Mumbai directors who followed their hearts and fought a dour, unflinching battle to protect their cinematic vision from market-imposed dilution have come up trumps at the 60th National Film Awards. The Sunday Indian analyses why ‘Bollywood’ movies that are not made for the 100-crore club are really the only ones that are worth celebrating
The 60th National Film Awards announced on Monday, more than anything else, have come as a strong vindication of the efficacy of independent cinema that blends the need for entertainment with a spirit of creative adventure. Nowhere is that truer than in the case of the healthy complement of Hindi-language films that have been adjudged worthy of being feted by the President of India.
The value of the National Film Awards stem primarily from the fact that they aren’t, as a rule, influenced by extraneous commercial considerations or the crowd-pulling capacity of the reigning movie stars, which, incidentally, are the two principal pillars on which all the Mumbai cinema-dominated, made-for-television award shows firmly stand.
The National Awards are meant to recognize excellence in Indian cinema – and that, barring stray aberrations, is exactly what they do. This year has been a perfect demonstration of what sets these awards well apart from the all the other glitzy star-driven events that are avowedly about showcasing the biggest and the brightest of the industry and not necessarily about celebrating cinema for its own sake.
Hindi, Malayalam and Marathi cinema have cornered the lion’s share of the major National Awards this year, with cinema in the national language securing a greater presence on the honours list than usual.
Tigmanshu Dhulia’s critically acclaimed Paan Singh Tomar has been adjudged the best film of the year gone by. The film’s male lead, the redoubtable Irrfan Khan, has won the best actor. Nothing could have been better for Hindi cinema – the two awards for Paan Singh Tomar are not only richly deserved, they provide a fillip to filmmakers who, while staying within the parameters of the Mumbai movie industry, desire and strive to carve their own niche.
The jury, in its citation, has lauded Paan Singh Tomar for its “sleek and sensitive handling of a not-too-common subject with remarkable aplomb”. Indeed, unwavering authenticity of location and lingo is the prime strength of the film, which narrates a gritty tale of the eponymous athlete-turned-brigand whose brief run from the law in the ravines of Chambal ended in dusty death in a police encounter in the early 1980s.
It certainly wasn’t easy for Dhulia to bring to the screen the compelling story of an ordinary villager, soldier and steeplechase champion who was forced by rural oppression and lack of redress to take up arms against the law.
The director worked on the idea for close to a decade, researched his subject thoroughly and, when he eventually got down to filming, he shot on actual locations, including the places in Chambal and the barracks in Roorkee where the real Paan Singh Tomar lived.
After it was wrapped up, Paan Singh Tomar languished in the cans for a year and a half for want of takers despite the critical applause it earned at festivals around the world. The film finally hit the screens in March 2012 and instantly garnered both critical accolades and commercial success. The rest, as they say, is history.
Recognition for Paan Singh Tomar at the National Awards is also recognition for the kind of culture-specific and rooted cinema that the Mumbai film industry has all but abandoned in its unthinking pursuit of big box office returns.
Significantly, all the other Hindi films that have won National Awards this year have emerged from independent spaces where funds weren’t plentiful and star power was barely available. These films swam against the tide with intent: one revolved around a heroine who is heavily pregnant all through a narrative set in Kolkata, the other dealt with the travails of a young sperm donor in Delhi.
Neither Kahaani nor Vicky Donor left any stone unturned to capture the essence of city that it was set in, even resorting to hit-and-run guerrilla filmmaking methods (especially in the case of the former) to shoot scenes on crowded streets and bylanes. Despite being fictional stories with dramatic twists, both films had a real feel to them.
In both Kahaani, which has fetched director Sujoy Ghosh the best original screenplay award, and Vicky Donor, which has been named the “best popular film providing wholesome entertainment”, the script was supreme. The actors, outstanding as they were, had to play second fiddle. It was cinema that was the ultimate winner.
Indeed, who would have imagined that a film about a guy who works for a fertility clinic with little-known actors in the cast would go on to conquer all manner of scepticism and score big at the box office and in the critical ratings? An unqualified triumph for director Shoojit Sircar, Vicky Donor also fetched two best supporting actor awards – for Annu Kapoor and Dolly Ahluwalia. What a story that!
The jury noted that Vicky Donor is “a wholesome entertainer presented in a breezy and humorous fashion” and went on to praise the filmmaker for “deftly avoiding falling into the beaten track of formula films”.
Kahaani was definitely no less. Vidya Balan may have been beaten to the best actress prize by Usha Jadhav (who won for her powerful performance in the Marathi film, Dhag), but the suspense drama, whose editor Namrata Rao won a well deserved nod from the jury chaired by veteran filmmaker Basu Chatterjee, proved that there can be no substitute for artistic integrity.
The director made no compromises with his vision – the refusal to kowtow to demands of the marketplace served to make Kahaani a huge success story that it eventually became. The National Awards are only the icing on the cake.
It is significant that all the three Mumbai-based directors in question – Dhulia, Ghosh and Sircar – dared to follow their hearts in a movie industry where it is customary for superstars and big banners to call the shots and determine what kind of cinema gets into the distribution chain. These directors are among those that are spearheading a much-needed revolution and the National Awards for their work is proof that they are well on course.
The 60th National Film Awards announced on Monday, more than anything else, have come as a strong vindication of the efficacy of independent cinema that blends the need for entertainment with a spirit of creative adventure. Nowhere is that truer than in the case of the healthy complement of Hindi-language films that have been adjudged worthy of being feted by the President of India.
The value of the National Film Awards stem primarily from the fact that they aren’t, as a rule, influenced by extraneous commercial considerations or the crowd-pulling capacity of the reigning movie stars, which, incidentally, are the two principal pillars on which all the Mumbai cinema-dominated, made-for-television award shows firmly stand.
The National Awards are meant to recognize excellence in Indian cinema – and that, barring stray aberrations, is exactly what they do. This year has been a perfect demonstration of what sets these awards well apart from the all the other glitzy star-driven events that are avowedly about showcasing the biggest and the brightest of the industry and not necessarily about celebrating cinema for its own sake.
Hindi, Malayalam and Marathi cinema have cornered the lion’s share of the major National Awards this year, with cinema in the national language securing a greater presence on the honours list than usual.
Tigmanshu Dhulia’s critically acclaimed Paan Singh Tomar has been adjudged the best film of the year gone by. The film’s male lead, the redoubtable Irrfan Khan, has won the best actor. Nothing could have been better for Hindi cinema – the two awards for Paan Singh Tomar are not only richly deserved, they provide a fillip to filmmakers who, while staying within the parameters of the Mumbai movie industry, desire and strive to carve their own niche.
The jury, in its citation, has lauded Paan Singh Tomar for its “sleek and sensitive handling of a not-too-common subject with remarkable aplomb”. Indeed, unwavering authenticity of location and lingo is the prime strength of the film, which narrates a gritty tale of the eponymous athlete-turned-brigand whose brief run from the law in the ravines of Chambal ended in dusty death in a police encounter in the early 1980s.
It certainly wasn’t easy for Dhulia to bring to the screen the compelling story of an ordinary villager, soldier and steeplechase champion who was forced by rural oppression and lack of redress to take up arms against the law.
The director worked on the idea for close to a decade, researched his subject thoroughly and, when he eventually got down to filming, he shot on actual locations, including the places in Chambal and the barracks in Roorkee where the real Paan Singh Tomar lived.
After it was wrapped up, Paan Singh Tomar languished in the cans for a year and a half for want of takers despite the critical applause it earned at festivals around the world. The film finally hit the screens in March 2012 and instantly garnered both critical accolades and commercial success. The rest, as they say, is history.
Recognition for Paan Singh Tomar at the National Awards is also recognition for the kind of culture-specific and rooted cinema that the Mumbai film industry has all but abandoned in its unthinking pursuit of big box office returns.
Significantly, all the other Hindi films that have won National Awards this year have emerged from independent spaces where funds weren’t plentiful and star power was barely available. These films swam against the tide with intent: one revolved around a heroine who is heavily pregnant all through a narrative set in Kolkata, the other dealt with the travails of a young sperm donor in Delhi.
Neither Kahaani nor Vicky Donor left any stone unturned to capture the essence of city that it was set in, even resorting to hit-and-run guerrilla filmmaking methods (especially in the case of the former) to shoot scenes on crowded streets and bylanes. Despite being fictional stories with dramatic twists, both films had a real feel to them.
In both Kahaani, which has fetched director Sujoy Ghosh the best original screenplay award, and Vicky Donor, which has been named the “best popular film providing wholesome entertainment”, the script was supreme. The actors, outstanding as they were, had to play second fiddle. It was cinema that was the ultimate winner.
Indeed, who would have imagined that a film about a guy who works for a fertility clinic with little-known actors in the cast would go on to conquer all manner of scepticism and score big at the box office and in the critical ratings? An unqualified triumph for director Shoojit Sircar, Vicky Donor also fetched two best supporting actor awards – for Annu Kapoor and Dolly Ahluwalia. What a story that!
The jury noted that Vicky Donor is “a wholesome entertainer presented in a breezy and humorous fashion” and went on to praise the filmmaker for “deftly avoiding falling into the beaten track of formula films”.
Kahaani was definitely no less. Vidya Balan may have been beaten to the best actress prize by Usha Jadhav (who won for her powerful performance in the Marathi film, Dhag), but the suspense drama, whose editor Namrata Rao won a well deserved nod from the jury chaired by veteran filmmaker Basu Chatterjee, proved that there can be no substitute for artistic integrity.
The director made no compromises with his vision – the refusal to kowtow to demands of the marketplace served to make Kahaani a huge success story that it eventually became. The National Awards are only the icing on the cake.
It is significant that all the three Mumbai-based directors in question – Dhulia, Ghosh and Sircar – dared to follow their hearts in a movie industry where it is customary for superstars and big banners to call the shots and determine what kind of cinema gets into the distribution chain. These directors are among those that are spearheading a much-needed revolution and the National Awards for their work is proof that they are well on course.
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