Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi

One of the bigwigs at Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC), when told about what a third class film 'Popcorn Khao Mast Ho Jaao' was, assured this reviewer that great things were in the offing at PNC. What came out next was 'Shabd', a nicely photographed heap of chicken shit.

HKA has received glowing testimonials from Ashutosh Gowarikar and Shekhar Kapoor. Gowarikar calls the film the 'first great political epic in Hindi'. What was 'Swades'? The first great NRI epic? What about Subhash Ghai's 'Kisna'? It must be the first  'Hindi English Bhai Bhai' epic. The era of epics is back. Let us celebrate you all idiots and get ready for yet another epical treat.

Should we judge Hazaron Khwaishein Aisi (HKA) for its political content? Is there any political content in it? There is more politics in whatever Sudhir has been saying in his interviews to the media than in his film. He has been talking incessantly about the Congress not being like the RSS. What is his motive behind these utterances? Who is he trying to please? Does he mean to say that an RSS supported NDA was less tolerant of films that expressed contrary opinions?*

He may even be trying to become a darling of the so called band of secularists by making these kinds of noises. This is cheap politics of a filmmaker. The NDA regime was the most liberal one from the 'freedom of expression' POV. As far as the 'Final Solutions' issue is concerned, it was a blatantly propagandist and hearsay based film. Even the UPA has not allowed it to be aired on DD. 'Dev' was a political film. A bad one as expected. It was cleared and released theatrically during the NDA regime even if it illustrated an unsubstantiated nexus between Hindutva politicians and rioters. The fact is that during the NDA rule not a single film or book or any other opinion was banned except probably the telecast of PTV in times of Kargil and in the aftermath of the attack on the Parliament.
 
 




 However, let us talk about HKA. Only a politically illiterate guy will call it a political epic. The film industry is full of these types. Even the card holding communists, who are part of the Indifilm industry, are merely the bards and sloganeers who perform odd jobs for their devious ideologues. So what is HKA? It is a commonplace story of a love triangle wrapped in the most superficial political bullshit which has become irrelevant by its oft repetition by those who know very little about certain political events in the history of India. So, emergency was all about forced sterilization, when poor people were loaded into trucks like cattle and taken to mass sterilization camps, and about the excesses committed by Sanjay Gandhi's brigade. And the Naxal movement was about the trendy idealism of some university students. In between all this what flourishes is romance and friendship among three college mates. This is how our filmmakers make their political epics.
 

Sudhir Mishra belongs to the breed of 'hypester' filmmakers. There is more hype than real stuff in whatever they say or do. This breed generally comes from an elitist background. They are hovering dogs. They have strange perceptions of reality. They look for interesting anecdotes to narrate to shock, surprise, and amuse their friends. That is why they make irrelevant and moronic 'anecdotal' films. However, they are good at creating some brand identity. This is the key to their survival. And that is what they look for in life, mere survival. They perpetuate the rot. They are not after breakthroughs, quite like the rest of society. It is very easy for this lot to find funds and backers who are yet another set of hovering dogs. This fatal combination determines the kind of rotten films that get made. And they make films like HKA and pat their own backs shamelessly for their non achievements.


HKA is a careless and mediocre job. It offers only one viewing pleasure, the dusky actress Chitrangada Singh. There is nothing much to this film. And if Sudhir Mishra really believes that he has created the greatest political epic and a masterpiece of a film, it only confirms his lowly artistic standards and political naiveté. The obvious possibilities in this 'triangular romance' remain unexplored. The motivations and relationships, the angst and ambitions of various characters are too sketchy and boring. It is a wasteful film. It is full of useless and contrived scenes and sequences that neither explore the romance track nor delve credibly into the contemporary political realities of the period in which the story of the film is set. It is the usual stereotypical stuff, and cinematic balderdash.
 



There is some talk of good performances by Shiny, Kay Kay, and Chitrangada Singh. This is all bunkum. Shiny is particularly bad. What you see of him all the time is his typically stupid grin or stoned eyes. He shouts when he puts in extra efforts to act. Chitra can only be appreciated for her dusky sexiness in the film. The film hardly offers opportunities to excel to the actors who play the main characters. Kay Kay is bad too. He is an overrated actor. He is too rigid and obtuse, just like Urmila Matondkar. He keeps moving into the same rut film after film and TV serial after TV serial. The filmmaker does not even work on subtle nuances and emotions that could have been helpful. He probably lacks the necessary cinematic vision to do this. His earlier films provide ample evidence of it.

You will not find reviews of every film at khullamkhulla. Most of our films do not even deserve to be reviewed. What can you really write about a film like 'Waqt', 'Lucky', or 'Khamosh' for instance? 'My Brother Nikhil' was also a sort of botched up opportunity. One should not have written about HKA either. There are two reasons that prompted this reviewer to comment on this inconsequential film.
 

1. The film was promoted as a story set in the times of internal emergency and
the JP movement.

2. Sudhir Mishra has been paying tributes to the Congress for its democratic credentials and falsely implying that the Sangh Parivar's democratic credentials are suspect.
 

The filmmaker trivializes internal emergency and the JP movement in his film. As far as Sangh Parivar is concerned, it had suffered the most during those dark years. And the democratic credentials of the political outfit it tends to support have so far been the most praiseworthy since independence. The NDA rule was the best period of Indian democracy. And the worst is being seen now when Governors are being used yet again to destabilize opposition governments and to thwart the will of the people. A mere Gherao of a central minister becomes the pretext to dismiss a popularly elected state government. A duly elected chief minister is abused, berated, insulted, and mocked by UPA politicians day in and day out.

Sudhir must be wondering why the Congress party did not create any Hungama over veiled depiction of Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi in his film. In fact, he was counting on it. That is why he had his 'the Congress is not like the RSS' script ready for the media. There is a definite reason for the silence from the Congress camp. Sonia would like the legacy and image of Sanjay Gandhi and her famous  mother-in-law to be reviled and destroyed. So, if he expected HKA to generate political heat and subsequent box office bonanza, he simply miscalculated.

by RKS
 

* Sudhir should be thankful to the NDA regime for having been able to make a so called political film. The present political dispensation, consisting of the Congress and the CPM, will not allow films that even utter a single word against the Marxists and Sonia and even Lalu Yaadav. Recently, a film on Hedgewar was shelved by the Films Division. Doordarshan did not allow Prakash Jha's film on JP to be aired. The Marxist regime in West Bengal banned Tasleema Nasreen's book. The Congress-NCP rulers of Maharashtra banned a book on Shivaji. We don't have any documentary footage on various movements that were launched against the Congress regimes of the past. There is nothing available on genocide of Sikhs in 1984 in Films Division or Doordarshan archives. Nor a single documentary is available today that showcases the misdeeds of the Communist parties and the Congress. Why? Simply because the public funded film establishment was jealously dominated and administered by the elements that sympathized with these political groups. Let Sudhir Mishra dare to make a film on Bofors and tell the whole wide world that Sonia introduced Quotrochi to Rajeev and it was she who ensured that her friend fled from the country just in time, he would know what happens to him. The NDA regime in spite of everything did not even contemplate on bringing a law about TV content regulation. The present government is in a big hurry to introduce such a law.

Sudhir Mishra should know that as long as the present regime continues in New Delhi, no serious political film can be made. Of course blatant propaganda films depicting the RSS and Modi as monsters will continue to be made with the Church, NFDC, and Doordarshan funding. In a way, a Sonia led Congress and Karat led CPM will go beyond Indira Gandhi in suppressing contrary political expressions for three reasons.
 

• They represent the most intolerant of political and religious ideologies - Marxism and Catholicism.
• They are control freaks. They believe in controls as their political philosophy.
• They are inherently undemocratic. They also believe in destroying their opponents by using all means, legal or illegal. They are more hardheaded and bigoted than Indira Gandhi. They will not even declare an internal emergency to run down their opponents. They will misuse the existing loopholes in the Constitution and other institutions and even muscle power of the administration to harass and destroy their political opposition. The CPM rule in West Bengal is an ugly example. Look at how they are trying to pull down Modi's government over a minor Gherao of Lalu. Compare it with Vajpayee's response to what Jayalalita did to Murasoli Maran. He did nothing because he really believed in federalism.