The success rate of Hindi Cinema has always been an unpredictable enigma for both the viewers as well as the makers since the mid of the last century and ‘Hero Worship’ has always been there as a significant part of our ‘Box Office Success System” unarguably.
However there was a major shift witnessed in the interest and response patterns of Indian audience in the year 2012, which surely brought in a pleasant and much required change in the system awaited from many years. It all started as a few unexpected (not so big), off beat films with no superstar to woo the audience, became the major hits at the box office and were appreciated all over unanimously both by the viewers and the critics together. The two key ones beginning the welcome trend were KAHAANI & PAAN SINGH TOMAR which had no major star-cast to attract the viewers, no songs to make them dance and no familiar themes to enjoy for the Indian audience. Where KAHAANI had just one well known name of Vidya Balan playing a pregnant woman, without any sex appeal support as seen in her previous THE DIRTY PICTURE, the other had Irrfan in the lead role of a real life national athlete turned into a rebel. Besides the hidden unknown fact about PAAN SINGH TOMAR was that this Tigmanshu Dhulia directed ambitious project was there lying in the cans for more than one and a half years without any interested buyers or takers (since they obviously assumed that the subject cannot run at the box office with such an unusual cast).
Post these two thoughtful attempts well accepted by the audience, there came another shocking surprise with VICKY DONOR (again without any known name in the project) as it was a film made on a very novel but conservative kind of subject (as per Indian social standards) of a professional sperm donor and his love life. The film literally broke many fixed notions about the so called sexually repressed Indian society as it got an unexpectedly huge appreciation from almost every corner of the nation and was widely loved by especially the youth, announcing their new age state of mind dealing with love, sex and life quite clearly.
The stage was positively set by these 3 brave and well made movies in Hindi Cinema and then the nation saw a series of many first timer projects in the coming months which again enjoyed a great successful run at the box office proving the changing thought process of the viewers all over the country.
In the subsequent months, there came BARFI, a daringly different concept, wherein neither the lead hero nor the leading lady had much to speak in the entire film mostly dependent upon its well composed background score. OH MY GOD, which simply raised many valid questions on the worshipping rituals, religiously followed by majority of Indians in more or less a foolish manner, which was surely one of the most risky projects in these burning times. ENGLISH VINGLISH, drew our attention towards the respect and importance deserved by a hard working housewife, who very silently gives her precious yet invisible support to the whole family unconditionally. EEGA (MAKKHI), a technically advanced and highly commendable, never before kind of an Indian movie completely based on an animated character of a small ‘Bee’ who is eager to take the revenge for his murder in the previous birth. ISHAQZAADE, a decently conceived love story set in UP, again with a fresh star cast, few good songs and appreciable performances. FERRARI KI SAVAARI, reminding us of Vittorio De Sica’s BICYCLE THIEVES (1948) redefining the father-son relationship on the Indian screen beautifully. TALAASH, revisiting the rarely attempted genre of a murder mystery or suspense drama in a well guarded secretive manner. And then there was the brilliant two part series of GANGS OF WASSEYPUR, which once again proved the fact that viewers are certainly ready to embrace the change in this second decade of the new millennium, but one only has to serve them with an exceptional film based on a fresh subject or execution giving them that much needed novelty as desired.
After going through all these distinctive, well conceived films mentioned above, exploring some new avenues in Hindi Cinema representing the ‘Step Ahead’, let’s take a look at the actual, major money churners at the box office in 2012 which will easily give you the reason why the title of the article says “One Step Ahead and Two Steps Back”.
And these major Hits of the year are Sajid Khan/Akshay Kumar’s HOUSEFULL 2, Karan Malhotra/Hrthik Roshan’s AGNEEPATH, Prabhudeva/Akshay Kumar’s ROWDY RATHORE, Rohit Shetty/Ajay/Abhishek’s BOL BACHCHAN, Homi Adjania/Saif Ali Khan’s COCKTAIL, Kabir Khan/Salman’s EK THA TIGER, Karan Johar’s STUDENT OF THE YEAR, Yash Chopra/Shahrukh Khan’s JAB TAK HAI JAAN, Ashwani Dhir/Ajay Devgan’s SON OF SARDAR and Arbaaz Khan/Salman Khan’s DABANGG 2.
Now though these all happen to be the biggest hits of 2012 undoubtedly, yet the other bitter truth about them remains that none of the above had anything new, important or path breaking to offer in its storyline, content or execution at all. In precise words, all the above mentioned movies either worked due to their huge star-power, solid backing of a big production house, well promoted item songs, cheap mocking comedy or open skin show and nothing else. So as mentioned before it was clearly like taking one step ahead and two steps back in terms of quality of films in Hindi Cinema in the year 2012.
In fact the trend is exactly similar to the kind of “Dualistic Society” we have been living in from ages wherein both a bullock cart and an expensive elegant car is proudly running on the same road, without any visible conflict. So where a considerable section of viewers is eager enough to accept all the new, path breaking experimental films at one hand, the box office still continues to be on the side of the same old clichéd, routine stuff on the other, as always.
Interestingly an exactly similar pattern is continuing in the present 2013 too with an appreciable diverse range of subjects seen in its first half, followed by some pretty weak films hitting the screen with the beginning of the long Indian festive season in August (till December), which always remains guarded and booked by all the big names of the industry in advance.
The year opened with TABLE NO. 21, an unusual suspense drama based on ragging of innocent students and then there was SPECIAL 26, based on real life con events of the mid 80s, presently superbly. ABCD, a whole film majorly based on dance performances by all new actors coming from a reality dance show worked well and then we had KAI PO CHE, an emotional story of 3 true friends based on Chetan Bhagat’s famous novel targeting the youth. JOLLY LLB, an unusual court room drama full of tense and comic moments won decent appreciation all over and CHASHME BUDDOOR, an official remake with a fresh outlook and not so big starcast also won hearts. RANJHANAA, an innocent caste based love story featuring Dhanush, a fine actor from the south, without having any standard looks of a Bollywood hero, ran as the hidden dark horse and GO GOA GONE came as one of the first movies in India made on the Zombie theme. AASHIQUI 2, a love story with again two new faces, many good songs and an unconventional climax did fine with the power of music and BHAAG MILKHA BHAAG, brought in some fresh air as a well directed and brilliantly enacted bio-pic made on our national hero, Milkha Singh. D-DAY superbly explored the lesser attempted genre of sharply edited spy thrillers after a long gap and then finally we had SHIP OF THESEUS (Hinglish), which can easily be rated as one of best Indian movies made in the recent decades without any doubts.
But despite all these worth praising projects released in the current year, if anyone asks about the top grosser(s) of the year 2013 till August then they again are movies offering nothing new or fresh in the name of content, script or storyline, quite sadly. And these two big hits are Ayan Mukherjee/Ranbir Kapoor’s YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI and Rohit Shetty/Shahrukh Khan’s CHENNAI EXPRESS as expected which solely ran on their Star Power alone without any doubts.
Incidentally this also reminds me of a recent personal discussion, in which I was loudly appreciating the unexpected success of many path breaking films in Hindi Cinema beginning from 2012 (with a friend of mine from a foreign origin). Interrupting my words in between all of a sudden, he simply asked a question that “Which 3 films have earned the most in the last few years in Hindi Cinema”. And listening his query, I was really looking around since (apart from 3 IDIOTS which came way back in 2009) none of these (recent) major hit movies was a worth praising, commendable one having any unique presentable feature at all with names like DABANGG 2, ROWDY RATHORE, BOL BACHCHAN, EK THA TIGER, JAB TAK HAI JAAN, SON OF SARDAR, YEH JAWAANI HAI DEEWANI and CHENNAI EXPRESS coming to the mind at once.
So the hard truth remains that where we do appreciate, some innovations tried in our Hindi Cinema at regular intervals quite evidently. Our major box office successes (now popularly referred to as the 100 crore club) still remain the same good old repetitive, masala movies only, well supported by all ‘The Big Stars’ of the industry unarguably (even in this new millennium.) And therefore its exactly like taking “One Step Ahead and Two Steps Back” in terms of quality of films in Hindi Cinema. Nevertheless the hope is not all lost yet and maybe we will see a turn of tables soon in the coming years.
Cheers!
Bobby Sing
All Rights Reserved - Aug 2013
