Bollywood comes of age

CV has gone and come so many times that the statement 'CV is back' has become something of a cliche. After a lull which went past which exceeded a year, CV has been stirred to write about a slew of movies that are threatening to make the typical lazy, plagiarist movie makers to stop and rethink, or at least CV hopes that will happen. After catching the much hyped shabby rip-off of Mememto inexplicably titled 'Ghajini' (the name of the villain who hardly justifies with his acting skills the logic of naming the movie after his on-screen persona), CV was not exactly feeling like writing about his sorry experience. Even his vitriol was too good to be wasted on the crap effort, CV thought.

Just when he was about to resign into thinking that expecting good movies from Bollywood was an exercise in masochism, CV caught a slew of movies, three of Bollywood descent and one with an Indian connection which gave rise to new hope. The movies were Das Vidaniya, Slumdog Millionaire and Dev D. The first few are mentioned here.


Dev D is a totally modern take on the novel called Devdas authored by Sarath Chandra Chattopadhyay. While the original novel and the spate of movies it inspired over the years all showed the protagonist wasting himself to his eventual death from alcohol abuse after being unable to come to terms with his unrequited love for his childhood friend Paro, Dev D in a refreshing change. The novel has been given a complete overhaul which it needed to stay relevant with respect to the ultramodern and cosmopolitan lives that it's intended audience lives in a modern India.

The dramatis personae:-

Dev: The spoiled brat son of a wealthy Punjabi businessman. Headstrong, egoistic and possessed of a perverse sense of humor, he is all show and pizazz before life puts him through some stern tests.

Paro: Dev's childhood friend and sweetheart. A freethinking and outspoken girl who is anything but a prude.

Rasika: An acquaintance of Paro who tries her best to seduce Dev.

Sunil: A worker in Dev's factory. He has a crush on Paro, a crush that proves costly for him.

Leni/Chanda: A mixed race girl child with her own share of insecurities possibly arising from her confused idea of culture. The infamous star of an explicit video clip who realizes that pain is mandatory but suffering is optional.

Chunni: A pimp who introduces Dev to Chanda.

Unlike the original, Dev loses the love of his life not due to compulsion from his parents but due to his own arrogance and egotism. Having lost Paro, Dev settles into a drug and alcohol aided haze of self-pity and during one of his sojourns into the darkness of the night, he comes across Chanda, a student by day and high-profile prostitute by night. The viewers, and then Dev discover that Chanda was a girl who had her own share of demons to fight after a video clip of her sexual romp with a casual friend gets spread all over the country, turning her from a school student into a 'disrespectable slut' overnight.

Over time, Dev finds himself drawn towards Chanda but is shattered when he is forced to face the reality of her identity when a prospective client of hers drops in to her room. What follows is more of self-pity, drugs, alcohol and a road accident in which he ends up killing a bunch of homeless men who were sleeping on the pavement. Further misadventures see him transform into a penniless hobo, wanted by the police.

On the verge of slipping into a blackhole of vice and addiction, Dev in a sudden epiphanious moment realizes the folly of his ways and decides to turn over a new leaf and profess his love to Chanda. After some searching, he finds her and finds out that she too is in love with him and has been waiting for him ever-since. The movie ends with a smiling and happy Dev and Chanda riding on a bike enroute to the police station where he is supposed to surrender.

The movie has extremely slick camerawork and a series of extremely peppy tunes/songs which gel with the story of the movie instead of acting as a speed-breaker, as in the case of most Bollywood offerings. One realizes that Bollywood is finally showing signs of coming of age as Dev D consigns to the rubbish heap the prudishness that has for long been the hallmark of Bollywood movies. There have been Bollywood movies in the past containing strong sexual content but they have all used the act of sex to symbolize depravity, addiction and vice, but not Dev D. In this movie, there is a liberal serving of sex by Bollywood standards, but without an iota of guilt which the other movies supply by the truckloads. Here, the sex is for gratification and pleasure. It stops at the pleasure level without feeding the audience with a morality lesson they did not ask for. A very slick and enjoyable movie.

Before and After Taare Zameen Par!

Cv watched Taare Zameen Par, aka TZP. The first question that people asked was this: Did Cv cry? Cv scratched his head, thought, and said 'No'. And added that he came close to it, a couple of times, hoping to change the expression on the face of the questioner to something more friendly, but no! 'Cv has to be nuts or an out-and-out cynic or worse, a hypocrite!', the wordless stares seemed to convey. Why? Why is it that people cannot appreciate something nice without putting on a show about it? Like breaking out into gut-wrenching sobs meant that you really understood the movie or something while not doing so meant you were a cynic or a hypocrite! Cv is stumped!

Though Cv was/is not dyslexic, he is not an alien to the problems faced by young Ishaan Avasti. Cv did not have English taught to him at all during his early years of schooling and as only fate can conspire, found himself in a school where English was the sole medium of communication and to use any other language would be attracting words much like the ones Ishaan attracted. But then, like Paulo Coelho writes in 'The Alchemist', fate conspired to help young Cv. Cv took to English novels and story-books like a fish takes to water. Books became his friends, and nice friends they proved to be. They offered a lot of wisdom, but never forced anything on to one, like many a friend tends to do.

Coming back to the movie, probably Cv did not feel the overwhelming need to shed copious amounts of tears as there were so many things that seemed to be mirrored from his own life. It was deja vu, and so it was amusing. Besides, Cv identified with the victim and not the perpetuator and so, was not moved to tears by the guilt. To add to that, this was a movie, and a Bollywood movie at that. Cv can see many Aamir Khan fans bristling at this 'insult', but then again, Cv freely admits that TZP is very far removed from the crap that Bollywood dishes out with such frightening regularity. But that still did nothing to stop Cv from anticipating every single twist in the plot. How ? Was Cv a mind-reader ? Nope. The reason was actually a lot simpler. TZP has no plot. By plot, Cv means hidden twists and turns, supsense and the like. TZP follows a very simple but utterly effective formula, a formula that is not exactly brand new, but still not very explored. It believes in sending everybody on a royal guilt-trip, be it the bully that troubled the shy and sensitive boy at school or the parent who shouted/scolded/harassed/beat-up his child/children to make them 'true performers' or the teacher who was not patient enough with his/her students. Thank God, Aamir made the mother and the brother pro-Ishaan, otherwise it would have been reduced to one of those saas-bahu serials that air on Hindi television channels which have the noble daughter-in-law sadly misanderstood and mistreated by all and sundry (with the only exceptions being a friendly cook or servant who invariably gets sacked at some point to render the hapless damsel even more so!)

And then, in the second half, Aamir waves the magic wand that causes all of young Ishaan Avasti's troubles to go away, in the process making the people who were squirming in their seats out of guilt and shame to feel better! Yahoo! The boy found happiness after all.

Cv may be a cynic, but here is a question for all those of you who cried and felt better watching TZP. How many actually took back something from the movie? (No. I'm not talking about the audio CDs or pirated video CDs) When the movie ended, how many actually sat through the credits which showed documentary footage of 'Special Schools' and the 'Special Children'? 'But then, who wants to see a documentary ?' is by far the most common answer. What about the pressure on the kids? Will it come down? 'Don't be silly. My son/daughter is perfectly 'normal'. He/she just needs a little push here and there to go places! What about teachers? Are they going to go easy on the dreaded 'Ruler' or 'Map-pointer' now that they have seen TZP? 'Be practical! That was just a movie. Do you think we have the time and strength to fool around to ensure that the kids have fun while at the same time meeting the deadlines to complete the syllabus? In your dreams!' the teachers will say.

Each person, no longer feeling guilty thanks to the fact that the Ishaan story ended up all rosy and cosy, will go on with his/her life, totally unaffected, doing exactly the same thing, whatever they were doing earlier. Oh, their pockets would be lighter thanks to the steep prices of the theatre tickets (assuming they didn't watch it from a pirated DVD) but the tear-soaked hand-kerchiefs make up for even that small difference!
TZP came and TZP will go, but the obsessions and ideosyncrasies of parents and the callous approach of teachers and school managements will go on forever.

Oh, Cv almost forgot: The verdict on TZP ?
The casting is good, acting convincing and the music very original, fresh and innovative. And good. Just filter out all the nonsense about emotional effect the movie movie is going to cause and what you will have is a lovely movie which you can safely and enjoyable watch, with your entire family.