tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post6123243075833083137..comments2024-03-27T14:57:37.031+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: The bekaar in the big city: on Bimal Roy’s NaukriJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-49138338545682625582013-09-22T08:52:20.064+05:302013-09-22T08:52:20.064+05:30so i would differ with your acusement of today'...<i>so i would differ with your acusement of today's generation being more fun loving in this hectic life schedule.</i><br /><br />Not "accusing" anybody. Moreover there can be a lot of fun even in movies that don't concern romances of twenty-somethings.<br /><br />The Hollywood movies I mentioned in the previous comment are a lot of fun. Commercial movie starring big stars. Those aren't off-beat efforts.<br /><br />Indian mainstream cinema wasn't always like this. The mainstream bollywood of 50s/60s was fairly wide-ranging and explored several facets of Indian society while staying within the song-and-dance paradigm.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-40722954273051216852013-09-21T01:59:42.861+05:302013-09-21T01:59:42.861+05:30@shrikanth, you are absolutely right in advocating...@shrikanth, you are absolutely right in advocating for the realities of life but with no disrespect i would like to remind you the basic need for going to cinemas, only and only thing is fun and different type of movie caters to different people's needs and mean fun to them, so i would differ with your acusement of today's generation being more fun loving in this hectic life schedule.K Cnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-35689238029560067152013-09-16T22:51:31.946+05:302013-09-16T22:51:31.946+05:30Pessimist fool : There are some facts more startli...Pessimist fool : There are some facts more startling than what I just mentioned. How about this?<br /><br />- India in 1970 was poorer than UK was in 1600.<br /><br />Look I'm no bleeding heart liberal myself. Not saying all cinema should be serious and "realistic" - whatever that means.<br /><br />Having said that it is important that artists think hard about this country of ours and attempt to understand its people every now and then.<br /><br />In classic Hollywood, we had numerous screwballs and romances on the screen yes. And yet, the artists back then (very money minded artists mind you) also had time to think about issues of great import - <br /><br />Movies that taught us about America, its landscape and its people. Films like <i>The Man with the Golden Arm, The Man from Laramie, Fury, You Only Live once, The Great McGinty, Miracle of Morgan's creek, Canyon Passage, Beyond the Forest</i> among others. There's nothing quite like all this in Indian cinema.<br /><br />Indian cinema by its very nature is small-minded. From Raj Kapoor to Ranbir Kapoor, Indian cinema has been preoccupied with boys, their girls, their mothers and fathers, the lack of "sexual freedom", arranged marriage vs love marriage, working wife vs homely wife and other such small stuff.<br /><br />And things have worsened over the past 30 years. One does get to see greater variety of themes in the 50s/60s than we do in mainstream cinema today.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-9457410695688570112013-09-16T14:53:09.867+05:302013-09-16T14:53:09.867+05:30@ Shrikanth - Just for this reason, it becomes ver...@ Shrikanth - Just for this reason, it becomes very difficult to make a film on India and think it is representative of an average Indian.<br /><br />So many people complain that modern day Bollywood movies do not show "middle-class" characters like Sai Paranjpe and Hrishikesh Mukherjee showed. I remember reading somewhere that Golmaan and Chupke-Chupke were shot in Mukherjee's bungalow in Bandra. Middle-class folks in 1970s certainly couldnt afford a bungalow and that too in Bandra.<br /><br />At best, those directors showed characters who were more real in terms of character development and that's why it seems more "realistic". Even those directors showed very very urban characters.<br /><br />Btw, I liked the bit of trivia on 1870 per capita income in US. Yes,I myself get surprised when folks say India is just 50-60 years behind the US. If Hollywood films of 30s and 40s are to be believed, financially and socially (in terms of women being free) US was a lot better than India of 2013.Pessimist Foolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06057153008708242962noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-27689917365956671712013-09-16T11:16:55.463+05:302013-09-16T11:16:55.463+05:30Naukri contains many things we now think of as cli...<i>Naukri contains many things we now think of as clichés of a cinematic past (whether they were clichés in 1954 is another question): the beloved sister suffering from TB, the widowed mother, the sanguine young man convinced that he will soon get a good job</i><br /><br />The fact that we think of these things as cliches is indicative of how desensitized viewers have become over the years. These circumstances aren't cliches even in 2013. One only needs to visit a small town and look around.<br /><br />I remember the way Aamir Khan made fun of this in his preposterously idiotic film - 3 Idiots. Movie makers these days are more concerned about the evils of rote-learning, evils of "arranged marriage" and other trivialities than the miserable condition of most Indians - who live in one of the world's poorest countries.<br /><br />The common refrain is - "Hey. The Audiences want fun. They don't want hardships and messy realities being shown on the screen". It's the old moral of Sturges' <i>Sullivan's travels</i>. But then I find these American analogies too facile. US, even in 1941, was a stinking rich country - a lot richer than 2013 India! In fact India today is about as rich as US was in 1870 (in per-capita income terms).<br /><br />This has to reflect in cinema. It's a shame that it doesn't.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.com