Friday Nights

Struck by a desire to have a collection of movies, I have started buying and watching some offbeat ones every Friday night. First Dor, then Mithya and the most recent one Manorama – Six Feet Under. While Dor was about enjoying those little moments of your life, Mithya was a black comedy and Manorama a thriller of noir genre. These three, in spite of being so different from each other, tell a similar story- the story of the alternate Bollywood.
Rajeev Masand, in his article “Whats wrong with our movies?”( http://www.india-seminar.com/2008/590/590_rajeev_masand.htm) , explains beautifully what exactly is ailing Bollywood. In the last para he says :
“Hindi cinema needs to leave the safe zone. It needs to take more risks. More hunger, more passion and most of all, more honesty. Writers and directors have to start listening to themselves instead of looking to what made the last hit. ”

That is precisely what the three aforementioned movies do. They don have stars , they have endearing characters. They don have the money, but they have a gripping story. They don’t have the crowds but the connoisseurs. But then how could offbeats like “Peepli Live” do so well? Reason being obviously a rich production house. While “Taare Zameen Par” produced by Aamir Khan was a huge success, “Stanley Ka Dabba” ( incidentally written by Amol Gupte who wrote TZP) even if a great movie, might find the going tough at the box office. While Aamir has been generous enough to experiment, “Paheli” was the last time Shahrukh did something different and that too under an established director like Amol Palekar and the less said about Salman and Akshay the better. But the blame surely doesnt lie with the stars alone. They fear a “Dhobhi Ghat”like failure. The onus is on the audience, on us to appreciate good cinema, to watch these movies in theatres and to come out of the preference for “Dimaag-baju-main-rakhke-dekhne-wale” movies.

There are “good movies” and there are “hit movies”. Actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Vinay Pathak and directors like Nagesh Kukunoor, Anurag Kashyap have long been trying to bridge the often-existing gap between the two. It is for us to help this get achieved so that the former finds its rightful place in the latter category. Till then, a hit movie will continue to provide in-the-face entertainment while a good movie will evoke emotions like Manorama just did.