The changing face of Bollywood

The changing face of Bollywood
01st Mar 2006 22.00 IST
By N. K. Deoshi

Romantically mushy movies and hard-boiled action thrillers are pass. Filmmakers in Bollywood are now daring to try novel subjects that defy the established stereotype.

It is hard to put one's finger on the point that ushered the gradual change in Hindi film industry. Was it the coming of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Black last year? Or was it an eventual outcome of the saturation of filmmakers and audience with the same clichd subjects with predictable stories. Whatever the case, the fact today is that Bollywood is evolving for good.

Presently, there is a dichotomy existing in our film industry, as is wont to happen in any industry undergoing a transition from the old to the new. On the one hand, are films that still follow the old norm – lovey-dovey themes, soppy melodrama, or action thrillers with sloppy pyrotechnics, hero-heroine cavorting around the trees and predictable climax, the bane of all stories. But on the other hand are films that dare to pick new subjects and adopt new, innovative style and structure of storytelling.

A film like Rang De Basanti has done much good to Hindi film industry. It has raised the bar of cinematic standard in Bollywood.

Actor Saif Ali Khan , for instance, has gone on record to say that after 'Rang De Basanti', equations have changed a great deal in Bollywood.

"You know, after Rang De Basanti, it's time to do some really different work," Saif is quoted as saying.

Falling in the same league as RDB are films like Bluffmaster and the recently released Taxi Number 9211 , both of which shunned the tried-and-tested path. The look of these films is very urbane. They have a very selected use of songs, even avoiding any sexy item numbers, except perhaps at the end when the credits roll.

Despite these newly evolving trends, there are still films like Dosti - Friends Forever , Family - Ties Of Blood , Ek Ajnabee , Mere Jeevan Saathi and the recently released Humko Tumse Pyaar Hai that are products of the old mindsets. The very fate of these films at the box-office is a testimony to the fact that change is the need of the hour and those who refuse to embrace it would be left behind.

As the great Bob Dylan sang: "Get out of the new road if you can't lend a hand, for the times they are a-changin."