Are we getting nostalgic about the '70s and '80s? Not me. Parts of that era can be included in Bollywood's belle ufffdpoque but I don't feel the need to relive those days, nor is there a void in my entertainment quotient that needs a swig of some heady potion from the 1970s
Are we getting nostalgic about the '70s and '80s? Not me. Parts of that era can be included in Bollywood's belle ufffdpoque but I don't feel the need to relive those days, nor is there a void in my entertainment quotient that needs a swig of some heady potion from the 1970s.
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| Amitabh Bachhan and Shashi Kapoor acted in Deewar (1975). While Bachchan played a disillusioned young man driven to crime, Kapoor played his younger brother, and cop |
As a viewer, I want to be exposed to the new, the untold, both, in story and technique. Yes, for sure, I miss the melody and the poetry of the '70su00a0-- I miss Anand Bakshi and RD Burmanu00a0-- but I don't want remakes, remixes and revisitations or the melodrama of the '70s and '80s as a fix or as kitsch.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Amitabh and Rajesh Khanna films of the '70s. I was also optimistic that directors like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Sai Paranjpye, and actors Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Amol Palekar, and Om Puri would turn the nascent art wave movement into a tidal wave.
Unfortunately, the '80s deflated the promise. Yet, today there are myriad assertions of our fascination with that era. Obviously, for those in the 35-plus demographic, seeing a slice of the '70s brings back youthful memoriesu00a0-- the flower power time, the disco nights, Amitabh's angst and Mumtaz's pout!
But, I guess, all this rebellion holds a certain glamour for today's Gen Y too. Thanks to television, they are exposed to stars from the decades.
For instance, when Hema Malini and Zeenat Aman came together on a show of Koffee with Karan, and spoke glowingly of their heyday, they sparked off the imagination of those who hadn't seen their films.
Also, notwithstanding all the cosmetic progress we have made, our angst remainsu00a0-- we are still waiting for a Dabangg to indulge in thunderous dialoguebaazi a la Amitabh and Shatrughan Sinha, and for a hero who will destroy social ills.
However, I doubt that the SMS audience has the patience to see an entire 18-reel film. A hark back to a farcical treatment of old verities (Om Shanti Om), a snatch of an old song, a reference to a popular dance (Dharmendra doing his free-style flailing of arms in Yamla Pagla Deewana) is enough to whet their appetite.
They want a glimpse of '70s style ufffd but in a postmillennial context.
At a stretch, the only '70s hangover I welcome is the regeneration of the offbeat film movement. Earlier, there was only one Akashwani screening so-called parallel cinema. Now there are multiplexes where Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Neeraj Pandey as well as Shyam Benegal (the man who spearheaded the parallel cinema movement in the '70s with Ankur, and Bhumika) find much-needed viewing space. But can something old become entirely new ever again? Dinesh Raheja is an authority on Hindi cinema, and editor, Bollywood News Service
