Why I love BolyWood Movies ?

  I love Hindi movies coming out of Mumbai.  Yes, in recent times they are being termed with a catch all phrase of Bolywood movies. I grew up in lower middle class Kolkata but with a very strict upbringing. In my childhood I hardly saw any movies except the occasional ones that I went with my mother.  My first movie was Rajesh Khanna’s ‘Hati Mere Sathi’ . I was a child then and till this day I remember the giant screen, the big elephants , the songs  and Rajesh Khanna and Hema Malini running around trees and gardens.  Later after almost 8 to 9 years I saw another Hindi movie, Amitabh Bachhan starrer  ‘Shakti’ . I was in my early teens then, my hormones raging, life’s spirit storming through my mind and body. I loved the action, loved Amitabh’s style and glamour and I remember spending hours with my friends discussing and contemplating the various aspects of the movie.  I loved it.  Once again I stopped watching movies as other priorities like studies, sports captured all my time.  The next movie I saw was in my first year at Engineering School,  a different kind of a movie ,it  was called ‘Jukti Takko Gappo’ by Ritwik Ghatak. I was adult by then , and have learnt to think analytically. This movie shook me, I realized that movies has a lot into it, not just a glossy book cover but it is an art form . My interest in cinema grew, I became a film buff watching art house movies from all over the world.  In my intellectual pride and what today I call arrogance and foolishness I completely ignored Bolywood movies.  I used to dismiss them as low brow devoid of any purposeful content.

It was not until I was in Hyderabad that I chanced upon a the epic film ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jainge’ . This movie with its fantastic cinematography , Kajal’s innocence, Shah Rukh Khan expert ‘Nautanki’ stirred  me out of my prejudice. I walked out of the movie hall realizing that all these days I have been missing one of the greatest stream of movie making in the history of mankind.  By then Amitabh Bachhan’c peak was over , Shah Rukh Khan is transforming into a star, Karan Johar’s  glossy, melodious, middle-class epics for homegrown Indians and affluent expatriates were rising. I set myself the task of learning, understanding and absorbing these movies inch by inch. Starting with Rajesh Khanna starrer ( my earliest memory) to Amitabh Bachhan  to Shah Rukh Khan I started collecting and watching all their major works. As interest grew, I went back to the earlier classics of Guru Dutt, Bimal Roy,Raj Kapoor and even further back to the origins, tracing all the way to films of my times.  I felt complete. I felt that at last I got a feeling of what India is , the blood, guts , the sheer essence of Indian life or life itself.

Like a tapestry of post independence Indian consciousness these movies in many ways represented modern India itself.  Unlike the art house movies that came out from Satyajit Ray-Ritwik Ghatak-Mrinal Sen et all these movies were never a personal expression of the film director. It was a joint effort, collective expression and elaboration of artistic skill of everybody involved in the making of the film. They brought forward an idea, an idea painted with song and dance, colors, emotions, action, brightness and confidence.  The idea itself again is not individual opinion, rather the core of life and times of the Indian masses (the main audience) embellished with hope and spirit.  After watching one of these movies, I can assert that anybody will leave the theater with strong upbeat feeling.

Bolywood movies were successful, over and over again, because it was always the market that benchmarked them. Why will I not watch a movie where the hero ( the main protagonist of the film) rising out of my contemporary life sets out and achieves all that I ever dreamt of? It makes me feel good. It makes me think positive aspects of my life and makes me believe, even for the two hours, in a hope that the achievements of the hero can happen to my life also.  Hindi movies are and always have been about people very unlike the blockbuster Hollywood movies where the characters live in a somewhat rational framework.  Hindi movies are idiosyncratic, the character live their life in entropy just like our life itself. Yet the underlying narration has deep sense of continuity in time.  Yes the life portrayed in them are not a photograph of reality, the poverty, dirt and ferociousness of Indian life. The question is do we need to show that? Why will we go and see a movie with so much pain thrown at us when we ourselves live it day after day. We need to get out of it , even for a moment and splurge ourselves in hope and optimism. This is what Bolywood movies give us, the characters shown living in a reality like ours yet the pain of the reality on the screen is deliberately dulled out. The hero somehow gets over all the obstacles. …think about the recent hit ‘ Chennai Express’ of Shah Rukh Khan.  Yes they are cheesy, but that is the point of it. They have been made so. Shah Rukh Khan made the following statement in response to the cheesiness of some of his dance numbers:  "I make movies that must appeal to both the 5-year-old child and the 90-year-old grandma". I agree with him. Imagine Rajesh Khanna, Amitbah Bachhan or even earlier stars like Ashok Kumar, Raj Kapoor all of them had acquired and portrayed mannerism which will appeal to the widest possible audience. Yet these characteristics gestures were function of the time in which these stars operated.  Ashok Kumar or Raj Kapoor will not survive today nor will Shah Rukh Khan in their time.

No Bollywood film is complete without songs. In fact, each movie has around 4 to 5 songs, out of which just one hit song can alone make or break a film. These songs are not just in the back-ground, they throw at you the soul of the movie in beautiful lyrics and music.  This is another aspect which I love , the innovativeness, the boisterous optimism of the heart brings forth the real meaning of sheer joy. Truly, for all the hindi movies over the years, there are thousands of songs, for different moods and times, which can refresh and revitalize me immediately. Besides, some of these songs are also very well choreographed and shot with such brilliant cinematography that they, in those few minutes, portray a pure complete entertainment. Family entertainment I would say, I can watch these movies with my teenage daughter to the little baby and their grand ma. Another aspect is that almost 90% of hindi movie revolve around  tender romanticism and necessarily without any scenes of explicit love making. The rich girl/poor boy ( vice versa) plot for movies have been done million times by movie makers from all over the world, still no one does that better than Bolywood. The depth, the pathos, the angst , the melodrama and the eventual triumph of true love all packaged into an universal rainbow ..it just doesn’t get better than Bolywood.  The other fundamental aspect of these movies that I like are the necessity of triumph of the hero over villain and social message embedded in the movies. True, I would not expect the villans of today’s movies to be like the comic character of Mugambo of ‘Mr India’ ( though for some reason I found that the age group of 7 to 10 who live in make believe world love this movie) it will be much sophisticated colored with ambivalence  like in ‘ Rajneeti’ or bawdy and rough like in Dabaang. Like the heroism evolved from Ashok Kumar to Shah Rukh Khan so did the villainy, but the basic premise of the triumph of heroism over villainy remains. I think that through this truism comes out another aspect of these movies, the social message. The uncharacteristic value system of Salman Khan a police inspector in Dabang suggests a different approach, but keeping with modern times, to fight for the truth. So are the complex thread and intricacies of Rajneeti , a distilled version of Mahabharata. Another enchanting aspect of these movies are its spirit, the sense of society, its characters, their social consciousness. Immediately after independence, the post colonial India had remnants of  babu culture dominating the value system which was properly reflected in the Hindi movies at that time. ‘Mother India’ broke free and almost singlehandedly defined the sense of what is India, its passion, its belief and dedication.  As society evolved we get another set of movies celebrating the freedom like a fresh breath of air.  Rajesh Khanna’s Anand or the great song sequence of ‘Ye Dosti’ in  the movie Sholay told us that  this is freedom come celebrate with us. Slowly as we learned to govern ourselves lurching sideways, forward and all over the place we missed industrialization leaving the society into the hands of criminals, smugglers and unemployment. Hindi movies reacted with the angry young man, Amitabh Bachhan, a hero who could break all the barriers and bring new order. Then came the economic liberalization and with it came Shah Rukh Khan, the smart young man who will go at any lengths, though keeping faith in a truthful (Hindustani) value system, to achieve what he wants. I think that what made these films astonishing is the mix of people involved in the creative process of making them. People from all over India the Bengali, the south Indian, the Muslim poet flocked to Mumbai to contribute and make a living. The diversity of the movies reflects the diversity of its people collaborating to make them. That is true India. That is what I like and love.

A short visit to Varanasi in 2013

I always wanted to visit this city for fundamentally two reason, first I am a Hindu and second that it is one of those cities in the world of which I have heard so much. I have read accounts of westerners going there and getting spiritual inspiration, I read about  19th century Bengali history about widows being sent there for various unscrupulous reasons, I have read that it is the oldest living city in the world and so much, so many things. Yes, with all these stuffed in my mind, one day I decided and boarded the plane to see the city.

At least initially, I was not impressed at all, there was nothing that I saw or felt could have validated all the baggage that I had in my head, I did not feel enlightened  nor was I blown away by the sheer sincerity of purpose of the city’s existence. The city itself is very ordinary. Like any other Indian city, it is a mess, a plethora of people, traffic, cows entangled and all living together. The local administration is nonchalant, ordinary people struggling day over day to scrape out a living. The demarcation of rich and poor are as usual and their habitat different.

 

What is different are the Ghats, the River and all that goes along with it. It seemed to me that the focus of the city is the Ghats. The city spirit is centered there. Yes it is a Hindu city and is emphasized by the sheer number of temples it has. Almost every corner has a temple or shrine. Big or small. Ancient or recent. Hinduism being an unorganized religion, all these temples, except the big and ancient ones are instituted and maintained by individuals.

I was at Varanasi during the rains. Ganga was full and flowing. It was beautiful. A strange mesmerizing beauty. I knew the geography, that Ganga hit the plains in a major way at Varanasi. I knew the myth, that Shiva thousands of years ago was there. I knew all the stories, myth, history and everything. Yet everything apart there is something, which I do not know, attracted me to the river. I did not see the sunrise on the river nor was I lucky to see the sunset as there were clouds. Today when I think about it I don't care. I feel content, I feel that whatever I have seen is enough but yet I had to see it at least once in my life.

The Ghats were dirty, incredibly dirty, considering the fact that the city is supposedly one of the holiest places for Hindus’. Can you imagine a dirty Vatican or Mecca? But Hinduism being what it is, you hardly see any organized endeavor around it. If any individual come out with the money and resources to do anything, then something will be done, else things remain as it is. Yet it will never die, Varanasi will never die, it is the Hindu thing. That is the way of this religion.

The Ghats are alive from morning to night. Always there is something going on, kids frolicking in the water, burning Ghat, people taking bath, doing Ganga puja, buffaloes getting washed, fisherman with nets. There is no end to it. The Ghats are living, very vibrant, vivacious. It seemed that they have a life of their own with Ganga providing the backdrop, eternally flowing alongside. Growing up in Kolkata, India I am no stranger to Ghats.  During my childhood on various occasions I went to burning Ghat ( near Kolkata), I swam  and played in banks of the river (Hoogly part of Ganga) at various points during our annual childhood vacation, but I have never seen so much activity in such a short span of the river. The banks on Varanasi, at least the well known parts are maybe about two to three km yet it seems that a whole cycle of life’s activities have been compressed there. Probably that is why it is so intriguing.

The boat ride that I took, like every other tourists, along the banks, bought me much closer to Raja Harsihchandra Ghat and Manikarnika Ghat. Those famous burning Ghats, that are alive, active, and busy for thousands of years. While floating gently on the river with soft, wet breeze flowing through my hair, from a distance, I looked at the burning dead bodies on those Ghats. I felt a primeval mysterious feeling to think that , there have been always a body burning continuously every day , every year for thousands of years.

The city itself is old, and as we all know is the oldest city in the world. Like any old city the growth has been organic, with its numerous lanes and alleys, like the old parts of Kolkata, or Delhi but for Varanasi this is at a much larger scale, it is like a giant maze. This we are talking of the whole city rather than parts of it.  As I walked around the city and wandered around its lanes and by lanes with the knowledge and feeling of history on my head I felt a strange lightness.  I felt a disappearing time mixing into the past and present. This is the place from where history started, legends started, myths started or maybe older than all them put together.  I decided that I will come again, not because I am a Hindu, not because I am curious, but just to get that eternal feeling once again. Once again I would like to take boat ride along the banks of the river; once again I would like to walk along the alleys and lanes. 

Maybe I will go there not in a year or five years, at least a decade or two later. Will the city be same as it was during all these thousands of years?  I wonder, I want to know. For that alone I need to stay alive and revisit.

Debate between Amartya Sen and Jagadish Bhagwati : How long will this go on ?

Debate between  Amartya Sen and Jagadish Bhagwati  : How long will this go on ?

  

It is interesting to see all the media noise around these two great economists. I would say that they are both entitled to their viewpoint including their politics. Economy cannot exist without politics. It is politics that drive economics , so obviously their economics will have political ideology embedded.  Even if they deny, that is the way it is. They do have incredible qualifications and acceptance from the western world. Sen is a Noble Prize winner and a foremost intellectual in just about every major university in the western world.  Bhagwati , should have won the Noble prize and also have similar pedigrees like Sen.

What is good about both of them is their sincerity and interest in development of India.  Like all intellectuals they earnestly promote their own ideas and hope that somebody will get influenced and act accordingly.

All of the above is great.  However what's missing is an opinion from an economist who has lived and worked his/her entire life in India. Fully educated in India , worked in India and seen, experienced the evolution of Indian economy first hand. The question is why ? It is not that there is a dearth of brilliant economists like (if not better than) Sen or Bhagwati living in India. I would say that the  blame lies on Indian media , people in power . The old colonial paradigm still remains in their psyche : if you are not accepted and successful in  the west then you are not good enough and you will be ignored.  Remember the case of Tagore (poet) and filmmaker Satyajit Ray, both had to be felicitated by the West first before being taken seriously in India at a national level.   How long will that go on ? . Probably it is because of these reasons that these very talented people in all the intellectual spheres of India  keep their mouth shut. It is natural , I would be insulted and hurt if somebody continuously ignores me and shuts me out. This attitude, more than anything else, I think is what is pulling back India.

 After 60 years of Independence , it is time that India should get her acts together. It is very important to objectively identify, promote , listen and take pride in your own economists. These are the people who know a lot more about the people of India, their daily lives, than anybody else in the world. Yes, Sen and Bhagwati should  be encouraged to  participate,  and also the economists of India . I would urge the Indian Media to come forward and pay attention to what Indian economists have to say , promote their ideas.  I would appeal to all the political parties in India to come together and build their ideology around the thoughts and ideas of the economists of India. If that happens, then there might be a start of a reverse brain drain where people like Sen ( who is a Bharat Ratna and still holds Indian passport) & Bhagwati  will not have to go to west to get the privilege of not being ignored.  They in turn can influence and train generations of young Indian  mind with the shine of their intellect.

That  will be a start, a new evolution for India. Getting out of colonialism and taking pride in its own people. A confident  India , proud,  a strong character that stands behinds its beliefs, takes responsibility for its actions and treats other nations with dignity and firmness. It means having self possession in the face of peer pressure, speaking its mind and knowing it, and living by a strong code of moral and ethical character, earning respect and admiration from everybody in the world.