They ask me why I am such a Bollywood buff. They tell me that Bollywood is all crap – with running around trees and flowers mating, it's not even entertaining. They say Bollywood is mindless and for the bores!
I say there is Bollywood that moves, Bollywood that conveys a point, Bollywood that awakens conscience, Bollywood that has meaning that can shake our souls.
I am talking about Bollywood that is real in reel. I am talking about movies that have moved me, made me cry like nothing else can; movies that are truly a splendid piece of art that depicts reality.
It's been decades since the Hindu-Muslim wars have been on. It's been decades that we have all been hearing about those, sitting like voyeurs in our comfortable sofas, passing cynical judgements since that is all we are capable of doing.
Yet, a movie like Bombay shakes the very soul. To even think of what happened during those dreadful times of Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai, the pride of , tears our hearts out. Just watching the movie, after years of it being made, still made me go through the same various emotions that Mani Ratnam was trying to project – separation, fear, agony, trauma, pain and so many more that my limited vocabulary doesn't even allow me to describe. What might it have taken a man to think of these and have them emoted on screen – it has to be sheer passion to show the world what happened and sheer dedication to make it go through the emotions that he wanted to display.
I am not pointing out a good movie from a bad one, not critiquing the finer aspects of cinema making, not trying to give my version of what was and what could have been. All I am trying to appreciate here is the power of cinema. The power that engulfs people for those 3 hours and makes them see the world through the lens it wants them to wear, go through a change of heart while you're in it, with it. Bollywood is no different, not behind any other world-class cinema that transports people from their real worlds into the reality that it attempts at painting.
I have always been the sorts who gets moved by human atrocities, which is why maybe this is about all those movies that have attempted at pointing the same out. It is unfortunate that time and again, it has all boiled down to the same Hindu-Muslim issue, to the same old Mumbai blasts, the often remembered and feared Babri Masjid episode. All in vain because I don't think we have yet been able to see the point or the pointlessness of that. How could we when Mr. Advani has been accepted as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the next elections, when the very man responsible for the biggest black mark in recent times in Indian history is getting sympathy for his autobiographical book (that I see no point for even having been written)?
Movies like Bombay, Black Friday, Zakhm and even Dev etc have time and again tried to move our souls. It has taken bold men to make such movies that must have been traumatic to make, given the makers of the film must have lived the catastrophe day in and day out, which I can't seem to bear for the 3 hours that I get the opportunity of watching. And yet all we do is forget about such movies, as we do about such occurrences in our society and crib about Bollywood being a farce and the Hindu-Muslim issue a mere political power struggle.
Both might be true to some extent, but how can we even begin to overlook the effect they both have on us, the influence they can possibly have on our minds and the impact they have on our society?
This might be a boring and un-called-for piece of writing for many but to me, it is a reiteration of the fact that social causes are our own to accept and Bollywood that attempts at shaking our conscience is our own to respect.
Yeh bhi hai Bollywood meri jaan
They ask me why I am such a Bollywood buff. They tell me that Bollywood is all crap – with running around trees and flowers mating, it's not even entertaining. They say Bollywood is mindless and for the bores!
I say there is Bollywood that moves, Bollywood that conveys a point, Bollywood that awakens conscience, Bollywood that has meaning that can shake our souls.
I am talking about Bollywood that is real in reel. I am talking about movies that have moved me, made me cry like nothing else can; movies that are truly a splendid piece of art that depicts reality.
It's been decades since the Hindu-Muslim wars have been on. It's been decades that we have all been hearing about those, sitting like voyeurs in our comfortable sofas, passing cynical judgements since that is all we are capable of doing.
Yet, a movie like Bombay shakes the very soul. To even think of what happened during those dreadful times of Hindu-Muslim riots in Mumbai, the pride of , tears our hearts out. Just watching the movie, after years of it being made, still made me go through the same various emotions that Mani Ratnam was trying to project – separation, fear, agony, trauma, pain and so many more that my limited vocabulary doesn't even allow me to describe. What might it have taken a man to think of these and have them emoted on screen – it has to be sheer passion to show the world what happened and sheer dedication to make it go through the emotions that he wanted to display.
I am not pointing out a good movie from a bad one, not critiquing the finer aspects of cinema making, not trying to give my version of what was and what could have been. All I am trying to appreciate here is the power of cinema. The power that engulfs people for those 3 hours and makes them see the world through the lens it wants them to wear, go through a change of heart while you're in it, with it. Bollywood is no different, not behind any other world-class cinema that transports people from their real worlds into the reality that it attempts at painting.
I have always been the sorts who gets moved by human atrocities, which is why maybe this is about all those movies that have attempted at pointing the same out. It is unfortunate that time and again, it has all boiled down to the same Hindu-Muslim issue, to the same old Mumbai blasts, the often remembered and feared Babri Masjid episode. All in vain because I don't think we have yet been able to see the point or the pointlessness of that. How could we when Mr. Advani has been accepted as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the next elections, when the very man responsible for the biggest black mark in recent times in Indian history is getting sympathy for his autobiographical book (that I see no point for even having been written)?
Movies like Bombay, Black Friday, Zakhm and even Dev etc have time and again tried to move our souls. It has taken bold men to make such movies that must have been traumatic to make, given the makers of the film must have lived the catastrophe day in and day out, which I can't seem to bear for the 3 hours that I get the opportunity of watching. And yet all we do is forget about such movies, as we do about such occurrences in our society and crib about Bollywood being a farce and the Hindu-Muslim issue a mere political power struggle.
Both might be true to some extent, but how can we even begin to overlook the effect they both have on us, the influence they can possibly have on our minds and the impact they have on our society?
This might be a boring and un-called-for piece of writing for many but to me, it is a reiteration of the fact that social causes are our own to accept and Bollywood that attempts at shaking our conscience is our own to respect.
