Riding the third wave

Hindi cinema has generally been accused for patronising the stereotype, playing safe, being formulaic, etc. However, of late, there have been writers and filmmakers who have gone against the trend, chosen subjects that were daringly different or narratives that tackled socially relevant issues.

For instance, most recently, there was Shoojit Sircar’s Vicky Donor, a movie based on sperm donation, or Paan Singh Tomar, based on the life of an athlete who was forced to become a bandit. These movies may not have generated the desired response or box office collections, but still, these movies were path-breaking attempts.

In their quest to be different, young writers and directors are exploring new themes and subjects. In 2011 itself, one can single out at least a dozen releases that were different, even daring and unconventional.

Raj Kumar Gupta’s insightful No One Killed Jessica, Turning 30!!! — Alankrita Srivastava’s take on single women — Onir’s I AM, Ajai Sinha’s Khap, Anurag Kashyap’s That Girl in Yellow Boots, Tigmanshu Dhulia’s Sahib Bibi aur Gangster, and Nagesh Kukunoor’s Mod instantly come to mind.

There has been a revival of meaningful cinema, which is not governed by the concept of dreary and pretentious art-house cinema as a means of entertainment. This kind of cinema existed most prominently in the 1930s and lasted till mid-1950s.

The second brief phase was visible during mid-1970s, and the third, more durable phase actually began in 1991, but has really come to fruition in the last couple of years.

In a way the beginning was made by Yash Chopra, who tackled a sensitive subject in Lamhe, a daring love story starring Anil Kapoor and Sridevi.

Others that followed were Nana Patekar’s Prahar; Mani Ratnam’s Roja that tackled the sensitive subject of militancy in Kashmir, and later Bombay on communal violence; Kalpana Lajmi’s Rudali on the theme of professional women mourners; Is Raat ki Subah Nahin, Sudhir Mishra’s take on Mumbai underworld; and Fire by Deepa Mehta on lesbianism in a joint family.


Gulzar tackled the subject of terrorism in post-84 Punjab in Maachis. Mehta came out with a sequel, Earth, where Bipsi Sidwa’s story revisits the 1947 partition. Govind Nihalani’s adaptation of Mahasweta Devi’s Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Ma, Ram Gopal Varma’s hard-hitting Satya, Naresh Kukunoor’s Hyderabad Blues, Mahesh Manjrekar’s star-studded Vaastav: The Reality, Nihalani’s Takshak, Manjrekar’s Astitiva, Jagmohan Mundra’s Bawandar and Kamal Hassan’s Hey Ram are some other significant films with substantial doses of social realism.


Madhur Bhandarkar’s Chandni Bar, Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, Aashutosh Gowarikar’s Lagaan, Anubhav Sinha’s Tum Bin, Govind Nihalani’s Zubeidaa made 2001 a landmark year in terms of engrossing cinema with sufficient doses of entertainment. Rituparna Ghosh’s Raincoat, Aashutosh Gawarikar’s Swades, Mani Ratnam’s Yuva, Govind Nihalani’s Dev, Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday, Sriram Raghvan’s Ek Hasina Thi followed up to mirror contemporary reality in 2004.

This trend seemed to continue through 2005 and 2006 with movies such as Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Black, Onir’s My Brother...Nikhil, Pradeep Sarkar’s Parineeta, Deepa Mehta’s Water, Madhur Bhandarkar’s Page 3, Homi Adijania’s Being Cyrus, Dibankar Banerjee’s Khosla ka Ghosla, Vishal Bharadwaj’s Omkara, Mira Nair’s adaptation of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake, and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s bold expose of corruption in high places in Rang de Basanti. Such movies succeeded in carrying forward the trend of making thought-provoking cinema.

If, in the earlier years, such films were aberrations, the last decade shows a definite change in the mindset of both the filmmakers and the audience. Surely, that augurs well for the future of Indian cinema. What happened in the 1970s and the 80s, and even 40s and 50s was exciting, if not more, than what has now come to be.