On the sets of Bollywood

If cricket is a national obsession, so are films.

Even the greatest artist of our times, the late M.F. Husain, could not resist their attraction. He found his muses (Madhuri, Amrita, Tabu, Vidya, Anushka) in this world — the world of Eastman colour masala , emotion-packed, action-filled Hindi films, popularly known as Bollywood.

Anupama Chopra, who is very much part of this world, as a film critic, author, wife of filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra and sister of film director Tanuja Chandra, takes us through the changes she has seen in the technology, content and marketing of Hindi cinema through the 1990s to the present.

Her new book, First Day First Show , is basically a collection of her published reviews and articles. To that extent, it's a sketchy compilation and lacks a binding thread. Nevertheless, there are some interesting bits and pieces weaved into the larger patchwork of Bollywood's evolution from a mafia-financed industry to a corporatised one.

The book traces the changes the industry has gone through right from the murder of Magnum Video's Hanif Kadawala, to T-Series owner Gulshan Kumar's killing and the attack on actor-director Rakesh Roshan to the era of multiplexes and corporate funding and, of course, the rise and fall of stars.

It's an industry which embraces all. The garishly-dressed Govinda with mass appeal, to the suave, metrosexual appeal of Shah Rukh Khan and the thinking actor Aamir Khan, to the real actors Naseeruddin Shah and Manoj Bajpai, and the one and only Amitabh Bachchan.

One still remembers an interview with Govinda a few years ago. With the mushrooming of multiple awards by competing film magazines and television channels, Govinda was asked why he had never bagged an award: “ Maine kabhi khareeda nahin ” (I never bought one), he said, and said it all.

Anupama delves a little less on the heroines. There are bits on Karishma, Kajol, Rani, Aishwarya, Kareena, and on Madhuri Dixit's ‘magic'.

Initially, many of Madhuri's films had bombed at the box office. Actor Anil Kapoor was reluctant to act opposite her, thinking he would sink along with her. Then came the hit song Ek do teen from Tezaab , and Madhuri never looked back. A single-screen owner said that for days together there used to be a long queue in front of his hall, just to see her perform Choli ke peechey in Khalnayak . People would walk out of the hall once the song was over, he reminiscences. Apparently, Madhuri had a very bad acne problem, and had to be treated in the US. But what worked for her the most was namak (salt) apart from talent, as a film technician put it.

All in all, this collection of reviews and articles is interesting only in parts. One would have expected more from someone who has been part of the industry for over two decades now and breathes and sleeps Hindi films.

Personally, the best thing about the book is the foreword by Shah Rukh Khan. The book “will be a true representation of what a Hindi film is”, the actor sums up. Now, that's really open to interpretation!

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