes and 45 seconds long: almost equal to  two songs' duration.

A four hour film to have broken the records of collection showed that the Indian public was ready for the long-winded depiction of stories, if they had content. So, in 1965, B.R.Chopra came up with a multi-starrer film, the first of a kind and a trend-setter of sorts, titled Waqt. 

Waqt dealt with the unpredictability of life and the supremacy of time over human beings, thereby giving the message of remaining humble at all times. The starcast had the who's who of hindi film industry : Sunil Dutt, Sadhana, Raaj Kumar, Sharmila tagore, Shashi kapoor, Balraj Sahni, Achala Sachdeva, Rehman and Madan Puri. The long court-room scene, the dialogue-baazi of Raaj Kumar, the melodies of composer Ravi and the twists and turns of the story made the 3 hour and 26 minute film a pleasure to watch.

Six songs, each longer than three and a half minutes made the film memorable.The longest songs was more than 5 minute long.

The seventies saw Raj Kapoor doing an encore of Sangam, in Mera Naam Joker, as far as the length of the film is concerned. This was a 4 - hour film, with 3 chapters and 2 intervals ! His semi-autobiographical dream project did not do well, despite the intrinsic worth of the film.The film was 4 hours and 4 minutes long. Again, the songs were also long, the duration of lengthiest song was over 6 minutes !
The film was a semi-autobiographical take on the life and times of a performer. The essence of the adage "the show must go on"  was captured by the Showman in style.However, the box office wasn't set on fire and though the film is termed classic, it's name in history is for reasons other than popularity.

And now to "The greatest story ever told", not necessarily the longest, though. I am referring to Sholay, the film which has more spoofs and references than another film in the history of Hindi films.

The 1975 film was 3 hours and 24 minute long saga of revenge by a crippled man through mercenaries, who get reformed in the process. The unique feature of the film was that each character of the film, howsoever small his role was, got his share of fame. The public lapped upthe film like none other and Sholay, despite being one of the longest films made, kept the audience glued to their seats throughout...

In the 70s, we also had the film Khoon Pasina, which was 3 and a half hours long, again with the usual masala of songs, action and comedy. The film was a superhit.

The 80s saw Richard Attenborough make a film on Gandhi, released in English and Hindi. The film was 3 hours and 11 minutes long and held audiences spell-bound as the father of nation, played by Ben Kingsley, British !

However, the remarkable effort by an Indian film-maker was the telefilm ( and later released as a feature film) Tamas by Bhisham Sahni, which depicted the travails of partition and those who were affected during the black chapter of Indian history. Tamas, released in 1987 was 4 hours and 34 minutes long and remains the longest ever story told in a one-part film. 

                                 

The 90s had Khatarnak and Narsimha as long films, which were focussing on revenge and action, without presenting anything not seen till then. The film that made the tag of Showman applicable for Subhash Ghai was Saudagar ( 1991), a three and a half hour saga about warring patriarchs and loving progenies. The star cast was a coup since Dilip Kumar and Raaj Kumar were pitted against each other , years after Paigham. Vivek Mushran ( don't ask who, it is rude !) and Manisha Koirala made the lead pair, with the ILU ILU song, a 9 minute whopper,  getting on top of charts as the new craze of the nation.

Not to be outdone, Sooraj Barjatya made a behemoth of a film, seemingly a wedding video replication and a sweet-sugary love story called Hum Aapke hain Kaun ( 1994). The 3 hour 26 minute film had all the trappings of a hit film, with the songs depicting each stage from courtship to mangni to sangeet to joota churayi....ad infinitum. There were a total of 15 songs in the film, harking back to an era long forgotten.  The climax involved a canine ( check out the last blog : Animal Instincts) , who made the ending happy for the viewers and the film came to be known as a feel-good film, with no villains ! 

The 8 minute long song Didi Tera Devar Diwana was the chart buster of the year, making waves on the new media of satellite TV and VCR circuit.

The real flourish for long films developed from 2000, with as many as 10 films in the decade breaching the 3 hour mark. Mohabbatein ( 2000) , Lagaan and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham  ( 2001) , LOC Kagil (2003), Swades and M-e-A( 2004)  and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose  (2005), Kabhi Alvida na Kehna (2006),Salaam-e-Ishq (2007) and  Jodha Akbar(2008) were  all long films of duration more than 3 hours, had great story and content , alongwith lots of songs. Out of these, LOC Kargil was the longest at 4 hours and 4 minutes.

The Indian audience had really started to like long-winded tales and all these film ( except Netaji and S-e-I) were successful.
Ye jo des hai mera...

In 2010, a new beginning was made with the story of a film told in two films. Rakta Charitra I and II totalled 4 hours and 4 minutes, with the latter part being the story after the interval. it was not a sequel ( wo kahani phir kabhi). This paved the way for films like Gangs of Wasseypur ( Part I and II) and Bahubali ( part I and II).  The second part of last named film has reportedly extracted 1000 crores world-wide and 247 crores from the pockets of  the Hindi audience.  Watch out for the blog on the highest grossers of all times, in near future !

Gangs of Wasseypur , both parts included, is a national record holder , having 5 hours and 31 minutes of footage !

                                            

The latest trend in Hindi films that of  the Biopic. We have had biographical story-telling for sportsmen ( on Mary Kom and Milkha Singh) and next in line are hindi film legends ( Kishore Kumar and Guru Dutt biopics are on the anvil).

The biopic of M.S. Dhoni was also a 3 hour 10 minute long picturisation of the making of Dhoni.

All said and done, long stories are here to stay and it would not be surprising if we have a film in three parts ( in three films) in future !

Animal Instincts

  

The continuing limelight hogged by the meekest of the four-legged animals (the holy cow, pun intended) makes interesting and disturbing reading, alternately.

A series of events,announcements and demonstrations have kept all of us interested in their outcomes.We may like it or not, we can't ignore it.

Just as we can not ignore the four-legged animals which have played "meatier" roles in our films, compared to the main lead. The narrative, however, excludes the reptiles (naag-naagin) and birds (eagles, pigeons etc.) and other species.

This is the topic of today's blog ( some call it research,gratifyingly !)

 

The masses of India have been living in the rural parts and one of the most authentic story-tellers of this India was Munshi Premchand. On his story, "Do bailon ki jodi", a Hindi film was made, titled Heera Moti. The film showed that cattle was an integral part of the lives of farmers, one they would not like to part with , at any cost.

The story was written by Premchand and the film was directed by Krishan Chopra . Keeping the oxen in focus throughout the film, the director and composer were able to weave songs around the animals,too.

The historical films made in the yesteryears meant a lot of animals used in scenes of war. However, a special place is reserved for Chetak, the horse of Maharana Pratap. According to tradition, Chetak, although wounded, carried Maharana Pratap safely away from the battle, but then died of his wounds. The story is recounted in court poems of Mewar. However, the name Chetak is not mentioned in any historical documents. The film Jai Chittod depicted Chetak as great a hero as Maharana Pratap. The song dedicated to the warrior's carrier is sung by Lata Mangeshkar , written by Bharat Vyas and composed by S.N.Tripathi.

In the 60s and 70s, there were films in which songs featuring the animals and even focussed on animals.One can recall Mehmood's donkey being the cynosure in a song "Mera gadha gadhon ka leader" from Meherban( 1967) and Nimmi's  cat in the song meow meow meri sakhi  from Pooja ke Phool ( 1964).

Cut to 1971... and we come across one of the most popular characters of Hindi cinema...not the Ramu Kaka , but Ramu with Kaka !

The elephant in the film Haathi Mere Saathi was named Ramu and he got the top billing with Superstar Rajesh Khanna ( fondly known as Kaka).

There is an interesting  story about the film getting made. Rajesh Khanna was zooming ahead in popularity after Aradhana and Do Raaste. Sandow M.M.A.Chinappa Devar, a South Indian producer offered the film to Khanna. The superstar did not want to get shadowed by antics of an elephant on screen, so he quoted an astronomical price to get out of the situation. Such was the craze of Kaka that Devar agreed readily. Kaka then asked Salim-Javed to get the script tweaked and the final product saw to it that  both Ramu and Kaka get appropriate footage. The film broke records throughout  the country making Rajesh Khanna a darling of kids ! Those days  Kaka fans ranged from 6 to 60.

The song in which Kaka gets Tanuja's car towed by the pachyderm became

a chartbuster, obviously

And so we come to the cow and the film representative of the importance was Gai aur Gori 1973. The film, also directed by M.A. Thirumugham, the director of Haathi Mere Saathi ,showed the attachment of the heroine and her cow and the diabolic hero/villain marrying her to teach her a lesson by harming the meek animal. Interesting storyline,but marred by bad script and sloppy handling. The song restores the cow as the mother of all and covers it in the glory it deserves. The film is 44 years old, but the sentiments are quite visible, as mentioned in the beginning of the blog.

In Sholay (1975),  Hema Malini, as Basanti and her mare Dhanno gave Jai-Veeru bromance a run for their money !

Like all other characters of the film, Basanti and Dhanno carved out a niche for themselves.
Remember "Chal Dhanno aaj teri Basanti ki izzat ka sawal hai…" ?...And Dhanno, the ghodi ran so fast that Hema Malini could escape from  the boys of Gabbar.

Animals setting an example for humans was eloquently expressed by Hema malini: " Dhanno ghodi hoke agar tanga kheench sakti hai to Basanti ladki hoke tanga kyon nahin chala sakti "-Golden words, indeed !

Dhanno featured in the "koi haseena" song getting a big share  of the footage compared to the love birds Veeru - Basanti !

Now, to Maa ( 1976). This is probably the only Hindi film to have dealt with Animal rights. You guessed it right...again a Chinappa Devar- M.A.Thirumugham venture. The producer-director duo specialised in Animal films, just as Ramseys for Horror and Hrishikesh Mukherji for comedy!
 The film depicts   Dharmendra as an unscrupulous hunter ( a rare negative role for Dharam paaji )who poaches animals and sells them to circus. The young ones are his prime target.Till the time, an enraged mother elephant decides to take revenge and goes on a rampage, which endangers his mother ! 

There have been numerous instances of cameos played by animals.The dog in Sachcha Jhootha was called upon by the Judge to identify the villain, who was the look-alike of the hero. Raj Kapoor's "magnum flopus" Mera Naam Joker, apart from the circus animals,  also had a dog in the third chapter.
In Minoo( 1977), there was a song,   Kali re kali re, sung to a black goat by the kid who wanted   a "gora-sa ek bhaiya", a desire  deeply embedded in  the Indian psyche.

                                          

The 80s had its own share of Animal-based films. There were films such as  Betaab, Mard, Khoon Bhari Maang , all having dogs as integral part of the plot. But the icing on the cake was the  a dog-oriented film, in which the  author-backed role of  the dog had  many stars of the industry drooling. An apt example of the adage :  Human's envy, animal's pride !

Teri Meherbaniyan showed the hero Jackie Shroff dying just after the interval and his dog Moti taking the revenge , after reminiscing his master. it is said that the histrionics by the dog was much better than that by both Jackie and Poonam Dhillon.

In fact, Moti has been the most popular name of "filmi" dogs. Sachcha Jhootha, Mera Naam Joker, Mard and Teri Meherbaniyan, all had dogs named Moti !

The Nineties had its own canine  icons of the film industry. 

 In the 1992 film, Maa, Jaya Prada avenged her death with help from her pet dog, Dobby, who could see her spirit.

And then there was the dog  who could be the umpire, friend,accomplice and  messenger all rolled in one.

The film was Hum Aapke Hain Kaun, the story of Salman, Madhuri and Tuffy !

It seemed like a wedding video film, with the feel-good factor. However, without  Tuffy the dog, the film wouldn't have had a happy ending !

This iconic dog not only received the blessings of Lord Krishna in the film, but also millions of ultra-emotional Indian movie buffs.

Post 2000, one of the most sensitive films having a dog as a mirror of helpless individuals was Water ( 2005).In the melancholic landscape that Deepa Mehta’s film paints,  Kalu the puppy is the only colour of hope. Devoid of basic human rights, Kalyani(Lisa Ray) discovers love and friendship with the stray puppy she hides in her room.

In the current decade, there have been many films showing animals such as Entertainment ( 2014), which is about a dog named Entertainment ( wow !)  hogging all the limelight and Akshay Kumar competing with it for the property, Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho ( 2015) , in which a pageant for buffaloes is held,  and Life of Pi, based on the relationship between " digital" tiger Richard Parker and a boy named Pi, stranded on a boat in the ocean.

  

Which brings me to the contentious issue of Animal rights.

The disclaimer about "no animals being hurt" is a fairly new phenomenon. The films mentioned in this blog have indulged in tormenting the voiceless animals while extracting stellar performances. The animal right activists and PETA, armed with the Animal Welfare Act 2011, replacing the toothless Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960,have succeeded in bringing an end to this practice and this is a healthy sign.

The recent satirical film Ye hai Bakrapur ( 2014) tells the story of an 8-year old boy and his pet goat named..... Shahrukh !


                                 

 

                                          This actually got my goat !