There are some signs this pressure is building. Over the past few years many high budget films featuring big stars have bombed, while more mid-budget films with stronger storylines have done well.
With box office footfalls stagnating, and competition from live streaming, digital gaming and other sources of screen entertainment growing, Indian producers may realise that quality could be the path to commercial survival. Until then, as an Indian movie fan living in New York, I will keep making my way to the lone godawful dump of a theatre that screens Hindi movies in Manhattan, as a way of remaining connected with a country I love and miss.
And I will continue to hope that, one evening in the distant future, I will stumble on an Indian gem with the quality of Parasite.
Can Mamata go national? Successful coalitions at the Centre have been usually headed by leaders with weak power bases. Is a green Diwali possible? Ultra right and wrong: Women in India face a new threat to their freedom of choice. Nehru, Iqbal, cricket and the question of Muslim identity. Will history say Xi Huzoor? Hate smug liberals? Interested in blogging for timesofindia. We will be happy to have you on board as a blogger, if you have the knack for writing.
Just drop in a mail at toiblogs timesinternet. Accept Reject. Update Consent. It exists purely to offer its ageing ageless in his mind, however lead star a perfect stage to hurl monologues about filmmaking. When no solution is forthcoming, he takes off to Hollywood. The late Dev Anand never won the Academy, but if he had, he would have recited exactly the same fiery speech. Purists, even diehard fans, tend to dismiss his later films.
But Censor has its corny charm. Imagine a movie that has been forcefully hammered down your throat every weekend, without respite. It repulses you at first. Then, you learn to ignore it. Finally, you warm up to it.
And then it becomes a habit. Sooryavansham is that rare film, like A Wonderful Life, that gained a following thanks to repeated telecast on Sony Max. Why is that all the campy creations starring Bollywood biggies have a southern connection? This is before AB got his mainstream mojo back with Mohabbatein. Sooryavansham follows the Bachchan father and son, with possibly the most strained parent-child relationship ever committed to Bollywood screen — indeed, more strained than Dilip Kumar and Bachchan bond in Shakti.
Radha Soundarya , who in the beginning generally orders Heera around, realises his precious worth and marries him. Heera was never great at studies. But once married, luck shines on the unlettered black sheep.
And the rest, as they say, is Set Max history. PS: Watch it also for the cracking chemistry between Kadar Khan and Anupam Kher , the old ware-horses with splendid comic timing. One Amitabh thinks no end of himself. The other suffers from low self-esteem and self-pity worthy of Rajendra Kumar. Perfect company to bat away the Monday blues. But since, it has acquired fans for all the wrong reasons. She harbours a secret crush on him and in their first proper meeting, he kisses her.
Recounting, he cooks up an elaborate scene about this bikini-clad blonde on the beach. He could well be describing a steamy scene from a Feroz Khan hit. One of the mysteries of this Kanti Shah creation is why every character speaks in rhyming sentences. Each man introduces himself with an absurd tagline.
Read between the line. The film is full of such double meaning inferences. Like most Mithun-da sleeper hits of the time, Gunda is a typical common-man-against-the-system fare. Revenge was the subject of most of these hinterland hits and Gunda is no different. No less than four costume designers are credited, including the famous Kachin now defunct, but not due to Madam X.
The purple prose with which she tips her many hats and headgears to her own genius can put hardcore wordsmiths to shame. Much of the plot revolves around Rekha and her lookalike who the police co-opt to capture the fancy dress don.
All of which is terribly low-grade and surprisingly, great fun. In the dusk of his career, the great Dharmendra did some implausibly iconic roles. But for the suave Vinod Khanna, this was a new high. Everywhere except India. Wasseypur is a nondescript industrial town in Bihar, India's poorest region.
And rather than drugs or casinos, these gangs are fighting for control of coal mines and scrap metal. It was filmed on bustling streets and industrial wastelands, even — since one of the movie's central clans are butchers by trade — an abattoir. While we were shooting, 60 buffaloes and a camel got slaughtered before our eyes.
I don't think any of us could eat meat for a month. In this context, describing Gangs Of Wasseypur as a breath of fresh air seems inappropriate, but for Indian cinema, it feels like a significant moment. The crossover between western and Indian film-making is like nuclear fusion or a long-unsolved maths problem: a conundrum that could unlock untold riches if anyone cracked it, which no-one ever does. Every few years, a contender arises — wasn't it Slumdog Millionaire last time?
Kashyap is in a better position than most, though. Talented, prolific and provocative to his core, the year-old director is leading India's rising indie movement — nurturing whatever alternative directors he can find and turning out movies of his own that play equally well in Ahmedabad or Acton.
Gangs Of Wasseypur is a gangster epic in the grand tradition: a family feud that takes three generations, seven decades, scores of memorable characters, a great many gruesome deaths and a whopping five hours to resolve. There are no song-and-dance numbers, no muscular heroes, no leering bad guys or compliant females, and no luxury brands. If the average Bollywood product is a shiny yellow Lamborghini, Gangs is a filthy, great freight train, carried along by relentless narrative momentum, fluid camerawork and a throbbing soundtrack.
It's an exhilarating ride. Since Cannes last year, Gangs has drawn comparisons with the work of Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Sergio Leone and especially The Godfather — with its multi-generational scope and the fact that one of the key characters undergoes a Michael Corleone-like conversion to become head of the family.
Kashyap is weary of the comparisons.
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