A Learning Experience... we hope

In one of my earlier posts, I wrote about my hopes for Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, and how great it was that such major actors, a director, and the producers were making a film about the growing number of small town women in India who move to a big city, and because of the difficulties in getting an education and finding a job, often resort to prostitution.

I thought this film, which loosely means "a stain on character," would portray the hardships on these women, would openly talk about prostitution, and would also express how families and society perceive these women.

But no, the film included a trip to Europe (of course, Yash Raj Films produced it), songs and dances with the actresses singing about her new found love, and at the end, the female lead (the hooker) is "accepted" by the man she loves, whom she met for a couple of hours.

The film, which had so much going for it, failed-- both with critics and in the box office-- because it tried to fit into formulaic Bollywood cinema. If the film was bold and actually dealt with prostitution in a much more clear and distinctive fashion, without the melodrama and the lame love stories, the Yash Chopra camp would have had a clear winner in their hands.

Hopefully, they will learn!

Bollywood's Regression

In the 1980's, Bollywood flourished with parallel cinema-- low budget films with incredible depth, void of the masala and commercialism of today's films. As we see a glimmer of hope with some films taking a risk, one such director of one such film zeroes in on the problem. Director Anurag Kashyup of the forthcoming "No Smoking" said this in an interview:

"Yash Raj has the power to change cinema. We don't. We've been trying hard. But Yash Raj can do it overnight. Yash Raj changes, our cinema changes. But they choose not to change. They choose to stay in their mediocrity, just counting money. Everybody is doing business. That's fine, but they are making us regress.”

Although big names such as the director Karan Johar, were quick to criticize Kashyup, he is definitely correct. Yash Raj productions make films like "Ta Ra Rum Pum," "Jhoom Barabar Jhoom," and "Neal N' Nikki," movies that are, in Kashyup's words, "mediocre." Yash Raj Productions are the most powerful production company in Bollywood, yet they do not challenge themselves to take risks, which they can definitely afford.

Kashyup also said that "Chak De India" was a good move forward for the company-- but it was an "apologetic release... They didn't have faith in it. For the first time they didn't ask for terms and conditions with the exhibitors. If they had faith in the film they would have played on the front foot."

Kashyup also said that his distributors had to make the film more "marketable" by Bollywood standards by including a famous actress in an "item number" to promote the film, a concept that Kashyup believes Yash Raj has the power to change.