The Hindu Business Line : A different take

The first quarter is up, and the report for Bollywood, box-office wise, is bleak. That's the bad news. But there is some good news too. More `different' films have come out of Mumbai in the last three months than in the past year; filmmakers are finally risking commercial certainty in order to create stories that don't taste and smell the same.

"Guru has been the only certified big hit," says long-time exhibitor Rajesh Khanna, "and that was out back in the first week of January." Mani Ratnam's thinly disguised Rs 36-crore tale on the rise and rise of Dhirubhai Ambani played for about six weeks in most theatres with "good occupancy". The film dispelled a couple of myths; that Abhishek and Aishwarya couldn't give a hit together (Umrao Jaan was one of 2006's biggest flops), and that Mani Ratnam could only enthuse the North Indian market with his Tamil-dubbed-in-Hindi films (his first Hindi film Yuva was a flop, too). It was also Abhishek Bachchan's first solo hit, proving that he is capable of carrying a film on his own.

It helped of course, that Bachchan Jr's romance with the light-eyed beauty culminated in an engagement around that time. Cynics were quick to claim that the `Abhi-Ash' tamasha was timed to help the movie. Whatever, Guru's strong storyline, and Abhishek's solid performance as Guru/Dhirubhai, hit the spot.

Sole hit

Twenty A-line releases, and only one hit. The only other spot of light has been Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, a debutant director's tongue-in-cheek look at marriage and relationships, which made money. And Vipul Shah's Namastey London, the love story of a Punjabi munda and a London ki kudi, out last Friday, has taken a good initial, and looks as if it will also make a profit. The rest, including the much-hyped Rs 40 crore extravaganza Salaam-e-Ishq, have been disastrous.

It's always simpler in hindsight to figure out what went wrong. Nikhil Advani, who broke away from Karan Johar's camp, to make this movie (six tracks, six couples, and love actually), gives us an unwieldy story which runs close to four hours, a script which doesn't know where to draw the line, and actors who are let loose. So despite the presence of a Khan (Salman), and Bollywood's prime hottie (John), a trio of pretties — Priyanka, Vidya and Ayesha, and comic-hero-on-the-comeback-trail Govinda, the film tanked.

It had potential, but didn't quite know what to do with itself. It was the same story with Vidhu Vinod Chopra's star-studded Eklavya, and Ram Gopal Varma's Nishabd: very different films in their intent, but similarly not-spot-on in the execution. Both ran under two hours, starred Amitabh in lead roles, had world-class cinematographers capture gorgeous vistas, and very capable supporting casts. But you did not sup fully at these films, you left wanting more.

Dutt's not enough!

You want more Saif in Eklavya (it unspools over 48 hours), than his set expression and resplendent bandhgalas. You want more Sanjay Dutt, too. His `dalit' policeman is among Bollywood's strongest anti-hero heroes in a long time, and Sanjay shows why he blossoms under Vidhu's baton: his character is given superb lines and shape. One of my ancestors is buried in these palace walls, he tells a sidekick, because the rajas of yore believed that a chamar was worthy only to be sacrificed. He says this, tapping the wall, with a mixture of wry acceptance and calm conviction that it will never happen again, because this is now a different time and age. You want his character to have a graph, and you want more than a tame ending to this fabulous-looking, but ultimately dissatisfying film.

You want Ramu to be braver than he is prepared to be, in Nishabd. He gives us a spunky teenager who is happy to take, even snatch, what she wants. To begin with, the relationship between a much older man and a very young girl is sketched with truly bold strokes. You expect the movie to go to a place Bollywood hasn't been before (the first half promises you many things), but then the director stops short. It's almost as if he is scared of his own explosive story. You are left wondering: what if Ramu had created a subtler attraction between his lead couple, rather than this full-on physical passion which goes nowhere, after a lot of song and dance.

The number crunchers are left shaking their heads. But there is a silver lining: Chopra and Varma may not have hit the box-office jackpot, but they get full marks in trying out something new. Both films have never-seen-before aspects, which help set them apart from the run-of-the-mill releases which come out on a Friday and disappear by the next. One such February release was the long-in-the-cans Nehle Pe Dehla, with Sanjay Dutt and Saif Ali Khan. It tried cashing in on the Eklavya casting of the two stars; needless to add that it was plain ghastly, with the actors sleepwalking through the movie which seemed to have no beginning and no end, only an endless middle.

Different sorts

Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday, and Rahul Dholakia's Parzania were both films which sprang from the real, and left a lasting impact. Both had been stuck for a long time, but for both, the first quarter of 2007 was the right time and place, and both have already made this year special.

The film that has been a real marker of Bollywood Becoming Different (neither Kashyap nor Dholakia's movies are conventional masala movies) is Reema Kagti's Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd. The first-timer, who has apprenticed with Farhan Akhtar and Ashutosh Gowarikar takes convention and twists it, takes typical Bollywood situations and songs and dances, and makes real moments out of it, at the same time saying something about life and love. Kagti's film, like mentor Akhtar's first film Dil Chahta Hai, takes the old, and runs with it, making something new. It also runs less than two hours, which makes it just right.

So, new Bollywood's new mantra: Let's try telling stories which connect to the lives of the viewers. Also, let's make short films, which apart from tiring the viewers, will also have the added benefit of not having to be edited to international specifications in case they are invited to foreign film festivals.

The moolah may not have gladdened all hearts. But some of the movies sure have.