Flicks made with thought

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Chandan Roy Sanyal in Prague;

A movement is on, small but significant. Okay, so it’s not exactly a New Wave lashing an arid horizon, like it did in the 1970s, with the emergence of filmmakers with something meaningful to say, and with either an inborn skill or a Pune Film Institute-education to say it loud and clear. Yup, I’m talking of an era when directors bucked the system and became such a vital force that they were reviled by Bollywood’s top movie moghuls.

If Smita Patil was shown on the posters of Chakra bathing under a slum water tap, it offended the big guns’ sensibilities. “Not in our culture,” they protested.
Much tap water has flown under the Mumbai bridges since then. Young pathbreakers like Ketan Mehta, Kundan Shah and Saeed Mirza double-tasked between feature films and TV serials. NFDC, the government’s funding agency turned turtle, harping on commercial viability rather than promoting quality cinema.
Indeed, that’s the very quick backstory to the fiercely independent attempts on today, abetted considerably by the relatively cheaper means of digital film-making.
Anurag Kashyap leads the helm of the decidedly different directors who can bend the formulaic rules and can get away with it. Sudhir Mishra from an earlier generation, Vishal Bharadwaj and Dibakar Bannerjee are the other role models of aspiring filmmakers, and believe me, one lurks around every corner at Mumbai’s buzzy Lokhandwalla-Oshiwara stretch.
The upbeat news is that there’s renewed signs of life. Evidence: Three films which I’ve had the occasion to preview. Film Institute graduate Ajita Suchitra Veera’s Ballad of Rustom is the most adventurous of the lot, venturing into the deep interiors of a hamlet encircled by hills, vales and lakes. Yet, urbanisation is making its inroads here. A young man (Sunny Hinduja, likeably restrained), slaving away at the post office, nursing tiny dreams in his heart, strives to settle there. His equally romantic friend sells novels on trains, often giving them away for free.
The pace of Ballad of Rustom is leisurely, suiting the subject, and unconditionally warm towards all its characters. If the senior postmaster is vulnerable to bribes, there’s a reason. And if his subordinate plans to invent a bicycle with attached lights, it isn’t a pipedream. Who knows the wonder bicycle could be a reality some day.
Elegiac and wonderfully photographed by Shanti Bhushan Roy, this little jewel of a film should appeal to anyone who cares for uncompromised cinema.
Ajay Behl’s B.A. Pass is pure film noir, complete with a femme fatale controlling the men around her, without a shred of apology. Extremely well-acted by Shilpa Shukla and Shadab Kamal in the role of her innocent victim, this indie feature also wanders off into the neon-lit sleazy streets of New Delhi, like Dev D did. Yet while examining the racket of gigolos supplied to bored housewives, Behl establishes a distinct style which is alternately feverish and cool. An impressive debut, to put it mildly from a director who should be in the epicentre of Bollywood.
Ashish Shukla’s Prague sprints of out of control, but you’re still inclined to keeppace with the case study of a gifted architect who descends into the vortex of booze, drugs and babes in the Czech capital. Chandan Roy Sayal in the lead role is excellent, conveying the mental turbulence of a young man driven to fits of jealousy in his quest for love. Shot on the HD format, it has a grungy style which coaslesces with the story content.
Now don’t ask me where you’ll be able to catch Ballad of Rustom, B.A. Pass and Prague. Hopefully, they will catch the eye of distributors and marketed appropriately.
Till then, cheers to the terrific three!