In the film industry, the transition is not that clear. We have had good cinema, off and on, more dependent on the directors- so Satyajit Ray (who along with masters from Bengal and South India influenced world cinema and not just Indian cinema and was active in years 1955-1991), Guru Dutt (1950s), Raj Kapoor (1950s,60s,70s even 80s), Shyam Benegal and others who spearheaded the parallel cinema movement. Then years of actor (read ‘super star’) led films which would have been never ending, were thankfully dotted with Sanjeev Kumar, Utpal Dutt, Amol Palekar and others, some humor and good movies, like Angoor, Naya Din Nayi Raat, Golmaal, and even some star studded movies like Chupke Chupke, that did not fall into the abysmal ‘main tera khoon pee jaunga’category.
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Now we have Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra, Vishal Bhardwaj but when I saw Lagaan, I looked around in the theater to see if I was the only one squirming in her seat. Ashutosh Gowariker thinks he can come up with his own personal genre of extremely long period movies with no or little bearing on real history and get away with something that has absolutely no appeal to anyone who has read any good book or seen a really good movie in their lives. Veteran actors do try and take on a variety of challenging roles these days, wherever possible, so film industry is going more forward than backward, I think.
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However, one cannot disregard the success of Rowdy Rathore (I had barely gotten over the tremors after seeing a few minutes of Dabangg) , it has all the basic ingredients of a hit, known to work ever since David Dhawan tried his hand at comedy and ruined it for everyone, and what a surprise, it still works! Though at least they don’t purport to appeal to a worldwide audience. Every one has got to make a living.
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Nonetheless, there were and are often respites in cinema, on the other hand, Indian television productions have been on a downward spiral for 20 years now. It probably is not worth the time and effort for producers to try something different that may not eventually satisfy the TRP requirements. It is more about survival, so if people like to believe that a group of sexy young people are actually trying to survive in the wild while wearing close to nothing, and more importantly doing even less that looks realistic, then that is easily copied.
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It is probably the cost of production of movies that drove making of nonsensical, superstar led musicals, that would at least earn back what was spend on them- but the music in many films in the 60s and 70s was the saving grace, unlike in the mid-late 80s or 90s, before AR Rehman came and it is getting tardier. I think Bollywood music and television have suffered more for the lack of creativity or innovation, or maybe just pure bravado as no one is trying to be different any more. Except Dhanush of course. RD Burman, SD Burman, Salil Choudhury, OP Naiyyar, Madan Mohan are surely and sorely missed. Thanks to the talent shows though, we have plenty of singers!
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But I, like everyone else, have been busy living a grown up life with no time for art, nor time to feel a sense of loss.
Ishita Das is a neuroscientist by training and recently graduated with a PhD from Johns Hopkins University, Maryland. And now, would like to write about things that make people think or feel something and in the process perhaps learn to understand the different shades of life. She continues to work with a group trying to make Autism more accessible to scientists and the public. She also contributes to the science and environment magazine.