Naya Daur

It was the music re-launch party of ‘now in colour’ Naya Daur. A whole lot of golden oldies were present on the occasion, including B.R. Chopra, Dilip Kumar, Saira Bano, Yash Chopra, Daisy Irani, and Asha Bhonsle.  They spoke about how the film got made and what it was like in those old days. It was a nostalgic and emotional occasion. Dilip Kumar broke down many times while addressing the audience.

The people from the media asked very few questions, but everyone wanted to listen to these stalwarts of Indian cinema, for the pearls of rare wisdom. It reminded me of Dev Anand’s press meet in IFFI, 2006, Goa. We wanted it to go on and on.

We also see the media scramble for SRK and Big B interviews and press meets. However, it seems that the compulsions of the profession are the cause of this wild enthusiasm. If you cannot get sound and visual bytes from these guys, you will lose your job. So, even if you know you will get the same diplomatic answers to your usual questions, you flock round them like little pups going for their mother’s teats. Unusual questions are generally brushed aside and made inconsequential with a smile or a smart aleck pun line followed by a guffaw.

When you look at the whole body of work of some of the celebrated and feted stars of today, you don’t really find much that can be considered significant. They may have delivered box office hits and enhanced their market value, but there is very little there that is of archival value. Which of SRK’s roles in a whole lot of films he has done till now can be considered memorable, challenging, and critically important? Very few. He acted better and more sensibly in his TV serials. Some of his films in the beginning of his career can also be appreciated as ‘not so bad’ films because he danced well and looked fresh in them. Rest of his work is rank mediocre and pedestrian. You cannot take it seriously enough, even films like 'Devdas' fail to impress us of his prowess. Paresh Rawal, and Rajpal Yaadav can boast of a better oeuvre.

Look at the kind of work done by Big B in his second innings. Nothing memorable. Some idiots may cite films like 'Nishabd', 'Sarkar', and 'Cheeni Kum' as worthwhile and memorable roles of the icon. Even these films are forgotten within six months of their release. Antakshari enthusiasts may occasionally remember the lyrics of the songs. Comedies are remembered, not for the work done by stars, but for the contribution of their sidekicks and other characters. Today, Rajpal Yaadav’s entry into a film’s frame draws instant approving applause from the audience.

These stars do not factor in the issue of what they are leaving behind for posterity while they sign on a film project. The production banner comes first, followed by money. They do pronounce that the extra-ordinary script was the reason for doing a film. Probably they think that punch and pun lines are what a film script is all about. This means they have no sense of script appreciation. But how is it possible? They have been part of the industry for so many years. They must be watching many movies. Don’t they get inspired by them? Of course they do. That is why ninety-nine percent of Hindi films are bad copies of films from Hollywood and all over.

So, where does the problem lie?

When you don’t make great demands from your cast and crew, you destroy their potential. When they make no demands from you, they destroy you. Our filmmakers and stars are not demanding enough. They think their whole job is to create a pleasant working environment on the sets and keep star egos well-pampered. Even the stars in their interviews do not forget to add that the shooting of the film was like a picnic. How did they prepare for their roles? "What? Preparing for the role? The director had done all the preparation. We just followed him and in the evenings, we screwed around in our hotel rooms."

A friend of mine intends to produce one of my plays and make it into a low-budget film. He asked me the other day to talk to an actor. He said it was important that we both, the actor and me, jell with each other. He hopes that out of this jelly, a great film will emerge and he will be able to eat the cherry at the top. The role this actor is being considered for in the film is a great role, with great speeches, that provide any actor an unprecedented opportunity to display his histrionic skills. Even Dilip Kumar would not have got a chance to deliver such dialogues and enact the nuanced scenes of this play. A true actor would have crawled on all fours to my doorstep and pestered me with his pleadings to make the film. Yet, I have to waste this life, and probably the next as well, making jellies.

Sony Pix shows this programme where the Dean of the Actors’ Studio interviews well-known actors and filmmakers about their life and work in front of his students. Whenever I watch it, I wonder what would our actors and filmmakers of today say about their life and work in a programme of this kind. For instance, what would the makers of ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’, or ‘Aap Ka Suroor’  or ‘Nishabd’ or ‘Cheeni Kum’ or even ‘Bheja Fry’ say about their work? Bull and balderdash, what else.

Suppose one asked Big B as to how did he prepare for his role in ‘Cheeni Kum’, what would he say? There is nothing worthwhile there in what he did in the film. But he can speak a lot about his films like ‘Anand’, ‘Zanjeer’, ‘Saudagar’, ‘Amar, Akbar, Anthony’, and even ‘Bombay to Goa’ and ‘Sholey’ and it will be a treat to hear him. What is he doing now? He is rehashing and remixing all his insipid roles of the past in his films of today in an unbridled style and manner. His son Abhishek does not have a single film he should really be proud of.  This includes much tom tommed roles of  ‘Guru’ and ‘Yuva’ where he faked and caricatured his characters all the way. The poor fellow has become a star even before having become an actor.

Yet we claim to be growing. And the only yardstick of this growth is how the film fares at the box office during the first weekend after its release. We work very hard on marketing and release strategies; filmmaking has become a secondary enterprise.

RKS
 

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