It’s ‘TIME’ to breakthrough!

When Sanjay Leela Bhansali was making BLACK, little it would have occurred to him that the movie will be unanimously liked by all. BLACK created history and was undoubtedly one of the best films ever made in Bollywood. Great performances by Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukherjee made it a treat to watch. But along with that Sanjay Leela Bhansali's adept direction was the highlight of the film. BLACK has clean swept every Bollywood award so far but the real icing on the cake came when it was listed as one of the ten best films of 2005 by no less than TIME magazine. The renowned critic of TIME Richard Corliss has bestowed BLACK with high regards and has praises all the way for the film. But in his statement he has described BLACK as 'unusual' (of course in a good way), but this is what is quite interesting. Bollywood films rarely make it high on the international catalog, let alone with the ever-cynical American media.

It's noteworthy that in 2003 a hard-hitting film MATRUBHOOMI was also listed by TIME magazine as one of the ten best films of that year. MATRUBHOOMI was produced by Boney Kapoor and was directed by the talented Manish Jha. Just trying to strike a coincidence between the two films, one would notice that both BLACK and MATRUBHOOMI are songless films that are not a Bollywood showground as such, and that's exactly what is 'unusual' for the West.

Well this brings us to the point of discussion. It has been a belief that Hollywood has been bias to Indian films or Hindi films do not receive lofty considerations as its other Asian counterparts. Say for instance the Chinese films that have considerable benefaction in America. Japan has also started to create inroads in America right now as many of the Japanese films been slithered for Hollywood remakes. This means that meaningful and entertaining films do receive patronage in Hollywood and the speculations about predispositions don't stand any relevance. It's too recent that HAZAARON KHWAISHEIN AISI was the most acclaimed Indian movie at numerous International film festivals. Shekhar Kapur's controversial BANDIT QUEEN was another film in the ranks that won the distinguished director his first Hollywood break. Ram Gopal Varma's take on gangster mechanics COMPANY got huge commendation at New York's South Asian film festival. And to cut the conversation short, Deepa Mehta's WATER has set the box-office on 'Fire' in Canada. It was greeted with stupendous approbation at the Toronto film festival and was acknowledged for its insistent narrative and brilliant direction by Deepa Mehta.

The argument here is not about songless or songful movies. All the above-mentioned films have got a compelling narration coupled with gleaming execution and high standard performances. As far as songs and dances are concerned, one must note that film is a 'storytelling' medium and the concept of impeding song sequences does not compliment the prerequisite of the medium. The worldwide movie-buffs do not relate to it in full zest and somewhere Hindi films do not establish a connection with them. Also Hindi films should wake up to the demand that the subjects should be universally appealing if it has to make an impetus on the international scene. Romantic musicals and melodramatic family dramas may not serve the purpose on the front. Films like BLACK should receive maximum backing henceforth from the industry bigwigs and further efforts must be made that such deserving films must get the right boost on the marketing and distributing frontage!