आज की ताज़ा खबर

The heinous murder of a journalist shocked the nation , bringing out the issues of intolerance to dissent and vulnerability of the person pursuing the profession of journalism. The media, whether print or electronic ( and now social...er anti-social is a better term, with all that muck   being thrown around), is there to express what is feels like doing. Getting hit for doing your job is antithetical to democracy.

Journalists have been portrayed in Hindi films since 50s. However, there have been very few films made around the topic of news reporting. There have been lead players enacting the roles of reporters and journalists, being part of a story that often has no connection to the plot.

Rarely has been the subject of newspaper reporters been dealt in its entirety in Hindi films. Their pressures, their limitations and their motivations...none of this has been picturised in a sensitive manner, despite the fact that before the advent of TV, this was the main source of news and views. The spurt had been there in the 80s, following the spree of investigative journalism which was highlighted at that time.

The right time to explore the presence of print journalists, editor and newspapers in our Hindi films. The electronic media is kept out of the purview, as it deserves a write-up separately.
But there have been moments, surely....

The Raj Kapoor- Nargis pair had a lot of great love stories to their credit. The remake of the famous film Roman Holiday was one of their best films. Chori Chori (1956) was about a runaway heiress and a reporter wanting to get a scoop. Raj played the reporter who tags himself along with the rich girl and being a romantic comedy, they fall in love. Many twist and turns later, they unite. The part about journalism is minimal and  is  cosmetic  in nature.

In 1962, a film was made with the title Reporter Raju ( 1962). The film was a crime thriller with songs and a qawwali and little to do with journalism, but had a dashing Feroz Khan in the role of reporter-cum-crime buster. Again, a token reference to newspaper reporting in an otherwise b grade masala film.

The reporting continued to be treated in a manner which was far removed from the real thing. In Elaan ( 1971), a newpaper reporter is on an investigative assignment. This evokes interest till you realise that he is after a scientist n an island who has invented a gadget to make people invisible ! Vinod Mehra plays the journalist ( or the lack of it !) in another C grade fantasy/drama. 

It was in the 80s that we had three films, each of which showed, with some seriousness, what goes around in the lives of those who choose to make journalism their profession. 

The first one of them was a iconic satire we all love to see :  Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron ( 1983). The investigative reporter-duo get drawn into a web of deceit and machinations by editor of a journal, a lady who knows what she's after. Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Vaswani play the often bumbling investigative reporter-duo , at her command. It may have been the first instance of the role of a media-person being based on a real-life editor: Bhakti Barve playing Shobha De nee Rajyadhyaksh. The journal was named , aptly Crimes of India !
 . Add to that the characters of a builder and a corporator and you have a first class dark comedy/satire which ends with "hum honge kaamyaab", a left-handed compliment to the establishment. The film did show some streaks of the world of journalism, specially that of colour yellow, but the focus was elsewhere and rightly so.

Mashaal ( 1984) saw Dilip Kumar publishing a newspaper Dainik Aelaan which brings him into confrontation with an underworld don, which leads to his life getting turned upside down. A young black marketeer, played by Anil Kapoor,  also come into his life, whom he is able to reform and turn into a journalist. The presence of a bearded Alok Nath as editor of Anil Kapoor,  meant that the journal  Comrade Daily was , indeed, a Left-leaning paper. The transformation of an upright person into a criminal was the crux of the story and the journalism angle was but a ploy to achieve the objective. Still, the film had its moments and gave a peek into small-time reporting.

In the same year, there was a film which was a close approximation of a real-life incident involving a journalist. Ashwin Sareen,  an investigative journalist with Indian Express got hint of flesh trade in rurla parts of MP and actually bought a girl, to expose the system. The incident provoked Vijay Tendulkar to pen his play Kamla , on which Jagmohan Mundhra made a film with Marc Zuber and Deepti Naval. For the first time an ugly reality was laid bare in cinema , surprisingly with competent performances.

In 1986, we had our most authentic film about news and aspects related to it. An idealistic news editor  played by Shashi Kapoor becomes a pawn in the hands of both the ruling disposition and the Opposition. The close-to-realistic depiction of the life of a daily newspaper editor, the intricate web of politics, media and underworld and the perils of idealism, all made  the film a landmark.

In 1987,  we had another film called New Delhi. Here Jeetendra played the idealist reporter and paid the price of it. However, unlike other Jeetendra films, this was an off-beat film and exposed the nexus of politicians and media owners to the hilt. Based loosely on the Irving Wallace's novel The Almighty, the film was a judicious mix of commerce and art.


  While there were bits and pieces of roles of reporter/editor  in many films like Rishi Kapoor in Coolie, Sridevi/Annu Kapoor  in Mr. India ( 1987), Vijayendra in Shahenshah ( 1988) and  Dev Anand in Sachche Ka Bolbala ( 1989) , there was no example of a well-written,  meaty role portraying either a journalist or an editor, with all the profession-related issues . A better representation was in the film Main Azaad Hoon ( 1989), in which Shabana Azmi played the reporter who uses Amitabh Bachchan to take on the corrupt politicians.


                               

The Nineties were relatively sparse in churning out films with journalism as the main theme or even a backdrop.

For example, in the film Mohra ( 1994), Raveena Tandon plays a journalist ( also the daughter of a jailer) , who gets hitched to a police officer who is undercover. Less of journalism and more of drama and masala was what the film was all  about. No pretensions here, as the heroine dances to her heart's content and the investigative streak gets thrown out of the window, as easily as it had been shown.


                                      


 Roman Holiday and Chori Chori had a reprisal in form of Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin
 ( 1997) , in which Aamir Khan plays the role of a reporter, often at loggerhead with his editor  Tiku Talsaniya. The rich girl who is fond of eloping was played by Pooja Bhatt. The storyline did not have much scope for any serious statement on journalism, as expected.
                                 

In the last decade and a half, very few  films have covered the topic of print media, and that too with limited extent of emphasis.

 Page 3 ( 2005) gave a more extensive insight into the various aspects of an Indian newspaper: Page Three reporting , Crime reporting and roles of media barons and the politicians  who control them. Also, the close connections that the "people-who-matter" have with the newspaper guys. Konkona Sen Sharma plays the protagonist reporter  to Boman Irani's portrayal of her editor.  The film managed to convey the  machinations as well as the emotional content, making it an eminently watchable experience.

The depiction of Agony Aunt...er Agony Uncle was the highlight of the film Home Delivery ( 2005), in which Vivek Oberoi plays the Gyan Guru in the newspaper The Times of Hindustan, his editor being played by Juhi Chawla. However, the extent of exposure journalism  was very limited and the story was having many more fronts to be tackled.

                                           

 Guru ( 2007) was a film based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani. it had a strong role of a newspaper Swatantra,  editor, played by Mithun Chakraborty. The role was based on R.P.Goenka, the media baron. The intrepid reporter,  who exposes the wrong-doings of the industrialist Guru,  was played by R.Madhavan The interaction of media and business in the times preceding the electronic invasion are on display in the film quite effectively.

The last film to have shown print medium in some part was the film based on Nanavati case, Rustom ( 2016), which shows the power of newspaper in forming public opinion. The editor of the paper played by Kumud Mishra ( reminding you of Russi Karanjia of Blitz fame ) leaves no stone unturned in generating support for the naval officer accused of murder, played by Akshay Kumar.

With the TV reporting coming into its own, the focus of films having storylines around  journalism shifted to electronic media , leaving the print media way behind.