Howzzat ?

The hysteria over cricket in our country for two weeks continuously has shadowed other newsworthy items. Thrown into the backseat are farmers' plight, unemployment scenario and increasing cost of living. Instead we have more cricket and it's analysis.
Well, so be it...

And the climax is today's Champion Trophy match between India and Pakistan.


Cricket and cricketers have their presence felt in Hindi films, too. While there have been some films involving cricket in the narrative, the more interesting are the instances when cricketers have been on-screen as actors.

 That is an act of real courage,even if they are shying away from the faster one !


So, today we check out on those cricketers ( real life ) who have been part of a hindi film. Alongwith this there will be a fair sprinkling of cricket facts for the die hard cricket fans. And the whole country spilling over with them  !


Technically speaking,  the first cricketers to have been seen on screen are Vinoo Mankad and Khadu Rangnekar. Not in flesh and blood, but in photographs adorning the wall of Mala Sinha, a cricket fan in the film Love Marriage ( 1959)!

The film depicts Dev Anand as a swashbuckling batsman who comes to Bombay from Jhansi and the maiden is bowled over by his charm and ...batting. This was the film having cricket mentioned in a song.

  Incidentally, the bat-and-ball had been mentioned in a song, one year earlier in the film Howrah Bridge, when Qamar Jalalabadi wrote 

मुहब्बत का हाथ जवानी का पल्ला
सुभान अल्लाह बाबू सुभान अल्लाह..

कही जा रही है सुनी जा रही है
निगाहों की बाज़ी लगी जा रही है
हो नदिया किनारे की लहरों पे गेंद-बल्ला
सुभान अल्लाह बाबू सुभान अल्लाह...

Subhan-allah !


But I am digressing  here...
Cricket in Hindi films is a separate subject that can be tackled  later on. The emphasis here is on real life cricketers to have appeared in Hindi films.

In the sixties, as the game got more popular with the masses, we saw Sir Frank Worrell playing a cameo in Around the World 1967 ( see my musiblog ) enacting a scene with Om Prakash. Om keeps on dropping names of famous people with wrong profession and our man keeps correcting him.

Frank Worrell was one of the 3Ws that Windies boasted of,  the other being Walcott and Weekes. He was knighted by the British Empire.
Interesting to note that the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB) organises a blood donation camp every year on February; hundreds donate blood at the Eden Gardens on the day; CAB also calls it the Frank Worrell Day.
Worrell passed away of leukaemia at a mere 42.

The 60s, under Nawab Pataudi were spent in consolidating a team, the effect came to bear fruits in the 70s.India trounced England and West Indies in quick succession and made its presence felt. The only cricketer of the 60s who could have been a film hero was Abbas Ali Baig, a handsome young man then. He was  kissed by a girl on his way back to the pavilion not less than 13 times , evoking a comment from the startled commentator Vijay Merchant,
 " I wonder where all these enterprising young ladies were when I was scoring my hundreds and 200s "

One of the most dashing batsmen of these times was Salim Durrani. There were so many stories woven round Durrani at the time when there was no electronic media. it was said that he could hit a six "on demand", a knack which he had demonstrated more than once. He was a sluggish fielder, though, and there were rumours of his tiffs with the skipper Pataudi. His charisma must have drawn Bollywood to him and one fine morning Sportsweek, the only sports magazine had Durrani 's photo with Parveen Babi, teaching her how to hold a bat !

They were paired in B.R.Ishara's Charitra ( 1973) , which bombed as soon as it was released. Grapevine had it that he was considered for the role in Pakeezah, which finally went to Raaj Kumar. 

Durrani remains one of the most talked about cricketers of his times, despite not being very successful statistically. Footage of Charitra is also not available readily. However, this Ramayana "doha" rendered in the film by Bappi Lahiri, the music director is a rare piece in the  must-listen category !

The 70s had a lot of cricketers appearing on the silver screen , as Indian audiences warmed up to their knights-in-pads. The era of 70s sowed the seeds of successful future of Indian cricket. While the 1971 tour was a one man show by  Sunil Gavaskar, all through the 70s, Indian cricketers showed flashes of brilliance and were able to displace hockey as the most talked about sport in the country. Incidentally there is an Indo-Pak hockey match also lined up today, but I bet no one will see it !
Gavaskar also got offers to act in films and he actually completed a film in Marathi called Savli Premachi (1980).

In Sunny Days, his autobiography he has stated how he was nearly switched at birth and had that happened, he would have been catching fish instead of chasing the heroine in the film !

By the time 80s came up, we had seen glorious wins and massive defeats. Gavaskar had been acknowledged as a world-class batsman and at the same time got the epithet of 'Snail' Gavaskar ( owing to his 36 runs in 174 balls in the Inaugural World Cup). India had resumed cricketing ties with Pakistan in 1978 after a hiatus of 17 years. The pace batteries of Windies and Aussies were equally terrifying and Sri Lanka were emerging as a force to reckon with .

In domestic cricket, the new hero was, of course Kapil Dev. The all rounder in the same class as Botham and Imran Khan  single-handedly got the country its first World Cup in 1983.

But Bollywood preferred the dashing Sandeep Patil to play a hero to Poonam Dhillon in Kabhi Ajnabi The ( 1985). Poonam Dhillon was probably the second heroine after Mala Sinha to be a cricket fan; she reads Sportsweek in the film !
In a scene, she brings her father to watch Sandeep (in the role of a cricketer in the film) playing  a match. He gets out on duck. She storms up to him and says, "No century, no marriage". Sandeep draws her close and in true Bollywood style says "No kiss, no century" !   

The film also had Ashok Mankad, as a friend of Poonam Dhillon. In order to give Patil moral support,  the following colleagues gave a cameo in opening scenes and party scenes in the film : Syed Kirmani, Sunil  Gavaskar ( his second film---and a third one was Maalamaal in 1988), Mohinder Amarnath ( who is the only cricketer to have been out for "handling the ball" and "obstructing the field"), Roger Binny,Kapil Dev ( whose match-winning 175 not out was the first century by an Indian in ODIs) , Gordon Greenidge, Madan Lal, Clive Lloyd, Malcolm Marshall, Balvinder Singh Sandhu, Ravi Shastri ( the batsman to have batted on all five days of a test match, part from Jaisimha)  and Srikkanth.

 

Before we touch the 90s, a story of one one cricketer -turned- film star needs to be told.  Yograj Singh was a one-test cap but his innings as an actor , mainly in Punjabi films, is a success story. He was awarded Lifetime Award for Punjabi films in 2012.Later on he acted in Hindi films too ( last seen playing coach to Milkha Singh in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag). Before taking up cricket seriously, he had acted in a few films getting bit roles. That makes him an actor-turned cricketer-turned actor. Now known as father of Yuvraj Singh, Yograj has been in a series of controversies all his life.

Proximity with Pakistan brings not only cricketers to our stadiums ( or stadia, if you prefer the puritan) , but also to our studios. Mohsin Khan, the stylish Pakistani batsman finds a place in the ensemble cast of Dharmendra, Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia, Poonam Dhillon and Amrish Puri in Batwara 1989. For the record, he had completed about 15 films, so he  is not a one-off type of cricketer-actor. His parallel role with Aditya Pancholi in Saathi (1991) got him songs too, this one about dosti and dushmani--so ironic !

In 1999-2000, the cricketer-hero  interface increased, so does the sledging- betting- fixing  episodes and all of a sudden you didn't know whom to believe. The real life villains (cricketers)  are  reel life heroes or is it the other way round.  Big money and big trouble come together. Amidst all this, we had a few cricketers getting  projects in tinsel town.

In the new decade two cricketers stole the show in showbiz. Ajay Jadeja ( one of the cricketers charged for match-fixing) and Salil Ankola were the new crop of hero material cricketers. Ajay acted in a couple of  films and Salil in TV serials, as the satellite TV started to become popular in the country.

Since then, we have had many cricketers play  roles in films , such as Harbhajan Singh ( Mujhe Shadi Karogi) , Brett Lee ( UNIndian) and in Annarth,  Vinod Kambli ( whose test average of 54.20 is better than Sachin's 53.78) and Navjot Sidhu ( in Punjabi films). There might be many others who have done bit roles in recent years.

But it will be in the fitness of things to conclude with the latest film Sachin: A Billion Dreams  ( 2017), an autobiographical  film having Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni ( whose autobiographical film had Sushant Singh Rajput playing him) and Virender Sehwag, whose highest scores in T20, ODIs and Tests are 119,219 and 319 ! 

Coming back to the Indo-Pak match today, I am reminded of three players who played for both countries. They are Amir Elahi, Gul Mohammad and Abdul Hafeez Kardar.

And that reminds me of a fact that will certainly have you stumped.

One of the most interesting facts about Sachin: The first country he played for,  was none other than...Pakistan !

 In 1987, two years before his debut, he came on field as a substitute player for Pakistan when they were touring India  !

Howzzat ?

आप कहें और हम ना आएं....

The recent One Day International  between India and Pakistan attracted enough eyeballs to make the streets of Mumbai go empty, as posted by a friend on Facebook. Despite the strained relations between the two countries, the interest in the match was unparallelled.

Or was it due to the recent bad blood, which triggered the wave to watch the most fiercely contested sports event of the world?

Some time back, the cultural arena bore the brunt of the uncertain relations between the neighbours, leading to Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) banning Pakistani artistes and technicians  in Indian films. This  had been highlighted in the media, both electronic and print.

Still, in some areas, we choose to interact with Pakistanis.

This reminded me of the instances when the India film artistes contributed to the Pakistani film industry, after 1947, notwithstanding the three wars that took place between the countries.

Partition saw to it that some Indian film artistes move to Pakistan for good, for example Noor Jahan.  Some more  migrated a few years after Independence like composer Nashad who had a good innings in India and later  went to Pakistan had an equally successful stint there.There were also cases where those who had gone returned back !

Nasir Khan was one such actor. Brother of Dilip Kumar, he had acted in Shehnai made in 1947. At the time of Independence, he was in the newly- formed Pakistan. Before returning back to India in 1950, he acted in two Pakistani films, Teri Yaad and Shahida. Since Teri Yaad was th first film released there, became the first hero of Pakistan !
The heroine was Asha Poslay ( yes , the name rhymes with Asha Bhonsle, but no relative of her)


Since both the films flopped, Nasir Khan returned to India and continued to act, but with much less success than his talented brother , thespian Dilip Kumar. Interestingly, the two films were released in India also and were declared hits !!

In 1956, a Pakistani producer J.C.Anand ( Juhi Chawla is his sister-n-law's daughter) , one of the few Hindu film-makers who remained in Karachi after the Partition, invited Indian  Director Roop K Shoey ( of the Ek Thi Ladki-lara lappa lara lappa song fame )  to direct  a Pakistani film called Miss 56. While there were no Indian actors ( except Meena Shorey, the wife of the director) , there was one song sung by Geeta Dutt in her characteristic style. The film was written by I.S.Johar.  The cast of the film may have been Pakistanis but the lyricist and composer were also Indian. D.N.Madhok wrote the songs and Vinod ( Eric Roberts) set the songs to melody, making this a truly Indo-Pak venture. The film relied on the comic timing of Meena Shorey and was declared a hit. She was encouraged by the response and  refused to return to India.
Roop.K.Shorey came back alone, after the film was released.

The next artiste to have acted in a Pakistani film was Shiela Ramani, a Miss India in the 50s.
Shiela was the original "urban modern heroine" well before the likes of Zeenat Aman and Parveen Babi , who are credited with establishing  the stereotype. She had  debuted in 1953 with V.Shantaram's Teen Batti Char Rasta. Best known for being Dev Anand's leading in Funtoosh and a song of Taxi Driver   ( dil se mila ke dil pyar keejiye), she oozed spunk and sexuality. In 1959, she went to Karachi on the request of her uncle and acted in a film called Anokhi.

If you want to see the video of the song, with some dialogues as bonus, go to the link below:


 gaadi-ko-chalana-babu_music



Year 1959 also saw a Pakistani punjabi  film Kartar Singh getting released, based on Partition and the horrors connected with the event. Amrita Preetam's  Ajj akhan waris shah nu was included in the film, which is considered one of the most popular films of Pakistan. Amrita Pritam had been in Lahore before Partition and had relocated to India. However, by that time, more than half a dozen of her anthologies were already published and she was a name to reckon with. She was a leader of progressive writers' movement and was critical of the British rule.

The singers of Indian films continued to get film from Pakistan, despite the lack of Indian actors in Pakistan. Hemant Kumar and Sandhya Mukherji sang songs in the 1960 Pakistani film Humsafar.
Hemant Kumar  was a respected name in Rabindra Sangeet and made his mark in the 50s as a singer more than as a music director. After the release of Nagin 1954, he shot to the top of the popularity as a composer. By the end of 50s, he was contemplating  production of his own films and he did do that. However, in 1960 , he got a chance to sing in Humsafar and here is the song.

Ace singer Talat Mehmood,  had started off as Tapan Kumar, a pseudonym for the Calcutta bhadralok. He  later on sang in his own name in films of 40s and 50s. He nurtured ambitions of being an on-screen  star and this left his singing  at a second place. This resulted in him losing his place as the top singing sensation. By the time 60s dawned, Mohd. Rafi had become numero uno in male singing in Hindi films. Talat kept on singing in Hindi film till late 60s and early 70s.  sang a couple of songs in Pakistani film Charagh Jalta Raha in 1962.

One wonders whether Lata Mangeshkar and Mohd. Rafi, two of the most popular singers in that period ever got a chance to sing in a Pakistani film. No evidence found , but Lata's Chhalia (1960) number ( probably the one copied from Ron Goodwin's Desert Hero of 1959) was a part of Pakistani film Jaadoogar ( 1961). As far as Rafi is considered I drew a blank. However, it will be a delight to get corrected on this.

After the 1965 war, Indian films were banned in Pakistan. The trickling of Indian artistes stopped completely. The domestic artistes were easier to contract and they were changing the face of film industry. The industry prospered in the period of 1965 to 1979, with many superhit movies being made. Film stars of Pakistan began to get noticed in this period, some of whom later on acted in Indian films. We leave that story for another day, though.

In the 60s, there were other Indian artiste too, engaging in one-off projects in Pakistan. S.D.Baatish (Eid) , Majrooh Sultanpuri ( Aadmi), C.H.Atma ( Laakhon Fasaane) and G.M.Durrani ( Rahguzar), to name  few.

The 70s and 80s were decades of  least interaction of Indian artistes with Pakistani film industry. The film enterprise in Pakistan was also going through turbulent times.After Gen.Zia-ul-Haq took over the reigns of Pakistan in 1977, restrictions on film industry increased in name of Islamisation. As a result, the industry lost its vantage position in the 80s and was not able to recover till late 90s.

The next film in which we saw an Indian artiste performing was and the singer was....Asha Bhonsle. The film is Sargam ( 1995) and this song became the highlight of the film. Asha Bhonsle has been one of the most versatile singers, therefore it was not surprising that the Pakistani audiences were bowled over by hr singing.

From 2000 onwards, there was a resurgence of Pakistani film industry and despite Kargil happening a few years earlier, the Indian film artistes were finding projects in Pakistan to showcase their talents.

Kiron Kher, presently a Member of Parliament became the second actress after Shiela Ramani to star in a Pakistani film. The film was Khamosh Paani (2003).The film won an award in the Lokarno Film Festival but never got a release in Pakistan.

In 2007, a remake of God father in Pakistan saw Vinod Khanna . The film had a host of Indian actors such as Arbaaz Khan, Hrishita Bhatt, Kim Sharma, Amrita Arora, Preeti Jhangiani and Nafisa Ali

In the same year Naseeruddin Shah enacted a role in the acclaimed Pakistani film Khuda Key Liye

Nandita Das played a key role in Ramchandra Pakistani in 2008 The film was based on a true story of a boy who inadvertently crosses the border between Pakistan and India.  

Hindi film singers also got a lot of chance in 2000 onwards to sing in various Pakistani films. Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sonu Nigam, Udit Narayan, Shreya Ghoshal, Ankit Tiwari and Harshdeep Kaur are some singers who got to perform in these years.

In 2011, Johny lever played a role in Love Mein Gumm.

Naseeruddin Shah had another go, this time in the film Zinda Bhaag 2013.

In 2014, Aslam Bhatti, the producer of  Godfather, made Sultanat another multistarrer packed with Hindi film and TV stars such as Govind Namdeo, Shweta Tiwari, Akashdeep Sehgal, Achint Kaur and Chetan Hansraj

Whether the cross-over effect shall continue or not is not certain, but the rare appearances and contribution that Indian artistes have made is still remembered by the Pakistani audiences.

Leaving you with a Rekha Bharadwaj song from the 2015 Pakistani film Bin Roye ...
मन विच माही बसदा  !

पंछी बनूँ, उड़ती फिरूँ मस्त गगन में

The imminent disinvestment of Air India made headlines this week, outlining the agenda of the ruling disposition. The organisation has served the country well and was poised to reach greater heights, notwithstanding the legacy issues, of which it is plagued with. While it may be a sound business decision, the folding up of Maharaja, the national carrier seems to be a loss of sorts, even to people like me who rarely travel by air. 

While Hindi films songs have been shot on most  modes of transport,  songs shot while the characters are  in air is a relatively rare category . Still, some searching revealed that a large  number of songs fit the theme.

 So, here's a light-hearted  take on the phenomenon of Songs sung in Air.

The earliest song I could get hold of,  is from a comedy film Bewaqoof ( 1960). Kishore Kumar is at his hilarious best in the film !
Kishore tries to speak Italian and hops on a car with Mala Sinha and later a sequence  shows singing in a helicopter. Shot as a dream sequence condones a lot of stuff. The shots of helicopter are taken separately and the actors singing the song are separate cuts. Still, a lot of imaginative ideas must have been  going on in the director's mind to have conceived the song.
The first instance of Italian Job in Hindi films !

The next song is again featuring Kishore, this time on a flying car with Kumkum. The film is Mr.X in Bombay, an "invisible man" story,  This is  no time to think about the engineering aspects or logic: just listen to the melody ( Incidentally, the tune was lifted for the Baazigar song 'Ae mere hamsafar' ).  The narrative mentions a scientist having a potion for making people invisible and probably the car must also have been running on anti-gravity fuel !

The helicopter makes a comeback in 1967, with Shammi Kapoor hanging precariously and serenading a water-surfing Sharmila in An Evening in Paris. The song was a rage is the most well-known of the songs featuring  air-borne protagonists, though the picturisation in air is partial.  It beats me how a person can maintain the 'sur ' and 'taal' in the song while hanging from a helicopter going up and down. Well, in Indian films, the hero is a superman , so he can do things perfectly.

The year 1967 also saw the release of a truly international Hindi  film called "Around the World". Raj Kapoor has the onerous task of going around the world in 8 dollars ( the dollar-rupee rate being Rs.7.50 p that year ). The song gives an aerial view of the whole world , so it is recommended to watch this song on a large screen in HD and save your multiple trips to various parts of the world. Rajshree was the heroine and there was a  cameo by Sir Frank Worrell, when Raj touched West Indies, now called WINDIES, officially. The theme of foreign cricketers' tryst with Bollywood is a separate one. Watch this space !

The seventies saw a flurry of songs shot wholly or partly in aeroplanes. 

The first of such songs was from the film Jugnu and had the hero Dharmendra chasing heroine Hema Malini in air. So, the chase and tease sequence is taken at a higher level, pun intended !
 There is an airplane with hero chasing the heroine, who is with villain Prem Chopra in a helicopter. The funny thing is that Hema is able to listen to the song ( through her headphones?) and also responds at time, calling him "Idiot" !
The shots in the plane are at camera level and all shot at one go. The editor's task is more difficult, clipping the right shots and adding them , so as to make the song appear to be one smooth sequence.

                                        

Prem Nagar in 1974 showed a real plane ( or is it a set in studio ? ) with Hema Malini as an indulgent air hostess, with  an inebriated Rajesh Khanna as a passenger,  reciting Faani Badayuni's philosophical poetry ! Interestingly, the passengers, mostly female, are also wanting him to continue. The unruly passengers must have been there on planes ever since the commencement of commercial operations.
However, it is better than beating an official with chappals, I say !  

Amongst the different ways that someone can be in the air ( apart from being in seventh heaven ) is para-gliding. It is the enterprising spirit of Hindi film-makers that this find a place in the anthology. Rishi Kapoor and Shoma Anand sing a song while up in the air : a song whose lyrics are reflective of Stockholm Syndrome ( see my musiblog  on the subject  at  http://amitabhn-randomthinking.blogspot.in/2017/05/blog-post_19.html).

The director had enough of para-gliding by end of  one and a half minutes and the remaining song is completed on Mother Earth.

In the same year we had a fantasy film Bundulbaaz , directed by Shammi Kapoor ( of the hanging-from-the-helicopter fame), having Rajesh Khanna ( of the drunk-poetry recital -in-plane fame) and Sulakshana Pandit. Kapoor plays a genie who has to fulfill the wishes of his Kaka, sorry Aaka ....

It seems that due to the flying carpet being out of stock, Shammi, the Genie uses his palm to give Kaka and Sulakshana a ride in air as they belt out the song Bemausam bahaar ke din kaise aaye, expressing their bewilderment at the choice of the Genie's palm !

Long before the Genies in the bottles, in our pious land there was a deity who used the aerial route across the sea to convey important message  to  a lady separated from her husband due to abduction.  Yes, I am referring to Hanuman.
How can this write up be complete without a flying image of Hanuman !
 In 1976, in the film Bajrangbali ( till that time religious films still used to be made ), we have Hanuman flying off to a mission and a song is dedicated to him.
Bol Siyavar Ramchaandra ki jai , pawan-sut Hanooman ki jai

In 1977, we had Kaka again ( I wonder if this has something to do with me being his Superfan !) , this time with Zeenat Aman professing his love amidst the clouds and in a two-seater. Not satisfied with the two-seater, later on they switch to para-gliding.
 Thus came about the expression "प्यार की नयी ऊंचाइयां छू लीं " 

Cut to 1985 and in the film Saaheb, we have Anil Kapoor and Amrita Singh taking   all modes of transportation in one song.First a boat and then the train and finally aboard an empty  Indian Airlines flight ! Amrita Singh becomes the air hostess,giving the deprived masses a   "feel" of air  journey. The vicarious pleasure that Hindi cinema gives to its viewers is indeed, a yeoman service.

 The 90s had films bordering on flights but with no songs in air. Shahrukh Khan stalked air hostess Madhuri Dixit in Anjaam, but the song  Badi mushkil hai...was shot in the airport premises. In Border, while Jackie Shroff played the Air Force commander, Sunny on the field kept singing the clarion call song. Actually for the song in air either you have to be the crew or the passenger.

The 2006 film Vivah had a song and dance sequence inside a commercial flight, an indication of the options of shooting locations available with producers. Shahid Kapoor also helps the air hostess  Amrita Rao in  serving tea and snacks to the passengers. A few more such songs and this would also become as  commonplace as the running round the  tree location.

The easiest way to be in air is to know how to fly on your own. While the Gods and Genies and Superman had inherent powers to do this, it took  some time to have these powers bestowed on our superhero,The Flying Jatt. Released in 2016 , the film is about an Indian Superhero who likes to sing while flying.
If you know how to fly, sky is the limit !

The same year, a very different film was released in which it is asserted that the Wright brothers were preceded by  our own Hindustani deekra , inventor of the first unmanned aircraft !
He was the real Hawaizada. Played  by Ayushman Khurana, the  uncredited inventor  did sing a song while on his maiden flight.

One of the more sensitive films made on the background of flying was Neerja (2016) , based on the short but great life of air hostess Neerja Bhanot. In one of the poignant moments in the film, Sonam Kapoor remembers her mother during a flight.

 Leaving you with the beautiful song. Ciao

...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 !